April 26th, another Thursday.
A little past nine in the evening, Kenji Okamura returned to his rented apartment, turned on the TV, grabbed a bottle of cola, poured himself a glass, downed it in one go, then tore open a bag of chips and started snacking while he waited for Clannad.
Back in his student days, he had watched plenty of anime. But now he was a working adult, a corporate drone grinding through Monday to Friday with other commitments on weekends. Every day was packed, and his interest in anime had gradually faded.
A few days ago, he had noticed Clannad being promoted everywhere.
The show had excellent ratings, strong sales, and overwhelmingly positive reviews online.
Everyone said "you'll regret not watching it." More importantly, he had even heard it mentioned on a variety show.
So he bought all of Clannad season one's DVDs, spending a decent chunk of money, and watched them during his free time.
It really was excellent. Genuinely moving.
Season two only had two DVD volumes out so far, covering six episodes. He bought and watched those too.
Episodes seven through fifteen were not on DVD yet, but he could watch them through paid on-demand streaming, so he got caught up that way.
Tonight's episode sixteen would be the first one he was watching live.
"I haven't felt this kind of anticipation in a long time," he thought to himself.
Ten o'clock sharp.
Clannad season two, episode sixteen, aired.
It opened with a segment of the little girl and the robot.
The robot seemed to be leaving. The little girl begged it not to go, pleading for it to stay with her always. But the robot turned and walked straight out of the room.
"Hm?"
Kenji felt something was off.
But since this was a subplot that ran parallel to the main story, he did not think too hard about it.
After the girl-and-robot segment, the OP played, then the main story resumed.
"Tomoya, did you remember everything?"
"Yeah, I'm all set."
"Ushio, say bye-bye to Daddy!"
After a few simple lines of dialogue, the male lead stepped out the door. The female lead, visibly very pregnant, stood in the doorway. That last line was clearly directed at the baby in her belly.
"Man, she used to be this fragile, adorable girl, and just a few episodes later she's about to give birth." Kenji's feelings were complicated.
But once he put himself in the male lead's shoes, that complicated feeling dissolved.
"Nagisa is the best," he cheered silently.
On screen, after the male lead left, the episode title appeared: "White Darkness."
Seeing that title, Kenji frowned involuntarily.
Was something about to go wrong?
But it should not be anything major, right? Maybe there would be some complications during the birth, but surely the baby would be fine. As for whether the female lead might be in danger, he figured that was impossible.
This was a slice-of-life anime, not an action show. That Shido guy would not dare let anything happen to the female lead.
Unless the man had stopped being human.
After the title card, the story continued.
The first half of the episode was mostly warm and lighthearted. There was a birthday celebration for the female lead, and Sunohara, Kyou, Ryou, and Kotomi all came to visit.
Quiet, ordinary daily life that somehow carried a gentle warmth.
In the second half, a sudden heavy snowfall paralyzed the entire town. The female lead developed a fever and was bedridden, then went into labor.
Premature. Two weeks early.
The snow was coming down so hard that cars could not move. Thankfully, the doctor managed to make it.
Going to the hospital was out of the question. She would have to give birth at home.
What followed was the delivery scene.
Painful. Agonizing. The anime captured every moment of it with devastating clarity.
Kenji did not even have a girlfriend, let alone a child. But he found himself drawn in completely, tensing up and suffering alongside the male lead through every second.
Then suddenly, the cry of a newborn filled the air.
The baby was born.
Just as the female lead had wished, the male lead was the first to hold the child.
Kenji finally let out the breath he had been holding.
The baby was okay. Thank god. Just a scare.
But then, his mind went blank.
After giving birth, the female lead looked impossibly frail. Her eyes were closed, her face drenched in sweat, her complexion deathly pale. She looked like she was barely hanging on.
The male lead panicked and called her name over and over.
The female lead weakly half-opened her eyes and exchanged a few words with him. But with each passing moment, things felt more and more wrong.
She was tired. She wanted to rest.
The male lead realized something was terribly wrong and desperately kept talking to her. But her voice was barely a whisper, too weak to even respond.
Finally, the female lead closed her eyes. Her hand fell limp. No matter what the male lead said, nothing worked anymore.
The male lead held the baby and wept.
Fragments of memories flickered across the screen, and then came the male lead's final monologue. 'I wish we had never met.'
The ending theme rolled. Episode sixteen was over.
Kenji stared at the screen in stunned silence.
'What just happened? Did the female lead just die? What kind of nuclear-level plot twist is this?
Yuta Shido! Is he even human?'
Thinking back to all the promotions he had seen over the past few days, Kenji suddenly realized he had been played.
No wonder they had done that massive push before the story reached its peak. It was because if they did not promote now, there might not be a chance to promote later.
The most beloved female lead in anime had just died. He could already imagine how the rest of the audience was reacting right now.
And his instincts were right.
In front of their TVs, nearly every single viewer who watched episode sixteen had their emotions completely detonate.
Many of them, not caring that it was the middle of the night and they might disturb the neighbors, screamed at the top of their lungs.
More than a few were so furious they wanted to smash their televisions.
Online, Clannad-related discussions exploded exponentially.
"Are you kidding me? Nagisa is dead?"
"This is way too cruel. I can't stop crying."
"Shido, fuck you! Is he the devil?"
"I just started watching this anime and you kill the female lead on me? Shido, can you please act like a human being?"
"I demand a protest! An official protest! Next episode, Nagisa had better come back to life, or Shido is a dead man!"
"I'm going to Starfall tomorrow to fight Shido. Who's coming with me?"
"The razor blades I sent last time clearly weren't enough."
...
The outrage was overwhelming. Viewers simply could not accept this. That night, the phone lines at the TV station, Starfall, and Arcane were all completely overwhelmed with calls.
The official websites of all three companies got brigaded.
Every post Yuta had ever made on social media was dug up, buried under an avalanche of pleas to bring the female lead back.
Clannad-related topics rocketed to the top of trending lists across every major platform.
Countless people tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep.
And even those who managed to drift off cursed him in their dreams.
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