Clannad Episode 8 – Stay Gold, Ponyboy

Before I begin I wanted to mention that my computer is giving me grief again. Hopefully it’s something simple this time like a faulty power supply, and not something expensive. This means I’m stuck using my circa 2002 laptop to watch anime and write my posts, so while I hope this doesn’t affect how much I write, it might.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, I don’t presume to think there’s many, you’ll have noticed that I don’t do episode review posts that often. Most episodes don’t give me enough to say to make doing one worthwhile but this episode made me want to write one. This post contains spoilers so read on at your own risk.

Rating: 12++/12

Story

A true WMD, thought for some reason I want to try it.

Yukine tries to put a brave face on but she’s worried about the boys in her brother’s gang as well as the rival gang. She hopes both sides would stop fighting but the situation is rapidly deteriorating when the other gang believes that Yukine’s brother is back thanks to Sunohara’s lie and Tomoyo’s butt-kicking of several members of the rival gang. An all-out-war seems inevitable and even Yukine’s good standing on both sides can’t stop it completely. The rival gang’s leader proposes a one-on-one fight against Yukine’s brother to settle which gang will submit to the other and Yukine agrees, realizing this would minimize the bloodshed.

Sunohara agrees to step in and fight for the “hospitalized” brother but before the fight is to start, Sunohara along with every guy but Tomoya has some of Sanae’s newest creation and is knocked out. (See bottom) Tomoya takes it upon himself then to fight and holds up better then I thought he would against the rival gang leader. Sunohara once again makes the situation worse by trying to jump into the battle and it’s only the arrival of Yukine’s “brother” that stops a larger fight.

At this point, my sister and I both thought something was up and we were right when Yukine’s “brother” is punched by the rival gang leader and it turns out that it’s Yukine. This stops the fight and later at the brother’s grave both sides make peace. As this is occurring Tomoya notices an orb of light floating up into the sky and we’re given the first hint of how the lonely world is linked with our world.

Thoughts/Observations

My high school English teacher would probably be happy that I thought of “The Outsiders” when I watched this episode. I might not remember it totally but the story was about the youngest member of a gang, Ponyboy, and how his experiences in the gang matured him. Ponyboy was different from the other members of the gang. He had the intelligence to move beyond being a street thug, if someone would give him a bit of help, and he was still young enough that he was able to change his thinking and realize that the members of the rival gang were real people like himself. The title comes from a part towards the end of book, one of the characters tells Ponyboy to stay gold i.e. don’t let the circumstances of his life change what he is.

I’m reminded of this book because one of the messages that I got out of reading the book was that even people that society considers less than desirable have intrinsic worth and are as capable of being good people as those that are well-off in society, if they are given the chance. This was the same vibe I felt during this episode. Some might charge that this ideal paints a much nicer picture of gangs then we, in America, are used to seeing and would lead to a conclusion of this message being unrealistic.

While I don’t think gangs are typically as nice as what was shown in this episode, I also don’t think it’s totally unrealistic. I remember watching a show on the history of gangs in America. In it, they showed a gang that existed in the 1960’s that tried to be a positive force. And it was successful; the kids were non-violent, went around beautifying the neighborhood, and this gang also gave them a place to go, have a family, and help them with their future. This gang was successful for many years but the police and “concerned parents” decided that even a good gang can’t be allowed to survive and they got targeted like the rest. I don’t know if it could have continued to be good but it’s hard to deny the need for a separate place for kids to be able to go to if their situation is less then ideal.

To me, Yukine represents what happens when people actually take the time to understand teenagers and their problems. In the end she was more successful in actually helping both of the gangs then the police or the schools could have been.

Moving on, since I’m about to slip into a rant about how schools are currently designed to make boys fail, some thoughts from specific pics.

This was the point that I think Tomoya figured out about Yukine’s brother.

The rival gang leader reminded me of Kuwabara from Yu Yu Hakusho, which is a seriously underrated shounen series and really deserves a new version

KyoAni really can make anything look gorgeous, even the night.

I’m reminded of the scene in Lord of the Rings when the hobbits charge first.

I wonder if the West and the Japanese independently decided to associate black with death or is there some connection.

I was actually hoping that Sunohara would have had the chance to help Yukine and maybe even see them become a couple.

Something I’ve noticed with this season of Clannad that I haven’t before – either because it is new or I never noticed before – is that KyoAni seems to be experimenting with showing some character movement in a highly stylized manner. See below for some examples. I’ve seen how they will stretch a person during rapid movement in previous series to help convey the movement but this is something different. It kinda reminds me Kaiba’s animation, though that might just be because Kaiba was the last anime that I watched that had a weird animation style. It could be because the animators are practicing for a future show within a relatively safe show to do so and not have to worry about alienating viewers or maybe they just want to try something new. I like to see them willing to experiment but it does feel a little out of place in the context of the entire animation style.

The fight scene between Tomoya and the rival gang leader continued to show why KyoAni is one of the best animation studios out there. It’s hard to show in still screenshots but the fluidity in the character’s movements coupled with little tricks like shacking the camera, stretching the body, and going in and out of focus, all make the action feel more realistic and the characters seem to fight with more speed then what’s typical. So in the end, I was on the edge of my seat, practically feeling the punishment that Tomoyagot during the fight. The other thing that KyoAni does so well is how the characters can convey feelings so well. If you see the shots of Nagisa during the fight, it’s hard not to feel something as she’s put through that pain.

The final thing I wanted to point out was the epic Kanon reference; it had my sister and I rolling in laughter. I decided to whip up a quick 4 panel comic for it and you can see that below.