Clannad ~After Story~ - Episode 3

Following on from the quite frankly hilarious second episode of Clannad After Story, episode three continues down the route of convincing Sunohara's sister Mei that he has a girlfriend, courtesy of an Oscar-winning performance by Sanae.

Following Sunohara and Sane's first "date", we get to the crux of the problem between him and his sister - Never mind girlfriends and the like, Mei is simply upset at how Sunohara has changed, for the worst in her opinion. This is epitomised when he shrugs off a girl being bullied in a playground as unimportant - A shock for Mei, coming from a guy who used to frequently save her from bullying.


In an attempt to win his attention back from Sanae (who of course Sunohara still thinks is Nagisa's sister) Mei lies to him, pretending she has a boyfriend of her own, and as the episode progresses this quickly turns into all kinds of messy as said lie gathers pace and drags more people into its fold.

While I absolutely loved episode two of After Story, after those heights this particular offering feels more like a passable effort rather than any kind of heights of genius. Maybe it's just me, but the intricacies of Sunohara and his sister's relationship feel a little stilted somehow, and it's hard to take in Mei's assertions that he used to be so different when we've never really seen this side of him during any part of Clannad. Still, despite that the story remains generally solid, blending emotion and humour reasonably well, and there are some more really funny moments to be enjoyed here once again (with Tomoya hanging out with Mei a particular highlight). Episode four is looking set to be pretty fractious though, so steel yourself for an altogether more downbeat experience next time around...