Clannad After Sidestories

During the first few episodes of Clannad After Story I became afraid that they would just check off all the minor characters sidestories that didn’t fit in the first season over the whole run of the second one, but with crossing the school graduation border with Tomoya the series goes where only a few other series have gone before. After this (story-wise) point of no return Tomoya has to face a new kind of reality and has to find a place in the world he lived so far, and by telling this in a realistic, comprehensible and especially interesting way this series reaches a whole new quality. Before I was always in some degree comparing Clannad with the other two Key/KyoAni productions Kanon and Air, but now this isn’t any longer sufficient, because the topics just don’t match anymore. Clannad just can’t be seen as a mere (more or less equal) “copy” of the other two series anymore. A very welcome development I’d say.