I’d say that Clannad is already well beyond its harem roots. Hell, even in the first season it didn’t seem to function like the typical harem romance; Tomoya had his admirers, sure, but he never had eyes for anyone but Nagisa, and that much was more or less clear from episode one. Poor Kyou didn’t even get a proper arc, if I remember correctly (I sure would’ve liked to see a Kyou end…didn’t someone translate the game?).

Hmm…well, it’s clear that Tomoya helps Nagisa quite a bit, I can’t deny that much. But I wonder if he would’ve been as able to do what he does for Nagisa and others if not for Nagisa’s presence along the way. Given that he meets her at the very beginning, it’s hard to say, but she seems to give him a sense of purpose that he otherwise doesn’t have much of. I suppose the real question is, does it work both ways? Nagisa probably wouldn’t have been able to get her theater club started without Tomoya, so maybe you’re right. Rather than characterizing it as a situation in which one saves another, perhaps I should’ve simply said the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I think it’s very give-and-take between Tomoya and Nagisa in that you can’t say one saves the other (which still is contrary to most harem conventions); I’m quickly getting the impression from the most recent After Story episodes that Nagisa is not very much without her family and friends. She may have built up an ‘emotional endurance’ only because of the fact that she is always alone (at least now) and has trouble taking steps on her own. Tomoya, little by little, is encouraging her to fly … although his efforts are not met with much help from the rest of the school. It’s a bit confusing for me at the moment to explain; but my gut feeling is that it’s a two-way street.

Oh, and your blog has 2 writers doing the countdown. :O Way cool.