Character discussion topic for Sanae Furukawa, mother of Nagisa from CLANNAD. Feel free to discuss the entirety of the game without [spoiler] tags, but be sure to tag any references to outside works, with adequate context provided in parenthesis.
What did you think of Sanae’s role in Clannad? Was she a memorable or interesting character for you?
Most memorable (and I think this also applies to most people) is in Mei’s route. Just goes to show how her looks defy her age!
I’ll just tell something (maybe) funny here.
I kept telling my brother to play CLANNAD, but every time he refuses. (Because he is not very used to play lengthy VN, it bores him. And he also said that CLANNAD artstyle is outdated.)
But then when I was playing, he saw Sanae in the screen and he was like, fell in love at first sight. Then he told me how beautiful Sanae is and asked me, “Who is this beautiful girl?”
Then I casually said “That’s my GF’s mother.” And he was left so heartbroken…
Pretty sure your brother ain’t the only one left heartbroken from knowing Sanae’s identity
Well, with a man like Akio, it’s hard to go against him 
DO NO EAT BREAD.
“Body is invalid; try to be a little more descriptive”
Sanae is a character I don’t tend to think too much about; she pretty much embodies the ideal Japanese housewife. She loves to bake bread, even though her creative side is a bit…misguided. As I saw in Nagisa’s route, she loves to teach children as well and is a generally tolerant person. Still, she’s not stupid and has a keen sense of when her husband is goofing off. Given her personality, it makes sense that Nagisa acts fairly close to how she behaves, and it seems TomoyaDango is in good hands for now.
Her ‘route’ focuses on her relationship with the children she teaches, as well as Dango’s own relationship with her. We see Dango come to terms with how Sanae has become a mother figure to him, as well as the parallel between her and her daughter. I feel the same powerful emotions seeping from the writing of this route in a similar manner as AIR, perhaps even a little more refined from said novel. We don’t really see as much of this development more than hear about it, but it somehow carries the same impact. I don’t really know how that stacks against CLANNAD’s predecessor, but I feel that Maeda probably had practice since then and was able to more properly express what he wanted to say that he couldn’t before.
It’s a bright start to After Story, and it makes me hopeful for what’s to come. Who will Dango help next in his quest to find himself? Only time will tell… 
She’s pretty much the best character in the story. 
Well, perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but she was one of my favorites anyway. As Pepe mentioned, she really shined in Mei’s route, in her willingness to help Sunohara in a way no one else would.
Sanae is just sweet. She’s the representation of the ideal wife in my book. Akio has good taste lol. But what was up with Sanae forcing Ushio to ONLY cry in the freaking bathroom? That’s pretty uncharacteristic of her crybaby personality whenever somebody chastised her bread. I remember when I found that out in the anime I was actually kinda pissed at her. Like, your forcing a toddler to cry in the damn bathroom instead of giving her a hug? Really? But there’s probably a reason I didn’t pick up on. Is it because she was forcing Ushio to wait until Tomoya stopped being a deadbeat, so Ushio can finally, safely cry in “daddy’s arms?” I mean, I guess… but there was no guarantee Tomoya would ever step up. Thankfully he did, but it was possible for Tomoya to not ever step up, therefore screwing up Ushio’s sanity for life, having her never be able to feel like she can safely express herself. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I can’t overlook this. If I was forced to cry in the bathroom as a kid I’d be pretty messed up. I’d feel like nobody cares about my feelings lol.
Just because what she says makes her a hypocrite, that doesn’t make what she says any less valid. However, it is still arguable when you say:
I think it’s a bit quick to say something like that as human psyches are quite complicated. Well, Sanae’s form of parenting, telling ushio only to cry in the bathroom or daddy’s arms, wasn’t really the best decision in my opinion, either. But it served a good purpose in pushing for emotional impact to the reader… Assuming you don’t think of the implications of it immediately.
