Akio Furukawa

"I LOVE THEM!!"

- Akio to Sanae Furukawa before running to her while her bread is in his mouth.

Akio Furukawa is a recurring protagonist. He is the husband of Sanae Furukawa (with whom he runs the bakery Furukawa Bread) and the father of Nagisa Furukawa.

In his route in the visual novel, he goes to Kyushuu to supervise the creation of a theatrical company by an old friend of his. He is then involved in a bus hijack. Akio eventually befriends the hijacker, even after he is wounded, managing to get everyone off the bus safely, including the driver, and staying alone with the hijacker on the bus. As requested by the other man, he drives the bus in order to find the hijacker's grandmother. However, just as he is about to lose consciousness, the hijacker pulls the brakes and tells him that it's okay. The grandmother is later revealed to be dead, and in his epilogue, after running away from his hospital room, Akio promises Sanae to always be by her side.

Having decided to create a bakery with Sanae in order to spend more time with Nagisa because his wife claimed she could bake bread, he ended up being the one who did most of the baking since Sanae's bread was inedible most of the time. It is briefly suggested in the Visual Novel that Akio may secretly hold a second career as a hitman. One possible variation of the Yukine Miyazawa's gym storage room spell causes Tomoya to become locked in the Storage Room with Akio, who follows him in with a gun, mistaking Tomoya Okazaki for his target. Once they are locked in, Akio uses gunpowder to blow the lock on the door and escape. The possibility of this second career is never mentioned in the anime, though it does provide another explanation for his regular absence from the bakery.

Personality and Description
Although Akio often talks and plays rough, he is a kind and sympathetic man whose childish side makes it easy for people to befriend him. In his spare time, he plays baseball with children in the small park next to the bakery, and also indulges in the  fandom. He is often the victim of Sanae Furukawa's bread, having to eat her bread in front of her while claiming that he loves it. He can be looked at as a father figure to Tomoya Okazaki in substitute of Naoyuki Okazaki. Akio can be very loving even though he hates to be called father by Tomoya and prefers Ushio Okazaki to call him "Akki".

Clannad
Akio first meets Tomoya Okazaki when he visits the Furukawa Bakery, having been invited by Nagisa Furukawa. After Tomoya criticizes Sanae Furukawa's bread, Akio tells him about the unspoken rules of the bakery and threatens him. Only after realizing he is Nagisa's friend does he stop, but he continues giving him weird nicknames and being suspicious of his intentions, which continues for most of the first season.

Akio is revealed to have been an actor in a theatrical company but had to quit his job due to Nagisa's health. He tells the story about how Nagisa almost died due to his and Sanae's unintended negligence, because they were both busy with their respective careers, and how her life is connected to the city after getting saved from her fever. However, he says that he doesn't regret giving up his job since ever since Nagisa was born, her dreams became his, and that he'll be happy as long as she is happy. He is the one who ultimately encourages Nagisa to act during the Founder's Festival after she lost all of her willpower by screaming through the auditorium and telling her that she mustn't regret anything that happened in the past because what he cares for the most is her well-being. The play turns out to be successful, and Akio praises Nagisa.

~After Story~
Akio replaces Yōhei Sunohara's role as during the After Story arc, however, he can be serious when needed, as he often gives advice to Tomoya Okazaki on what is like to become a man. He employs Tomoya for a short period of time after graduation. When Nagisa Furukawa starts working at a family restaurant, he dresses up as a rapper in order to take pictures of her without raising suspicion.

After hearing about Nagisa's pregnancy, Akio tells the whole story about what happened when Nagisa was a child and she was about to die to Tomoya, who believes the city saved her and now that the trees are being cut to build a new hospital, Nagisa's health will wither as a result of her connection. He is present when Nagisa gives birth. Akio is the one, alongside Sanae, who cares for Ushio Okazaki for five years. Even after she returns with Tomoya, he still visits her frequently.

Etymology

 * The name Akio means "autumn" (秋) (aki) and "life, living" (生) (o).
 * Akio's surname Furukawa means "old, antiquity, ancient time" (古) (furu) and "river, stream" (河) (kawa).