Comments on: Clannad 2 and 3 and musings on adaptations

By: ConcreteBadger

ConcreteBadger — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:51:27 +0000

@Shirukii: yep, the link tags work fine. Harsh words there! ;P

@Mike: I haven’t seen enough game adaptations yet to get a good grasp of why they so often fail, but an impression I often get is that the creators are so busy cashing in that the idea of the adaptation being able to stand on its own is unimportant. “…Clannad is an unexpectedly excellent show so far, with some bits from the typical dating sim conventions I don’t like…” Quoted for truth. Y’know, I can see myself enjoying this series!

@Owen S: Ah, Kafka. A great book and one of his best. Apparently Kafka means Crow…or something. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it - I really need to re-read it and get my own review for it posted up sometime.

@Mirrinus: I wonder how my impressions whould have differed had I been unaware that Clannad began life as a visual novel; at a guess I’d say they’d probably differ quite a lot so I think you’re dead-on about how expectations can affect appreciation. Cheers for clearing up the ‘delinqent’ definition too - sometimes the cultural details get lost in translation! It makes a lot more sense now - Tomoya just looks to me to be nothing more than apathetic!

@Zeroblade: Yeah, I quite enjoyed the Tsukihime anime. It was far from perfect but I dug the music and moody atmospherics. Plus cute female vampires==win.

By: Zeroblade

Zeroblade — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 09:43:40 +0000

Finally, someone that liked the Tsukihime anime.

As for CLANNAD, I do believe that it’s very enjoyable even to those who aren’t familiar with Key’s works or any similar Visual Novels. Prior knowledge to it, though, allows one to enjoy it much more thoroughly.

By: Mirrinus

Mirrinus — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:11:39 +0000

Regarding Tomoya as a delinquent, the concept of a delinquent in Japan is very different from what it’s like in America and other Western countries. Over in Japan, where academics is so heavily emphasized, simply skipping class and not really concentrating on your schoolwork is already enough for you to be labeled a delinquent. You don’t have to be running around in a neighborhood gang bullying little kids to be called that.

And personally, I really think people are over-exaggerating the effects of a show being based on a visual novel or something. For example, I’m watching Clannad right now with my roommate, and he loves it. He doesn’t really watch much anime, and he still has no clue it’s based off of a dating sim, but he’s perfectly fine with it. Another friend I know absolutely loved Kanon. She watched the whole thing without knowing a thing about what it was based on. My experiences with these kinds of shows leads me to conclude that much of the time, it’s the viewer’s expectations that lead them to see things as “taken from a dating sim” or something, whereas a viewer without this expectation wouldn’t think anything of it. Admittedly, I personally dislike watching eroge conversions (which, technically, Clannad is not, lol), but I still think expectations play a deep role in your enjoyment of a series.

By: Owen S

Owen S — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 04:51:08 +0000

Don’t worry about all the comparisons to Air and Kanon. Those posts are (for me at any rate) a way of putting down on paper how Key has grown (or worsened) from one eroge to another — comparisons to characters are made like you’d compare an author’s characters from different books.

Speaking of which, I picked up Kafka on the Shore from a friend. Second Murakami book after The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Fun times. Whenever I read “Crow” in the book (up till chapter 12 so far) I keep on thinking “Karasu”, which makes me think of Noein… the mind is a funny thing.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 02:48:40 +0000

A game adaptation need not be bad in the least. In fact, Higurashi took advantage of the structure of a game and used it to very good effect, by showing different dimensions of different characters and revealing different clues in each game arc. That’s about as good as it gets, alas, and I still remain (perhaps overly) suspicious of when I learn an anime is based on a game. But it can be done. definitely. And Clannad is an unexpectedly excellent show so far, with some bits from the typical dating sim conventions I don’t like but far less annoying than most Key productions.

By: Shirukii

Shirukii — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 02:24:11 +0000

>> a show that I reviewed for AUKN way back when: Lunar Legend Tsukihime

There is no Tsukihime anime

(I hope html tags work in comments)

As for Clannad, I believe it will stick strictly to its source material, which was actually not all about scoring with random girls, from what I’ve heard the story of the game was quite involved. KyoAni has a history of not deviating much from Key’s stories when adapting their visual novels, although they are adding a lot of fluff comedy into Clannad. I suppose that’s just residual comedy from Lucky Star.

I wish I had your guitar ;_;