[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Clannad 7-9
“No more promise, no more sorrow/No longer will I follow/Can anybody hear me…?”
Dammit, I never thought I’d be moved by this. More to the point, why am I so quick to apologise for calling Fuuko ‘slightly annoying’ and consider calling her endearing and worthy of my sympathy instead? I honestly never expected her story to be so affecting, especially when Clannad made such a neat job of upping the comedy and giving comparatively little impression that it would go all serious. Like Fuuko’s fading disappearance, it was a gradual gravitation away from the frivolous schoolroom hijinks and towards the realms of tender tearjerker. Good work KyoAni, you just erased my final scraps of macho-ness that The Mulleted One was helping me hold onto. I hate you! No, wait, that would make me a tsundere too. Again, dammit!
In a similar way to placing canned laughter in a sitcom as a less-than-subtle prompt for the audience watching at home to laugh, there’s something artificial about seeing a character visibly weeping onscreen that I quite strongly disapprove of. It’s just another reason, really, for me to watch the show alone (not that many of my family and friends show any interest in anime anyway…) because, even after sitting back and thinking “I’m not falling into the trap of crying over this,” I really did have a lump in my throat by the end.
Joking aside, the writers haven’t done a bad job of accumulating the required background info required to understand Fuuko’s predicament so feeling sorry for her and, in turn, her sister, actually feels perfectly natural when taken in context of the story. Granted, it’s done in a manipulative fashion - as much as I hate to use words as strong as manipulative and artificial, I can’t think of alternatives off the top of my head - but the end result is the same. You feel sorry for Fuuko and you feel really happy for her sister on her special day.
I suppose that Clannad deserves recognition then for making such a decent job at easing the viewer through the emotional wringer and squeezing a tear or two out of even the most hard-boiled among us. Looking back on Fuuko’s episodes, it’s well written stuff. It taps into a pretty universal desire to stay in the minds of our friends and enjoy the time we have - scale it up to your days spent in college or any significant stage in your life, and you could pick out a similar feeling of “I don’t want to forget these people.” What really convinced me that Fuuko’s character was more than a childlike moe cutout trying to leave something behind to remember her by was that she was acting selflessly as well: for the sake of her sister.
A criticism I often have with the way characterisation like this is handled is how you’re hastily introduced to the characters and expected to care about them as a matter of course; shows like Kare Kano go deep into their minds and provide the reader/viewer with enough material to build up an image of the situation, which allows you to understand them and therefore care about what happens to them later. Clannad seems to be doing this too, so as a generic and commercial kind of production in other respects it bodes well for later episodes. From my own personal point of view, this subtle approach appeals to me because it allows me to build up the sympathy on my own without it being forced; stubborn people often think an idea is better when they believe it’s ‘their’ idea, after all!
While I wouldn’t say this is going down as a watershed in my experience of animated drama, it will at least serve as a good example of portraying this sort of thing well when reviewing similar fare in future. The polished production values help of course; if you held the tears back as long as I did, you would have noticed that the glowing quality of every frame in the early episodes has been maintained as far in as this.
Before I return to watching something with enough ‘Huerrgh!’ to maintain a balance in the Force of my viewing schedule, I’d like to draw attention to another detail that I hope isn’t too trivial. There was a moment or two in which Fuuko was trying to get Nagisa and Tomoyo on first name terms…like the senile teacher who reminded them of a crucial detail, there was an aspect of Fuuko that suggested she was more aware of the relationships of those around her than her ditzy persona let on. If this is a story whose romance aspect is centred around Nagisa and Tomoyo, Fuuko could be one of the milestones in that sense, which adds a bit more significance to her part in the series as a whole. It would be a shame to forget about her, right? ^_^
So, then, the Fuuko’s arc is wrapped up and in a fairly satisfying way too. Maintaining the significance of who and why she was in terms of the story so far pretty much dictated that it would end like this perhaps, but it’s proof that KyoAni can do a good job at drama, even within the confines of this infamous genre that’s given me so much to complain about in the past. My thoughts at this stage aren’t so much that I can’t bring myself to hate this; a better way of putting it would probably be: when it’s done well, why should I dislike it?
Posted on December 3rd, 2007 @ 12:15 pm
I heartily agree; don’t know about you, but I find it pretty amazing when you can see a character doing something from a mile off, tell yourself you’re not falling for its tricks, and then proceed to tear up anyway. I’ll certainly be looking forward to rewatching Fuuko’s entire arc in widescreen in 3 weeks, that’s for sure..
Posted on December 3rd, 2007 @ 6:42 pm
Heh, I find it ironic that you could call a show manipulative. Is there any story that isn’t? I’m sure you can make a reasonable argument for any show to be manipulative; after all, how else do you invoke emotions? A story that never actually tries likely isn’t worth watching to begin with, it seems. To assume that a show is being manipulative is to presume the purposes and mindset of its creators, and thus fall into intentional fallacy.
Regardless though, Clannad 9 was a fantastic conclusion to Fuuko’s arc. I’m pretty amazed at how many people reversed their opinions on Fuuko after that.
Posted on December 3rd, 2007 @ 7:27 pm
In one sense every show is manipulative - the trick’s in doing it well enough that we don’t care, or else to do it subtly enough that we don’t notice (the latter is harder, I feel).
And no, that’s not falling into the intentional fallacy. If we accuse Kyoto Animation, rather than the show, of being manipulative, it would be.
Posted on December 3rd, 2007 @ 9:12 pm
@Owen S: Widescreen, eh? I might wait to see if the DVD edition has that. It’s certainly a pretty enough show to warrant that.
@Mirrinus: ironic, why? Sorry for any misunderstanding but my point was that, after the less-than-subtle (’manipulative’) scenes of Nagisa turning on the waterworks, the portrayal of Fuuko’s situation did a more effective job at evoking a reaction. For sure, all stories do this but it’s the execution that varies - I was trying to draw attention to how these episodes ended up doing it in a more subtle and effective way than I expected them to.
@IKnight: you beat me to it there. I’m not well versed in literary criticism and arguing - I’m more of a thoughts-and-observations kidn of blogger I’m afraid.
Posted on December 4th, 2007 @ 8:31 am
[...] I was too busy rolling my eyes to be able to shed any tears. Yet the rest of the blogosphere has been filled with nothing but “FU-CHAN BAAAAAAAAAAAW!!” and endless praise for the story. At first I passed it off as the Key fanboys doing their usual thing, but even Martin over at Concrete Badger, a true man’s man whose opinion I value, gave Clannad a favorable review. [...]
Posted on December 14th, 2007 @ 10:49 pm
My big problem was that in some ways yes t was manipulative. But then in others it is more character realistic that nagisa would be quick to the waterworks. In the presentation though, yes it was manipulative but even then I tried not to read too much into it. Often, people try to find a deeper meaning instead of at times just taking the simple facts and understanding their meaning.
I felt the ending for Fuuko was really well done myself, and the elements which made this fantasy were really what made me even like keys genre in the first place. The overall metaphor and in joke use is really a good way of connecting a base roblem then elaboratly resolving it. Take fuuko, when you remove the projection issue you find a simple case. a sort of misfit school girl of whom nobody notices. Then when she actually tries to interact, people come to know her. but the overall fragility of popularity is noted when people begin to forget her. I believe this says (or alludes to if the term even applies properly) that if you do seek out to become popular yet you don’t continue to enhance sustain these friends of yours, you will find yourself alone once more.
I could be wrong. But I find the themes and the metaphors to be quite rich in the series. the plot devices, the escapist notions and other such manners used to deliver this series is a bit more complex. Fortunatly though, Clannad, unlike kanon (and I can’t believe I am saying this) Has a more complex character style. Instead of an emotionally stale and overly stereotyped character style, you have actual working characters. But then I guess the leve of complexity with Kanon when it was first made was seen as something new and revolutionary with only select cases out of all that anime in which the chars were as well developed (sadly enough that says a good deal about effort as some of the greatest anime of all time had excellent character presentation)
I think I’ve ranted and usd my little soap box enough though. I am glad to see you are following this series and find the rest of it enjoyable. After todays eppy for example. I have to say that I am enjoying the series a bit more each time. Especially with the kyou/ryou situation.
Posted on January 4th, 2008 @ 11:55 am
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