[Anime Reviews]

Clannad’s Tomoyo chapter: I liked it. No, really

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Clannad]

Times shared at school lead to a gradual love blossoming as rumours spread among their classmates. Cut to…a lonely guy stands at the railway crossing, contemplating good times gone as the sakura petals fall. Cut to…a passionate embrace in the snow as the background song reaches a crescendo. Warm fuzzy feeling ensues. Wait a minute…bugger, wrong review*. Ah, so it’s more Clannad. In all seriousness though I really liked this bonus exploration of a Tomoya/Tomoyo pairing, especially given that the latter had been given so little attention during the series itself; being an alternate universe thingy it’s also distinct from the criticisms I levelled at the show as a whole. I can sit back and watch this sort of thing any time - the after-story will no doubt go back to following the Nagisa thread but aside from doing a what-if scenario I just enjoyed it as a romantic short standing on its own.

Whether it’s a manga adaptation, dating sim adaptation or something scrawled on the back of the director’s napkin while having lunch with his accountant, I couldn’t care less if it takes a story and tells it well. The relationship between the two feels natural and convincing - no small feat when we’ve been led down a Nagisa End path for twenty-three episodes! They are both quite stubborn and stoic in their own ways I suppose and not the most prone to outpourings of emotion; this, for me at least, made their romance more rewarding rather than improbable - I was able to come round to the idea Tomoya x Tomoyo with minimal effort actually.

[4 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

Clannad’s Nagisa arc: the bishoujo cake isn’t a lie after all

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Clannad]

Perhaps predictably or perhaps not, Clannad ends on an “Awww…” rather than a “Wow!”, which ironically was the resolution I was hoping for. It makes me all the more interested in the ‘after-story’ that’s promised since the final scenes are less of an ending and more of…a new beginning? It’s certainly not any sort of dramatic revelation; if anything it’s just confirming what we’d suspected for ages, with plenty left open to explore afterwards. It gives us the final, definitive pairing of the show, which is satisfying in an emotional if not a storyline sense. Cutesy? Fairly. Saccharine? Definitely. Predictable? Pretty much, or maybe that’s just me. The issue of predictability probably isn’t the point though, which was worth remembering while I saw it through to the end.

It must be love

Although there was supposed to be a big, wide question mark regarding who Tomoya would end up going out with in the end, it wasn’t exactly akin to the moronic “Which girl would YOU choose?” tagline of the Shuffle! DVDs or similar. Oddly, again perhaps because I didn’t see it as a dating sim story, I was looking out for early signs of which characters got along best with one another and started subconsciously cheering them on from that point onwards instead.

[9 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

Clannad: the Ryou, Kyou and Tomoyo arc

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Clannad]

Sometimes I wonder at the scheduling decisions that lead to oddly numbered series runs - take Moyashimon’s bizarre episode count of eleven for instance. The reason why I’m interested is, like in the case of Moyashimon, Clannad could have done with another episode or two that would eventually give it a 24, 25 or even 26 episode count - given the entertainment value of the ‘in-between’ section that lies between Kotomi’s arc and (presumably) Nagisa’s I could easily have watched another episode or two and have no cause for complaint.

QFT. That is to say that the lateness of this post can only be explained by a similar level of procrastination on my part

Perhaps because it has the seriousness of Kotomi’s arc before it and the promise of what will surely be a heartstring-tugger of an ending afterwards, the section of the series that adresses both the Fujibasyashi sisters and Tomoyo was pretty darned funny at points. If you take the ‘experiencing a visual novel in TV series form’ analogy, the metaphorical player whizzes through the penultimate level(s) in order to get to the final one as quickly as possible; which is a shame because I enjoyed this part of the series as much as Fuuko’s finale because it gave some genuine laughs as well as offering a lot of insight into three significant characters.

[10 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

Clannad’s Kotomi arc: the science of fantasy

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Clannad]

Here’s something that I find odd: I went down with writer’s block over Clannad. It’s hard to understand I know, but I’d set myself the task of getting up to date with that before writing about anything else and hit a brick wall. I put it down to RL commitments this week that have sapped my energy to the point where I have no fewer than three rewrites of this post, none of which I was happy with. The humour in this is that Clannad is a lightweight show by my standards and the episodes in question weren’t as good as the earlier ones either - and yet, I found it goddamned hard to get this into a publishable state.

Fanning the flames of guilt

On reflection Kotomi’s arc did what it set out to do, although whether this was in itself a good thing I’m not so sure. If you think about the recurring themes in Clannad, namely the value of friendship and the importance of family, her arc does the job and rounds things off with a finale that addresses the issues and provides the character with the comfort and closure she needed. After having the full story explained to her, Kotomi is able the shake off the guilt she’s been carrying and finally receives the message her parents sent her; unfortunately this arc doesn’t work as effectively as Fuuko’s did.

[6 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

Clannad 10-12: bishoujo cake

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Clannad]

“Don’t cross the road, you’re under a spell/Of broken violins…”

With Fuuko’s arc more or less wrapped up, we seem to be in an arc centred around Kotomi, the bookish prodigy with a disproportionately keen interest in the violin. While Clannad still has that bishoujo vibe clinging to it like an overpriced cologne, there are enough ‘clever bits’ to keep my interest and actually care about what happens next. Actually, I’m holding out for Tomoya and Nagisa to get together but if Fuuko was anything to go by, that resolution will be towards the end of the series if it does indeed pan out that way. She managed to bring the two of them closer together but as for Kotomi’s role, I’m not yet sure. The detail thrown in at the end of ep #12 suggests that some past connection between the two of them will influence Tomoya’s life in some way or another so I’m looking forward to learning more about that.

The strange thing is that I’m not as interested in Kotomi as the circumstances surrounding her - she’s an intelligent but somewhat dull character who is in the middle of something much more interesting. Although the reactions of the people at the recital - especially the comedic double act that is Nagisa’s parents - were great fun, Kotomi has yet to get much of a reaction out of me. The scene of the bus crash certainly gave another hard-hitting emotional moment (kudos to her seiyuu BTW), but it’s falling a bit flat as far as her personality is concerned. Of course, I could be treated to a genuinely heart-tugging finale as with Fuuko…it could happen, and I hope it will. After all, this is near the midpoint of the show’s broadcast run, which is often either a turning point or a filler section in many cases.

[4 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

Clannad 7-9

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Clannad]

“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!

[7 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

Clannad 4-6: or how I learned to stop worrying and love escapism

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Clannad]

I don’t think that the majority of stuff that I’ve blogged recently can be genuinely classed as all-out escapism. I really value the concept in realism even when certain aspects of a show are a bit far-fetched and fantastical; sometimes though retreating from real life entirely makes for a refreshing change…even if it involves lightweight fluff.

As much as I’m enjoying Clannad, you have to admit that at this stage it’s lightweight fluff. I don’t doubt it will get serious later on but at the moment it’s merely an above-average high school comedy (assuming you’re into the genre to begin with) but is still pretty generic. Perhaps because it’s so lightweight and generic, I find it to be quite a pleasant experience - the sort of undemanding light entertainment that’s outside the bounds of my usual viewing. Clannad really isn’t bad at all - at times it’s pretty darned funny and like it or not, there’s no denying the cuteness - but it isn’t what I’d call great. Maybe that’s just me.

In terms of humour these episodes do really well though. The recurring incidence of Youhei trying to prove Tomoyo’s not a girl (invariably followed by Youhei taking a Keitaro-esque flight skyward) was funny at first; especially with the kick counter underneath. Of course, re-using a joke never works for long unless it’s the re-use itself that’s funny and this gag has proved to be no exception. Fortunately the increased appearance of über-moe Fuuko adds some humour - I’d like to draw particular attention to that priceless drinking straw x nose combo that Tomoya uses on her when she goes into those starry-eyed trances. So cruel yet so comical! I wonder if I’d find it as funny if Fuuko wasn’t slightly annoying…

Result!

[3 Comments]

[Anime Reviews]

Clannad 2 and 3 and musings on adaptations

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Clannad, Random thoughts]

Clannad is an odd show. At least, it’s odd when you haven’t seen Kanon, Air or any of the Key productions and have no experience in playing computer games of that ilk. It’s shaping up to being an interesting series actually, but there are a few sticking points such as moments where the storyline appears to borrow devices and features from its source material. The central relationship, that of Tomoya and Nagisa, is the focus from a romance/drama standpoint but there seem to be other characters vying for the lad’s attention, which feels like a distraction when I’m trying to focus on the two central characters. It feels like I’m watching someone else playing a dating sim game, admittedly doing a decent job of concentrating on hanging out with one girl in particular and being entertaining into the bargain. I’m not going to dismiss this series because of the cutesiness or anything (Re: Lucky Star’s deceptive awesomeness) but since I’m on a roll in throwing preconceptions out of the proverbial window, I figured I’ll experiment a bit and stick with Clannad too since it’s even further from my own perceived tastes.

And so we’re introduced to the dango

It has enough potential to be a decent enough high school romance with some humorous moments courtesy of classmate Youhei, although the idea of being sent flying by an irate female got stale around the midpoint of Love Hina. Yeah, he deserved it (kinda) but it’s been done before. The hit counter’s a nice touch though. I’m quite interested in the whole Tomoya x Nagisa pairing, and although effort has clearly been made to flesh out their personalities and background, Nagisa’s still a bit of a stereotype. Tomoya’s a pretty cool and likable fellow, although I’ve yet to see the delinquent aspect to him that the ANN and Wiki pages for the show talk about.

[6 Comments]

[First Impressions and Retrospectives]

Autumn season first impressions part 2

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Clannad, ef -a Tale of Memories]

Ah, upgrades…I can now throw myself into the viewing backlog but since Genshiken 2 and who knows what else is on the horizon, I’m going to be whittling it down quite a lot. So far the only two shows I’m intending to watch are Gundam 00 (it’s all about the shiny mecha) and Mokke (Mushishi-lite, but still…), so on with the run-down.

ef-A Tale of Memories

[6 Comments]