Make a Choice

Well, it finally comes around to the interesting portion of my posts. I've already gone through Tomoyo, and touched on the alternate arc for Kyou. And now? I'm going to be explaining why I think the idea of having "another world" arcs is not only valid, but important to the series. Well, at the very least, I think that they provide an insight into something which becomes very important to Tomoya.

One Set Path?
The idea that there's only one "proper continuity" gets really toyed-with by Clannad, because it's based off of a "visual novel". For those who don't know...the most simple explanation of a VN I can scrounge up is that it's like those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, but with a much more upper-scale story, better-developed characters, far-better writing, and more interesting choices. In a visual novel, there's multiple routes that you can take in the story. When there's a romance involved (as is typical of VNs), different routes tend to involve the main character ending in a relationship with different characters. WARNING: This next paragraph contains some spoilers for the visual novel, including a key bit about After Story

In Clannad, there's romantic endings for Tomoya with Nagisa, Fuko (yes, there is an ending where Tomoya goes out with Fuko), Tomoyo, Ryou, Kyou, and Yukine. That's a lot. And completing some of them unlocks bits of others' stories. In addition to that, these endings contain an important feature for After Story: the "light orbs". You have to complete these (and other) endings in order to fulfill people's wishes, to collect enough lights in order to unlock the "real" ending to After Story. See, in the usual ending to After Story, you get the path followed in the anime, where Nagisa dies during childbirth, Tomoya reconciles with Ushio, and then they tragically die in the snow. If you're missing light orbs, the game points you to that, and tells you to go back and collect the missing ones. I could write an entire post alone on that interpretation of the ending, the fact that you have to complete multiple timelines in order to unlock the "good" final ending. Or how that big bundle of lights includes lights from those "another world" storylines.

But I digress.

The idea that there's more than one set path gets talked-about by Ryou, mostly, although there's a scene in After Story where Kotomi waxes scientific about it, too. I find this scene to be the most informative, however, because of Ryou's monologue.



"If the results come true, it's as if there's only one set future. But if it fails, we can think that other futures exist. We never know how the future shifts because of the slightest change. I want to believe that in our future, there are many possibilities waiting."

On one level, it's a rather amusing statement by a character in a visual novel, poking the "fourth wall" a little. (Indeed, the "future" can shift because of the direction in which Tomoya attempts to avoid Kyou, early on in the game) And it's funny. It also makes one think about this "multiple paths" thing from another perspective. When you're playing the game, you think about it from an observer's perspective.

But what about the characters?

Many Possibilities
Ryou wrestles with that idea of fate. It's a rather subtle theme that comes through her entire character. She's a bit scared and timid, afraid to make splashes in the world. Perhaps she's scared to do something wrong, that one of those changes which she causes will bring about a terrible future. Perhaps she's frightened that she'll lose everything that she's been hoping for.

Tomoya ought to wrestle with the same fear. He's seen so much go bad from decisions that people have made, he has ample reason to believe that his own choices will wreak havoc on life. There's enough stuff that went bad in his life, after all. And maybe Tomoya does...up until that one pivotal moment which, ironically, begins the series. He reaches out to Nagisa.

In that single moment, all of the possibilities crystallize: the ones that are, the ones that are not. Everything boils down and is guided by that one pivotal choice. Is it fate? Not really. It's the movement of a heart, taking action and shaping reality...through the sheer force of will.

It just takes that one simple action. It takes the courage to make that choice. And, really, that's how we all shape our lives. If we don't step out, we can't choose a path. Fate won't pick our life for us. We have to do something about it.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I leave you with.

It's been fabulous writing around here, and it's kinda sad to know that School's Trees is coming to an end soon, but it's been a good run. The season has come round, and The School's Trees will still stand to move and inspire future generations.

Rage and Peace: Tomoya and Kyou

Like I've mentioned before, Kyou is a character I've had to come to terms with after a while. I think it's just something about tsundere characters that causes me to inherently mistrust them. I think I tend to view those characters as manipulative to some degree, and I tend to have little pity when they make emotional problems for themselves. When I rewatched the series, though, I began to develop just that: sympathy for Kyou, and for everything she has to put up with.

Violent Tempests
Really, you can wrap it all up in this scene, right here. If you see this scene and think "Gee, I don't get Kyou at all. She just needs to get over it!" then you probably don't like the Kyou arc. That used to be me. When I gave it a second look, though, I really began to understand just what Kyou was all about. And it's really contained right here, in this video.



Kyou's heart is powerful, and there's a lot of things she wants. Kyou's greatest struggle is trying to understand how to reconcile those desires. She's literally torn between her and her sister, between wanting her sister to find happiness and her own attraction to Tomoya. This scene is where it all comes to a head. Kyou herself gives Tomoya the command to stay away from her, so that Ryou can be happy. She then leaves him to follow up on it.

It's a very different type of relationship from the Tomoyo or the Nagisa pairings. It's tumultuous and unsteady and very impassioned. It demands action from Tomoya. In the end, I can find that good and interesting as well. Every relationship, after all, reaches a sort of balance from one end of the spectrum to the other. The Tomoyo relationship began peacefully, and turned stormy, eventually stabilizing when Tomoya made his decision to grow up and take responsibility for his own life. The Kyou relationship begins violently, but everything clears up when Tomoya takes responsibility for his relationships, and chooses Kyou.

Stagnant Flames
This ending sees Tomoya in a really sticky situation. Youhei, in one of his rare moments of incredible intelligence and insight, rather sticks it to Tomoya for keeping it in this state. Kyou and Ryou both like Tomoya, and he's sort of trying to dance around the issue, pushing it off to avoid hurting them. He doesn't want to commit to something, and cause pain. Youhei points out that the longer he keeps it up, the more it'll hurt when he has to make a choice.

This is the significant point of the Kyou episode. With so many high-strung emotions going every which way on Kyou's part, there has to be a choice made. She's depending on Tomoya to choose, because it really is his call to make. And, compared to Tomoyo's chapter, what Tomoya winds up doing is rather pain-free. It's a neat resolution.




In fact, it's Kyou that goes through the most sacrifice here. She winds up disguising herself as her sister, on Ryou's suggestion, just to hear the truth from Tomoya. And it provides an avenue for Tomoya to make up for his mistakes. He makes his commitment, and this decision leads rather smoothly to the final resolution...





There's something interesting to be seen here, too, amidst the simple and happy ending. It's Kyou and what she says. She asks Tomoya if he really thinks she was the "right choice". She then tells him that she'll rest easy if he truly gets angry at that suggestion. It says a lot about Kyou. She's in reality a rather insecure person. With her passionate heart jerking her this way and that, she can't trust anyone else to stay with her. She needs reassurance. Since the language she speaks best is the passions of the heart, anger is simply another signal, for her. If Tomoya gets angry, that tells her that he really means what he says.

Oh, and there's one other video that I think would close this post nicely. It sums up Kyou pretty dang well.

Winter is Coming: Tomoya and Tomoyo

A number of people I know were befuddled by the "Another World: Tomoyo" episode. To them I say: hold off a bit, I'll touch on the topic of "another world" in another post. Today, though, it's time for a look at one of my favorite episodes in the entire series, and that's Tomoyo's "another world" arc. It's brief, for sure, but in a single episode the creators of Clannad manage to pack in an entirely unseen aspect of this character, and to tell a plausible and at times painful love story.

Quiet Starts the Winter
The alternate story of Tomoya and Tomoyo begins slowly and softly. It's not filled with the awkward stumblings of Tomoya and Nagisa. Rather, this couple sort of...happened. Tomoya explains it best here. We also get to see something which comes back again and again in this episode: Tomoyo wants Tomoya to stay by her side, to stay with her. She's found something precious in this relationship, and she wants it to stay.



This quietness is one of my favorite things about the Tomoyo/Tomoya pairing, though at the same time it turns out to be one of its challenges. Being a reflective person myself, and one who naturally prefers being with someone and knowing that they care about you to talking with them...I can appreciate this. I can understand what it's like to be this way. Tomoya and Tomoyo have an understanding that they belong.

Of course, such peace and quiet can't last. Complications quickly arise, and that's the focus of this episode. It highlights a very real component of love, too: it's not enough for two lovers to care only about themselves. They live in a big world, and there's all sorts of people depending on them, all sorts of circumstances that affect them, all sorts of consequences they have to deal with. This story is about two lovers coming to terms with the outside world.

Tension and Sacrifice
The guy in this clip is a grade-A jerk.



Sure, maybe he has a bit of a point, but he's not incredibly concerned for Tomoyo's wellbeing so much as he's jealous. In this little meeting here, we see a conflict. The abstract struggle between Tomoyo's heart and Tomoyo's duty is made very, very real. Her heart wants to be with Tomoya, the match that she's found, the one whom she can care about, the one whom she is at peace with. Her duty, though, tells her that she can't be.

It's a grim twist of irony. Why? Because she took on this duty because of her heart; she seeks a high position so that she can preserve the sakura trees for her brother. Her heart's gotten her into a place where she's bound up into something she doesn't want.

And she tries to make it work even so. Tomoyo is ridiculously stubborn. Even though she doesn't show it, she refuses to let the danger to her position shake her. (There's a reason Tomoyo's theme song is called "Her Determination")

Drastic Action
Tomoya knows that it can't last. He can tell that even she's just dodging an inevitable fate. So he does something incredibly painful to fix the situation.



He lies to Tomoyo, telling her that he never loved her, and breaks off their relationship. Thus begins a remarkably painful portion of the episode. Tomoya goes through a drudge of life. He passes Tomoyo without pausing for a glance of recognition, tries applying to jobs, and everything is bleak and gray, just like at the start of Clannad.

There's an interesting difference, though. It all gets summed up in the very end of the episode, which I think is one of the more poignant and beautiful moments of the series. Tomoyo explains that Tomoya's been doing just fine. When they were together, he was learning something. Being with someone who cared so much for something, he understood what it meant to take responsibility. It may have not taken on a dramatic form as with Nagisa, but the relationship of Tomoya and Tomoyo taught him how to stand up and be a man.



There's something about this scene that just moves me. It's not that the ending is happy. It's not even the idea that Tomoyo is willing to sacrifice everything to be with Tomoya. No, it's something even more powerful. It's the fact that she believes in Tomoya. She believes in his goodness, and she believes in his loving heart. Why else would she have watched as he grew, and fallen even more in love with him, even though he had told her that he didn't love her? She believed in his love, so much so that she couldn't truly accept what he'd told her.

And she believes in his ability to rise. When Tomoya tells her that he'll drag her down, that she has higher places to go than next to him...and she tells him that he's not as low as he thinks he is. She's telling him that he, too, can rise. And shortly after, he says as much. "It's a little late, but I'll go to where you are, too." Tomoya has come a long way.

Ironically, the color scheme used for this end sequence is practically identical to the beginning of Clannad. It wouldn't appear like anything has changed...but everything has changed, on the inside. The circle is finished.

There was something, though, that I really, truly liked about this episode. It's something that caught me by surprise, and something that deepened characters like nobody's business.



A Different Tomoyo
When I saw that clip up there, I was pretty close to floored. It took my expectations of Tomoyo, and did a perfectly rational and surprising thing with them. It's also something which made me even more of a Tomoyo fan. Put quite simply: Tomoyo gets hurt.

Reread those three little words for a second. Tomoyo gets hurt.

Yeah. You heard that right. Tomoyo is one of the strongest characters in the show, taking a seat just behind the Furukawa parents, Ushio, and even Nagisa herself. She's physically strong, but also ridiculously stable. Her past is filled with tragedy, and she and her family have pulled together and grown stronger because of it. Even emotionally, she's incredibly strong. And then we get hit with this lovely little tidbit.

You can hurt Tomoyo. Really easily, actually. All you have to do is gun for that which she cares about the most. She's found a heart to be with, and she's made that her aim and desire.

Doing something like that automatically makes you vulnerable. What impresses me the most about Tomoyo's strength is this vulnerability. Her weakness...it's not something we'd think of at first. But it's something powerful, something incredible.

To love, you must be capable of being hurt. You have to take that leap. You have to make that risk. Without this jump, you can only go so far. Tomoyo's thrown herself into this with her very being, and it's that dedication that I can admire.

The Answer I've Found

All of that character contrast doesn't mean a whole lot, though, without something substantial behind Tomoyo. To tell the truth, I was still feeling that bit out. I couldn't quite find something that really, strongly made me attached to the character, as much as I really liked her. Fuko remained my top character for a while, simply because there was something I really admired about her insistent and totally devoted sacrifice for her sister. Tomoyo? Well, I just liked her general philosophy and approach to life.

That was before I saw Episode 18, which is also essentially the core of Tomoyo's arc all wrapped into one episode. This, by the way, is a vast compression from the Visual Novel, far moreso than any of the other girls' arcs. In part, this is because Fuko's arc and Kotomi's arc both touch on the supernatural aspect of the show. Kyou and Ryou's arc has more time simply because Kyou is loud, and makes her presence very known. This leaves Tomoyo to explain herself in a single episode.

Explain she does. It's all contained in this scene, which is one of the scenes that crystallizes Clannad for me. Though I'm moved by other scenes, there aren't a whole lot which speak so directly to me about the meaning of the show. Indeed, I would posit that the entire show can be summed up with the following clip.



She flat-out explains something important, something very important: that it's family which keeps a person together. Tomoya's never really thought of this question until now. The answers he gives (talent and relationships) are a tad shallow, and I think Tomoyo agrees, but is too nice to say so. Rather, she offers her own, stronger reason. Interestingly, this is of critical importance to After Story. Tomoya, though he doesn't know it, will face the threat of running wild in rebellion against the world, and he's going to need something to keep him stable. If he relied on talent, well...his talents aren't exactly apparent, and he sure hasn't found them. If he relied on relationships, well...he couldn't. Not after Nagisa's death.

All he has left is family.

In the end, that's really why I love Tomoyo. All that she had left, when Takafumi jumped, was family. It was from family that she pulled together meaning from life. The love in her family was what kept them afloat, and that speaks all manner of things to me. These four minutes practically encapsulate the entirety of After Story, in a sense, giving you a taste of what's to come. Tomoyo falls back on her family to protect her, and is all the more awesome for it. When I reached this point, I was sold.

I could tell that beneath that calm, cool, occasionally violent exterior was a heart that cared intensely for the ones whom Tomoyo loved. It was a passionate, strong heart, and also a heart torn and mended from the experience of life. Tomoyo is a soul who has weathered tragedy and devastation, and come out all the better for it. She knows where to go back to, back to her family, back to the ones who love her.

Because, really, that's the only answer that I've found to life that I can truly say that I agree with. It all comes back to family.

Two Girls (And a Boy in the Middle)

I figure that the Tomoyo vs. Kyou clip has been linked enough times by me, so I won't embed it in this post. It really is the one clip which does the difference between the two female leads of the series' end the best justice. At the same time, it's interesting to note their similarity...this is something I alluded to in my Kyou post for Top Ten.

Fire and Water
Yeah, the elemental symbolism is a tad overdone...but if two characters ever deserved these elements, it's Kyou and Tomoyo. I'd say, however, that Tomoyo is the fire, while Kyou is the water. It's definitely not the typical definition; with her high-strung temperament, you'd expect Kyou to be the fire, right? Well, here's where I'm going with it.

Kyou is a tempest. She washes one way, but then momentum takes her and drags her right back. Just as water is moved by many currents and ripples beneath its surface, so Kyou is pulled every which way by the emotional forces in her life. By contrast, Tomoyo is a slowly burning blaze, a focused fire. She has a goal to her blaze, and so she doesn't let it burn out of control. She only allows it to show under the most important circumstances.

Persons of Special Violence
Tomoyo and Kyou beat people up. They beat people up who really deserve it. Kyou sometimes beats people up who don't deserve it, because she's into pre-emptive strikes and all that. What immediately comes to mind is how she brains (or attempts to brain) anyone who steps within five feet of Botan, preferring to ask questions later. Tomoyo takes a cautious approach, even going so far as to tell Sunohara to attack her, to make her violence self-defense.

Tomoyo is this way because of her past. She's been through her violent phase, a phase that Kyou is currently going through. The major difference is that Tomoyo's phase was far worse. Whereas Kyou only beats up those around her, Tomoyo was going and picking fights with gang members. She is far better at fighting, and she's been through more of it. She has a far more experienced view of violence, because she's been there and disliked what she saw. She doesn't want to be violent, and takes every caution against it.

Them and Tomoya
I got to watch this difference play out in the second-to-last arc of Clannad, and I loved Tomoyo all the more for it. See, I rather disliked Kyou's approach to Tomoya. She was throwing herself after him, as it were, pushing people around, and trying to force matters. I had a gut reaction to all of this. I didn't like it. By contrast, there was Tomoyo. Every pass that Kyou made brought me closer to liking Tomoyo more.

I think that the clip linked above, again, has a great example of this (I automatically skipped it to the very end, where the important bit is). Tomoyo is very careful about where she throws her emotion. She lets her feelings for Tomoya grow and develop, instead of rushing them. Of course, this winds up costing her in the long run, but oh well. Nagisa is somewhat fated to win out in the "main ending", anyhow. ;)

When All's Said and Done...
Contrast with Kyou isn't enough for me to like Tomoyo, of course. She hit on some things that spoke to me, though. What exactly were they? Well, you'll have to wait a little bit to find those out...next week.

Anime: Where I Came From

I figured that it might actually be a good idea to talk about the anime that I'd seen before Clannad, because it somewhat formed my expectations, and also gives a good picture of what I look for in stories.

Scrapped Princess
This was what kicked off my anime-viewing. Well, technically speaking, I'd seen a few episodes of Cowboy Bebop, as well as Howl's Moving Castle, but that was it. This was the first series which I finished. Scrapped Princess was a fantasy about a princess who had been prophesied to destroy the world on her sixteenth birthday. It followed her older brother (a skilled swordsman) and sister (a powerful mage) as they strove to protect her from the rest of the world. It's a fun series with action, a nicely-built mythology/world, and some cool fantasy mecha action.

Noir
The second full series that I watched, Noir is a dark modern drama about two female assassins who both seek answers to their pasts. It has two very well-rounded protagonists, and some very intriguing characters. The whole series is a character study which delves into human nature and the question of sin. Though the pacing throws some people off, I've found it to be one of the best shows of, well, my anime history. The music is spectacular, and the story is powerful.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
I started this series well before seeing Clannad, though it continued to run and release after I finished Clannad. It's a very tightly plotted dark fantasy with lots and lots of action and snappy character work. I have yet to see the original Fullmetal, but the flow of storytelling had me hooked after the first few episodes. It was also full of dashes of epicness in a can.

Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo
This was the final anime that I saw before seeing Clannad. Visually and narratively lavish, it's an adaptation which truly does the book justice, especially in spirit. It's a dark gothic take on the story, with a science fiction twist thrown alongside 19th Century aesthetics. The characters were very carefully made, and the plot was delightfully twisted.

Code Geass
A beautifully elaborate mashup of several different anime tropes (a student at a Japanese high school uses his magical power of mind control to overthrow a tyrannical regime with the help of an army of mecha), Code Geass stars an ensemble cast of characters on both sides of a massive rebellion. There's questions of morality, idealism, and whether power is always a corrupting force.

Post-Clannad
Those were the anime which formed my expectations of the medium. Incidentally, both Gankutsuou and Noir have made it onto my Top 5 Anime list, alongside Clannad. I'm also gonna throw in the anime which followed, to give you all an idea of how my taste has developed, to give you a picture of where I'm at now.

Cowboy Bebop
I wanted to finish this up, because I'd heard a lot about it, so I did. And, well...I thought it was a masterpiece. It's a beauty to watch the character work, the drifting ambiance, and to hear the fantastic music of the show. It's a space western film noir, and it works fantastically. Not to mention, it's an anime classic. (It was the first anime to appear on network television, I think...or at least the first one geared towards non-kids)

Trigun
Trigun is amazingly fun, and at the same time heartbreaking. (It and Bebop take up the last two slots on my Top 5 list) It's a show which begins as a fun shounen romp, and then slides into a very serious drama about death, innocence, and...well...love and peace! (The genre gets very, very close to straight seinen anime near the end) Vash the Stampede also happens to be one of the few completely upright, noble, morally pure protagonists who I actually find to be likable.

Utawarerumono
This was an interesting fantasy anime that the college anime club exposed me to. A mysterious amnesiac wearing an oni mask (which also looks like Batman's mask...) wakes up in a tribal hut, tended to by a pretty girl with...fox ears. It does sorta make sense in the end, though the end itself is somewhat confusing.

At the moment, those are the only anime which I can recall viewing. You may be noticing trends, namely that I like anime which take on a lot of meaning. I prefer anime with strong thematic bents to them, where the point is woven into the story. I like plots which move along and bring us with them. I like characters who you can at least empathize with, people who wrestle with the world.

And that's my anime biography. The story continues, then, with just how I got to know Tomoyo...

Meeting Sakagami-san

Like I've mentioned before, Sakagami Tomoyo just sorta snuck up on me, but in the end wound up making Clannad something I could truly relate to. That's a bit of a strong statement, but it's true. Actually getting to that point took a while, though. So, without further ado...

The Beginning: A Very Strong, Beautiful Girl



And thus was one of the first solid introductions I received, regarding Tomoyo. It wasn't much, relatively speaking, but it was something. I wasn't incredibly hooked, to tell the truth. Tomoyo: girl who could literally kick Sunohara's butt. Action girl. Yeah, like I hadn't seen that before. I honestly really didn't pay much attention at that point. There were far more interesting situations to look at.

In other words, I was a Fuko fanboy. Remember that horde of guys who would trample over anyone who posed a threat to the little girl? That...yeah. Could I help it? She was cute, she was persistent, she was kid-like, she was devoted...I liked her. So, my attentions were diverted for that bit. Kotomi's arc, that was when Tomoya's character got fleshed out. Then, something quite unexpected changed my tack on Tomoyo's character.

A Most Unanticipated Event
You know personality quizzes? Those ones like "Which character are you?" and "Which CLANNAD girl are you destined to be with?" Those silly little things. Well, I took one of them. It turns out that this was to totally change my approach to the show.

My quiz result was Kyou.

Those of you who know me in person can bring your eyes back to normal size now. I'm joking. You probably already knew, though, that I got Tomoyo. Well, it made me bug out a little, because I was totally, utterly confused. So...the character who was my closest match was the girl who beat people up? I mean, sure, I had this image of myself as the silent guardian type, but...it really didn't seem like a fit.

Liam told me that, actually, considering the development of her character, it wasn't necessarily all that far off. I kept that in mind, and it sort of colored my viewing for the rest of the series. I decided to start keeping an eye on this Tomoyo character. Well, that just happened to be perfect timing, because right after Kotomi's arc is when she starts to come into prevalence.

First Impressions
I soon discovered that there was a lot more to Tomoyo than I'd previously observed. There was something strong, truly strong, behind that coolness. I began to sense that there was a deeply caring heart in her, and that there was a lot going on. As she slowly began to take interest in Tomoya, I could understand her. I really started to admire her. She had her ambitions, but she was reserved as well. Prudent. Of course, she quickly demonstrated that she wasn't above taking action, either.

Then came the real meat of Tomoyo's arc: the opposing female lead, Kyou.

A Roving Artist Has Joined Your Party!

Well hullo folks. I figure that y'all deserve a bit of a proper introduction to the folk known as me. CarpeGuitarrem, CG, Carpe, or you could just call me Andy. ;) Who am I? Well, where to begin? Writer, musician, geek, somewhat intellectual, aiming to be deeply spiritual, and I'm no stranger to kazoku. (You know the rules, and so do I...) I'm such a weird random conbogglement of stuff, I hardly know where to introduce myself. Generally, it's by finding common ground with my audience, we can start with that, and then move on from there.

I suppose that common ground is Clannad, isn't it? After all, it's somewhat the show that we've all gathered here to discuss and commemorate. (Gee, that sounds like the start of a eulogy...that's just not right...) Bear with me. I get random sometimes SQUIRREL! (Okay, I'm not that bad. Joking aside, I'll have to restrain my impulses to go on unrelated tangents, just a tad.) To the Clannad part, Robin!

My Introduction to Clannad
Was, admittedly, something which took a while. Once upon a time, Liam brought me over to his friend Marty's house, for something. Probably an RPG night. Or maybe we were playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Or both. At any rate, he wound up showing me the first episode. This was during his Clannad obsession phase, so I naturally was a bit skeptical. I will say that the first episode didn't do much to alleviate my skepticism. I was pretty weirded-out by the genre-bending comedy, and the fact that I couldn't tell if the show was serious or silly. I just couldn't relate.

I didn't pick the show back up, until some time later, when Liam was showing other friends. This was well after he had finished the series, and continued to rant on about its awesomeness. I picked up part of the way through the Fuko arc, and I decided that I liked the show well enough. Eventually I watched through the Kotomi arc. I think that was courtesy of Brandon, actually. I never got around to continuing the series, though. Other things to do, and other shows that gripped me more strongly. (I really hope I haven't engendered everlasting hatred with any of you by this point, but oh well. Too late for that.)

It took Brandon and another Clannad-obsessed friend to get me to finish the series, when they came to visit my house and introduced my siblings to the series. Well, they liked it, and we watched the entire thing over the course of the summer. And I decided that I really did like the show, in fact, that it ranked among my top anime. There were some things in the first season that really hit home for me, and sealed the deal. Then I started rewatching it with my university's anime club, and found out that it's a very elaborately written show. So, I've a lot of respect for it, even when it doesn't connect as much with me as with other people.

My Take on Clannad
Like I said, I know a lot of people who connect far more strongly with Clannad than I do. I think it's just a personality thing. Don't get me wrong--After Story twisted my gut like none other, it hurt. I didn't find myself moved to tears by the normal parts, though. While I like Nagisa's story, and find her to be a nice character, that's not (in a sense) where my Clannad heart lies. In fact, that'll be the subject of my posts to come.

I think that one of the appeals of the show is that it approaches its subject from many different angles. That's one of the benefits of the first season being a "harem anime", and of the source material being a visual novel. Some will connect better with different angles. Obviously, since Nagisa is the clear favored female character in the show (the others' material being greatly cut out, compared to the visual novel), most people relate to her best. That, and she's likeable to just about anyone.

Me, I'm a bit different. No, I didn't hate Nagisa. I liked Nagisa. It's just that...she never really jumped out and struck me as someone whom I could understand and connect with. It's possible that this is why I took so long to connect with Clannad. For me, it took a good amount of time into the series to find someone I really could connect with, and that's what my series of posts is going to be about.

You can guess, or you can just watch the following clip. As one of the first things I saw of Clannad, it kinda weirded me out. Now, I just think it's awesome.