Clannad (47 Episodes 2 Ova's Two Seasons)8.78 out of ten
Angst, heartbreak, regret, innocence, teardrops, youth.. This is Clannad. A potent part of the Kyoto and Key holy trinity and arguably the best out of the three. While I like many others continue to follow Kyoto animation as well as Key, I feel that Clannad really became a foundational staple for both both parties marking a fine eye point in both their catalogues regarding the shared success and critical reception of Clannad. As when most of us think about the absolute best works from Kyo Ani & Key, a lot of us look back at Kyo Ani & Key's partnership in the early to mid 2000's as the most fond, where the stars seemingly alined and where the majority people would tip their hat in respect to both the visual novel and anime medium in what they are both capable of in terms of telling a story.
 |
| Jun Maeda [Lead Scenario Writer &] [Music Composition] |
"Clannad is a wall I can never cross again" Jun Maeda [October 11, 2007 Degeki G's Magazine]
In my mind Clannad was the most honest and life encompassing story of the three, & while it has more than it's fair share of going through the motions of established cliche's and narrative loops that concerns the Moe/Slice of life genre in general, what separates Clannad from most of it's peers and predecessors is that the story goes through the natural succession beyond the closet of a story set strictly in a high school setting. As Clannad is Tomoya's life encompassing story of love, joy, regret and tragedy, with beautiful mix of setting and character driven story that's equally atmospheric as it is goofy and sweet. It's a patient family soap opera that sets the stage for it's climatic moments early on through it's details and composition of the individual stages of the story, in how they connect and empower one another. As Jun Maeda & Fumuhiko Shimo we're able to bring the story to a full circle while maintaining a subliminal progression and tempo, having each moment resonate while keeping in mind the composition of the emotional flow, dynamic and flavour of the series throughout the span of 47 episodes. As Clannad is arguably the Pinnacle of the Nakige genre.
Plot & Narrative Aspects
From the beginning we're immediately made aware of Tomoya's private struggle, as his monologue follows a rather pessimistic outlook of the town and his life, very early on establishing an underlying tone and how low Tomoya as a character is measured. As he doesn't have much loose nor gain in his state of ennui and despondence towards living life monotonously. Though in the same first episode we're also met perchance with hope & opportunity with Nagisa who stands at the foot of the hill deep in her own thoughts, with the scene unraveling into the beginning of a new story and chance before us. With the first few minutes of the story establishing how low emotionally Tomoya is while also alluding as to where he might go on from there and what he actually might be able to gain.
Clannad begins primarily in the setting of Hikarizaka private high school for the first 2/3rds of the series where Tomoya is in his senior year of high school. This is where we begin with Tomoya's truant high school life as both Nagisa & Tomoya slowly acquaint themselves as friends with the casual passerby small talk, eventually leading to Tomoya helping & finding out about Nagisa's wish to join the drama club. Being that Tomoya has a lot of spare time, he more or less helps her on a whim and curiosity on his part. Through this collective goal Tomoya & Nagisa's little group of friends grows a little larger & larger as they go through the motions of trying to establish the drama club by recruiting more members. This is where Tomoya helps compensate for Nagisa's lack of confidence and social skills, as he's able influence some of his own friends such as the Fubayashi sisters and Sunohara to join the club, while also having a hand in making friends with Tomoyo Sakagami and enlisting her help establishing the drama club by convincing the student council body.
However another vaguely conscious party of the story is how occasional dream sequences of an illusionary world serves to run counterpoint to the story, which throws us for another loop. In that eventually the thread within the illusionary world and the main story grow more closely related, alluding to and seemingly reflecting what's currently and may happen throughout the course of the entire story. Oddly enough however it takes shape in how Nagisa tries to vaguely recall the story for the script of the drama club performance they'll perform for the Culture festival, not really knowing exactly where or when she came to hear or know of it, as Tomoya himself finds it vaguely familiar without really knowing exactly why. At first it seems like a sort of one off phenomena that only related to the Drama Club and would've ended with the climax of events surrounding their performance. However unnervingly so, we inexplicably continue to see visions of this illusionary world after the fact, as it spells out the further implications relating to the story as we continue in uncharted territory.
If anything despite there not being much of a tangible over arching narrative, this thread within the story as you can imagine is explored further as each individual character arc may or may not offer some clues about this "Illusionary world", in addition to some hear or there say that goes on around town. In that this thread is deeply interwoven with Tomoya's story which serves pretty much as the end game of the series, as the clues found throughout the story really do help connect the individual arcs to the greater whole of what Clannad tries to accomplish.
The first part of the story is dedicated to establishing Tomoya finding the happiness & joy in the ordinary school life he takes for granted as he picks up the pieces of his life again, forging new friendships and taking action when conflicts arise in helping his friends and acquaintances tackle their problems. Since the story is just as much about the change that slowly creeps up on you and for the appreciation for realizing what you have before it's gone as much it is about family & friendships. While some may point out how ordinary and cliché Clannad can be it's that same familiar quality that gives Clannad the foundation and basis of being relatable. Like a story such as Kara No Kyoukai, what really resonates with me is how the core narrative revolves around the appreciation for the ordinary and idly peaceful days had to offer and just how well Key's writing scenario writing department was able to articulate and identify the value within it. As at least in North American culture we're so narrowly fixated on the orgastic and climatic aspects of life with the fireworks, sex and explosions that everything in-between to actually get to that point is diminished - In that it's a trend that even goes on to plague our movies, video games, and even our headlines.
While most are fixated on what's unique and special, something like Clannad that values and cherishes the ordinary is far more rare and valuable than any given explosion, firework, or fantastical ending. Being something that the larger audience can universally identify with as equally familiar as it is impactful and special in it's own way is much more valuable then Bay-hem explosions or a one night stand out of town. Since it in turn reflects upon the collective consciousness and experiences we all go through, and as a byproduct empowers a sense of community, togetherness and humanity. However not all the various character arcs throughout this period necessarily relate to the drama club, as with each introduction of any given character normally follows an arc for the story to follow up upon at one point or another.The Problem Here | Nakige Formula
However as I've touched on before the structured use of of character arcs makes for something of a loop, and at times throughout the course of say 30 some episodes of the first part of the story almost entirely consist of these character arcs and does in turn breed a lot of familiarity, making the story at times seem complacent and repetitive. In that some of the arcs while mostly light hearted and funny can also occasionally be over idealistic and rosy at that. As the story's comedic strengths with it's over exaggerated antics and routine comedy become somewhat consequential when transitioning to a more serious tone, since such elements are so deeply homogenized into a characters recognizable behaviour and general flow of the story that it can be hard at times to transition into a more level headed approach.
The first thing that actually comes to mind asides from the typical day to day scenarios from character interactions is how I found that some arcs regarding characters such as Nagisa, Kotomi & Miyazawa lacked quite a bit of subtlety in their writing and at times felt artificial and inorganic. Being that the reliance upon character exposition and how deliberately sequenced these arcs are at times regarding the key events utilized as a catalyst to open another thread in the story made it seem to be too predictable in it's formula, and lacking in subtlety in how they'd try introduce and engage the audience. The story follows a distinct cycle between the duality of picking the pieces back together to once again build up hopes and expectations, with the story succeeded with loss & tragedy by taking that away from you & burning it all down is what makes Clannad such a powerful story in it's tried and true story composition and formula.
As it's quite evident that Key's scenario writing department head by Jun Maeda, with Kai & Yūichi Suzumoto who clearly understand these binary relationships and how they contrast to one another, as in isolation the various parts of the story wouldn't be nearly as strong, in that together they're able to empower one another offering a sense of perspective and emotional scale so to speak. However Clannad does fall into quite a few narrative loops regarding the use of character arcs and the like, so in retrospect a fair amount of the story is quite formalistic in that around 2/3rds of the story (Mainly the high school arc) follows a discernible pattern. Being that the story does go through it's evidently cliche motions typical of any other given slice of life romance, since Clannad is pretty much what we'd coin as a "Gal Game" where the main focus of the game is to discover, get to know and potentially explore romance options with each given heroine of your choosing, as the game is structured to have different "Routes". Though there are some exceptions as not all these arcs are of any romantic interest, as from there with each "dive" into each character's given arc the general formula is generally split into three stages of succession.
First the introduction usually offers us the fun and happy moments at first, though transitions into the second stage by alluding to or uncovering some kind of problem that will later will be revealed in the second stage. The second stage is followed by tragedy where precognition comes into play when acknowledging this said problem as it serves to distract us from the initial stage when the story begins to negatively diverge in it's emotional narrative, where the subjects begin to anticipate and brood over it. When the reveal comes the shock factor usually tries to come into play, contrasting the story to the more happy moments of the initial stage of the given arc. The third stage is all about repairing and salvaging the situation, where one party will be depressed in some fashion and the opposing side is working to repair that relationship to that initial state, where eventually both parties will discover another revelation and/or come to terms with the tragedy, while also finding/uncovering something new of value.
If you pay attention you'll find that each and every one the multiple arcs in Clannad follow this format pretty rigorously, with the minor exception being Tomoya & Miyazawa's arcs. Being that his story starts coming off of tragedy both in the past and the problems that still linger regarding his relationship with his father. Though from that point on despite the differences in where the sequence actually starts his story none the less follows the same format from there on and is only different because of the said reason along with it being expanded and it's formula repeated across the entire span of the story, whereas every other arc/story was only a microcosm to the collective over arching narrative surrounding Tomoya's life, and as you might imagine this difference is probably the reason why he's the main character, being that his story does stand out from the crowd both in sequence, length and complexity.In that the problem that plagues most visual novel adaptations is the lack of episodes to properly adapt a given VN that normally runs around 60-80 hours, as they are often haphazardly compressed and rushed all to often. Though Clannad has 4 cours (16 hours) worth in the form of two seasons and 47 episodes along with 2 OVA's offering far more mileage than your typical PR anime, as I find the length of a given series/movie/album/novel a highly underrated aspect qualitatively speaking, in that Clannad truly goes the extra 9 miles to flesh out it's story. Even despite still having to cut and compress quite a bit of the original VN, It was still a resounding success capturing cultural and industry wide acclaim.
How It All Ends | The Pixie Dust Ending
While most of Clannad's problems were somewhat minor and at worst moderate, a lot of those same issues actually offer positives to the story that in my mind offset some of the issues and monotony I've had with the series. Since Key's staff was really able to draw Clannad's story to a full circle, as it's such an awe inspiring and life encompassing journey which in the end drew unmistakable parallels between Tomoya and his father, also finding something special within the ordinary of Tomoya and his friends high school days. Really it's just how beautifully how every loose end and thread within the story was connected with context and purpose, with the progression through each stage within the story not only being enjoyable, but motivated by something greater yet to come. And when we get to that point it's just as emotionally explosive as it encompassing, in that it emotionally validates and establishes why everything up to that point wasn't in vain and actually had a purpose which meant something.
It really harkens back to the sense of loss, doubt and extreme regret when Tomoya wishes so badly to go back and change things, and in turn makes even the fondest of his memories and graceful periods during his peaceful & ordinary high school days seem excruciatingly painful and ridden with a sense of regret. As it's that striking parallel that contrasts his current state and how far he once again how relapses into a state of sadness and despondence towards life. In that the fragments and clues that are scattered throughout the series regarding the illusionary world play a huge factor in facilitating the end game of the story, which in it's own right caused some amount of divergent opinions and controversy over the matter regarding it's "wishful ending" so to speak.
As I too had some mixed reactions in how unnecessary some of the major events transpired and where the story actually chose to end. Being that I personally believe that Key should have ended it a little after the story's strongest emotional climax and main resolution where Tomoya comes to terms with his father and something* else he tried to avert his eyes to. Because around the 18 episode mark, pretty much every problem and thread of the story was resolved at that point, there was really no reason to repeat the same formula mentioned earlier yet Again for Tomoya's overarching narrative, as what transpired in the end game was not only was an over idealistic ending, but even before that way too cruel and unnecessary of a catalyst to actually come to this in the first place.
If they wanted to finish off the Illusionary world story thread with the girl and the junk robot, they could have easily just have moved it down further in the story and simply applied it to the last major event* and it still would have made complete sense both emotionally and contextually regarding the setting and the given characters involved. Being that Tomoya's story basically repeated the same narrative loop all over again, as would have been much much more realistic to ditch the wishful ending and go for something where Tomoya would actually learn something new from it, without having to be spoiled by magical fairy pixie dust so to speak - It would've been a much relatable and realistic of a sequence since we're not breaking the laws of causality so to speak.However I still do have mixed feelings about it because I partly still enjoyed it, and while it was something of wish fulfilment, I still feel it impactful because we all can relate to regretting something so badly and wanting to go back and change it. Regardless of how unrealistic it was, in that even I would like to believe that sometimes miracles can happen. Which of course is why I personally can indulge in such an ending - However I do realize that Key really did write themselves into a rabbit hole and shot themselves in the foot by having to result to such an ending.
What if ? Theory | A Suggestion
Though maybe perhaps to get over it, it would a very interesting opportunity to reintroduce *Someone* as a romantic interest again to symbolize a new start, while accepting and learning from the tragedies of the past. Being that the story had such an opportunity conveniently just lying around, which I of course have NO CLUE why nothing was actually done with it. It's entirely mind boggling to imagine what could have been because you could even involve and introduce so many characters into the fold, and play around with the feelings and established behaviours of the said characters existing in the post high school/post tragedy part to no end.
While you may bore over some of the narrative loops, clichés and routine comedy, you should know that it won't last forever, as the thing that does change quite drastically is the story's setting. In that Key's writing department brilliantly uses the familiar past we took for granted and thought would go on forever with each episodic series of events, and transitioned into a story about the process of becoming an adult. Really contrasting how Tomoya no longer has the luxury of being emotionally available for the most part as he struggles with balancing long work days and hours with interpersonal time. Going beyond the closet of a traditional high school setting and into the larger realm of society, tackling themes such as family, loss and change even deeper this time around.It's a story about how deeply connected the town is Tomoya and how he spent his time in it with a myriad emotions ranging from listlessness and depression, to romantic love and comedic humour. Being that he grows to despise the city with how the town is always seemingly toying with his emotions, where his situation always changes for the worst as the environment around him grows unfamiliar and alienating. It's that journey of navigating through regret, doubt and tragedy in the pursuit of happiness to find salvation that makes Clannad such an awe inspiring and impactful story that should be cherished for years to come.
Page 1
Article Contents
- Plot & Narrative Aspects
- Character Analysis
- Production Aspects [A History Overlook | Cinematography]
- Animation & Art Direction
- Voice Actor Choreography & Direction
- Sound Direction | OST & Addendum
No comments:
Post a Comment