This is, as I’ve said, a note-blog — a noteblog, if you will — and its posts-per-day count will vary widely. Some days my mind stops working, other days (like today) it’s a font of un-wisdom. I wonder which sort of day the masses will come to prefer (if any).
Ahem. In this post, Nazarielle touches upon some concerns I’ve been having with the masterfully melodramatic Clannad ~After Story~. I’ll probably write a treatise on the subject soon, including a look at the show’s aesthetics, but I figure making a few notes on Nazarielle’s post here will save me time later.
I’ll blockquote for your convenience, but you should read the original post anyway if you’re interested.
…I’m going out of my mind trying to figure out where this is going to go.
The first one, which I believe is rather unlikely, is that Ushio and Tomoya both die. The city’s revenge/grudge is complete, congratulations, you managed to wipe out the whole family…
Another one, which seems equally unlikely, is that Ushio really does die, but Tomoya goes on living. Either going into further depression or I don’t even know.
Even more ludicrous, as we see at the end of the 21st episode, Tomoya considers the possibility that Nagisa would have lived a happy life if he hadn’t spoken to her on that day before school. Somehow, magically, he goes back to that time and decides not to say anything to her. They never have that first meeting and so they never know anything more of each other. This would, in my opinion, be even worse than if Ushio and Tomoya both died out in the snow.
And so on. What’s my concern, you may ask? Simply that each of Nazarielle’s successive speculations seems more likely to happen than the one before it. Clannad is so absurdly melodramatic that it almost feels emotionally manipulative, and I’m not the first person I know to think so. Maybe this makes me sound like a bastard, but I really don’t have it in me to get upset about Ushio at this point — obviously she was going to die, since Clannad predictably does the saddest thing possible, or rather the most obviously sad thing possible, at any given time. It’s as if the creators decided to discern a maximum level of fictional sadness using Clannad as their experiment, which is interesting from where I stand, but no way to write a story.
The thing is, Clannad could end in an exceedingly interesting way — Nazarielle’s first scenario involves the setting as character, and the second delves into post-Victorian tragedy, both of which are things I tend to watch for in literature. My grad school application essay deals with the latter, in fact. But I just know Key and KyoAni are going to serve up a steaming plate of Air-esque mystical ambiguity next Friday, and it’s all I can do to console myself with the fact that I’ve been wrong before.
Later, Nazarielle mentions a certain possible outcome about which I have no comment, as I think it speaks for itself.
What I’d love to say is this: somehow the junk doll and the girl make it over to the ‘real’ world and that both revives Nagisa and Ushio. This would be ideal, but so unrealistic that I can’t really see Clannad pulling a silly trick like this. It’s basically a cop out. It completely trivializes the emotions we spent on Nagisa and Ushio.
Yeah, I hear you there. But, even though it really is so melodramatic and takes the most obviously sad route, I still find myself watching it and falling for all the traps. I think the thing with Ushio is we barely had any time to see her rise and fall. Where we had a full season and a half to watch Nagisa’s rise before her fall, Ushio’s fall came after a mere 3 episodes. Even if I knew in the back of my mind as I was watching Clannad that eventually they were going to snatch Nagisa’s life away, it still hits me, because we’ve spent so much time with her.
Huh… not having seen Air is hindering me once again. Are you saying you’re predicting an ‘open’ ending where things are rather unresolved? As in, we don’t really figure out the true fate of anyone, including Tomoya? If so, that will be even worse than a bad end. I guess I couldn’t put it past Clannad, but at the same time, there will be a 23rd episode, so if they don’t resolve anything, how can they have an ‘extra’ episode? Or are you just refering to the supernatural element of the story?
If I had to pick one guess, for a bad end, I’d think they’d go with Tomoya never meeting Nagisa. Since he’s already on that line of thought, it would kinda make sense as a bad end. But still, that’s a really really shitty end, even for something like Clannad. Gah, this is the problem, there’s so many options, but it’s hard to tell how low Clannad will sink to deliver melodrama.
So, which do you think is going to happen? Or have you been spoiled on the ‘real’ end and know it already?
I do know what the game’s good and bad ends are, and I assume the anime end will be one or the other, but I’ll spare you those spoilers.
Yeah, I’ve fallen for the traps most of the way through, probably because I still think it’s well put-together and I want to be able to get some kind of cathartic experience out of it. And you’re right, we barely have time to get used to Ushio before they smite her with illness. It’s like they figure they can get away with anything at this point as long as it’s sad, but that’s me being bitter. Maybe they’ll surprise me and deliver a robust tragic experience, who knows.
Worse than a bad end, yeah. The ending of Air is ambiguous enough that I had to look up how the game ends before I figured out what had happened, and I hope that isn’t necessary here.
I’d be interested to see an ending where everyone dies and Tomoya gets over it with time like people in the real world do (as an added bonus, Kyou-sensei could console him), but I seriously doubt they’d sacrifice all the extreme drama and assorted magic elements they’ve built up for that.
DO WANT. Ever since Kyou made her reappearance, I’ve been thinking, “What are you doing Tomoya? Get thee to a Kyou before it’s too late!”
Ugh. Well, given that there’s a ‘follow-up’ episode after the ‘finale’, I don’t think it will be quite that ambiguous. Funnily enough, I’m working my way (ever so slowly) through the Clannad VN right now, if for no other reason than to feed my current addiction.
As for a ‘realistic’ ending, yeah, I doubt it too. That would hardly make it worth all the effort of giving us a look into the ‘other’ world and giving us all the drama and tragedy. I really am going to go insane if I keep
overthinking about this.All I can say is (屮゜Д゜)屮
DON’T YOU HAVE A SOUL?!?!?!?!?!
Clannad has used up all my soul points already. I’m soul-dead.