Excuse me, I feel a need to headdesk. It seems someone seriously needs to seek help for keeping his wild imagination in check. After two episodes of catching up with Clannad, he generates this question: “What do you call a philia for getting hit by a dictionary?” Kyou, I hope you take responsibility when I become ruined for marriage. It won’t be long until words spread to my local environment in the real world, saying I have a dictionary fetish a genuine love for you. The rest, please do me a favor and regularly check the obituary about a guy who became an hero by jumping in the way of a running scooter motorcycle.

Ahem, anyway. I’m liking this a lot unlike the other anime’s Kyoto Animation did for Key games. They’ve been gradually getting better with each series worked on, and they finally hit home for me with Clannad. Air and Kanon just never worked out for me because of a common issue found in both. The stories were too choppy. We can sort of excuse Air since they only had thirteen episodes to work on, but Kanon had serious problem with its transitions. Each arcs were never interrelated. Kanon felt more like a bunch of different animes clumped together then one whole. Clannad seems to be following the same by using story arcs for each girl, but it’s much better this time because there’s a main path to the story. They started the series correctly this time by actually having somewhat of a thesis stating that this about how Tomoya’s life changed after meeting Nagisa. They can insert stories for as much girls as they want now, and I won’t complain. It’s not like Kanon where they just simply overwrite one story top of another. In Clannad, what they initially put down as the thesis statement at the introduction will always remain. Any other story they decide to add in (such as Fuuko’s) will now merely be passed off a side-story it is temporarily branching off to. In addition, we’re assured that everything will blend together and always return to focusing on Nagisa who happens to never leave the picture.

Then we have the next important one, which is character. Clannad just comes with a much more likable set while (as silly this may sound) Kanon was awfully loaded with girls like Makoto and Ayu giving off loli-vibes. I don’t know, call me picky when it comes to character designs. Well actually, there was nothing wrong with Kanon if I fairly think about it now, but it just had way too much far-fetched story behind the characters. Miracle and magic just seems like an awkward concept in a story taking place in a more earthly setting. Some parts of Kanon were memorable I admit, but I ended up losing interest after they got through with Shiori’s story. Kanon just didn’t work out for me because I couldn’t feel any attachment to most the characters with the exception of Shiori. As I obviously am going to say, Clannad is different… starting from the male protagonist. Yuuichi felt like he was (an outsider) only there for the sake of the need to have an observer in a story while Tomoya has some depth because he has his own problems to deal with. Well, I suppose many wouldn’t like all the emo (I hate this city) from Tomoya, but I believe he’s much better than a guy who seemed to suffer from an extremely short-term memory span rivaling that of a goldfish. Hmm, maybe that’s why Yuuichi ended up with Ayu. He’s actually a taiyaki (which equals fish) magically turned into a real guy.

If we were to shift that same topic for the main heroine, I would have to just say Clannad will be having my attention for a long time thanks to Nagisa. Another common issue with Air and Kanon was also because I disliked the main heroines. It gets rather hard to like a series when you only like the secondary characters; pretty much the same as not liking the series entirely. Why? Hard to explain in a way someone else can understand, but I guess you can relate this in the same way people dislike Da Capo. Ninety percent of the time, dislike for Da Capo is usually linked to dislike for the main heroine, Nemu. (I’m not in that group however. I liked both Nemu and Kotori.) The other ten percent awarded to the clutz Aisia. It’s quite similar to that. Well, I guess I can get concrete on why Nagisa is much better to some degree. I mean, at least she doesn’t fit under one of the more dominant character archetypes in romance/harem series. Nagisa definitely is not a promised girl or the mysterious girl, all of which happened to have the highest victory rate according Stripey nii-sama’s studies. It seems like people find Nagisa boring and too normal, but that’s exactly what I like about her. She’s not some stupid fox, ghost, or etc. And to say mainly, I find Tomoya and Nagisa’s one-on-one conversation times very soothing. It’s especially the way how they unconsciously heal each other from low mood that gets to me. Anime really needs more pairings that appear so comfortable together like that. Not necessarily that kind of pair though. Tomoya and Nagisa appear to be no more than just well-matched friends at this point for me in fact.

Back to catching up with anime then. I’m not really big on writing about popular shows, but I’ll just have to give in this one time. Clannad and I seem to have a love-hate relationship going on. First the whole deal with me wanting to get hit by Kyou’s cute dictionaries (equivalent to the force of five nuclear missiles), and now with Clannad making me actually blog a Kyoto Animation show. Either way, it’s the first time I’m truly enjoying a Key adaptation. I’m still not following what’s with everyone and Tomoyo though. All those kicking got old for me very quickly. Oh well, onward to becomimg a Fuuko master… and to also ponder what to say for people calling her a wanna-be Ayu.