Forum - View topicREVIEW: Clannad After Story Blu-Ray
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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To be very clear: spoiler[I have absolutely no problem with the light orbs or the magical stuff. My point deals with that the light orbs could have been used to save Ushio's life. Not to take him to an alternate timeline/world/whatever just so he could live life over but now with his wife alive. Hell, when Akio went and begged at that spot for Nagisa's life to be spared I don't think he was somehow able to re-live a portion of his life. His daughter was simply miraculously brought back to life. That's all I wanted. That's all I needed. I don't fathom how that (with an epilogue) could be considered an unhappy ending.
The message should be: 'No matter what the trials in your path, they can be overcome, and you can find joy once again' but instead ended up 'No matter what trials in your path, everything will be sunshine and rainbows because magic will bring back your wife that died 3-4 years ago'. ] amagee: I'm glad that you were able to find enjoyment via the epilogue. I just cannot do the same. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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I look at it a little differently. I see it as spoiler[Tomoya earning a second chance by finally coming to his senses and being there for his daughter. I don't think basically resetting the story negates anything that happened before that point.] However, I can see your point of view on this, and I can understand how many would see the ending as a cop out. |
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amagee
 Posts: 333 Location: Orlando, FL |
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I think it's important to note that while I think the epilogue took the ending and saved it, it presents its own faults.
It's pretty annoying for the epilogue - especially one which seems like a random summative episode - to be something which alters the entire ending of the show. The important revelation - spoiler[Tomoya hasn't lost the character growth he achieved following the time reset] - should have been included in the proper ending of the show. I don't know what the typical viewing trend is in Japan, but most anime fans I know would ignore an epilogue that was just a summary right from the get go.
If I may ponder something I touched on before: spoiler[a tiny chunk of an all but forgotten forest was able to save the life of a dying Nagisa. In the anime - can't speak for the visual novel - there is a lot of emphasis on the fact that it is the "spirit of the city" that is paying Tomoya back for his good deeds when they reset the timeline. This may just be me but it always seemed rather feasible to me - given the magic stuff - that if a tiny forest can conjure up the strength to save a life, the power of an entire city should be more than able to reset time for a bit. ] |
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CrownKlown
 Posts: 1762 |
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Its media, if I want a downer I'll pick up a newspaper or turn on the news. I never understood why the "happy ending" is criticzed so much and for the life of me I never understood why people want to read or watch something depressing. And what nonsense are you talking about that people cant/dont accept anything other than fairytale endings. Pretty much everyone on this board seems to love Key, and pretty much everything the put out would make the man on the ledge take the finally jump. Air, Kanon, majority of Clannad are nothing but happy go lucky characters smacked with needless cruelty by the creators to scratch some masochistic fetish. Hell you could pretty much say the same thing about Clamp, everyone seems to love them but a lot of their work like X and XXXholic and even to some extent Tsubasa are pretty sad. Actually the fact that AS seems to be mildly happy makes it intriguing to pick up at least. |
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dewlwieldthedarpachief
 Posts: 751 Location: Canada |
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@Megiddo:
I thought I was alone! Well said, that ending was pretty disappointing; it's probably more indicative of the intended audience than anything. |
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DmonHiro
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Tomoya thanking his father = me crying.
And that's only one of the heartwarming scenes. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4082 |
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[quote="Big Hed"]
And so Kanon's the greatest of the Key-Kyoto quadrology. What's your point? There are high points in After Story, oh yes, sweetness and pain, joy and sorrow. It's also not cohesive, the ending's terrible {My conclusion is as follows: The movie and the TV series need to swap endings} and where there are moments of tedium, they are long moments. Long boring moments... I was in awe, I am in awe of Kanon 2006's ending {and if you think it's simple, then you really should take another look at it. "Why are they referencing Shroedinger's cat? Oh, yeah, I see..."} Clannad After Story ended before I realize that it ended and I can't figure out why the creators feel that ending is justified. Look, you create 10 great episodes after thirty average shows. spoiler[Your ending shouldn't go back to the mediocre part and, worse, negate all the bits that happened, that made Tomoya a stronger person. Huh, as Makoto could put it, trees that don't experience pain are weaker, maybe too weak to survive the harsest of times and so they all died. And were reborn. Just to die again presumably; It wouldn't surprise me as it's not as if Ushio or Nagisa had a Kanonesque magic cure]. I have the Clannad/ Clannad After Story DVDs and I feel no need to buy the Blu-Ray. I would love a Kanon Blu-Ray though, even though I have two DVD sets already... |
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jenthehen
 Posts: 835 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio |
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You've summed up pretty much exactly how I feel about After Story. Yeah, there are some pretty awesome emotional punches throughout, and yes the animation and music is simply gorgeous, but ... but ... it's just SO flawed that I can't LOVE IT like so many others do. I also had a huge problem with how mundane and drrraaagggeeed out the first season and first half of After Story were. I was like ... Jesus, get on with it! And they pulled in so many seemingly random characters in After Story that I just did NOT care about. I realize this made fans of the VN happy, but ... shouldn't an anime tell a tight story on its own rather than relying on understanding the source material? (I'm also looking at YOU, Fate/Stay Night!) Ok, I didn't mean to go on a rant! Kanon is absolutely my favorite KyoAni Key Adaption. The story is just very tight, but not too short and the overarching themes carry through and make sense and the end is happy, but not a cop-out / spoiler[reset]. |
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Big Hed
 Posts: 1607 Location: Melbourne, Australia |
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@Animegomaniac
Well, yeah, I agree. And I wasn't really making a point in that first line, I just thought it was funny how things changed. |
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acejem
 Posts: 59 Location: Australia |
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The second season of Clannad was significantly better than the first. The first consisted of harem hijinks combined with melodrama which was never a good mix for me. Slapstick comedy ---> melodrama tonal shifts are the standard formula for "Key" works and unfortunately I'm not fond of this style.
The second season followed the trend of the first until episode 8, which afterwards switched to full-on drama gear. And this was where the series begins to shine. Now normally, I don't really look at melodrama in a good light, but here it worked excellently. I still remember the flowerfield scene in episode 18 where I actually shed a few tears and then the touching reconciliation with his father in the following episode. Unfortunately, Clannad AS had to turn to the dumpster in its final episode which just screamed Deus Ex. It may have worked in the VN format, but in the anime format where everything was mostly linear it ended up single handily destroying what was set up in the episodes prior to it. Because of the poor start and terrible finish, Clannad After Story falls short of being called a masterpiece for me, but nonetheless due to its superb middle portions remains one of the best melodramas of the 2000s era. It will take another 3 and a half years in Anohana before it was able to give a run for its money. Last edited by acejem on Wed Aug 01, 2012 9:47 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18188 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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My reaction to the end of AS was almost precisely the same as Megiddo's, and for pretty much the same reason. While explanations I've seen on it have forced me to concede that it's not a mechanical cop-out, I still consider it to be a narrative one. (And to be clear, my beef starts at the point where the story decides that spoiler[Ushio has to waste away and die, too.]
For that reason I much prefer the ending of the movie version, abrupt as it is. |
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Mr. Nescio
Posts: 165 |
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To balance the discussion, I have to say that for me Clannad contains the culmination of a certain kind of aesthetic in anime. I watched Kanon after Clannad and I don't remember any moment in it that caught my interest. Of course, Clannad recycled ideas from Kanon, so somebody might say that I watched them in the wrong order. However, that isn't enough to negate my feeling that Clannad seems more evolved of the two.
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18188 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Oh, without question that's true; Clannad is the most refined form of the uber-moe save-broken-girls formula that Key has yet produced, as it takes elements from the earlier two series (also Air) and strives to make them even more efficient in their impact. I don't entirely consider that a plus, though, as it also tends to push away even harder those who don't bite on the moe aspect. Kanon is at least watchable even if you're not a moe fan, while Clannad isn't. |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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I don't really get that. Kanon is more 'watchable' to some people because the story is the absolute most basic of any of the Key stories. Which makes sense as it was the first of those 3 and thus the most unrefined. It was just a bunch of random cute girls with no other connection other than them having interacted with the main protagonist as a kid in some manner.
Unlike Air, somebody doesn't need to pay attention and connect several different facets of the story to comprehend what happens in Kanon, because it is the most omnibus-friendly of the Key stories. That's not a bad thing, but I personally do not enjoy it as much as I do Air (my personal favorite of the Key trio) as I personally love a more involved/over-arching story. |
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amagee
Posts: 333 Location: Orlando, FL |
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Just to make sure I'm getting it right, you disagree with the choice of the writers to have spoiler[Ushio bite the bucket in the first place] because it seems overly cruel and unnecessary or is there something else about it in general? |
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