Clannad! Clannad! Clannad!
I love Clannad. I didn't like the series all that much, but lately I've started playing the visual novel, and it is excellent. Truly, the writing is wonderful, and the music... the music is full of image songs and leitmotifs. It's amazing hearing Nagisa's song turn itself into The Palms of a Tiny Child which itself is reflected in Megurumu.

For instance, take a listen to Palms of a Tiny Hand, since you're here. Does it not sound both joyous and heartbreaking? Perfect for representing the feeling a father has when first holding his daughter's hand.

Clannad is beautiful, though at times a bit sad, and at times a bit scary, actually. I find the "other world", where one is all alone in a place that never changes to be a frightening thought. I'm interested to see what it's all about. Key (Tactics at the time) did something similar with their visual novel ONE, and it wound up being sort of a cop-out at the end, as all the good endings wound up bringing you back to the girl you loved. But this is after the good endings. So will it end well? Will it end poorly? Keep watching my profile to find out! The story is about 300 hours long, so it could take a while, though.

Also, Clannad: After Story is now out. If you've seen the original, I urge you to watch this. It's much darker than the first season, and in my opinion, that's a good thing. I thought Fuko's arc was pretty sad, and Kotomi's had some Key-like tragedy to it, but Nagisa's arc just felt kind of butchered. I haven't tried her route in the game yet, so it might be a faithful rendition, but it just felt so... lifeless. Think about the end of Kanon or Air, with a long, painful buildup, where we KNEW it was going to have some unpleasant moments, esp with Misuzu in the ~Air~ arc. It reached a point where the bad news reached critical mass, and it could do nothing but tumble into tragedy. But Clannad TV didn't ever really hit that critical mass. It just sort of floundered its way from the tennis match to the end.

After Story though has already dealt with a very unpleasing Sunohara, one who is out of his normal character, but still feels very real. And just seeing Sunohara not smiling is enough to make you upset. Seeing him about to cry will rock you to your core. Fortunately, it's a comedy of errors, and we return to the status quo going into the 5th episode, but notice has already been served: this isn't your little sister's Clannad. This is going to be dark, tragic, and fully cement our beliefs that Key studios employs nothing but heartless jerks who like making grown men cry.

Fine, my CR family. I was forced. I didn't want to do it. I have no choice. My apologies to all whose retinas I burn.


Lou-chan, my imouto/musume/girl who throws chairs at me



Nikki22. My tsuma, imouto, oneesan, nag, everything else important