Review of CLANNAD & Tomoyo after & Side Stories

(As a visual novel beginner, I'm a little bit uncomfortable for myself to review CLANNAD series, but I will try my best for sure)

Something chronic recurred to my Sylvia this summer, resulting a failure of power-consuming applications and my decision to pilgrim the classics of the visual novels from this September. Though an advanced laptop cooler remedied my Sylvia in October, I would like to keep my journey plan the same.

I am sometimes asked "why visual novels". It is true that I prefer theories over stories but that is mostly from my incompetence of finishing long stories. The artistic expression of visual novel then compensate the literal novel for its tedious narrative, permitting me to go further. Such an initial aim also underlies my subjective criterion for judging visual novels that I prefer well-constructed scenarios with thought-provoking message spreading.

Besides the message about "family", an important reason for visiting CLANNAD is that it is a canonical visual novel, i.e., a player spends all of his time reading the text and can make different choices at the given branching points for multiple endings. By comparison, eden* is a kinetic novel with no branching plot. Though it is also an excellent work, I would like to say branching points are necessary for visual novels from my point of view.

Let's say you are a game player and for the Layer 1, you are the protagonist and you are experiencing his life; However, once you quit the game, seeing an icon on your desktop, you can comment on the entire game as a work of art and even on how the developer team enable their message spreading through it, that is the Layer 3. The magic of branching points lays in creating an extra Layer 2 to allow you stand in the shoes of our protagonist but make decision for you yourself. Furthermore, visual novels with multiple endings provide the players with unique experience by letting them reaching a second ending with previous ones in mind. Such features are almost exclusive to visual novels.

Branching points themselves could also "speak". Once we focus on a single route, the branching points among all choices mark "what is important" from the perspective of the author, e.g., you could make mistakes but some are irreparable; When comparing two or more routes, branching points sometimes imply one route overwhelming the others and therefore indicate some personalized information.

These were suggested in my first game process, where I was rejected from Nagisa Route to Koumura's after the basketball match. Reconsidering it, I was too me myself to develop the story as M. Tomoya Okazaki. A later try of a more delinquent style did allow me to meet more people and reach the end of Nagisa Route.

Things about Mlle Nagisa Furukawa could be saved for later. The first two game process had put forward Mlle Kyou Fujibayashi with impressive independence, directness and altruism. I like her and especially appreciate her protecting others at the expense of her own happiness. Just like Erica from eden* but even more difficult for having no choice of a heroic death to rest, timid Kyou went on with her agony to make room for others, which is more touching and somewhat educative.

Pic shot by Syl in CLANNAD

I have no word to exculpate Tomoya, whose acquiescence was a permission granted too early without basic bilateral understanding. However, I can't just charge him guilty easily since rejecting any possibility of self-awareness and self-development at the very beginning seems too extreme. Considering the diversity of each individual, the only common standards might be respect for volition and equal communication from my perspective. Then, rather than praise the bravery of Mlle Ryou Fujibayashi, I would like to ode Kyou's kindness; Rather than blame the selfishness of Ryou, I would like to praise her "feeling is true" attitude. It was not really when standards are set or met, but when someone loses his personality to chase after shadows that we know there was something wrong and we take actions to stop.

Happy to see Kyou have considerable popularity, I was actually surprised to know that Tomoyo After ~It's a Wonderful Life~ of CLANNAD was a result of the top popularity of Mlle Tomoyo Sakagami.

Pic shot by Syl in Tomoyo After ~It's a Wonderful Life~

Well, it was not that hard to understand, given that she was such a gorgeous girl who has abandoned all fames and glories in swirling snow to fulfill the promise with little you. Doubtlessly I appreciate her nobleness and my eye also got blurry when she called herself "Tomoyo Okazaki" in the after story, but still, it was just surreal. There are some commenting that Tomoyo in Tomoyo After is a bit of out of character. I do agree with them and if not, a Tomoyo who has lost her life meaning after the departure of beloved seems even more bizarre. I also agree that the tragedy ending of Tomoyo After seems too intentional and artificial, but it could also act as an answer for Tomoyo's decision. It is lofty, lofty but still a bit of regretable in the meantime.

Indeed, Tomoyo has proposed a thought-provoking opinion for her choice that one should bind his life meaning on either talent fulfilment or family devotion. It is probably true though "dream pursuit" which is more about the direction of life might be a better substitute for "talent fulfilment". However, taking another step further, will all of one's life pursuit sooner or later return to his relationship with others? I am not sure yet, though the answer might not be so complex as imagined.

I could say the abortion of original Kyou After is regretful. However, regarding the similarity of local scenarios between those of Tomoyo After and those of CLANNAD and the difference between Kyou and Tomoyo and Nagisa. Everything seems more reasonable themselves other than as some ravings of dear M. Jun Maeda. Or as some comments suggested, fans of Kyou should be grateful that there was not a Kyou After.

We finally return to Nagisa, the chosen one for Tomoya. A natural question would then be "why"? I often mention the works from famous Yuzusoft for comparison. It is true that their game system is excellent and the text is full of jokes and memes, however, their works usually lack profound message spreading and the protagonist are often "savior of girls". It is half-decent, especially in comparison with the relation of mutual reinforcing suggested in Nagisa After.

Pic shot by Syl in CLANNAD

The Furukawas once devoted themselves to their dreams and the accident redirect their devotion to Nagisa; M. Naoyuki Okazaki devoted himself to Tomoya. It is sad that Tomoya and Nagisa did not have quite decent conditions to start with, but they manage to be independent hand in hand. In the Side Story of Mlle Okazaki Ushio, she chose to stand on her own feet and travel around the world alone, which standed for a dream realization after family succession and that is the message. In the bad end though "and then there were none", mais c'est la vie. Despite the change of everything temportarily outweigh people's getting stronger, they departed with their dream decently. Getting together, people are who perform the changes and people are who accept and withstand the changes.

Here comes another question saying their tragdy in the bad end is avoidable. Since both Tomoya and Nagisa are with dream from their original family, why did not they try to settle down to improve their living conditions and realize their dreams? After all, even Tomoya said he just "naturally" became the father of Nagisa's daughter. Why did not they slow down for a little bit? Perhaps this is the view difference between today and 20 years before. Regarding our better conditions, such question worth our attention.

p.s. Thanks M. Jun Maeda for my looping their Nagisa during my typing.

by Syl & Sylvia @ 2023-12-19 22:54:24 @ Changsha, Yuelu District
originally posted @ https://www.cnblogs.com @ 2023-12-19