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[Liamv2]

Whatever problems SAO has it certainly has amazing music and some gooey romantic moments. (Slightly undermined by the looming harem in Kirito's shadow.)

[Liamv2]

I really need to get round to watching jojo.

[Liamv2]

I'm going to wait a bit before watching it since I get the feeling I won't be able to handle waiting a week per episode.

[Clover Rider]

 

Yeah sure.

[Mr.House]

The manly posing of JoJo is too epic for a human to withstand.

[TheChris92]

 

I've been taking a break on Ergo Proxy but will return to it when I've finished my runthrough of the Clannad anime -- Now, usually this would go against my policy of no high-school-anime since my experience with them have "not-too-pleasant" and dragged me to the point where it's probably best to circle around them. Although, due to how it's emotionally gratifying content is held in such high esteem, that it could blow through the roof,  and its seemingly less-generic approach to relationships -- Oh, and my adoration of the Persona games, partially for its high school content, makes me a hypocrite anyway so I owed Clannad my time of the day to say the least.

 

Much like Persona, Clannad centers around the inner workings of relationships and its effect on its peers. It doesn't just stretch as far as teenage-high-school students, but even reaches out for adolescents, and it manages to be quite consistent and respectful, mature even, to degree that we as the audience are willing enough to listen. It also made me think of another title from the Persona-makers called Catherine, where the central premise is an on-going healthy adult relationship, which is already going on -- There are many animes, or games, that depict the commencement of a relationship, usually involving party A rescuing party B from a giant fire-breathing reptilian, Satan or their own virginity, but rarely do they show difficulties and challenges, in a relationship that is already going on. Like how are any of these  dandy video game adventures gonna bring enough money in to raise a family? In retrospect, while I think Catherine manages to appeal strongly more towards adults by avoiding what I'd consider the occasional jarring generic trope of the drama genre, and larger concerns of relationships, like unexpected pregnancies or impetus of commitment -- Clannad does its own thing, however, quite well, where it manages to not be "like the other guy" and yet perhaps a bit like all of them. The problem usually lies in how it initially lays out its cards, where instead of trying to be subtle at first, it it folds right at the get-go.. We have the usual harem-pairings, main character being a trouble maker and meets a girl who juxtaposes everything he represents and "fixes" him to a point where he develops into a decent and honest kinda of a guy, inexplicably strong high school girls making holes in concrete walls.. all of that stuff.

 It goes a bit beyond what is to be expected of high school romance dramas. Do not misunderstand me. Clannad is good. In fact, it's great even. It manages to do what anime tends to do best and what seperates its qualities from western animation, the usage of music, dramatic timing and play on the emotional with elements of magical realism. That is to say, it's sci-fi and not quite Urban Fantasy and yet... stuff happens, with a somewhat supernatural spark to it all. To put it in cohesive and broader terms -- Magical realism is characterized by a pair of composing perspectives, where one centers on what we'd consider a rational view on reality, and another on the acceptance of the supernatural as prosaic reality. Unlike traditional fantasy, or sorts like Harry Potter, Magical realism differs primarily with always having its setting being a modernized society resembling our own, where the supernatural exists as a common accepted element within its own world's laws, and usually also involve authentic depictions of humans and society. It aims to seize the paradox of the union of opposites; for instance, it challenges binary oppositions like life and death and the pre-colonial past versus the post-industrial present. Latin American critic Angel Flores, wrote a book explaining the ideas behind the literary narrative technique's characteristics "Magical realism involves the fusion of the real and the fantastic, or as he claims, “an amalgamation of realism and fantasy".

 

Where Clannad comes in between all of this is its subtle usage and exploration of spirituality, and occasionally having astral projections of dead people show up and affect the lives of people around them, only to disappear and be forgotten as if they were never there to begin with, or the obscure sequences & depictions of a lonely planet no-one can see that exists somewhere between the layers of our own, and the past being rewritten after years of tragedy. It's quite interesting, but also a bit odd, to now how the characters almost non-chalantly ignores the occasional leaps of anything remotely logical or blatant disregards for the laws of physics, and acts as if its quite common or do not even question the insanity of it. An example could be when a cat seemingly transmits its thoughts to another person's mind, and that person delivers the message to another whom accepts it at face value. i think that alone is enough to classify Clannad's steps within the Magical realisitc space. It's also where the most fascinating parts of the show springs to mind, because the underlying poignancy of its symbolism, music and short story of a lonely girl on a lonely planet, which in of itself, relates to another story made up by one of the main characters, and thus hints on a shared relevance between the two stories, but also the overall message of the show. 

 

But to explain the message seems a bit far fetched because it's not just a message, in the same sense that it could be summed up in one sentence, at least not anything that could manage to paint the larger picture to a satisfactory degree. First of all -- Like Persona  or Catherine, it's about the relationships between human beings, how they affect us, which ones are more important and how they provide us with growth and maturity to understand the meaning of our own life. But to understand relationships we have to consider what it is the fundementals of relationships, it involves mutual affection, caring and love for another being, but what else? You know, the really important part. It's people.

 

People are what truly matter in Clannad’s universe. People come and go through our lives, and much like Wantanabe's Samurai Champloo, people will come and leave their mark in Clannad but eventually they'll leave to pursue their own path in life. It's a brash truth we recognize from our own lives, but never think about too much, that ultimately the people we care about will someday leaves us, or we'll leave them, but we need remember to treasure every moment we spend but usually we forget. And that's the toughest lesson of all in life, it is self-realization of our importance, and how much we have, strengthening our self-esteem that we are somehow, in some way, wanted and needed by others because we complete each other. This whole thing is made evident along several threads. For one, Clannad’s long story is peppered with various pursuits, including impassioned ones like Akio’s acting career, Yoshino’s musical stint, Kotomi’s parents’ research, and while Clannad does not demonify these by any means, it does, virtually every time, gently steer the focus back onto people. In fact it often goes so far as to infuse these pursuits with an aura of almost sanctified importance, stressing the meaning these pursuits held for their pursuers – the raw living, breathing happiness it earns, and pivots on that to show what it truly means to care about another person. And it blesses that act of caring, weighing it against the sacrifices and pronouncing it worthy, because in the end, in Clannad’s valuation, it is the people we love that truly matters the most to all of us. 

 

It solifies this through interpretations of relationships overarching importance, and key, to achieving a higher status of appeasement.  The people that matter to you are represent that importance. Friendship & Family isn't just cardboard concepts of obligation, responsiblity, or intimate emotional graficitation, or even just to plant your legacy in the roots of this world in preparation for when you have to leave it behind. It's also a path of self-seeking. Others can inevitably help you to discover yourself, what naturally makes you.. you, and it's definitely an equivalent exchange -- In return, other people will too find more of themselves in you as thus you complete each other. It brings me back to thinking about Catherine and even Spike Jonze's romantic sci-fi drama Her (I'd like to into that one on Tumblr some time), where the search for love ultimately is reflected as the search for completion. Relationships can sometimes be compared to jigsaw puzzles, where the missing pieces are generally something you don't own, but you have to look for them in others, to build upon yourself and make you whole.

Now before I stop, and will continue once I finished After Story, I'll add another thing apparent recurring pattern in Clannad's story, which I thought quite relevant to the discussion people & relationships, It's the idea of assisting or helping out other people.

 

It's not so odd to think that we as humans want to help people whenever we can, but for Clannad it comes almost.. natural – In Knights of the Old Republic 2, there's a memorable little moment on Nar Shaddaa where Kreia will remind the Exile of random kindness towards people who haven't earned it will only result in more suffering, more begging, and ultimately more harm, when assistance or kindness isn't delivered to help strengthen or inspire the people it helps then ultimately it weakens them even more as a result and makes it even less likely they'll be capable of standing on their own. When we grow up, our parents grants us a lot of freedom, a lot of presents, and lots of joy, but they also teach us to learn and respect the things we gain and understand the importance of giving and receiving, which can inspire kindness in others, without resorting to charity or helping people who won't listen or won't take things to heart.

In other words -- if one had the need and the other had the means – you help that person. The concept itself does not stretch between deserving or fairness, especially not in Clannad, where the act itself  and the effect is mutual. Main character delinquint, Tomoya, didn't help all those people out of sheer charity, but he was in fact, placing himself into the lives of these people, who eventually became dearest friends or family, and would as a result return the kindness by providing context to his own life and ultimately -- contentment.

The ability to help isn’t a privilege that you guard carefully and execute selectively, it is a means of connecting with humanity and building your life that should be used as often as possible. Clannad establishes human beings as irrevocably social creatures, and thus justifies the earnestness with which its characters interacted, loved, suffered and reveled in each other. This is how you live. This is what it means to live.

 

Will continue you this when I finish After Story.

[Isichar]

Oh, now I'm excited to get home and read that Chris. Pretty crazy that you have so much to say already and you haven't even finished After Story which is where the emotions get kicked up a notch

[TheClonesLegacy]

Whatever problems SAO has it certainly has amazing music and some gooey romantic moments. (Slightly undermined by the looming harem in Kirito's shadow.)

And Asuna being a gigantic cutie.

Spoiler

But then she get's all damsel in distressed in the second half, and then there's the OTHER major problem the second half has.

[TheClonesLegacy]

Yeah, damn dirty elves.

I was talking about the Incest.

 

But yeah. The Fairies (Elves) are another problem.

When you think about it ALO was pretty much Racism simulator 2025 edition.

[TheClonesLegacy]

I don't remember anything like that.  You don't mean that sad attempt at a political subplot that had no weight because of the terrible pacing?

Of course I do!

It also failed, due to there being no stakes. It's a bunch of nerds arguing with each other over a virtual map and being racist towards each other for no raisins.

[Liamv2]

The second arc has no stakes that's the problem. The country thing could have worked if it affected the people like in the other game but it doesn't it's just a silly game with Kirito acting completely insane in it forgetting that death does pretty much nothing.

[TheClonesLegacy]

You both know it.

 

But honestly Kirito always acted insane.

[Seraphim24]

As for now, it's one more LOTGH and I'll log-out.

 

Hey I'm glad someone else has seen/is watching this one. I stayed away because it looked so old and was 100+ episodes, but I was semi-shocked to realize I would watch the entire thing and basically enjoy all of it. 

 

It was pretty instrumental in causing me to look more for the character-driven anime over the superflashy ones, although in some ways the series had some pretty flashy visual elements (The Iserlohn cannon, etc)

[Sugarjaye]

I just finished watching Red Data Girl (I really liked it but the ending was left open for a 2nd series so no closure there. So I've now just watched the 1st ep of Free Eternal Summer(finally), it was so good. It had me in fits of laughter the whole way through and the ED song is hilarious.

 

But what I'm most excited for is Sailor Moon Crystal, 1 more day to go !!!!!!!!!!! 

[Lotion Soronarr]

Sim, you love Death Note and L.

You love LOGH and Yang.

 

Not surprising, there are some similarities. Both are geniuses, with some quirks (with Yang being far more normal) and dark hair.

Both have epic antagonists (Light & Reinhard) and butt heads with them trough the entire (well..almost) series.

There is one more similarity tough.