a clannad post trapped in a da capo one
Categories: episodic review, fanservice, moe
Tagged: clannad, da capo, da capo:kotori, moe:meido, moe:thighhighs
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Leftover stuff that didn’t fit in the Best of 2008 post and thoughts on Da Capo. I know you’re thrilled about Da Capo.
I was listening to a recent Adam Carolla podcast with Bill Simmons as the guest where they go on about Danny Gokey, the American Idol Widow. They think his chances with the ladies are improved because he’s a widow… so… that got me thinking, what’s to stop Kyou or anyone else from jumping Tomoya after Nagisa died?
The Kyou After arc definitely should have continued after Tomoya meets Kyou again and should have had an option where Ushio inherits Tomoya’s immune system. So the full Nagisa route is blocked off since Ushio doesn’t die, but it’s still a happy end since Tomoya gets hot wild tsundere luvin’ from Kyou. Maybe this should have been the way to get Kyou’s light. It also fits nicely with the established lore: I can imagine Tomoya and Kyou having longer conversions after school where Ushio is playing with Botan in the background… then Kyou using flimsy excuses to come over Tomoya’s place… and Ushio wondering why her teacher is giving her so much attention… Key should have included this possible scenario and made it H. (Sanae would be babysitting Ushio… see, I think of everything.) Dammit.
Though remember what I wrote about how the anime actually interweaves the other haremettes into Nagisa’s storyline? Well, Key should have done that with the visual novel just so all the girls would be “reset” after Nagisa dies. After where Ushio starts living with Tomoya, he runs into Tomoyo, Kotomi-chan, and Kyou again– round two, baby!
Imagine merging part of Tomoyo After back into After Story, with Ushio taking Tomo’s role. (Of course, other plot tweaks need to happen, but they’re not at the same difficultly as fixing Gundam 00.) Kotomi-chan could get a new arc where Tomoya has to decide to follow her to America or stay in Japan, but eventually Kotomi-chan decides to stay in Japan to research those lights. Just new avenues of material. Okay, we’ll have to toss in Fuko also, but that’s a minor issue. And since Mei was looking pretty good, let’s consider her as a potential haremette for the new After Story too. Everyone’s welcome! I’d even welcome Nagisa back as a ghost a la Asura Cryin’. (Except Sunohara…) This scenario should have been the much needed H follow-up to Clannad instead of Tomoyo After (which is still good, but there’s no bullying Kotomi-chan in that one).
And that brings me to Da Capo IF, the new OVA that assumes that Nemu’s dead and how life goes on for the characters a year after her death. Needless to say, Kotori doesn’t waste anytime in staking out Asakura for her own– which I’m shocked Kyou doesn’t do. Kotori’s nowhere as aggressive as Kyou– it’s Kotori! And this goes back to the widow thing– part of the reason why Kotori likes Asakura now is because he went through the loss of Nemu. When Asakura wanted to “move on” from Nemu, Kotori didn’t want him to and instead wanted him to still remember Nemu. Couldn’t this scenario happen between Kyou, Tomoya, Nagisa’s picture, and a confused Ushio?
I enjoyed IF, just because Nemu’s dead (if you think I had vitriol for Fuko… Nemu’s the Bill Laimbeer of end girls). Nemu’s dead! I had to type it again. IF is fantastic for any Kotomi-lovers still out there, but if you aren’t into Da Capo and Kotori, stay away. It doesn’t do much for the other girls (missing Misaki/Yoriko, my faves… of course…), but at least has them as side characters. That’s something different from Tomoyo’s OVA where it was just Tomoya, Tomoyo, and a dash of Sunohara.
But it’s still Da Capo, and there’s plenty of issues. One, while Tomoyo’s OVA could have been three episodes, IF should have been one. The whole meat of it, Kotori and Asakura arguing about whether or not to tear down Nemu’s room, is really silly and shouldn’t have gone on for more than five minutes. The other is that Da Capo never had a competent animation studio backing it, and Gansis just totally flubs the animation. It’s worse than Otome wa Boku. The character designs are atrocious compared to the VN or even the regular TV series.
Circus should have banged out IF properly– decently animating an one shot celebrating Kotori, with at least a passing shot of Yoriko in the background during the wedding, and, of course, that “ding dong the witch is dead” song from Oz as the OP. And, Key, I’m fully expecting a slapdash Kyou After OVA with this blueprint after DVD sales of K-On! tank and Kyoto Animation needs money to finance the next season of Lucky Star.
11 Responses to “a clannad post trapped in a da capo one”
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dude…i popped on the website and already…instant self-gratification…dam you XD
I’m surprised that you took this long to think of the Kyou After scenario Jason, when some of the more disgruntled shippers (funny how there were still many so late in AS) in the aftermath of Episode 20-21, and how episode 22 didn’t feel ‘logical’ given the linear progression of the narrative up to the point. The fact that people took note of the chemistry between the adult Tomoya and Kyou was used as a defense for the “Tomoya should move on” initiative, but really that was just clutching at straws at that point.
See, this is why I still haven’t bothered to finish Clannad, let alone start on the After Story. It seems that Generic Male Protagonists are utterly retarded, and it takes the death of their terrible first choice to actually give the correct and proper selection a chance. It’s true for Clannad and it’s true for Da Crapo too. :(
I dunno Negs, Tomoya post-After Story is one of the most completely developed male leads of the genre (which is really saying how far he’s come from being ‘generic snarky lead’) *because* of Nagisa. Can’t deny that, no matter how much you dislike her as a Key heroine (given Key/Jun Maeda’s fixation on girls as plot devices in their Season Quartet of stories).
… Mmm, speaking of which, I think that just leaves ONE ( representing ‘Autumn’ in the Season Quartet, it focuses on what happens when someone ceases to exist in the lives of the people around them) that doesn’t have an adaptation made of it. Though it does seem that either Little Busters or Planetarian have bigger chances to get animated.
Also Negs, I’m guessing you haven’t actually played Kyou’s route in the game. Egads, was that hate-inducing. I didn’t like it on the onset (the ‘make my sister happy even if I LUST after the guy she likes’ followed by ‘hey let me steal her boyfriend because I decided I like him anyway’ development really ticks me off), and wasn’t too surprised that other people’s opinion on Kyou took a hit when they actually played her route.
“…after DVD sales of K-On! tank…”
I can think of at least one “incident” from the manga that will keep K-ON!’s DVD sales from tanking. Heck, if KyoAni does that scene properly, it will boost K-ON’s Blu-ray sales.
Nemo_N: It’s far too early to predict K-ON’s performance, DVD-sales wise, though I think the series will do okay, but won’t exactly be a best-seller. Breaking even just a little would be a success for a show like it (slice of life, yonkoma adaptation), though you really have to wonder how KyoAni will recoup the losses I ASSUME they incurred with Munto TV…
Doesn’t ONE have two sets of OVA releases already?
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I could almost (almost) see an H version of Clannad made where all the H content is in the After Story portion (one for Nagisa, otherwise no Ushio) then the race for the widower in the aftermath. Unfortunately that would make it a rather different story (probably not as good of one either), and some I doubt would make for a good anime with the H removed later.
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As for the rest of the post….MEIDO!! It is how you can tell who’s blog this is.
@Myssa Rei: I was joking. I know it’s too early to predict DVD sales.
If you recall, Jason, the Japanese in general that pandered to Da Capo didn’t like Kotori that much.
I mean, she got shafted in ALL the games she was in.