we're finally notdotq anymore

The other day I read some post on IcyStorm’s blog that mentioned Clannad’s “themes” being better than those of Key or AIR, Kyoto Animation’s two other Key adaptations. My response to that seemingly reckless statement was to take a moment to really think about what Clannad’s themes were.

IcyStorm later pointed out to me that he was referring to the value of family and friends, but I think that’s secondary to what I found for myself, which was that hope never dies. “Hope is like a dandelion—it grows back from the same stalk in the spring when it dies.”

And I don’t think that this theme is unique to Clannad; I think we see it in AIR and in Kanon as well. In AIR, after a thousand years, the curse was finally lifted. In Kanon, a new branch grows from the tree whence Ayu fell, and we see a fox—presumably Makoto/related to Makoto—walking around. So on one level, I disagreed with IcyStorm.

But execution still matters, right?

And the Clannad movie portrays this theme better than any of Kyoto Animation’s adaptations, I believe: when Tomoya is finally dragged from his apartment, and made to face the future (“this is why people make lies,” etc.), the future being, in this case, his young daughter. He realizes he doesn’t need to be the man his father was, that he can be a new man of his own and that there’s hope for his family. The moment on the train platform literally moved me to tears. Tears, needless to say, of joy.

You did your best, Tomoya.

… it looks like the gig’s up.

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I’ve had an unbearable burden thrust upon me, and I’m crying.
EDIT: because people were saying that this went way over their heads, I suggest you familiarize yourselves with this song before reading this post’s contents.

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