PS : sorry for my very bad english but i want to talk with you :D

Therefore, I try to find the meaning behind the illogical nature of the plot. Why do the Type-Moon guys never die even though they’re not all that different from humans? Because it’s the only way to make the battles more exciting. And since that’s an acceptable reason in my eyes, I’m fine with it. Likewise, the reset end in Clannad bothered me because it negated many of the feelings I built up throughout the series – instead, I had to figure out what the writer way trying to say, and I think I came to a fairly reasonable conclusion.

Is my answer right? Technically, no, because it pretty much all came out of my head and isn’t based on tangible evidence. However, I lost interest in trying to make sense out of how the reset end occurred and why it makes sense. I got more enjoyment out of the show by thinking about how the themes fit together, and I wrote the post accordingly. Your interpretation makes sense when it comes to figuring out how and why things happened the way they did, but I suppose that was never my goal to begin with.

@ Persocomsan: I’ll definitely miss it too. The show vastly exceeded my expectations, which is saying something since I was enjoying it since the first season, and the ending was bittersweet in more ways than one. I can only hope that Key has been keeping up their quality with Little Busters and Rewrite.

@ A Day Without Me: The heart of the story…now that’s a nice way of putting it. When it comes down to it, I guess that’s what this post was really about; I just didn’t realize it until now :P

@ moritheil: Well said. The fact that I loved the story is what allowed me to overlook its flaws and search for a deeper meaning – had the show made less of an impact on me, I might have simply dismissed the ending as a failure, like I did for Mai HiME. And yes, I agree that personal opinion always makes its way into analyses, but I see it as a good thing; I always have more fun reading passionate posts than purely objective ones ;P

@ lelangir: You’ve got a good point there. After reading some of the posts you linked to, I figured out how the whole light ball thing worked in the VN, and it started to make a lot more sense. When it comes down to it, I’d say that the viewer’s psychological connection is ultimately more important since the viewer is the one that has to be impressed in the end (like how erasing a character’s memories has very little impact on the viewer unless the story elaborates on its effects), but it’s good to know that the game took care of the story’s narrative. The whole time travel idea was out of place in the anime, which caused a lot of alarm, but within the context of the game, it makes sense: Tomoya never lost his memories, and was thus allowed to make different decisions based on his experiences in his past lives.

I was thinking about that – and other people mirrored your thoughts – but there’s a significant difference between the VN mechanics. Time travel, or skipping over to a parallel universe? Well, whichever you choose, it’s important that Tomoya retains his conciousness/memories. Otherwise, even the character development within the narrative chronology is lost. That’s not good – but it also indicates that the viewer’s own psychological attachment to a character that undergoes developmental regression cannot be lost (what I meant by “reflexivity” in that THAT post), thus this, IMO, is the most important aspect.

lelangirs last blog post..Megumi Nakajima Live DVD: “Megumi Nakajima Spring Event 2009~Mamegu da Wasshoi! Haru Matsuri in Akasaka Blitz”

Of course, I have no evidence for this. Maybe I should fire up the lelangiric portal and tally up blogger attitudes and reviews.

A Day Without Mes last blog post..Anime That Made Me Cry

Persocoms last blog post..Kanako Ohno 1/8 PVC by GoodSmile Company

After all, do we have any idea why Chihiro regained her memory of Renji?

Err… yes, basically because Chihiro couldn’t stop thinking about Renji for long enough to forget him permanently. At first she was remembering him and after that she was remembering her memories of remembering him, etc, etc. I thought that was a reasonable enough explanation.

About Clannad AS, to be honest, I don’t like this interpretation for a couple of reasons. This is basically the interpretation that Tomoya had to experience suffering before he was allowed to experience happiness, but the question was, what divine force was responsible for his suffering in order to teach him this life lesson: the city. And what caused the city to change its mind from being cruel and vindictive to Tomoya to deciding he’d suffered enough and giving him his family back. The fact that this is a theme-driven fairytale. Yuck! You can see why many people who come to this interpretation would absolutely despise the ending, right? It feels unnecessarily cruel and almost insulting.

I offered my own alternative interpretation in which the city was always trying to help Tomoya and his family all along, but didn’t have enough power to do so because of what was happening to it, until Tomoya collected enough light orbs to have his wish granted. I like this interpretation a lot better, since it doesn’t rely on the city being so inconsistent and overly cruel, and it has more meaning, IMO, because of that. (Not that I think it’s a fool-proof interpretation… if you can spot something wrong with it, feel free to point it out).