So I’m watching Clannad After Story 20 and I come across the Best Part of the Episode, in which Fuko visits the Okazaki household riding on her Wave Of Cute. So, I window it to take a printscreen, and I find that Rome, once again, had tossed me a pair of messages -

mDuo13: Seen After Story 20 yet?
mDuo13: If you haven’t, do.

I figure when new episodes of After Story get released my (or our? I wonder) Radar-O-Cute beeps wildly and I immediately download and watch the episode. Unfortunately, my Key-brand Depressometer was disabled in the process, and the last thirty seconds struck a blow to my heart.

I knew something was up. They have four more episodes to go, after all. I’m expecting a nice build-up to what I expect to be a miraculous climax.

I really, really hope she doesn’t die. She’s too young and too cute to pass away.

The power of Fuuko and the power of Ushio combine to make one unstoppable wave of cute.

Funny how it came about, though. Rome text messages me Sunday morning telling me “Watch After Story 19, you won’t be disappointed.” After coming back from running an errand, I immediately jump onto AIM after watching the episode.

SpiritsnareAlpha: THAT WAS TOO GOOD
mDuo13: I KNEW IT
mDuo13: I think there was more Fuuko material in the game, too, at least a little bit
SpiritsnareAlpha: I expect more Fuuko material in the coming episodes
SpiritsnareAlpha: but yeah, the moment Kouko showed up I’m all like DAMMIT ROME GG

After talking with Rome about Clannad After Story 17 and subsequently watching 18, I can see where Tomoya’s coming from now.

I take all of that back. (Jump for light spoilers.)

–

That’s something interesting to note about the differences between first-person perspective and third-person perspective – in the anime, I’m irked at Tomoya because he’s being a loser who needs to move on (and be nicer to Ushio, d’awwww), but in the game, I would be Tomoya right now, berating myself for being so weak.

I could testify to the power of the first-person. In Mother 3, during a particular moment in time, you become Salsa the monkey, who’s forced into slavery by one of the Pig King’s cronies, Fassad. What Fassad does to, ahem, ‘motivate’ you is put an electric collar around your neck and shock you whenever you do something wrong – even from far away distances, or even when he’s sleeping! – which is this whole (literally) five-second animation that consists of Salsa getting shocked, being turned to black, then wiping himself clean and continuing; it irked me so much to the point that I had to start speeding up the emulator I was using to play the game every time I got shocked.

The thing with Fassad, though, is that because I’m playing his pet monkey, he’s rather weak and can’t do much, so Fassad steps in from time to time in battle to deal three digits of damage (or throw something to completely obliterate an enemy) where I could deal two. Mother 3 creator Shigesato Itoi mentions this in an interview with Nintendo Dream:

Itoi: During battles, there are times when Fassad appears to be a reliable ally. That evokes very complex emotions. Basically, the person who hurts you the most is the one who comes to your aid to save you from outside enemies. There’s also the feeling of, “You probably haven’t felt this feeling before, have you?” Games are really interesting because they’re able to do that. You wouldn’t be able to transfer something that evokes emotions in that way into a novel, for instance.

That last sentence, perhaps, is why visual novels and adventure games exist. If a player is a static entity (e.g. reading a plain novel), he would not be as connected to the world as he would be if he were participating in the world (e.g. playing an AVG).

Suddenly, the handful of choices that a player is given in any particular visual novel (if the particular work absorbs him enough) hold much more weight: you’re not just helping the protagonist in making a decision, you are the protagonist making a decision.

Choosing a path for the protagonist to follow is the kind of thing that isn’t possible in a TV anime.

One of these days, I would like to experience Clannad the way it was meant to be. Certainly, it won’t have as strong of an effect on me (as I’ve already experienced the story through that third-person perspective), but when the guys at Baka-Tsuki clean and polish up their translation for release, I’ll be there to experience it – this time, first-hand.

The past two episodes of Clannad After Story have been absolutely heart-wrenching for me. Actually, no, I think I should more aptly say the latter half of the past two episodes.

I don’t have a spoiler tag installed into WordPress at the moment (and I’d like to take the time now to once again mention my current addiction with this Korean music game series called DJ Max), so if you want to hear my thoughts on the subject, take the jump.

–

The end half (okay, quarter, but it felt like half, holy hell) of 16 killed me. I saw it coming from a mile away (thanks, Key, for always being tragic), but it didn’t make the actual event that less painful to watch. I was basically echoing nearly all of Tomoya’s sentiments during and after Ushio’s birth, despite, really, having seen it come from a mile away. Requiescat in pace, Nagisa Okazaki, until my prediction comes true and you’re revived and I can watch you, Tomoya, and Ushio live together happily ever after.

Speaking of Tomoya and Ushio, all of 17 killed me in the fact that Tomoya never smiles in the entire episode, but especially in the latter half, where he never gives Ushio some sort of lighted-up expression (the closest was when they were leaving with a “Shuupatsu~!” – that’s still not smiling, Tomoya). The thing I enjoyed most about 17 was Sanae.

The preview made me cringe even more. Tomoya, stop being a prick, dammit. There’s already been a cutepocalypse (the time when the cutest thing in the entire show disappeared for most of the rest of it, and it happened in episode 9 of the original series), and I’d rather like not to see another one.

This post was originally an ode to Hidamari Sketch x365, having just finished it off two days after the guys at SpoonSubs released the last episode. Why is it so good? Why did the show never fail to envelop me in a blanket of warm slice-of-life goodness? Why are Hiro and Sae so damn lesbian and why do I find such a pairing so amusing?

But then I watched episode 9 of Clannad After Story and it flashed back to a handful of scenes in the original series that involved Nagisa Furukawa, and I wept.

There’s certainly enough space in my heart for both. I can’t say yet that a single Nagisa can stand in for my love of the wonderful Sunshine Apartments crew. There’s a good chance that she might, as I bear witness to After Story, and perhaps weep some more.

Oh, and I watched the first episode of Toradora!. It was okay.