Comments on: Emotional Weakness vs. Emotional Dependency

By: DKellis

DKellis — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:28:00 +0000

Personally, the problem I have with Key’s works thus far (at least with Air and Kanon) is a rather more literal “Magical AIDS”; to be precise, it’s the deus ex machina diseases that seems to strike various characters at exactly the most dramatic moment.

I can’t say any more due to spoilers, but suffice to say that after a very short while, suspension of medical disbelief begins to fail.

By: CCY

CCY — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 03:35:00 +0000

Mikoto: Unsurprising from you, Mr. Shana. :P

Anonymous: Hmm, perhaps I skipped over that point about Nagisa just having separated from her friends, so I may have been a little in the wrong when judging her.

Anonymous and Asuka: Nagisa still has a bit of the “not quite right in the head” feel to me, which perhaps I should have mentioned instead than simply saying she wasn’t outgoing, and drawing the unrealistic conclusion from that. I can’t claim to be a man of the social life myself, in any regard, so I’m not intending to rip reserved people a new one.

To that regard I’m a bit of a hypocrite in anime though - a lot of my dislike of these types of personalities is because I’m brought up with the American way of “do it yourself” and individualism, and as such I prefer characters that take life into their own hands. I suppose she is trying.

Maybe it’s just Nagisa’s quirks that rub me the wrong way, like the random shouting of food names, and the passing out in the rain, and the standing under streetlights, and whatnot.

I do agree, though, that the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa is a well-developed one, it’s just that maybe to me it felt like it got off a bit on the wrong foot, the chance encounter between Tomoya and Nagisa who was just sitting there talking to herself.

There’s still quite some time left in the show though for these things to play out, in any case, so we’ll see how it goes.

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

By: Asuka

Asuka — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 02:48:00 +0000

You had a very well-written entry, but I agree with Anonymous. First of all, there are definitely people with either depression or social phobia which make them avoidant of social interactions, and I would say that they are actually underrepresented in anime (possibly because they appear less interesting). This is why I applaud CLANNAD for featuring a heroine who is so different from those of Kanon and AIR. Secondly, Nagisa is shy, but she is not so emotionally dependent to the point where her life would collapse without Tomoya. I would imagine her keeping more to herself if she hadn’t met Tomoya, but she would still pursue her own interests and do her own things. She is independent, not helpless. Thirdly, as Anonymous had said, the relationship between Nagisa and Tomoya is reciprocal. In fact, I get the feeling that Tomoya sought after Nagisa precisely because HE needed help, he needed support in dealing with his family issues. Nagisa was someone he could trust and confide in about his father. Thus the relationship is mutual.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 23:16:00 +0000

Also to continue on my point, it seems to me that Clannad will be more about Tomoya being helped by Nagisa than the other way, the first episode begins with a narration from Tomoya saying how much he hates the town and how boring his life is, you can also see as the whole scene is in black and white then the screen suddenly goes in color after his meeting with Nagisa, probably symbolizing than she is going to “brighten” his life.
Add to that that Nagisa actually seems well adjusted, she has a loving family, her sickness doesn’t seem to be from the “magical AIDS” variety like Shiori and Misuzu (well I think) and even though she doesn’t have any friends at the beggining she at least tried to make some by starting a club, something she would have done even without Tomoya.
I don’t know how the story will goes but I’m really liking it so far simply because the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa actually seems real, something you see rarely in a bishojo game to anime conversion.
Sorry for the long rambling.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 22:33:00 +0000

You know I really don’t see how characters in Clannad are less realistic than the ones in Kanon. First helpless socially inept people do exist, more than you think, this character trait is actually less cliched than say the Tsundere ones.
Then for Nagisa herself she isn’t socially inept, she said herself than she had friends but they all graduated, after that it’s very hard for someone to make friends in a new class where you don’t know anyone and the groups have already been formed.
Actually I find the relationship in Clannad much more believable than in say Kanon because the relationship between Nagisa and Tomoya actually go both way and she actually try to help him unlike in Kanon where Yuuichi goes and help everyone like the perfect hero he is.
Of course for Fuuko and Kotomi we pretty much didn’t see them so I don’t know how they will be developped.

By: xXMikotoNakadaiXx

xXMikotoNakadaiXx — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 22:21:00 +0000

Now that you'd mention it, it does seems that some of the characters in CLANNAD have taken in some unrealistic character traits that surpasses being socially inept to just being plain mentally indeficient or are just too emotionally dependent.

I'd take a tsudere character any day.