Although I’ve done very little actual posting about Clannad’s story itself in comparison to other shows, it’s popped up a reasonable amount of times in tangentially related works, such as (prepare the selfcest radar) some of the rants on moe I’ve written recently, and here it goes again for the third time I’ve said this and the zeroth time I’ve actually meant it:

Clannad, for all its good points, somehow has failed to really rock me in the long run.

I mean, it’s a good show. It’s funny, it’s touching, and the characters run the gamut from genius moe to spectral apparation moe to not-moe moe to thigh meat moe to Nagisa, who while not adorable warrants mention based on her character, but it’s missing that spark that other shows have really given me.

Maybe it’s because I can only get a revelation in a particular area once. Tsukihime and Kanon were the first works to really reveal the emotionally deep genre of visual novels to me, from the dark perspective of Tsukihime and the bright perspective of Kanon. School Days and Shuffle! were legends for being so dramatically different than the harem norm, in one boxcutter way or another. ef ~a tale of memories~ had the artistic flair (some say pretentiousness) and emotional moral messages that struck the very heart.

And Clannad…well…it’s the epitome of jack of all trades, master of none. Maybe it’s better than a jack, but either way, it’s very good in characterization, very good in humor, very good in plotline and messages, but it’s not a great. It feels like it’d be one of those shows that you rant and rave about for weeks while it’s airing, but ultimately, once it’s over, it’s cast aside like Kotonoha Katsura. A great time, but not memorable.

And for someone who usually takes the metal pole up the butt from KyoAni and enjoys it, that’s kind of distressing.

Perhaps this is actually because the anime Isn’t That Good (with no knowledge of the visual novel, I can’t compare), but I also want to, in that self-depreciating way, blame myself on another level, and that is how I’ve been viewing Clannad.

Yes, the wool has been pulled over your eyes, the topic of this post as you may recall is not Clannad but rather the more general experience of how to – or not to – watch anime, something that is little considered but could very likely have an effect on how effective anime is at affecting you. And that’s something important.

Especially here at M3, where it’s more fun talking around the anime (see the thousands of words on why KimiKiss confuses me) than about it.

(Clannad fanservice after the jump. That should be enough incentive?)

I just wanted to do this to break all of you guys expecting Kyou, Tomoyo, or Kotomi. This is almost as much a freaky paradox as Fuuko’s constant reappearing in every other episode.

My watching habits for Clannad are quite different than that for pretty much any other anime I watch. Usually, being the rebel counterculture self I am, I ignore what the Japanese overlay screams at me and watch anime in a dimly lit room a foot from the front of my blindingly bright computer screen, the glow illuminating me like you imagine a computer would a typical sunlight-reflective nerd at hours nearing midnight.

But, the secret is, I’ve raised a little anime collective of my own in the household on a diet of comedy and visual novel anime, screening anime through the TV, and unlike every other show which I run through myself first in said dimly lit room to act as a sort of straining mechanism, Clannad is a show I watch live for the first time on the TV with others (because we are such ’sad girls in stuff’ suckers here).

It’s really quite different, for many reasons, and it leads me to wonder whether the environment affects the anime in any great manner.

Watching anime with others probably makes the biggest difference to me. Speaking as Mr. Mystery Science Theater 3000 (and I know a lot of my friends are too), it makes for a lot of side conversation, whether it be cutting remarks about the anime itself, talk about real life, or obscure reference piled upon obscure reference. When the anime in question is a light-hearted one like Azumanga Daioh, it’s great; the humor added and the acute references made by friends really adds to the whole atmosphere. But in a sometimes-serious show like Clannad, while the second part may still hold true, sometimes I begin to think how much horrible people we are when the plot keeps going and we keep wisecracking.

Quite simply, it’s hard to be serious, at least for me, when you watch with others. It’s always a competition to see who can respond to the characters with a wise remark first (me, you, or Tomoya), or to see who can keep their train of thought running the longest with Kyou on screen. Generally, that idea of “gee, I really should shut up” now does still apply when we get to the really serious parts, but until then there’s not a lot of focus on the anime, per se.

What I mean is that you miss a lot of nuances of the show, the little things and remarks that otherwise you might have picked up if there weren’t so many distractions (positive or otherwise). There’s less flow to the anime, which can be hit-or-miss depending on the style of the show. As you may have noticed, I like to let the anime brood in me, I like to rant on for thousands of words 30 minutes at a time, trying to figure out my position on it and its meaning to me in one giant monologue, something that’s not really possible when you’re busy trading remarks about how much Ms. Fuuko and Mr. Burning Fire need to meet.

I suppose, to make this not sound like one giant anti-social rant (and it isn’t), is that some shows are better seen in groups and others best seen alone – at least on the first pass. I like to let the anime make its greatest impact on me first by seeing it by myself, and then rewatch it again with others to discuss and pick up on more of the big picture. I find that it’s easier to be more emotionally affected by anime when it’s just you and them (kind of like any emotional just-the-two-of-us moment in any romance show, ever), and it’s easier to have fun and kick back when it’s in a group. I suppose that’s kind of like life in general.

Slice-of-life and comedy shows, as alluded to, work great in groups. It’s OK to not have one’s full attention on the show, and more of the focus can be put on having fun and hanging out with your friends – something that should be important even to the most secluded otaku. This is the kind of atmosphere where it’s not just about what you’re watching than who you’re watching it with; a good comedian can liven up a boring show (imagine your favorite sarcastic / witty person going off the deep end on a medicore show) and a funny show can inject energy into the audience.

And just like meeting other people in an adult store, it’s kind of awkward sometimes to watch an emotional anime with others. Yeah, sometimes it clicks, when you have people who can interpret things exceptionally well or who can have the same emotional heartstrings resonated, but most of the time the little things you miss and the big moments spoiled put a dent into the true impact of the show, what’s usually the most important in a genre like this.

And so, I’ll end it by opening it to the readers: have you experienced a similar change in atmosphere watching anime alone vs. together? Is one better than the other?

-CCY

(The one thing that bugs me the most about Clannad, still, is that it’s ending, and yet there’s loose ends all over the place. The optimist hopes this points to an After Story, but then again it might be good to see something new from KyoAni as well…)

(All this time and no “the girl was alone in the world” joke!?)