From what I’ve read thus far from the blogosphere apparently no blogger has actually fully flamed the last episode of Clannad TV, so I guess I’ll have to do it: Kyoto Animation, you have badly dissapointed me. You should have went for the 52 episode route as rumoured instead of squashing Key’s longest visual novel ever into a 22+2 episode format.

Halfway through watching the episode, I was already wondering how the hell KyoAni was going to pull of an ending with the quality of Suzumiya Haruhi, Kanon or Lucky Star. The fear was already building up in me that it was going to flop, and to my immense surprise it actually DID. I thought KyoAni was going to work their magic once again and do one hell of a wrap up, like in The Second Raid. The ending of TSR felt rather rushed as Sagara quickly disposed off the 6 enemy mechs, but at least they managed to pull through more than satisfactorily and end off with a cute little confession scene which wasn’t considered ordinary.

But if they thought they could do the same thing for Clannad, they are horribly mistaken. I mean, we have been given a thousand and one hints from the start (what with the Dango song) that we are going to get a Nagisa ending. The confession at the end was so damn predictable, and it wasn’t even pulled off that well. I practically felt almost no emotion as I watched it. Might have satisfied Nagisa fans, but for general Clannad watchers with slight bias (I have slight Kyou bias) it just isn’t going to cut. This is a Bishoujo game adaption, not a Shounen light novel adaption like FMP was.

It seems to me that Clannad is an obvious case of complacency, or laziness, or both. Kyoto Animation’s track record starting from Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu is impecceble. Many predicted that they were taking a break and was going to screw up their first 4Koma adaption, Lucky Star. The flaming reached critical mass after the first episode (food episode) aired. But to beat the critics, KyoAni made decisions. They sacked the initial director and replaced him with a new one. They pumped Lucky Star to the brim with Suzumiya Haruhi references, and even though that may cause some to say Lucky Star is just one bloody huge Suzumiya Haruhi advertisement, it is obvious from episode 12 onwards that Lucky Star delivered. It was a light hearted, engrossing fun. Konata’s antics never ceased to amuse, Kagami keeps EVERYONE coming back for more, and the live-action ED scenes were hilarious.

With Lucky Star, KyoAni wanted to prove to the world that they could adapt a 4Koma uniquely, and they suceeded. Even though the Lucky Star 4Koma strip was rather popular, it couldn’t possibly match up to the popularity of the Clannad visual novel in Japan. Kyoto Animation knew this, and decided to either be lazy or otherwise complacent. I mean, it doesn’t really matter that much to KyoAni how they ended off as long as it was quite satisfactory. This is a Key visual novel we’re talking about, not some obscure light novel (Suzumiya Haruhi) or 4Koma. They couldn’t afford to give Suzumiya Haruhi a shitty ending. However, there are bound to be enough Key fanboys out there that will get enough DVDs to generate some profit. AND to secure this profit, KyoAni also decided to add in additional episodes on DVD. It kinda pisses me off somehow, but yeah, they should have gotten away with it.

I know it isn’t fair to call Clannad TV a complete flop, and it isn’t. It did start off very well and raised the quality bar sky high with Fuuko’s arc. Kotomi’s arc was excellently complex and Tomoyo’s explaination of the institution of family really hit home. But the ending fell short. If this was just some other animation studio, I wouldn’t have cared so much and probably would have let it pass and just put in another filler post, but I can’t. I AM a KyoAni fanboy. I even own the R1s of their works before Fumoffu which are Munto and Munto 2. Not that easy to find (almost impossible online), but I somehow chanced upon them hidden away at some corner in LaserFlair (Ang Mo Kio branch) and snapped them up without hesitating.

What really dissappointed me in the episode itself was when they decided to cut off Nagisa’s acting and insert the moe loli from the hidden world burying the failed robot. I watched it intently and concentrated hard, as this most probably was KyoAni’s last saving grace for this episode. But it failed, just like the robot. Not much meaning or satisfaction, the only thing that was good was the animation quality. When the entire Clannad crew got up and bowed to the applause, I didn’t find myself clapping. Some scenes in anime evoke such emotion that they warrant applause like any theatre play, and I would put my hands together in front of the computer screen and give a huge smile. THIS applause however felt.. empty.. to me. Its as if KyoAni was telling me: “we didn’t really know, or didn’t have enough screen time, to intepret how the play scene would look like in animation, so we decided to try and pull through with awe-inspiring animation quality.” But hell KyoAni, this is the final episode. We really don’t need animation quality at this point, we need exceptional directorial talent. Not animation talent.

I have no idea how KyoAni is going to twist the storyline in another direction if season 2 is in the works, but I doubt there would be a full season 2. I am aware an After Story has been announced, but it should be just that. Just some after story. Probably some filler arcs that would never show the greater population of the world the true beauty that Clannad is, and could have been, in animation.

That said, I hope they are able to make up for this slight blunder with their second season of Suzumiya Haruhi, but I somehow feel that it is KyoAni’s turn to go down hill. Suzumiya Haruhi is already phenomenally popular right now, more so than Clannad ever was. The evidence is against us Haruhi fans the way I see it, whether we like it or not.