Clannad and Change (Yes we can? …Can we?)
Warning: MAJOR Clannad spoilers.
“Do you like this school?
I really, really like it.
But, nothing can remain the same forever.
Even fun things and happy things, nothing stays that way forever.
Even then, can you still bring yourself to like this place?”
-Nagisa, Clannad episode 1 (Sprocket subs)
Change is a major theme in Clannad. It really isn’t that apparent until After Story, but it is hinted at in season 1. For example, the quote above are some of the first lines (are they? I don’t have the episode on me) in the anime, and it talks about how the world always changes, and people need to change with it. Another example of change or the resistance to change is Tomoyo’s impetus to become class president: to preserve the cherry blossom trees on the walkway to the school. Tomoyo, in this situation, is an example of one who does not want her surroundings to change because of the memories the location has. (I’m sure there are more examples of change/resistance to change in season 1, but I can’t think of any right now/don’t have the episodes/should be asleep >_>)
However, the change theme becomes more apparent in After Story. In episode 14 (there might be examples earlier), when Tomoya first sees the new restaurant where Nagisa works, he finds himself feeling uncomfortable at the sudden change and urbanization that has occured to build the restaurant. Later, Nagisa tells him that their old high school is being renevated to build new classrooms, tearing down many old buildings, including the Drama Club’s old room. Tomoya becomes irritated, because he has many precious memories of him and Nagisa first meeting there, and wants to keep those memories alive:
“I’m not angry. I’m just unsettled. Because, you know. The clubroom for the drama club is in the old building. Isn’t it the place of our memories, where we worked hard? …So I had a little problem with that.”
-Tomoya, Clannad After Story episode 14 (Sprocket subs)
Later, in episode 15, Nagisa’s dad, Akio, reveals to Tomoya the place where which he calls “Nagisa’s double,” a place where he took her at a moment of urgent need, when she was on the brink of death. However, the used to be grassy land with trees is being destroyed to build a hospital.
Tomoya finds himself going to that grassy knoll, and he meets Akio there. Akio says:
“The city continues to change.
Nothing ever remains the same.
That’s what it means for people to live.”
-Akio, Clannad After Story episode 16 (Sprocket subs)
Tomoya goes on to say that, if the construction were stopped, perhaps Nagisa would get better as well. Akio laughs at this, saying that there is no way that could be true. At this point, we can see the difference between Akio and Tomoya. Akio, in this scene, acts like one who has expierence. Akio probably felt similar to what Tomoya did once. However, he has matured to a point where he realizes that change will enevetably happen, and he simply has to accept it. Tomoya shows his inability to accept the change going on around him. He simply wishes everything to stop, and for him and Nagisa to be happy forever.
This, of course, is not possible.
At the end of episode 16, Nagisa dies. Tomoya regrets having ever met her, and feels as if he should have simply avoided her from the beginning.
By this point, I think that Nagisa represents the change in Tomoya’s life. Tomoya, before he met Nagisa, had a pretty boring, static life, where nothing really change. He hung out with Sunohara, cut class, sat around and did nothing, etc. But everything changed when he met Nagisa. Nagisa propelled him to new heights, changing him into a completely new, respectable person. Each supported the other. However, Tomoya has to learn to cope with rapid change going on in his world. He may not be able to accept Nagisa’s death, and, looking at the preview for episode 17, it looks as if Tomoya’s life has gone into decline. Tomoya’s mind is probably stuck in the moment right after Nagisa died, and he is unable to accept this sudden change.
Taking a leaf from Eternal’s book, let’s examine the lyrics of the opening to Clannad After Story.
Lia – Toki o Kizamu Uta
“I’m only looking at the spilling hourglass
When I turn it upside-down, look, it starts up again
I wonder if I’ll be able to someday enter
The advancing time that only ticked away
Midway on the slope that only you passed through
Many warm spots of sunshine appeared
Here by myself, I’m reminiscing
About the tender warmth
It’s only you, it’s only you
Who I loved
My eyes tear up in the wind
And you become distant
I’ll remember forever
Even if just about everything changes
It was just one, it was just one
Ordinary thing
But in the brilliance that I’ll show you, there’s only one thing that was fulfilled
I’ll protect it forever and ever
The chilly days continue, even though it’s already spring
On a morning when I woke up earlier than the alarm clock
You’re standing there
Making breakfast for three
It’s only you, it’s only you
Who isn’t by my side
Up until yesterday, you were right by my side, looking at me
It’s only you, it’s only you
Who I loved
It’s a song that I sing
Only with you, only with you
It’s our, it’s our
Time passed together
I don’t want to
Continue on my own
I’ll remember forever
Even if this town changes
No matter how much sorrow I’m to encounter
I’ll show you when I was truly strong
C’mon, let’s go; we’ll start walking on the sloped road”
(translation from here)
“It’s only you, it’s only you/Who isn’t by my side/Up until yesterday, you were right by my side, looking at me…” …wow, foreshadowing somebody’s death much?
“Time passed together/I don’t want to/Continue on my own…” If we imagine Tomoya singing this, it would fit him perfectly right at this time (‘cept the female voice part.). We see that the singer does not want to go on with life without her loved one, which reflects Tomoya’s current situation perfectly.
“I’ll remember forever/Even if this town changes/No matter how much sorrow I’m to encounter/I’ll show you when I was truly strong/C’mon, let’s go; we’ll start walking on the sloped road” This is the point which Tomoya still needs to accomplish. He needs to learn to move on with a constantly changing life. Hopefully, by the end of the series, Tomoya will have matured enough to be able to do so.
Now, onto the ending:
Lia – TORCH
“I was watching the drifting clouds
I felt the changing color of the sky
For we who have come to a standstill, we notice
The song that the shifting world constructs
As if pulling it in with my outstretched fingers
I search for the one and only thing that doesn’t change
I hold the torch in my hands
A little guide sign leads into tomorrow
I turn the words said on that day
That still echo now into a vow and go on
I forgot about the old winds
I hum the timbre of nostalgia
It tells the imprisoned us
The story that starts from this place
As if pulling it in with my outstretched fingers
I search for the one and only thing that doesn’t change
If you look up, the torch
Is a little lamp that connects us to the past
As long as our bond exists
We can continue to be ourselves
The brimming torch
Is the little light that shines on the present moment
Oh, the torch that I hold in my hands
Become the words that lead into tomorrow, eternally”
(translation from here)
Yet again, we see that the song fits Tomoya perfectly. “As if pulling it in with my outstretched fingers/I search for the one and only thing that doesn’t change…”
“For we who have come to a standstill, we notice/The song that the shifting world constructs…” This “we” seems to work for Tomoya yet again.
“If you look up, the torch/Is a little lamp that connects us to the past/As long as our bond exists/We can continue to be ourselves…” This torch actually could be lots of things. I’d say it’s probably Tomoya’s memories of Nagisa. He is only able to stay himself by thinking of her and her alone.
It seems to fit perfectly, does it not?
(Yeah, the analysis on the songs are lacking a bit. But I’d say its pretty self-explanatory.)
Change is an even more fitting theme if we look at the current events. Obama, whose platform advertised one would would bring about change, was inaugurated less than two weeks ago. (as if you didn’t know.) If you didn’t get it, the title references this. Of course, it is highly unlikely that KyoAni has uber clairvoyance and predicted this all to happen as they were making Clannad After Story. However, it is nice to see the connections.
Another theme that might be interesting to explore would be the parallel world with the lost girl, but I guess I don’t have the time for it. Night~
(I’ll be adding to this as the anime goes on. If I have time, I’ll also add some pictures/screencaps. Maybe I’ll add screenies by each quote.)
Next post: probably my first showoff loot post! i’ve uploaded some pics, but there’s only so much you can do with a point and shoot… really need to get a DSLR some time.
A new voice you might possibly be hearing..
Hey everyone, you might be wondering what this little post is doing here.. or you might not see it at all. Either way, I think you might be seeing a little more of me in the future(maybe).
So, as you can probably tell, I am not Derek, and I’m probably a lot worse than he is at blogging, and perhaps writing in general. But here goes nothing!
My name’s Rainier, please don’t refer to me as reindeer. I may work for Santa and even pull sleighs on occasion, but I don’t have horns nor do I live in snowy climates. Other than that, I’m not exactly sure how to describe myself. I suppose I’m a bit of a carefree type-I don’t have rigid plans or anything, and I don’t carry a lot of strong opinions- it can be pretty problematic, especially in a situation like this.
I feel like I’m saying the words that everyone’s heard before, but I can’t help it. Recently, I felt inspired to try new things, so why not blogging? Anyway, that’s how I ended up here on this site with my buddy Derek. You could say he rubs off on me, sometimes too much for my own good, but I’m absolutely positive that we’ll always find something to disagree about. So.. while I’m here, I guess I’ll be posting all sorts of things(maybe), so be on the lookout.
Hopefully I’ll see you around,
-R.
Nothing-a-doing…
Well, it has been quite a while since I’ve made a post. Two to three weeks, I guess. Since Winter Break ended, I’ve had way too much work to do, what with finals and club stuff, as well as the fact that I got sick. The day before finals started. Yeah, it sucked. Ah well.
While I won’t be typing up an official post per se, I will be showing you a few ideas I have for posts which I will probably expand on in the (hopefully near) future. I typed most of these up on the fly when having a sudden idea, so they probably won’t have the best grammar or spelling or word choice in the world.
1) touhou and web 2.0
read this first: http://cardcaptor.moekaku.com/2008/09/01/riding-on-fans-energy-touhou-fan-culture-and-grassroot-entertainment/
basically, the idea of web 2.0 is very similar to that which the otaku community has been doing for many years: “foster[ing] innovation in the assembly of systems and sites composed by pulling together features from distributed, independent developers.” (quote from wikipedia. I know, not the best quote. whatever.)
the example ima use is touhou. thats when you go read the first link now.
basically, ZUN created a huge phenomenon. how? by “inspir[ing] its fans to create” (from the touhou article)
you can read more about how he did it in the article
i just want to connect the web 2.0 idea to the thing them otaku have been doing for a long time now.
yeah, thats it for now.
tl,dw.
(if you didnt get that, look up tl,dr)
I’ll probably add to this after I go to this speech on web 2.0 I’m going to sometime in Feb and learn a bit more about it.
From what I know, they at least seem similar.
2) why watch anime?
why does one watch anime?
at first, one may watch it because they are mesmerized
to avoid reality
to watch people do things you would never think of doing
to explore exciting new lands beyond one’s imagination
but, in the end
by watching anime, you learn something about yourself
think of it as human nature 101
in order for anime to be popular, one needs to be able to connect to the anime
and that connection is human nature
usually, something within the anime, usually a major theme of some sort, teaches the viewer something about themself
we can connect to that part of human nature and are attracted to it.
at least, below surface level, all the nice animation or cool explosions
there lies something which we can all connect to
that is why we watch anime.
a saying goes that we learn from our struggles
in anime, there is always struggle
if there were no struggle, there would be no story (ok, slice of life is an exception. but in slice of life, it is much easier to find something to connect to (see previous paragraph))
one could say that we learn from the characters’ struggles
or, i could stop spewing out random crap.
examples:
clannad: family (cite MOE blog)
->change vs the status quo: a theme that’s been popping up recently
–>it is almost human nature to dislike change, whether it be for better or worse (ok, dont talk to me about obama. thats simply because bush sucked SO MUCH, we needed to have change)
–>we can connect to okazaki’s dislike for change
–>i did read something in a book recently about “status quo bias”
I might put some links for this later.
other ideas:
a blog post on 5cm/sec: symbols, themes
a post on seating placement in anime (always in back, usually near window -> well, at least, never in the front.)
->does this tell us about the target audience/the characters in the anime?
ef ~desu: symbols
toradora: dig a bit deeper, look under surface level. looks stereotypical, but it aint.
->toradora really should be a visual novel. choose who you want, go with it. screw “canon endings”.
–>wait: “A visual novel based on the series will be produced by Namco Bandai Games playable on the PlayStation Portable and will be released in April 2009.” says wikipedia. sounds epic.
note: congrats to sankaku complex for its partnership with nico nico, a relationship which will be benefical to both communities, opening up nico nico to the english community and giving both sites more hits.
read more: http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/01/23/niconico-douga-charts-at-sankaku-complex/
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/01/20/niconico-complex-niconico-douga-unlocked/
The Anime Industry in Troubled Waters?
We all know of this current global recession going on and stuff, but we need to ask the question that’s most important to us otaku (or, at least me): What effect will the current economic downturn have on the anime industry?
It sure does look like a negative effect. For example, Gonzo has recently been having lots of losses, and they laid off 25% of their workforce, and it has been speculated that they are desperate enough to attempt to make an ero version of Strike Witches in order to make more money (hey, what can I say? sex loli sells! (NSFW link))
But let’s look at arguments for both sides.
Most pessimists would say something like this: anime, like all entertainment, is more of a “supplemental” sorta thing. You don’t need it to live (well, for most of us), so in an economic downturn, when people are scared about spending money, logically the first thing that goes is the supplemental stuff like anime.
A counter to this arguement might look into the past: During the Great Depression (which this economic crisis is often compared to), the entertainment industries (music, film, etc) were hurt, but they did not vanish. Instead, people used movies and music to temporarily escape from a troubled reality. Instead of thinking about the taxes they had to pay tomorrow, people went to the movies and watched, for example, a horror movie, where there is a fake, but easily identifiable enemy. I could talk about other genres, but whatever.
An optimist might say that anime industry is different: not only do they have a huge and growing audience, but their industry is different from the movie industry as they are trying to use the internet to make money by making partnerships like what a few companies have done with Crunchyroll. (okay, the music industry has done this too. and both industries have rampant pirating issues.) This partnership has resulted in customers getting to translated subbed anime faster, and companies actually making money off the internet.
(Let’s not talk about the Crunchyroll community’s reaction…)
Another thing which sets the anime industry apart from other entertainment industries, and what I think is most important, is the massive amount of fan made content for anime. Conventions and doujinshi events like Comiket show how customers are taking matters into their own hands, and making their own anime/manga. It also shows how passionate fans are about anime and manga (maybe a bit too passionate at times…). This fact alone is what, I think, will keep the anime industry afloat if all else fails. Just look at Type-Moon, a company which had its humble beginnings in a doujin game called Tsukihime. And how can we forget Touhou by Team Shanghai Alice, which has turned into a huge sensation within the (Japanese) otaku community, and may finally be spreading to other countries. At Comiket 75, the first episode of the (unofficial) Touhou anime was released, a good example of what I said above.
Also, one can look at Nico Nico Douga and Youtube, where fan made content dominates, spawning AMVs and MADs of sometimes surpising skill.
A counter to that could be that people are less motivated to do that in an economic crisis, but I think that, by looking at the passion of the otaku community, that the anime industry has a long time before its fire finally burns out.
EDIT: Going off on a completely different tangent, one could say that the movie industry also has a large fanbase, and that if one looks trough Youtube, they can see millions of videos and parodies of popular movies, all fan made. A good example is the Dark Knight: go look it up on Youtube yourself. But I think that movies are on a whole other level: it is hard to anything close to movie quality user made without the use of expensive equipment, but people can draw great pictures with just a pencil and paper.
One thing that will certainly affect the outcome of this is the Internet, which has to power to instantly connect to millions of people and allows for quick and easy distribution of fan made products. Companies need to utlize this tool more, especially the anime industry. But I’ll get to that some other time.
EDIT2: hm, just read this on sankaku. It’s interesting how they don’t like Nico Nico but like Youtube… I guess it does make sense that they stress originality… Well, at least it might lead more utilization of the Internet for profit, which I think is a move in the right direction. But not allowing MADs is pretty hypocritical, as most people have no problem at all with doujins.
I could probably write a whole other article on the copyright stuff… later.
EDIT3: Just realized that Higurashi by 07th Expansion is also a doujin game… read here for some more doujin soft groups/companies.
