Forum - View topicREVIEW: Clannad: The Motion Picture DVD
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neocloud9
 Posts: 1178 Location: Atlanta, GA |
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I remember thinking Clannad would have been a perfect series if it had ended after episode 18 of After Story... I'll have to check out this movie, especially after Mike Toole's column on the director's other works.
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Otaking09
 Posts: 637 |
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Thank you Key. For giving proper justice to this cleanly directed story of Clannad.
It's funny; Dezaki's Air movie felt... I dunno a little dense when compared to the TV series; felt more like you had to have more experience. But this movie garners praise from me for one more reason among ones listed already: Shows how to make a adaption of moe seriously. Everything that was good about "those 'good' episodes" of After Story is just... enhanced here. Again, thanks Key for this. |
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Splitter
 Posts: 1276 Location: Knockin' on Heaven's Door |
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YES YES YES. |
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Razzuel
 Posts: 164 |
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I couldn't disagree more.
It's absolutely awful. The writing is very, very bad. Since the movie basically only focuses on Tomoya and Nagisa, some of the other characters are either missing or only have a very minor role. That would be perfectly fine if they executed Tomoya and Nagisa's story well, but their story is completely butchered. Also, the music was forgettable, the voice acting was mediocre, and the animation was average. Now, to properly explain why the writing is so horrible: spoiler[ The movie can be separated into two distinct parts: Tomoya and Nagisa's high school life, and their life after high school, as adults. The first half sometimes has out-of-context flash-forwards, and these flash-forwards are distracting and confusing. Even though I knew the story from the TV series, I was still lost during these flash-forwards. Another problem is that the story was too large to fit into one movie that's only one hour and 30 minutes long. The first hour is dedicated to their high school life, and it ends with Nagisa's play. During the play, Tomoya realizes that Nagisa is having the same dream that he's been having for so long. Immediately, Tomoya realizes that he's in love with Nagisa...wait, what? At this point in the movie, Tomoya still barely knows Nagisa. They're still only acquaintances; you can't even call them friends yet. Um, where did this declaration of love come from? It's as if the writers ran out of room and they needed some way to move to their life after high school. Then, after the play, it flash-forwards to Tomoya being depressed in his apartment because Nagisa is dead, however, it hasn't said that Nagisa is dead yet. I only knew because I already knew the story from watching the TV series. These last thirty minutes are mostly out of chronological order, and it completely wastes any emotion that the story could have evoked. I can't even imagine how much worse this movie would have been if I had never seen the TV series. After ruining any chances of emotionally connecting with the characters during Tomoya's life with Nagisa as an adult and how he copes with her death, they ruin Ushio's part of the movie. Everyone forces Tomoya on train ride to some station somewhere, and he's tricked into meeting with Ushio. It would have been a nice scene, but Ushio is only a part of the scene for about a minute. It's not a believable transformation from Tomoya's state of immense depression to a caring, dependable father. ] |
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Karisu
Posts: 94 Location: PA |
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Wow, never expected to see a positive word made of this interpretation of the work. I consider it a travesty that it was ever made.
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Kohii
 Posts: 428 |
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Wait, wasn't Sunohara's sister named "Mei". Who is this "Mari"?
Also, I didn't mind the "cop-out" ending in the anime series. Just like in Air and Kanon, the "supernatural" theme is prominent. I've never met anyone who "detested" it, although I'm sure there are some who do, I don't think they are that many. |
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3672 |
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I was one of those who was pretty unsatisfied with the Clannad TV ending. I thought the "supernatural" theme in Clannad was pretty subdued compared to Air and Kanon. The ending simply came out of nowhere, as opposed to Air and Kanon, which at least had some buildup.
I had a much stronger emotional response to the movie than the TV series, just because I actually bought Tomoya, and his relationship with his pa', but the writing and character development arc were pretty spotty. I felt the two renditions together equaled approximately one good show. |
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tangytangerine
 Posts: 439 |
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Glad someone else pointed it out. The movie had horrible writing that rushed everything to the point where it just made no sense at all. It's more due to the time constraints put up on it. But anyone just watching this will not be able to make sense of it until they watch the tv series. Yeah, After Story's true ending was one of those "deus ex machina" endings. But do a little research on the game and you'll find that the object enabling that ending was pulled from the visual novel. Yeah, it needed to be explained much better, but it was from it's source material. Much like Air & Kanon, it's supposed to have a little supernatural element to the story. |
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Otaking09
Posts: 637 |
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The difference in approaching the themes, not to mention the elements used are so polar, that you might as well compare the variations to FMA (1st series) with Brotherhood. When put in this way, your list is irrelevant. The only point I'd consider is your spoiler[chonological] one; Dezaki's direction adds more mystery and "what...? why's Tomoyo so... so like this?" It's a standardization of how such a story is typically told. I guess you could call the TV series the version for moe fans, and the movie for average fans (even though both fans are slowly fusing together.....). |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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I'm definitely one who thinks that the ending to this movie is by far and away superior in every way to the ending of the TV series. While certain scenes were definitely executed a lot better in the TV series, I felt that the weight of such scenes were reduced in the series because of what happened in the ending. Whereas in the movie the conclusion had so much more emotional weight to it.
I'll agree that it was rushed and that the writing is not all that great, but the ending is undoubtedly superior to me, regardless of the series' ending being from the actual source or not. |
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lkmjr
Posts: 68 Location: Austin, Texas |
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This movie was an overall unenjoyable experience for me, so I can't really agree here. It might be that I went in to it expecting something more like the TV series, or it might just be that I find the overall style of it is unpleasant. It's been a while since I saw it, so might need to give it a rewatch.
Also, by Fuka and Mari I think you mean Fuko and Mei. |
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maaya
Posts: 976 |
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I think that's true. I liked the movie a lot more than the tv series. While the movie might have been rushed (don't remember feeling that way personally), the tv series was just full of nothingness for way too many episodes. |
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Otaking09
Posts: 637 |
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I hate the primary defense people give to support Clannad/After Story's treatment:
Faithfulness; that every reason that it "did what it did", it derived from the game. Aren't all details supposed to be in an adaption? Isn't that actually Adapting 101? Not only does this further the fact that the television was more directed towards fanboys themselves, but it makes those "nothing" episodes more murderous because of their self-justifying with spoiler[last minute throw-ins to After Story's ending]. In many ways, Dezaki's style applies to his old-fashioned days where you dealt with serious issues... seriously. Not wish-fulfillment like. Sure, the handling of the spoiler[After Story]-arc of the movie didn't give every single detail in a super precise, easy to understand manner, but it's more symbolic! It actually rhymes more with what there bonding was all about. |
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immortalrite
 Posts: 56 Location: Yonkers, NY |
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As probably one of the few people who had the benefit of seeing this movie before the TV series, I remember thinking it was good, but not great. Now that the movie has a dub, I will have to take the time to revisit it with the new language track.
With that in mind, I would contend that while the first TV season was generally superior to the movie, it was mostly on par quality-wise with After Story, only for different reasons. This is because my problem with After Story has always been a feeling that its only truly "masterpiece-level" material is the Tomoya-Ushio bonding arc (circa episodes 17-19), which are still some of the most heartfelt and sincere affirmations of familial values and parental responsibility I have ever seen. Unfortunately, these episodes are sandwiched between 1) a painfully melodramatic and unnecessary rehash of the first series' formulaic "save the girl" arcs, 2) a rather goofy and even immature depiction of the lead couple's post-high school developments (there is one particularly cringe-worthy and gratuitous scene in which Nagisa shouts "we are having sex!"), and 3) what many others here, including the reviewer, have described as a rather unjustified* cop-out of a conclusion. So in retrospect, while the movie does arguably have a much more believable and emotionally sincere ending, it also lacks those precious Tomoya-Ushio bonding moments which were really the heart and soul of After Story. I think perhaps the basic distinction is that while the series retained too much content, the movie retained too little. Having said that, I do strongly disagree with the review concerning the movie's production values. Kyoto Animation's renditions of these Key games have always been far and away superior to their Toei counterparts in this regard. Not only do I find the character designs much more attractive, but also that Kyoto's overall animation fluidity, vibrancy, and attention to detail is nearly unmatched (as of this day, they have been the only anime studio I've seen to use cel-shaded CGI to animate people in a way which did not appear artificial and robotic). * On the matter of the series' "cop-out" ending, I believe it would be useful to point out that Clannad is easily the least metaphysically-oriented of of these shows, in fact being very much the opposite of Air, which was so saturated in the mythic/supernatural that the narrative eventually became overly convoluted and suffered because of it (Kanon, being my favorite of the three, I believe strikes a prudent medium). Rather, After Story in particular is almost entirely "secular" (if that word could be used), save for Tomoya's dream about Misae and the recurring image of the Girl From the Other World, neither of which were really essential to the plot. This is why the ending seems like such a deus ex machina; it arrives so abruptly, so conveniently and moreover in a manner which the preceding material does not really justify. However, one could argue that spoiler[the production kind of shot itself in the foot, since if neither Ushio or Nagisa were resurrected, the ending would be far too depressing leaving a broken Tomoya still bereft of both his wife and daughter even after his emotional redemption. I would have personally preferred it if Ushio had not died at all and the two simply lived happily after episode 19.] |
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asimpson2006
 Posts: 3151 Location: USA |
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A rare time where I have actually watched the said thing was that reviewed before the review came out. I did enjoy the movie, but I didn't like the art quality as much. I liked the TV series art quality better. I felt there were a few shortcuts in the animation like a few scenes repeating for example Sunohara falls out down in the class room.
That being said I do agree that the movie appeals to both the fans of the TV series and fans new to the KEY series. Maybe once I watch After Story I will watch the movie again. |
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