Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

I actually created this picture quite some time ago for another site that I manage as a T-shirt design concept, but it wasn’t exactly well received. Thus I shall put it here for all CLANNAD lovers to save on to their HDDs to rot away. If anyone does make this into a T-Shirt locally, do contact me beforehand as I’d like one too, and I have a 2480 X 3035 version of it. I’m not exactly a fan of picture spamming for anime editorials so let the above be the only image you shall see in this post.

As a person who played the 2004 Key production and currently helping in translating the game at Baka-Tsuki, I naturally held my own perception of CLANNAD. I had my own definition of the world, the messages being conveyed, the tone and atmosphere, the various character personalities, the Gensoukyou and whatsoever. After RAW-ing the first episode, I sort of had a bunch of mixed emotions:

a. I felt really excited to listen to riya’s song all over again.
b. Nagisa is cute.
c. Hey that’s not what I thought it’d turn out to be.

Such is the paradox of a game-to-anime conversion that many might have experienced before. I believe it is only natural for a fan of the game to anticipate the release of the anime , but the consequences of what comes with it is always underestimated. I am not complaining about the anime production, for it is really well done in a holistic way, in case anyone was wondering. I guess I have to agree with someone who mentioned that, "Great literary works are best left alone" in a rather contradictory manner.

I was really surprised previously when I realised that Tomokazu Sugita isn’t starring as Tomoya, because Tomoya’s personality suited Tomokazu’s anime image perfectly as a witty guy filled with sarcasm. Nakamura Yuichi did an okay job overall but it just seems to lag that sarcasm factor. On the other hand, Nakahara Mai made Nagisa sound sweeter than An-Pan so I am perfectly okay with that. Kyou sounded meh though, so all I can say for that is that it sucks to be Kwok, who apparently claimed her to be his wife since 2004.

Another point to note is that I had this vision of non-existing tsukkomis flying about in my head when watching CLANNAD, which I cannot fathom why. I only realised the reason when viewing the cast credits — the voice for Sunohara is actually Sakaguchi Daisuke, or otherwise known as Shinpachi from Gintama. I was watching Gintama 75 right before CLANNAD, which adds on to the humour. Yes, even as a fan of CLANNAD, I prioritise Gintama over it for some reason.

Halfway through the anime, Akio mentions changing Tomoya’s name to Daiuchuu Ginga, which I am speculating that many will assume it to be a reference to Gurren Lagann. Wow, double intertwining speculations in a single line! Let me assure all that it is not a reference, in case anyone harps on the KyoAni-wins-for-homages issue, as the line was already present previously. It was one of the funnier scenes in the game but I guess it wasn’t all that funny when animated. Sheesh.

The totally awesome ending theme  is a vocal version of Nagisa’s theme BGM titled "Nagisa", just like "Chiisana Tenohira". Dango Daikazoku plays quite a significant inane role in the storyline.  No, the previous line is not an oxymoron, and you’d need to watch later upcoming episodes of CLANNAD to understand.

That’s all I can say for now since I’m not using any pictures here. This will be the only CLANNAD post I shall ever post though, which is quite a compliment to the anime since I almost never write on anime titles. My part as a fan has been done.

Since that is the case, I shall include one more CLANNAD related topic here. As of now, the progress of the Baka-Tsuki CLANNAD translation project is at 74%, with all routes, other than Nagisa and Akio’s, fully translated. I am still working on Nagisa’s arc but with it being the longest story in the entire game, there could be some problems finishing it. Not to mention that my University life is killing all my time for other activities. So if anyone is interested in completing Nagisa’s thousands and thousands of lines of translation, do visit the Baka-Tsuki IRC channel and report to velocity7. Join the translation group and make the world a better place today.

I shall end this post with a quote from Kwok, "CLANNAD IS FAMILY!" I finally sounded like a fanboy.