Dear Reader,

I am in the midst of a deep conundrum. I faithfully watched Clannad up until episode 9, the conclusion of Fuuko’s story arc. And I hated it.

I was too busy rolling my eyes to be able to shed any tears. Yet the rest of the blogosphere has been filled with nothing but “FU-CHAN BAAAAAAAAAAAW!!” and endless praise for the story. At first I passed it off as the Key fanboys doing their usual thing, but even Martin over at Concrete Badger, a true man’s man whose opinion I value, gave Clannad a favorable review.

Did I miss something? Am I doing it wrong? I feel like the characters in the story – as though I’m missing something important, but don’t know what it is. Quite honestly, I just don’t see what everyone else seems to be seeing.

To be fair, the whole memory thematic element is an excellent one, and that aspect of the story was very well executed. The fear of others forgetting us and of losing our own memories are both powerful thematic elements because they resonate with everybody. Everyone wants to be remembered, to feel that they contributed something positive to the world. Many are even content to face death when their time comes, content in the knowledge that they impacted the world, that their memory and work will live on after them. Likewise, losing your memory is a terrifying thing; essentially losing your mind, losing what makes you you. And that just makes me all the more frustrated that Clannad’s story was so badly mishandled.

Fuuko’s entire story just felt way too contrived. Perhaps I’m just jaded and cynical from seeing this same kind of story played out so many times before.

Below I’ve listed a few of the things that I felt detracted from the overall viewing experience and made the show unenjoyable for me:

1. Fuuko is a pretty boring 1-dimensional character. Yes, she wants her sister to be happy. That’s pretty much all we know about her, really. There’s nothing in her character that makes the viewer empathize with her. Or at least, if there is it passed me by.

2. The entire concept of inviting complete strangers to come to the wedding of someone they don’t know at all seemed pretty weird. If someone I didn’t know gave me a hand carved starfish and said, “Please come to my sister’s wedding,” my reaction would be “WTF?!” This was one of the first things that stretched my suspension of disbelief and pulled me away from immersion in the story.

3. The way everyone’s selective memory loss worked seemed really odd and illogical, as well. The typical dialogues of…

“Man I feel like I’m forgetting something!”

“Yes, you’re forgetting Fuuko! Come on, remember! See, she’s right there!”

“Fuuko…hmm, that sounds really familiar. Oh well, I give up!”

…just don’t make sense. It doesn’t feel real at all. If someone told you that you had forgotten about a person you know, a mutual friend, and you had this nagging feeling that they were right, wouldn’t you pursue the matter a lot more seriously? I would be questioning what was wrong with me that I had forgotten, or asking for more details from this person who seemed to remember everything.

On top of that, Fuuko, the person who is most directly impacted by the lost memories, doesn’t really say anything or react in a way that would build empathy or emotional impact. She pretty much just stands there, cute and mute, same as always. These are also examples of things that broke my suspension of disbelief and pulled me out of the story.

4. My biggest complaint is the way they essentially tried to make up for mediocre storytelling by forcefeeding the plot development to the viewer. In typical Key fashion, instead of progressing naturally, all the scenes seemed terribly contrived. I felt like the scriptwriters were beating me over the head with the script going, “See?! See?! Get it?! Get it? Look, everyone forgot about her! It’s sad! Really sad! Now cry!”

I just hate this kind of hand holding, as if the writers assume you won’t “see what they did there” unless they make it completely, painfully obvious. Of course, this is certainly nothing new for Key. It’s always been their style to manipulate the viewer through their contrived emotional rollercoaster. Perhaps it’s exactly because this story had a great deal of potential that I hated the way they handled it.

Now if you want a REAL story about the pain of lost memories and forgotten loved ones, go watch Mushishi episode 16 – the Dawn Snake. The episode accomplishes, in 20 minutes, the task of making me believe in the characters, empathize with their plight, and feel the pain of their loss, and does it far better than what Clannad tried to do over the course of 5+ episodes.

OK, but seriously folks. What am I missing here? For the record, I liked Kanon; I cried for Uguu~. But somehow Clannad just isn’t doing anything for me.

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