Quote:
Originally Posted by Reckoner
Since the anime ended I think there's no way I can spoil anything anymore, but here's a minor rant from a VN reader like me.
Spoiler:
Jun Maeda cut off his balls after Air. Kanon, Clannad, and Little Busters all suffer from these happy endings that undercut the emotional struggle and thematic presentation of the narrative. In Clannad's case, it's actually even more severe than it is here.
In the visual novel, as events progress you are first presented with the "Normal" ending. In the normal ending, Riki's narcolepsy kicks in after moving away from the bus and all his friends die in an explosion. Riki and Rin are left in the hospital depressed and there's a sense that all that Kyousuke gave Riki was for this moment and he would have to live life with everything his friends imparted on him. It made actual damn sense, and this should have been what the ending was about.
However, this is where Jun Maeda decides he has no freaking balls and gives you a choice in the visual novel like "it's not enough." This is where Riki somehow goes back to his birth and cures his narcolepsy in some sort of dream world, goes back in time and then redoes the moment after awakening from Kyousuke's dream world and saves the Little Busters. In the VN this is pretty much the WTF moment, what in the world are you thinking?!!!!? Yeah suffice to say, it was a poor choice.
At the very least, JC Staff did the decency of removing the deus ex machina feeling of the visual novel unlike the Clannad AS anime. So while it undercuts the emotional impact and themes of the story, it doesn't quite come off as badly. However, it's still annoying as hell and I really wish they had gone with a more BITTERsweet ending.
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That sounds absolutely awful. After reading this, I have a better appreciation of the anime ending. It makes sense and there is little to no bullshit. I can buy that Riki was able to overcome his narcolepsy through sheer force of will alone since it was explained it was a psychological rather than neurological problem (my understanding is that it actually wasn't narcolepsy).
The VN ending, on the other hand, is easily just as bad as Clannad if not worse. I'm glad the anime staff decided to make these changes, I would been very mad if they had remained faithful to the novel. Never thought I'd say this but... good job, J.C Staff.