[Archon_Wing]

I would say every Key work to date in anime form has had severe pacing issues, so the time is severely needed.

Kanon 2002 felt borderline omnibus at times, and Kanon 06 created a better sense of continuity but it was still divided pretty clear cut and the transitions were jarring. In fact it makes the male lead look like quite the asshole-- the final arc had one of the worst transitions I've ever seen in anime that caused me to flat out drop the anime til I was drunk about 6 months later and finished it. Still felt elements of an omnibus format to me. Overall, the series either stepped on the gas too hard or braked too hard. Or it didn't hit the gas hard enough. Was never really right except for a few episodes.

Air also had a plot that made very little sense because we went on turbo speed through most of the arcs, but it's the only Key anime work to date to remain thematically consistent and avoid certain copouts in their conclusions. Well, actually Angel Beats could count, but the conclusion was bad in its own way.

Clannad season 1 I never actually felt the story was wasting too much time, and melting some of the arcs created something more coherent, but the solutions to both seasons were lackluster. First 8 episodes of After Story are an extension of season one; before the actual After Story starts which created its own issues. A lot of people found the first part of season 2 to be pretty boring.

Although I appreciate huge chunks of the story and also how Kyoani worked on dealing with fitting the source material, there's no doubt that the narrative of all the Key works can seem utterly not compelling to some and actually is quite hit and miss. Even someone like me that's rated all their works fairly well would have to admit that there's many ways to improve the storytelling. I fell in love with two of the girls which clouds my judgement :3-- though ultimately these stories are more of their heart then the mind. But you can only go so far before you overextend too much.