Watching Clannad makes me wish I wasn’t such an ass in high school. For me, that’s where the fantasy in Clannad lies, not the cute girls. I really don’t have this urge to protect or rape the girls of Clannad as the prevailing Pavlovian “tastes great!” vs. “less filling!” response mechanism regarding moe goes on twitter. One appealing wish in the show is how rewarding it can be to help somebody, that the person will accept the help. They might make you weed their entire lawn first, but they’ll take the help you offer. The girls in the show just make it easier to believe that some dude would go through all that trouble. There’s just no way I’d buy it if Tomoya took it upon himself to break his back clearing the weeds from around Kotomi’s house if Kotomi was a dude on the basketball team. In real life, helping people is a bit more complicated, requiring something of a spine, will power, determination, taking more than a thought to count.
Back in high school, I really didn’t go out of my way to help anyone, which I regret to some degree and Clannad feeds off of that wistful regret. The wish being fulfilled? That I’m not a selfish individual that only cares about himself. Of course that’s just a fantasy. I don’t have the amount of concern about my friends that these characters have. Sure, when stuff was going down I’d feel for my friends or if they were moving I’d help, but like I don’t think I’d weed and re-sod their lawns for them just to cheer them up. I guess that’s part of what appeals to me about Clannad is it makes me feel like I would actually be that thoughtful about someone else’s problems.
That’s not why I watched Clannad. It’s funny and I like sappy feel good stories where the “good” things in life matter. It’s years and years of watching Little House on the Prairie after school as a little kid tainting my sensibilities.
I think you bring up a really good point. This series, in particular, was about something much deeper than the typical romance/comedy anime. It was very real in a sense. And particularly with Tomoya, I think he’s a character that a lot of guys can admire, because he’s so imperfect, yet he still loves all his friends with a real sacrificial love.
Yes, I think that aspect often gets clouded over since everyone seems to focus on the female characters and using them in a positive or negative light to further their talking points.