To me, this suggests that Kappei may have been in critical condition. As you cleverly pointed out, we didn’t see what he looks like in the present… For all we know he could have lost all his hair from the treatment, but they decided they didn’t want us to see Kappei like that.
If this is the case… It really changes the way we look at the route and the ending, doesn’t it?
I think it doesn’t really matter whether kappei survives or not; what’s important is that he was able to change his outlook on life and could dedicate those past 5 years to making the person he loves happy,
light orb tho
I was a little unclear at the end of the route if he lived or died, but considering the game shifted so quickly to him finding the experimental treatment that wouldn’t require him to lose his legs, and the fact that Ryou was being quiet about it, I figured I was probably supposed to think he lived. I mean, it would be kind of a jerk move to call Tomoya out there if Kappei was not doing well without giving him some kind of heads up.
I know this will make me sound like a horrible person, but one thing I was disappointed by was that there was that experimental treatment at all. I think the stakes should have stayed at legs or life because I think that ties more in with the ideas of moving forward better, and really I felt like it kind of cheapened the weight of the choice (for me at least)
It occurs to me that this route really focuses in on what Tomoya told Nagisa early on - about how even if everything changes and the fun things you new are gone you just need to find new ones.
Even if that experimental treatment works, I doubt he’d be able to run the way he used to. That fact itself still keeps Kappei’s internal struggle of “I don’t have any meaning to life other than running” intact.
Although it does cheapen his excuse to Ryou about not wanting to be a bother to her if he loses her legs… I feel like that was really just an excuse and at that point he was just drifting, waiting to die… Until he found a new reason for living.
Yeah, and they mentioned that the rehab would be really tough. It is more about the symbolic loss though - hence the part where I sound terrible - I just think there would have been a lot more impact in seeing him go through with losing his legs and finding happiness despite having completely left that part of his life behind him.
Honestly for me the legs thing didn’t have the emotional impact it could have because I talk to my boyfriend and he emotionlessly ruins things for me!
He used to be a track and cross-country runner in his high school days, won trophies, got a scholarship. Now he races cars recreationally which, you know, also uses legs. So talking to him I was like “wow can you imagine losing something so central to your identity? What would you do?” (You know, asking him because he has first hand experience with the whole legs being a huge part of his life thing)
And he just deadpans “Uh, get the surgery???” like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And it is that easy for some people, but not for others. It must be hard for some to lose something so important to them.
But yeah his reaction the way it was just ruined a lot of the dramatic tension for me x)
Gotta love this route.
For such a short story, there’s so much I like in this route. It manages to combine ‘accepting your fate and still making the most of it’ and ‘don’t give up and accept a bad ending if there can be a good ending’ which are both themes I love to see in visual novels but don’t get along with each other well all that often. But this route did it wonderfully.
It was a foregone conclusion to Kappei that he would not get surgery because it would mean losing his legs. That train of thought prevented him from even looking further into surgery at first and realizing that he can get surgery without losing them after all. He was stuck in a strange position where he had honestly given getting surgery some deliberation and made the doubtlessly hard decision not to have it, which in turn was probably a major reason why he was able to enjoy his remaining life the way he did, but in the end it still ended up being a decision made on a basis of wrong information. Well now he can look back on the time he spent misinformed and be happy he didn’t waste it by moping around and instead ended up finding his partner for life!
(Little Busters! Spoilers) The whole new surgery type thing reminded me of “It’s not enough” in quite a few ways. To me they both represent how getting hung up on a bittersweet note even though a way better ending can still be achieved is a terrible idea.
(Tomoyo After Spoilers) It didn’t occur to me until Aspi asked whether or not Kappei died in the end, but if he did die I actually see quite a number of parallels between this route and Tomoyo After After. In both cases it’s the husband that dies and the wife that keeps on living a happy life with no regrets. At the very least the After route may have been inspired from this one. Crap, now I’m imagining Ryou going through the same three years Tomoyo went through. Good luck with that…
Ryou was great in this route. While we didn’t get to see a whole lot of their interactions I still felt Ryou and Kappei were a pretty cute couple, especially with the way they fell for each other instantly. Solidifying that she really just crushed on Tomoya for no big reason. TBH I wasn’t bothered by the whole rape threat thing just because Ryou was the one doing it. I couldn’t for the life of me see her go through with it. But it did serve as a powerful message to Kappei, conveying just how much she really wanted him to stay. Though I do agree with @kyuketsukimiyu on that if the lie that she was pregnant hadn’t been debunked so quickly, that’d have left a bitter taste. Generally, if the scene hadn’t been executed the way it was, my thoughts on it could easily be way in the other direction. As it was, it was just a hilarious moment.
The overall atmosphere of this route was just so pleasant, too. Kappei’s antics and Sunohara being a butt served as great comedy, but even in the less silly scenes Kappei just really kinda… brightened everything? I can very much empathize with Tomoya when he says (paraphrased) “the world looks more beautiful when I’m with you.”
On the subject of memorable lines I can’t forget the “with love even a lie can become the truth” line which pretty much made me squee. Yusuke’s appearance in this route is pretty damn amazing in general. Besides the wonderfully cheesy lines he still spouts in every scene he’s also the total MVP of this route. He’s the person thanks to whom Kappei first got extremely attached to running, and yet now he can look back and admonish himself and claim he said an irresponsible thing. And he actually manages to take responsibility for it, too, by giving Ryou the push she needs to be able to convince Kappei.
Unfortunately there’s one thing that’s hard to forgive this route on, and it doesn’t really come through in the way this bookclub is structured, but I had a couple of discussions about it with @Pepe: Getting the good end of this route if you don’t know how it’s done can be a total bitch. How in the world you’re supposed to know that you have to have met Yusuke way back near the beginning is anyone’s guess. I mean sure Kappei references him as his inspiration but it’s even very possible you don’t even know it’s Yusuke he’s talking about! And if you happened to not help Yusuke on that one Sunday, tough luck, Ryou and Tomoya just sit in the park, nobody came, Kappei went on to die, everything sucks.
It’s especially bad since most of the other route bad ends in this game are resolvable simply by going back a choice or two and picking something else. Not the case here. You mess up early, it has it’s ripple effects and there’s no way to make up for it so starting over from scratch it is.
Speaking of alternate endings, I do wonder how the whole surgery thing ends up in Kyou route. It seems pretty obvious Ryou still ends up with Kappei there, but the surgery issue is unresolved. Maybe Ryou’s experiences with love and relationships allows her to find the right words to convince him even without Yusuke’s help? I don’t know, but that’ll be my headcanon for now. What do our podcasters think?
Overall an easy 5/5. I really wish they had just put this route right inbetween the two seasons of the CLANNAD anime.
Huh. Y’know I love this route but Kappei is probably my least favorite male character in this game since the others are all just wonderful. I guess Koumura is barely below. But Tomoya, Akio, Yusuke, Naoyuki? Great stuff.
Pretty sure we would be getting one even if Kappei does die in the end.
Heh, I was the one who brought up the violin thing in Kotomi route and yet this didn’t bother me one bit this time around. To me this time it fit perfectly well into the story, for reasons I outlined above. And I don’t think it cheapened the impact because Kappei was still ready and would’ve accepted losing his legs. It just wasn’t necessary.
That doesn’t match up with what I think a Light Orb is.
With a dead ass Kappei, what I think of a Light Orb would not cause it to show up.
I concur. In my humble opinion he’s alive because of the light orb. I could be wrong, but I feel that way. It’s hard to deal with the ambiguity in Key’s VN sometimes. 
As a side note, I know the anime isn’t canon, but in the 2nd OVA: Kyou tells Okazaki that her sister is ok and in love with…, and it always felt (to me at least) that is like a good ending for her sister’s route.
okay so a lot of people are starting to call it “rape” but, really, I don’t view it as such. If she does go along with it, I’m pretty sure that once they get started, Kappei would willingly go all the way. He is kind of a perv, after all :kurumu: It was definitely a silly way to do it, but it was pretty much tantamount to Ryou saying that “I want to have a future with you at all costs and that can’t happen if you let yourself die”. Ryou’s decision is pretty silly, as was shown. So i do agree with you when you say:
Such is the pain of no walkthrough play orz I have many bad memories about meeting yoshino because of this
I would ask what you really think a light orb is but I guess that can wait until we get to after story
yes yes, I’ve read Clannad VN. It’s just that I don’t strictly consider the VN adaptations… but it definetively influenced my point of view regarding to what happened to Kappei
“Instead of adjusting to what’s around me, I force those around me to adjust to me.”
Summoner spotted!
You did well to notice that. I believe there’s a reason why they did that and I’ll talk about it on the podcast!
I have recently come to notice just how interconnected all the stories and characters in CLANNAD are. Even Kappei, who only makes a personal appearance in his own route, is connected to Yoshino , who encouraged him as a kid. (after story spoilers:) In Yoshino’s route, we find out that Yoshino not only had influenced people like Kappei, but was also influenced by them. He came to notice the power of his songs, which unfortunately slowly brought an end to his career. And let’s not forget who Yoshino is engaged to. Kappei quickly formed new connections with Tomoya and Ryou, bringing a huge change to the latter’s life as well.
You can really tell that the town itself plays an important role as the place where all these people meet and connect.
I said it in some other thread.
Something that appears in a situation of absolutely fuckin’ happiness, a situation that I don’t think would be happy enough if Hiiragi-chan was as alive as Sunohara’s sex life.
Have to say this is the first route I’ve finished that has suffered from being a bit unnatural and far-fetched, and yet it had one of the best climaxes I’ve seen with very clever pacing that I love.
Worth the hit in the end but everything else seems jumbled together just to reach that climax, because they knew that what happened before the actual problem wouldn’t particularly matter and I think it winds up a bit boring- But thankfully it’s not very long.
4/5. If the setup went any longer it’d probably be lower. It’s like… 3.5/5 as is, so I’ll be nice and round up.
Also this is the best CG in the game thus far.
In both routes, we have a girl (Misae, Ryou) who’s got a superficial crush on a cool and manly boy (Igarashi, Tomoya). But then, a nice, weird boy (Shima, Kappei) appears out of nowhere. The girl’s crush is quickly forgotten. A genuine connection is formed between the girl and the weird boy. They get along great and they soon hook up, facing the trials of love side-by-side.
I’m not against Kai as a scenario writer. I mean, when it really comes down to it, he has his own personal style of writing that just seems suited for the position he was given. He probably had to work hard to get where he got today, and I’m sure he had every intention of sticking to the central themes of CLANNAD.
Case in point: this route.
Kappei Hiiragi is a lone traveler looking for a job, a place to live and a purpose in life. He may act and look a little strange, but he is by no means unfriendly. Although he’s rather self-centered, he is grateful for the things other people do for him. He never intended to find a reason to stay in this town, but it is human nature to find a place to call home and settle down with a loved one. In the process, though, he forgot about his own weaknesses. As a cancer patient with no future in sight, he surrendered his will to live even though the reasons to stay alive were right in front of him. It was only after he realized that he could provide something he never received in life - a family - for another that he decided to preserve himself.
I enjoy this route for not only how well it fits with the general theme of CLANNAD, but also for relatable it is. Kappei is a little loose in its storytelling until halfway through, but because it leaves time for TomoyaBaby (and by extension, the reader) to get to know Kappei, it makes the drama that much more involving. Kappei feels like a real person I might just happen to meet off the street, and every time I meet him on the street, I feel interested in what he’s doing wandering around. Watching him rot from cancer and trying to get him back on his feet is involving and inspirational. Seeing him survive to become a husband to Ryou (especially after the events of Kyou) is a heartwarming conclusion, although not quite a tearjerking one. Still, I feel like hugging the poor guy… ;;
I can’t think of any complaints, save that a lot of Kappei’s actions and backstory is told to us, not shown. Granted, I could easily write this off as how I would see it if I were actually talking to Kappei in the middle of the street or during a hospital visit. It feels personal and, in the case of the latter, rather tragic. I’ve seen how conversations like these play out before, so this kind of personal confession feels quite familiar to me. I guess that goes to show how complex a character Kappei is. 
Next up is the little demon sister herself, Mei. Here’s hoping I can contain the Loli Loli Hunter within~ ^^;
I can definitely see some people being thrown off by two things: (1) a sexually confused Sunohara being played for laughs, and (2) Ryou’s desperate attempt to save Kappei via a rape threat. I find it easier to pass off the former as inoffensive, as I didn’t really feel homophobia from its writing. (And Sunohara has always been the chew toy of the story. Poor him.)
On another hand, the latter… it’s possible to actually play the scene without the threat though. In any case, that wasn’t really the thematic point of the story, so it’s forgivable at least. (Plus, she actually let him know such a motive, so… 
)
With that aside, I really enjoyed this route a whole lot: it was at a right length, and there was no boring moment. Kappei is just very entertaining, and he really has good chemistry with Ryou. It was definitely Ryou’s nurturing personality that Kappei found to be attractive, while Kappei, as random a dude he is, has this emotional maturity that pairs well with Ryou. Yeah sure they sparked too suddenly, and we don’t really see much lovey-dovey stuff between them, but I think what we see of them already suffice; I’m convinced enough that they care so much to each other.
Plus the forced romance is definitely not out-of-character due to how random Kappei is and how easy to sway Ryou’s heart is
Plus the comedy is just pure gold, and I never found them tiring. The gory fairy tales scene is a highlight, and so are the /triggered/ Sunohara scenes and Ryou initial mistake of saying that she’s pregnant. The couple suddenly holding hands was funny too.
The thematic point definitely leans to how a family can be your reason for being. It’s been expanded before here already, so I’ll just stop with that.
4.5/5; it has its flaws, but definitely the most enjoyable route so far. should have been in the anime too
edit: for reference, I’m following Kaza’s reading order
Edit2: I looked up on the liquid nitrogen treatment mentioned in this route, which led me to a Wikipedia article (how reliable) on cryoablation. The funny thing is that, while it is indeed used to treat certain cancers, osteosarcoma isn’t one of then. 
I wasn’t a terribly big fan of this route. I felt Kai tried too hard to make the readers like Kappei by having every character he encounters treat him with kid gloves. Tomoya isn’t nearly as trollish to Kappei as he is in other routes, and Kappei is a painfully easy character to make fun of. Kyou is also sidelined way too easily here (seriously, when would she ever just let one lecture from Tomoya dissuade her from wanting to know something she was intensely curious about?) Ryou and Kappei having chemistry is understandable, but other than their first interaction together, this is all told rather than shown. Since this romance is critically important to the end of the route, I find this unacceptable. In addition, Sunohara falling for Kappei lead to some strong comedic moments, but the gag was stretched far too thin, and the rape jokes in this route were unfunny and tasteless. In my mind, that whole end bit where Ryou tries to persuade Kappei was tonally uneven.
However, in spite of what the first paragraph might make one think, I didn’t think it was total bunk. I did enjoy Kappei as a character for what he is, and the fact he’s both a free-spirited, idealistic individual, while inside being a world-weary cynic, is immensely interesting. The tearjerker moments where his friends find about his condition hit the mark for me. Yoshino’s sagely advice felt surprisingly organic, in spite of his rather sudden appearance. And seeing Kappei finally accept what he still has in life is very satisfying. Although, letting him walk again in the long-run hurts the message in my mind. It defeats the big issue he had with the operation in the first place.
In spite of these peeves, however, I still enjoyed the route. I’d give this one a 3/5.
But in spite of these
