Whenever I think of Kai, the first phrase that comes to mind is ‘executive meddling’. I don’t think it’s uncommon to initially assume that Kai is a story executive for VisualArt’s, although he does have a sizable amount of eroge credited to his name as well. But when it comes to Key, most of the time he is only credited as either a co-writer or a scenario planner. It’s actually quite surprising he has written whole routes in CLANNAD, among which are the Fujibayashi sisters.
So what does that have to do with Kyou as a character or her route in particular? Well, from first impressions alone, Kai has a very different style from Maeda and Suzumoto. If I were to describe Kyou’s route in one word, it would be ‘safe’. It seems to me as if Kai analyzed the general formula for how dating sims are written and tried to combine that with some of the elements from other routes. It feels like the most generic and out-of-place (in terms of themes, anyway) route in CLANNAD so far, but that’s not to say it did its job horribly.
Kyou as a character is written fairly well, although outside of her route it would be quite hard to think so. Truthfully, when I finished reading Kotomi, I didn’t think I was ever going to like her in her own route. However, I’ve witnessed time and time again how a good route is often the deciding factor in overturning first impressions, and Kyou is yet another shining example. Every action she took was for the sake of her younger sister, to the point of forgetting herself and her own desires. Since TomoyaSteve (and by extension, the reader) is drawn to Ryou initially, it allows him to understand exactly what trials she’s going through when everything starts going wrong, which creates parallel between him and her.
The biggest issue I have with achieving this parallel and the route’s eventual resolution is how Kai chooses to get there. The route itself has a long buildup, so much so that it grows boring after a while due to Steve’s indecision on the matter. In addition, Sunohara’s efforts to help Steve fix things feels a little out-of-character for him, despite Kai’s otherwise-admirable attempts to keep him close to how Maeda intended his character to be. The ending, particularly where Kyou assumes Ryou’s guise, felt predictable, but even so was the best part of the route. To clarify, I have no problem with the resolution, just with how Kai chose to get there.
This route made me feel so many emotions at once: anger, warmth, frustration, sorrow, laughter, fear and relief. I feel so worn out that perhaps it’s hard to tell if I actually like this route or not. This route definitely isn’t one of my favorites, but I certainly enjoy and admire it for what it tried to accomplish. I feel a little more comfortable knowing that Kappei’s route isn’t in the wrong hands…unless I’m wrong. We’ll just have to see…
By the way, short-hair Kyou is so cute~ :3