Fuck this route.
Well, it’s interesting how they use Botan as a tool to show where Tomoya belongs. Botan is very affectionate to Tomoya, and we know he doesn’t like Ryou, he’s Kyou’s friend. Seeing Botan get all cozy with Tomoya really makes you feel like Tomoya belongs with Kyou.
Finally finished with the route and I just want to say: the writing in this route is just absolutely brilliant.
What I thought was the best and most important part of the writing of this route was Tomoya’s own emotions. The writing really strengthens the amount of guilt that Tomoya is feeling by what he is doing. Tomoya absolutely hates himself, and I think that is what the writer wants us, as readers to feel. @Aspirety mentioned on discord that it was a pretty subjective thing for the reader: Either we empathize with Tomoya and understand his hate, or we hate him from a third-party perspective.
This guilt is further strengthened when he makes the joke about bringing Ryou to a place where they can be alone. He means it in jest, but seeing Ryou’s reaction to it makes him realize just how serious Ryou is, and makes him hate himself even more for having such emotions and playing it off with jokes.
And I think that’s also what makes this route so controversial, at least, from what I can see from the comments: we as readers see that Tomoya is doing a terrible thing. However, I feel that in order to appreciate this, one has to totally embrace that guilt that Tomoya is feeling. By denying it and calling Tomoya an idiot, you resign yourself to the mindset that what he is doing is unacceptable. Instead, we should think about it as a representation of Tomoya’s own selfishness and cowardice.
See, many people are thinking that it’s stupid for Tomoya to continue things with Ryou simply because he doesn’t want to hurt her. But there’s one slightly nuanced plot point in his emotions at the time: he actually enjoys being with Ryou. He says it himself in that he likes seeing her smile, and he likes feeling like he is needed by somebody. Despite having feelings for Kyou, he still wants to somehow keep the status quo.
The reason for this is because he is afraid. He is afraid of losing his enjoyment with Ryou. He is afraid that if he breaks up with Ryou, Kyou will hate him as well. He is afraid of, more than anything, being alone. At the same time, he is afraid of hurting somebody he has genuinely come to care about. This says to me only one thing about Tomoya’s decision: it was extremely selfish, and it was cowardly.
The only reason why the guilt was eating him up was exactly because he saw Kyou in Ryou. Them being twins definitely solidified this, but so did Ryou’s change in personality. If his emotions were with somebody else, I feel that he might have even been able to brush them off just to keep his relationship with Ryou going. They did hint at this in one of the lines in the dialogue, after all.
The emotions of all the parties involved are just so multi-faceted; not just Tomoya’s but the Fujibayashi siblings’ as well. And all of these emotions are anything but innocent. These emotions are selfish and horrible but, at the same time, weak and pure. That’s one thing that I feel is absent from most of Key’s other works: the ability to show their characters in a negative light. But that’s also why I love this route so much because it makes it feel all the more real. For once I finally felt that these characters were more than just characters, but actual human beings with complex emotions.
I have just soooo much more to talk about with this route, but I thought I’d start by sharing how I felt about Tomoya’s own emotions during this entire situation. However, especially for the reasons I’ve layed out earlier, this reinforces my previous stance in that this is not only the best route in Clannad, but the best character route in the history of Key’s works.
This will forever be my own headcanon as it offers a much more realistic and totally plausible conclusion to the story. Of course it is still hard to say that because Nagisaaaaaaaa T^T
I thought the emotions in this route were really well handled as well. Being in love and going out is not really a simple as we like to think of romance. Tomoya’s missteps make a lot of sense to me.
First and foremost the game has repeatedly made it clear that Tomoya does not generally deal with his negative emotions head on. You see this in his relationship with his dad where he deals with it by avoiding him, (spoilers for Kotomi and Tomoyo route) in the Tomoyo route as he loses confidence that they should be together, and even with the Kotomi route if you look at when they were kids after her parents died and that the heart of it - Tomoya goes into this trying to navigate a mature situation with childish strategies, and Sunohara is the one who has to give it to him straight and push him to face it. Tomoya, even as he begins to understand the complex feelings of others and his own complex feelings (i.e. Ryou is fine and makes him happy enough, but Kyou is the one he can’t let go of), tries hard to get through this without causing anyone pain and I think part of this is because he does not really understand how much more painful things like that are when you drag them out. Sunohara hits the nail on the head when he says “Just so you know, there’s no way you can get out this one completely clean because of that”
I was really glad I got the Ryou ending first because you kind of built the unsatisfying happiness. And then when you go back and get some of the bad endings or go for the Kyou ending you see how truly fragile that was.
Of all of the arcs, the Fujibayashi route might be my favorite because it has something that most Visual Novel routes lack: dramatic tension.
There’s a certain tension that occurs when a character’s actions go against the wishes of the audience, and this route it full of it. Because the actions of a visual novel character are partly dictated by the audience, its very easy for a story to lose this sort of tension. But finishing Kyou’s route really forces the player to make destructive choices for Tomoya, and I think it makes those decisions even more powerful. I’m reminded of a quote that I can’t find the source of, but it’s along the lines of “The only story worth telling is of a man in conflict with himself.”
I love the setup for this route, because it feels very realistic. Ryou has a crush on Tomoya, just because she does (totally legit, sometimes you just like someone). Kyou wants to help her sister, even if its a sacrifice for herself. Tomoya is willing to go along with it, because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feeling, and he really doesn’t know how to say no. The best part about the setup is that everyone is sympathetic. No one is acting out of malice, there’s no bad guy here. At worst, Ryou is being a bit selfish for chasing Tomoya even though her sister likes him more, but that just shows a little bit of human weakness, as opposed to something sinister. To me, this is how life really is; everyone tries their best, but there’s not always a way for everyone to be happy.
I also love how long this story drags in the primary conflict. Some people might not like that, but I feel that it reinforces the mood well. The worst part of interpersonal drama is that it’s difficult to bring up, but it gets worse the longer you wait. Pretty much everything that happens in this arc could have been prevented if someone (anyone!) spoke up sooner…but no one does. And so, we wait. We wait through tons of tense dialogue. We wait through new complications. We wait until there’s no way the characters can avoid the issue any longer. And then we get the release of everything coming to a head and resolving.
Overall, I think this arc is amazing, because it so perfectly captures the suffering tension of being in a relationship that needs to end, and gives the perfect release that happens when it does. I’ve been there before, multiple times. And no matter what other situations surround it, it always feels just like this.
Let us once again take note of the fact that this route is not about Tomoya’s problems or Clannad’s main topic, family. The plot revolves solely around romance. Everything is focused on the romance and the characters trapped in a love triangle. The game takes us one step back - away from the grand challenge that is life and into a more youthful topic.
Random thoughts:
I like how the mood is being handled in this route. First, it’s just fun and games, hanging out with both sisters as Kyou pushes Ryou and Tomoya closer together. An awkward and stale relationship is formed. There’s a lot of subtle indications for it being no good. Ryou and Tomoya have little in common. Heck, there’s an innocent little scene with heavy implications mixed in: Kyou tries to trick Tomoya into buying her a lot of treats, but Tomoya figures her out. “Ahahaha, then hurry up and get to know Ryou like you know me. Once you get there, you two will truly live up to your name as a couple.” Think about this part for a bit ^^
Ryou’s love for Tomoya stems from a simple crush. She is not the most exciting girlfriend to have. Going out with her doesn’t feel special to Tomoya. And then the mood shifts when the rumors about Tomoya going out with Kyou shake things up. The tension increases by the day. Ryou feels that she’s losing Tomoya, so she starts pulling. She grows bolder. It shows that she’s a stronger character than she seems at first glance. She overcomes her weaknesses when the situation demands it. She even improves her cooking through a lot of painful practice. This shows that Ryou is truly doing her best and is not just being clingy.
The relationship between Kyou and Ryou grows colder. And then, the famous rain scene. “…I’m sorry… that I… like you…” I swear, “bye bye” is the saddest thing a girl could ever say!
Then, Ryou, instead of despairing, shows understanding and support. Next day, situation is stabilized and everyone is more calm. The problem is still not solved, but this is a much better environment for making important decisions. And then emotional the finale!
The route is quite difficult. And the difficulty has a purpose: It provides tension and makes the player more aware of how complicated the situation is in a natural way. You are dealing with a very delicate situation. Whatever you do, you will hurt someone. But if you don’t do anything, you’ll hurt everyone. If you offset the fragile balance of the relationships between Kyou, Ryou and Tomoya, you lose the opportunity of reaching a somewhat happy ending.
Let’s take a look at what exactly Tomoya has to do (via the player’s choices) to reach it. First of all, he mustn’t be any more wishy-washy than the situation already makes him. He has to know himself, his interests and be aware of his feelings. His affection to Kyou must be firm. At the same time, he mustn’t neglect his girlfriend, Ryou, either. She is dedicated and Tomoya must respond to her feelings. (note: respond to. I’m not talking about reciprocating them.) After all, Ryou’s support is needed to resolve the situation properly. A resolution can only be reached when everyone involved is willing to truly resolve the situation instead of being swept away by their negative emotions, because that’s when the awkward stuff happens: Kyou tries to hook up with a guy she doesn’t like, Ryou desperately pleads to be accepted in exchange for denying her own existence and promising to become a different person and Tomoya would have just distanced himself from both girls, making everyone unhappy.
I’m so glad that this did not end in a typical trashy H-Scene. Instead of turning this into an excuse for fanservice, the author used it to set the mood and provide more insight into Ryou’s feelings, making both the reader and Tomoya realize how serious she is. Hurray for Clannad!
Seriously, this is an awesome route!
BZZZZZZZZZZT.
Siblings are family. Would Kyou be so inclined to wingman for Ryou for the guy she likes if she was just a friend?
D O U B T F U L
Actually, she might. In a classic love triangle setting, the two girls are normally close friends, sometimes even best friends. One girl rooting for the other girl, then suffering silently in a corner is a common occurence in that setting. Busybody Kyou just might be nice enough to help her best friend instead of helping herself. We’ll never know, though, because Kyou doesn’t have a best friend girl. Only a twin sister.
I’m not saying that the concepts of family and Tomoya’s problems are completely cut off from the Kyou route spacetime. Kyou and Ryou are sisters and they act accordingly. Tomoya’s reaction to Ryou’s confession was the thought “…Until now, I had never really thought that someone would need me so much…”, which reminds us of Tomoya’s self-esteem problems. Tomoya still hears sports club members working out in school from time to time. He does that in several routes; because it’s connected to his past and his problems.
The fragments are still there in the background. But they’re far from being the focus.
Many people would say that Tomoya choosing to go out with Ryou was very out-of-character but… what the hell do we really know about Tomoya? I think, at the end of the day, he’s just really lonely. And I would guess that any lonely guy wouldn’t mind having the chance to spend every day with a girl that he doesn’t really have any issues with, let alone comes to enjoy being with.
Here’s a thought, the Fujibayashi route is a criticism of dating sims, and the shallow way that they approach romance. @octoberpumpkin has already noted the textual references to “event flags” and “affection rating,” which are staples of the genre. But I think the comparisons go deeper…I think the structure and events of the route itself ape the conventions of dating sims. I also think that the set of choices offered in the route are more typical of that genre, with clear “right and wrong” options. Finally, criticism is shown in that the only way to “win” in this route is to make the choices that cause Tomoya to fail.
Just to be clear here, when I say “Dating Sim,” I’m not talking about romance focused visual novels (like Clannad itself). Instead, I’m specifically talking about those statistics driven dating games where gaining enough points with a girl to establish and advance a relationship is the explicit goal (like Love Plus).
The route’s structure is repetitive, and largely focused on a set of actions that would be standard to a high school dating sim. When compared to other arcs, the Fujibayashi arc has more routine to it. Wake up, go to school, have lunch, go to town and/or home. At each of these points we have encounters: random encounters with Kyou on the way to school, lunch time with the sisters, running into the girls when in town. Moreover, this route has very few “skipped days,” and maintains the calendar when other routes are happy to simply jump forward to convenient points in the story. This is all very much like a dating sim. In these games, there are explicit locations (sometimes represented on a map) that the player can go to. At these locations, the game will have either random of scripted events, where the player can encounter one of the girls. Management of these events is central to dating sims, especially when the goal is to reach a win condition within a certain number of days.
The route’s structure has other subtle references to the dating sim genre. Tomoya gives Ryou presents, a classic way of upping a character’s “affection rating.” The fortune telling machine is reminiscent of a mini-game. And when Tomoya is near kissing either of the girls, we get a unique “close up,” reminiscent of a kissing mini-game from a dating sim. This is not something we get in other routes, and reinforces that these similarities are intentional, and not just a result of Visual Novels and Dating Sims having similar interfaces.
The options presented for Tomoya during the route are transparent, in that it is clear when you are making a choice to “gain points” for Ryou or Kyou. After the choices that get you started on the route (which I feel are also pretty transparent), our first major branch is when Tomoya is asked if he prefers “Long Hair” or “Short Hair.” Given the two girls sitting in front of him at the time, it’s pretty obvious which choice goes with which girl. Next, we get to choose if we want to practice kissing with Kyou, again an obvious choice as to which girl this applies to. Finally, we get the choice between “Amethyst” and “Tanzanite,” which, in true dating sim fashion, is a gift choice where the answer should be obvious if you’ve payed attention to what the girl’s have said. Ultimately, this all seems very “dating sim” like. Those games offer lots of opportunities to gain or lose points with the romantic interests, and while Clannad may not have a meter showing how each girl feels about Tomoya, this route does a lot to make their feelings pretty explicit.
Now, while I think I’ve done a pretty good job of establishing that the Fujibayashi route is a reference to dating sims, I still haven’t shown that it’s a criticism of the genre. This criticism comes in because the only way to “win” the route (and earn a light orb) is to “lose” at dating Ryou, and in the process you get to see pain caused when you split your affections and disregard compatibility. As others have pointed out, while the “Ryou Ending” exists, it’s not particularly satisfying, and does not result in a light orb. This is no accident. It is strongly implied that Ryou is not a good match for Tomoya, and if this were any other Key story, I don’t think Ryou would even have a romantic arc. But in dating sims, no girl is “off limits.” Pretty much every girl in those games is a viable romantic choice, and so this route does give the option of romancing Ryou. But, as a slap on the wrist for the player who does, you don’t receive a light orb for this shallow way of playing the game.
Instead, the light orb is achieved by failing at your relationship with Ryou. By splitting Tomoya’s affections, you create a painful love triangle, but one that ultimately resolves itself to earn a light orb. Each aspect of the ludonarrative here is commentary on a different player strategy. Ludologically, earning a light orb criticizes the player strategy of focusing attention on a single girl who’s a poor match. Narratively, the pain caused to everyone involved in the love triangle is a harsh criticism of splitting affections between multiple girls, another common player strategy where the player tries to achieve a “harem” by farming affection with multiple girls in a single play through.
Ultimately, I think this criticism is well deserved. Perhaps I’m biased, but I’ve always found Visual Novels to be much deeper and more meaningful experiences than Dating Sims. Not only does this route criticize dating sims using their own conventions, I feel it also does a better job of supplying a satisfying experience within those constraints. The Fujibayashi route is more than just self-indulgent fake romance, but is an engaging story that we can learn from. That’s more than I can say for the programmatic statistics-based sims it apes.
Wow, this is a really interesting interpretation you’ve formed. Damn, I wish you brought this up in the podcast!
Gotta save something for myself. But in all seriousness, it was only a half-formed thought that came to me while we were talking about choices. I think I needed to sleep on it before I could actually make it into something.
So… tl;dr this route jabs at the fact that the stuff you do in dating sims actually gets you into trouble with real relationships?
I can definitely see where you’re coming from but at the same time, it does seem something that is only natural when writing a serious story. While it does make absolute sense, it might be a bit of a stretch to think that this route was written with those intents in mind.
That being said, I think one problem with this theory is that, while the choices do mimic dating sim choices, Tomoya himself doesn’t really act like a dating sim protagonist. He’s really more a take-things-as-they-go kinda guy, and he doesn’t split any of his affections with Kyou during this route. She just naturally falls for him from him being himself.
Maybe it’s just me, but I always saw dating sims as something where the MC is a lot more proactive, raising stats and buying gifts with the specific goal of getting more affection from the girl. Tomoya’s just trying to be a decent boyfriend.
It’s very possible that it wasn’t intentional, but I’ve never put much stock in authorial intent. I’m a Death of the Author devotee through and through, to the point that if I’m discussing with an author about their own work, I don’t actually treat them like an authority. I feel free to bring any interpretation I want to a reading of a story, whether that’s what the author wanted or not. Other people are free to read the story however they choose.
With that out of the way, I don’t think Tomoya not acting like a dating sim protagonist takes anything away from this reading. Essentially, that just means that the line between story-as-narrative and story-as-metaphor is drawn between Tomoya-as-character and Tomoya-as-avatar. The player in this route is acting like a dating sim player, but Tomoya is acting like himself, occasionally voicing his emotional distress about the situation he’s in.
They could have drawn the line in either place and it could still work, but the effect would be different. The School Days anime is a perfect example, but in this case the main character does act like a dating sim protagonist and ends up being an unlikable prick as a result. In other words, if Tomoya did act like a dating sim protagonist, he would lose sympathy, and the effect would not be to create an internalized message of how to treat others, but an externalized message that some people are jerks. Tomoya acting like a decent person instead of a complete tool illustrates how this situation is hard on everyone, including the person doing it.
Well now, that changes everything. Once again, that makes me want to bring up the Minagi route in AIR because that route actually admonishes you for making the usual “dating sim” choices. Thank you based Key for not letting simple stereotypes get in the way of your storytelling.
What really puts question mark in my head is how come twin siblings can have so much personality differences? In real life I’ve of course met and personally interacted with siblings, but none of them give so much discrepancies like Fujibayashi sisters. While it’s not entirely out of stretch, I’m still baffled.
Now for the route and the story, I’m quite satisfied. Some memorable events including the famous Kyou’s rain scene and the ending in School’s yard, either events convey strong feelings for the readers. Well, most readers, as I’m sure there are quite people who don’t like it and it’s understandable.
But damn son it’s so awful feeling looking at this scene in particular:
Took me quite awhile to press ‘next’ button in my controller.
For Sunohara I think this arc represents his real attitude best. Have no complaint at all.
I am annoyed though that I as a reader spend time less with Kyou than her sister Ryou. Isn’t she supposed to be the heroine this arc or not? xD
While the story is generic - love triangle yadda yadda, and probably boring for many readers, I find it’s so fitting to have this very generic storyline in CLANNAD. Not only is it a constant topic we see in real life, it also shows how strong family bond can overcome even the worst jealousy and egotism. Well, the story writer knows how to write after all.
I can definitely give this route 8/10. Kyou’s route but we see her less than her sister. Herp derp.
Perhaps them being twins is the cause of that? Because they are twins, they, perhaps subconsciously, sought to find a difference with each other and slowly made that difference grow alongside their own physical growth
Of course not! Ryou is clearly the superior twin, so there’s nothing wrong here.
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
Hmmm while I can see what you mean when you say generic (it is a very romance-centric route), I don’t think I can say it is as out-of-place as, well, every other route. Of course that all depends on what you think the themes of CLANNAD are. I did say some time ago how I thought CLANNAD was a microcosm of life, and, in that sense, love, dating, and jealousy are all parts of life that we will experience one time or another.
Frankly, I quite loved this long buildup. Maybe it is just me, because I felt the same exact way in a certain-other-route in Rewrite when everybody else was not so particular about it… But I think the purpose of this long buildup is, as you say:
And I think that is where the quality of this route shines: in making you feel all these things. The fact that it could make you feel those will add more impact to you and, in my opinion, helps the impact of the route attach itself more to you. And that is the value of this route, and why I love it so much.
P.S.
Hoo boy wait til you get to Sunohara route, then I wanna know if you can say the same thing again 
Gotta come here to defend my all-time favorite key route, heh
No, nobody can really. That isn’t Tomoya. The real Tomoya would do the alternate choice: make Kyou trip while chasing her, and have her rip up the piece of paper she wanted to show him.
But hey, guess who it was that made the choice to go ahead and try out dating Ryou. Because that sure wasn’t Tomoya who pressed that button 
I’ll actually raise you another argument, and say that the very first scene of CLANNAD, with Tomoya pushing Nagisa to go up the hill was simply too out-of-character for him. Of course, I believe there is a reason for that, as there is a reason for Tomoya even thinking to try things out with Ryou. But that delves into heavy post after story CLANNAD meta knowledge.
Yes they were quite cringe-worthy. But, unlike most other cringe-worthy scenes in anime, you could feel the same cringe that Tomoya was feeling. You could feel the immense guilt that he felt as he was doing things that he knew was absolutely wrong. The cringe was shared between the character and the reader, and I think writing that is capable of doing this is nothing short of amazing.
You might be a bit mistaken with this. He is venting his stress by making romantic jokes towards Ryou. Stuff like joking that they should kiss or they should go to a hotel. He vents his stress in much of the same way during the common route. This is classic dick-ish tomoya right there.
The one who is actually indulging him in his jokes is Ryou herself, because of her desperation to keep Tomoya as her own. This leads to a point where Tomoya feels way too guilty because of these jokes, and we as readers share this guilt. At least, I shared this guilt.
That was a very sad thing and, I think, one of the highlights of the route. Of course nobody would believe her, but it was a move driven out of desperation; desperation to not hurt her sister and to not jeopardize her relationship with Tomoya. She thought that Sunohara was just dumb enough to go with the flow. Too bad Sunohara is too much of a bro
She was a victim here. Very much so. A victim of circumstance. A victim of being too involved with people too scared to accept their own feelings (like Kyou). And more importantly, a victim of her own desperation to cling on to something to make her feel better about herself.
Have you every tried talking about your own feelings? Because, fuck me, that shit’s tough. Especially when you’re an insecure wreck like Tomoya is, wow.
