Now I finally get to talk about this one.
Nagisa’s route was the very first thing I read this bookclub, and man did it set the bar high. Nagisa and her family are all really compelling characters and this route’s format of having multiple small conflicts centered around its primary characters instead of having one major conflict works very well in its favor. We observe and witness as each and every one of those conflicts shape our main characters and help them overcome their weaknesses. It’s quite different from all the other routes in CLANNAD. But before I end up going on a rant about why this route is so amazing (I think others are doing a way better job with that than I could) I want to bring attention to exactly that: how it’s quite different from the other routes, and what that means for it in the context of CLANNAD, a romantic galge, specifically.
As other people have already gone into, Tomoya and Nagisa fit each other extremely well. Both suffer from a major lack of self-confidence and greatly benefit from being able to rely on the other. I dare you to try to find another route where Tomoya and the romantic partner in question have that kind of mutually beneficial relationship. In my eyes, there is no such route. Nagisa and Tomoya support each other in ways only they can. It works so well exactly because Nagisa is who she is and Tomoya is who he is. None of the other routes are like that, not even Tomoyo’s which is likely the best comparison; neither Tomoya nor Tomoyo fulfill a role for the other that no one else could (reasonably) fulfill. Sure, they come from similar backgrounds and connect quickly, but when it comes down to it they don’t feel nearly like they’re as much of a ‘match made in heaven’ as Tomoya and Nagisa.
With a romance like that, it almost feels weird to have the choice not to go for it. If the creators just wanted to tell this tale of a great romance, there’s no need to make the other routes be legitimate alternatives in gameplay. So did they want to present this as the ‘one true way’ for things to turn out?
But if that were the case what does that leave us with? Does that imply that the other routes are, in some shape or form, bad ends? At the very least I will acknowledge that Tomoya will probably never gain as much strength in a different route as he will in Nagisa’s route, and he will probably never inspire whoever his partner may be as much as he does Nagisa. So then, could I say that none of the other results reach up to this one?
Perhaps. But that’s okay.
This is my take on it, my take on the reason the creators juxtapositioned this amazing romance with several other romances that honestly don’t feel like they inspire nearly the same kind of growth in both parties involved. That sort of ideal outcome is just that: an ideal. It may happen. If it does, that’s great. If it doesn’t, that does not mean it’s bad. We can see how in Tomoyo route their relationship may not be the best for Tomoya’s self-confidence, but in the end they can still support each other and help each other grow. Just because we know there is an arguably better alternative for Tomoya, that doesn’t invalidate the relationships he can hypothetically build up with the other girls. You don’t reject the imperfect; you make the best of what you have. And that’s exactly what happens in the other routes.
Hell anyone who’s read Tomoyo After will know that Tomoya does turn out somewhat different than what we know of him in Nagisa’s route, but that’s just it: he goes through different experiences and learns different things, values different things, treasures different things. He becomes essentially a different person than he is in Nagisa route. Even though they started from the same point. And regardless if you think he turned out better or worse in Tomoyo After, that’s okay. That’s simply the way it went in that story, and it is a valid way for things to go.
CLANNAD was the first visual novel that really conveyed this feeling of life not being just one straight path, but littered with heaps of possibilities every day, and at the same time that neither of these possibilities are truly inferior to one another. As some like to say: the only things you really regret in life are the things you didn’t do. And THAT is what the bad ends are. Leaving things unfinished. Not attempting to adjust or engage with the situation you find yourself in.
Is Nagisa route the ideal outcome for Tomoya? Whether or not it is, it doesn’t matter. It’s what it is and the other routes are what they are. No point in looking back and longing for things to have gone differently.
How much of this is actually purposefully in the game I don’t know. And I don’t really care. This is simply what I got out of it, and I’m glad for it as it taught me a great deal.
Okay so this was a long rant that was more about the existence of the route rather than the contents of the route. Maybe later I’ll post a few things I love about this route in particular. I’ll just say four words: To the Same Heights.
Our first exposure to Nagisa, and the first character we see in the visual novel. The dramatic wind through her hair and the falling sakura petals strongly convey not just a sense of motion, but of a moment captured in time. Everything is in focus and high detail, from the falling petals in the foreground to the leaves on the trees in the background. Nagisa herself, is center of the frame, looking directly at the viewer. I think it's noteworthy that while Nagisa's body is facing left, the fact that she's centered helps to convey the sense that she's stopped (if she was positioned just a little to the right, it would look more like she had space to move into in the frame).
