Character discussion topic for Ryou Fujibayashi. For discussion of Ryou’s route, refer to the Kyou & Ryou Fujibayashi Character & Route Discussion Topic. Feel free to reference any character routes freely, but references to After Story and outside works must be tagged with [spoiler], with adequate context provided in parenthesis. Her birthday is the 9th of September.
I’m a big fan of Ryou. I dunno why, I’m sure a lot of people dismiss her character as boring. But I dunno, I guess shy, awkwardly romantic girls are my type. I really appreciated the focus of romance in the route, but at the same time, it was unfortunate for me that Ryou’s ending was sort of a ‘bad ending’ ahaha. I’d pick Ryou over Kyou any day. I guess I always end up liking the character who develops a crush on someone, and wanting them to succeed in finding love, even if the odds are low. cough Suginami cough Then again, I didn’t care much for Kyou… I guess Ryou is just more my type after all.
This is definitely turning into more of a Ryou appreciation post than any actual discussion, ahaha… I apologise for that. I might post more disccussion-inviting thoughts on their route(s) later. I’m gonna get in a day early and say, happy birthday Kyou and Ryou!
I’m gonna have to disagree with you on this one.
Ryou is one of my least favorite Clannad characters. It’s not the being shy, in fact several other Clannad heroines could be considered shy (e.g. Nagisa, Fuuko). I think part of it is the stuttering, combined with the extremely repetitive nature of the route. I wanted to enjoy the VN fully and listen to the voice acting, but that gets really boring when the same thing happens day after day, and each line takes at least 15 seconds because of all the "a-a-a-ano"s and "e-eto…s-sono…"s. In fact, I remember reading the part where ‘Ryou starts acting like Kyou because she thinks that’s what Tomoya wants’ and thinking, “oh, this is actually kinda enjoyable.”
But the real reason she bugs me so much is because in Kyou’s route, Ryou has all the screen time, while Kyou is almost a side character until the end. I really like Kyou, and she actually matches Tomoya really well. But I dislike her route because its completely overtaken by Ryou. Granted, the premise was great: it made sense (was realistic) and made for an amazing ending. But I just couldn’t get into a route where you could say “hey, self, I bet you $1,000,000,000,000 that tomorrow Tomoya’s gonna eat lunch with Ryou,” because that’s all that ever happened.
I actually really liked how it was done in the anime, though. IIRC, the lunch scenes were spliced in so you got the “Kyou’s pushing them together,” but it didn’t get too repetitive. And the OVA only really included the plot-important and emotional parts, which were the best parts of the route anyway.
Wow, that was a lot longer rant than I thought it was going to be. Oh and by the way @Aspirety, I don’t think Ryou is a ‘bad end’. Even though you don’t get a light orb, “Kage Futatsu” still plays at the end, which only plays at ‘good ends’.
Yeah, but you know deep down that Kyou is off somewhere crying when you get Ryou’s ending ^^;
I’m gonna say, I completely understand your criticisms with her character and route. But goddammit, I’m a sucker for Ryou’s character. I just wanna hug her ;_;
I really don’t like Ryou. I always thought Ryou was interested in Tomoya because she felt inferior to Kyou and she wanted to beat her in anything.
In Kappei route, Ryou forgets Tomoya when Kappei declares his love to her, so this makes me think her love for Tomoya is not real, at least not at first.
Mann I haven’t read Kappei route yet. I really need to get around to it soon!
I’m gonna support @Aspirety here as I also very much liked Ryou as a character. I can’t quite put my finger on why, I just do. Maybe because I feel she is one of the most tragic characters in Clannad. And while I can no longer support Tomoya x Ryou after reading Kappei’s route, Kappei x Ryou is such a cute couple, and that route really made me appreciate Ryou even more. She has some glorious lines in there.
I also enjoy her take on fortune telling, and I found it funny how it perfectly works in the context of a visual novel.
Yaaay a Ryou route! I would consider Ryou my favorite character in Clannad, but that isn’t really saying much since I don’t really like her that much more than the other characters.
The shyness is definitely there, and it’s definitely real considering the genuinely socially awkward people I’ve talked to. Picking her as the class representative would just exponentially raise that awkwardness, I tell you =3=
But what really made me like Ryou’s character is how she acts in Kappei’s route. You can see the amount of strength she has and how she really pushes herself for the sake of Kappei. It’s something that might seem out-of-character for her at first, but when you look past that social awkwardness, she is definitely a strong person. Yes, even stronger than her sister, who couldn’t even muster the courage to admit her own feelings. Ryou’s acceptance of Kappei and and her own feelings for him is admirable by itself.
I like Ryou a lot, and like @Aspirety said, I always felt it was kind of unfortunate that her ending is treated like a ‘bad’ ending (or at the very least, a half-route with no real ‘good’ ending). There are other characters I think work better with Tomoya relationship-wise, but selfishly, Ryou is kind of my favourite, haha. I’m fairly sure she was the first route in the game I went for…?
I’m always interested in characters who are given non-main character love interests in visual novels, too. It doesn’t really seem to happen all that often? (Or, characters will have crushes on other characters, but the only True Actual Romance they get is with the MC…)
Also later on in the game (I can’t remember offhand if it was Kappei’s route or After Story, it’s been a while), when she was wearing her nurse’s outfit? TOO CUTE.
Pretty sure that was the (Kappei Route).
You know, right before they do things that make Ryou blush.
