If I had to explain what Key represents using one route/character arc, it would be this one. As well as being just a beautiful story, the final section of the arc has so many traits that I can only describe as ‘Key’, yet it also contrasts many of the elements typically found in a Key VN in quite a significant manner.
Before going into that, there are several things I want to discuss. The first thing involves several plot points. One thing about this arc that I’ve seen some people criticise that Tomoya’s amnesia just happens and there’s no real build up to it (or at least no obvious build up to it) outside the beginning of this arc (which wasn’t even in the original). My perspective is that’s the point – it’s meant to be sudden and unexpected and I really respect it for that. Some things in life just happen without any build up, and they can seriously affect the way people live, which is what I think this arc is going for. The sudden nature of this arc makes it stands out more, and it is foreshadowed at with the amount of physical trauma Tomoya goes through. There is also the subtle foreshadowing of Kanako asking what would happen if Tomoya suddenly forgot about Tomoyo, and the jokes about memory loss. While this may not be conventional foreshadowing since there are no immediate signs that this will happen, it is hinted at in quite subtle ways so it is by no means forced in my opinion. That being said I wish that they kept the original opening of the arc as the sudden nature of that emphasises the point even more, although I can see why the change was made. Next thing I want to compliment this arc on is how it makes the reader feel very uneasy reading this. The way that it continuously implies that something is wrong due to Tomoyo’s behaviour is fantastic and it had the perfect balance of implying things and being too vague to draw any concrete conclusions and I thought it was brilliantly executed.
Another thing that took me back when reading this arc were the references to Nagisa and CLANNAD. I think the way these references are implemented is incredibly thoughtful when one considers Tomoya’s character. Firstly, I’ll talk about the character that’s basically Nagisa, but not Nagisa. Due to his amnesia, he is a pre-CLANNAD Tomoya – a version of himself that we do not really get to see in CLANNAD. When you consider how Tomoya’s attitude towards life was changed by meeting Nagisa in CLANNAD, it makes sense that a similar effect would occur again when presented with very Nagisa like elements and this can be argued in multiple ways. One can argue that reliving a similar memory allows him to sub-consciously remember more, one could also argue that reliving a similar memory allows him to develop similarly to how he did in CLANNAD, some people have even presented that this entire thing relates to illusionary world, so there’s definitely room for interpretation. Several people have stated that these references are the reason that he is able to confess his love for Tomoyo in this instance, and that is something I definitely agree with. It’s very easy to make references in a spin-off for the sake of it, but this arc in general brilliantly interconnects references to CLANNAD with a genuine, well thought-out reason to include those references. Also, the small bit from Sunohara is heart-breaking if you’ve read CLANNAD and it really emphasises how close Sunohara and Tomoya really were as well as the severity of Tomoya’s amnesia.
The second thing I want to discuss is how this arc stands out in regards to other VNs and how it uses VN mechanics to emphasise one if its themes. One thing brought up was that the choices made to reach this section are quite specific, with some of them leading to seemingly happy endings, yet this is the ‘true’ ending despite the sadder conclusion. This is a really interesting point since as far as I’m aware there isn’t a Key work with ‘bad’ endings that don’t seem so bad. This argument can be extended to visual novels in general – it’s conventional for there to be good and bad endings, but in Tomoyo After, at some points it starts to feel like there are just endings, and whether or not it’s good or bad it down to the reader. So the question I want to discuss is why is this ending the true ending? To me, it comes down to a present theme throughout the story – finding meaning in your life, and fulfilling that. This concept is present in many of Key’s stories, and quite a few of Maeda’s songs, which is why I think this route is one the most significant routes in all of Keys history, but this will be discussed in more depth later. Now there are many quotes I could present to justify this as one of the themes of Tomoyo After. I could also refer to the title of the novel. But instead I’m just going to go through several of the key elements of the VN.
Throughout all of the routes, each of the characters are working towards a final goal such as Tomoya building a school and Tomoyo spending years to have Tomoya go through with the surgery. While this may be quite a conventional thing to do in any story, I think it’s still worth noting due to context. Each of these goals cannot be achieved without a lot of hard work – it’s not a simple one-off event that just comes and goes, the characters have to constantly work on improving themselves to achieve their goal. Also, each of the characters willingly chose to go through this to achieve their own goal. This is really important because in many cases in other Key VN’s, a character will attempt to solve a problem or achieve a goal because multiple people want to achieve that goal, but that is generally not the case in this VN. Tomoya decides on his own that he wants to build that school, and Tomoyo decides that she herself will stay with Tomoyo through his amnesia. To them, at that moment in the story, that is what they’re dedicating their life to and the longevity of these events emphasises that.
The endings of the VN reflect this as well – the reader lives with the choices they’ve made and if they’re content with what they’ve read then they have no reason to read anything else in this novel – they have achieved what they’ve wanted in the story. The convoluted choices for the ‘true’ ending also helps to emphasise that how one achieves their own goals in life, or how one can live their best life is difficult to figure out. Just image trying to get to this ending without a guide – due to the way the story is structured you will only sometimes see the consequences of your choices several hours after you’ve made them and when you combine that with the amount of alternate endings it makes getting to this seem incredibly time consuming and convoluted, but again I think that’s also part of the point – you have to live with your choices and if you’re not fulfilled then you have to work for it.
The way the overall VN is structured also emphasises this. In every other non-kinetic Key VN it follows the convention of common route, character arc/route, repeat until you get every arc/route done, true ending, but Tomoyo After breaks this convention by integrating each character arc into the overall plot, and the only thing stopping you from going through these arcs is the different type of ending that you get. Now to be fair, other visual novels have done this method of integrating character routes into a linear plot (such as G-Senjou no Maou), but I don’t know of any that did it before Tomoyo After, or at least not any popular ones so this technique is actually quite significant in terms of the wider medium.
The final thing I want to discuss about the writing is the final section of the arc. I have always argued that one doesn’t cry at a Key work because it’s sad, you cry at it because it’s happy or hopeful or uplifting. This ending is one of those few exceptions (to some extent at least). The final monologue with Tomoyo typing is, in my opinion, one of the pinnacles of Key’s work, if not of all visual novels. It’s absolutely masterful. It once again ties back to the idea that life doesn’t always go the way you want it to, but you have to make the most out of it, which is something that is presented throughout the story as a whole, but this ending goes a step further than that.
To elaborate, I want to tie this theme of finding beauty/meaning in life to Maeda’s stories and songs. One of the lines written out is ‘This time, it’s your turn to be happy.’, and this line directly ties in to Maeda’s song ‘Shiawase ni Naru Ban’, which translates to something along the lines of ‘The Turn to be Happy’. For those of you that don’t know, this song features Lia, Tada Aoi, Rita and Chata and the album art features the Key characters Misuzu, Ayu, Nagisa and Komari, so symbolically this is a really significant track, which is also emphasised by the lyrics. Several of the lines reference themes presented in other Key works such as ‘Even when everything is already ashen. Even in the days I almost gave up on living. I believe that miracles exist.’, which ties back to the theme of miracles presented in Kanon and other Key works. So with that in mind, I want to draw attention to the lyrics in the final chorus:
‘A lot of things had happened. We already passed through the seasons. If you’re feeling down, please look at us. From far away, I said that I’m going to be fine, so… This time, it’s your turn to grasp your happiness’.
Given what I’ve already mentioned about the song, this final section is telling the listener that if they’re going through hard times, then look at back Maeda’s stories, look back at what his characters have had to go through and remember that in the end, they all found their happiness, so now they should too. This clearly shows how important this idea of people finding their happiness is to Maeda, but this isn’t the only example of it. In Angel Beats, the characters disappear when they have done everything they wanted to do while alive, when they have fulfilled their happiness in the afterlife. Once again, this presents how much Maeda values this concept of finding meaning in life and fulfilling it as that is one of the core concepts behind Angel Beats, but it’s not only Angel Beats which contains this theme. In Air (major spoilers) even though Mitsuru dies, she breaks the 1000 year curse by living a happy life towards the end of the novel. Even in the ending of Charlotte (minor spoilers) the characters mention how after all they’ve been through, they want to live fun and happy lives. To me, all this signifies one thing: Maeda believes that we live our life to be happy - that is his answer to the meaning of life. We live for happiness, whether it is our own or someone else’s. While I realise this is a very big statement to make, I honestly think this is one of the key messages Maeda has tried to communicate in one way or another in many of his works and whether or not you agree with this conclusion I think it’s difficult to deny the prominence of the theme of happiness throughout his works. Also, I don’t think this is a message he’s trying to force upon the reader – he’s not trying to make the reader believe that happiness is the meaning of life. One of the lines in the final section of the VN states ‘What your treasure is and how you obtain it is something nobody knows, but you will surely find it someday’. So clearly Maeda recognises that each person’s meaning in life is different, and that it’s up to us to find out what it is.
Next, I want to discuss how Maeda emphasises the themes of this story in contrast to other Key works. Surprisingly, this is one of the few endings with no ‘Key magic’. At the end, there is no sudden miracle allowing Tomoya to function as he previously could, which is a major contrast to a lot of Maeda’s works and makes it a lot more notable and impactful because of that. In a way, the ending becomes a lot more realistic because of this as well. Like I said before, the beginning of this arc embodies the idea that events just happen with very little foreshadowing or build up and there’s not much one can do to prevent them, so the ending of this arc carries on that theme. Since the story is about finding the beauty in life, it is appropriate to acknowledge that for some people, miracles do not occur and that many live very painful difficult lives, which is what makes the ending special in many regards as it’s a message that can be applied to everyone. To emphasise this idea of a beautiful and happy life, Tomoyo writes about how even though she’s gone through so much pain, she has found much happiness and meaning in life by helping other people find their meaning in life, which is really significant when you consider one particular section of this ending.
During the final section of the typing scene, Tomoyo writes: ‘If you, the person on the other side of the screen, ever find yourself alone on your journey, it’s all okay. You are not alone. I am here. I will be there to accompany you. So please relax. That is what I discovered together with him, walking alongside him’. This part broke me on so many levels. As many have already stated, this is literally just Jun Maeda breaking the fourth wall and directly talking to the reader through Tomoyo (and I honestly can’t emphasise enough how well it’s done and how much I love it), but it’s a lot more than just a perfectly executed technique. To me this line expresses why Maeda writes, whether it’d be stories or songs – he wants to help people’s journey through life and reassure them that they will always have someone to turn to in times of need. While one could naturally conclude this from just reading Maeda’s works in general, I think the fact that it’s presented in this story is really beautiful. Given that Maeda is using Tomoyo as a means to speak to the audience, we can actually extend this perspective to the rest of the ending, so I’m going to look at some other lines with this in mind. ‘All of it is like the sunset I saw that day. Dazzling. I was able to find that glimmer in life. Which is why I want to help those who are afflicted like I once was. I kept walking forward just like that, and before I had realised, it had become my meaning of life. Which is why, to those of you who have found your meaning in life, please help others to find theirs next’. Once again, if you consider that it’s Maeda that’s saying this, then it only emphasises the concept that Maeda wants to make people happy – he wants them to see the beauty of life like he does, and then have them help others see that beauty. I think from a personal point of view, several people of this community share a similar feeling, and will continue to share that feeling even after it’s gone. In that respect, I think Maeda has achieved his goal to some extent.
I’m going to break down the next section into a new post for ease of reading and because it’s all on the music of Tomoyo After.
feels bad for Tomoyo
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