Rewrite.
After it is too hard to find a decent anime to watch.
Or i can say, that problem bothers me after every Key work.
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The 28th of November 2014. The first time I read planetarian. I remember that afternoon as finding planetarian by chance whilst lazily browsing the Steam store I would have skipped past it if the thumbnail wasnât so pretty and the VisualArts:Key tag hadnât caught my eye, by this time I had watched Clannad and read Kanon so I was surprised by the setting of planetarian. Of course I immediately bought it without prior research because of the Key tag, and I truly felt like I was stepping on unknown and hollow ground.
The next four hours were easily the most immersive I had ever experienced. I had phased out of reality almost the whole way through the story, I absolutely could not put the story down until it was done and once I came out the other side and finished being a sobbing mess drenched in tears, I felt reformed with new-found values and views. Today it remains my utmost favorite piece I have read and because of it, I discovered Kazamatsuri and continued on to be informed of other works by Key.
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Definitely Clannad. It wasnât my first Key work (that was Angel Beats), and itâs not my favorite either, but the anime adaptation was the first Key work I experienced that actually sort of changed my perspective on things, so it wins out over Little Busters!.
I donât really want to get too much into it, but Clannad made me more deeply value some of the closer relationships Iâve had with other people, and also caused me to reevaluate some of the rockier ones. I guess it just gave me a more positive and refreshed outlook on interactions with other people. I kinda wish I had watched it during my edgelord phase of high school, but itâs a tad too late for that now.
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A bit late to the party (how did I not see this topic?!), but I had to pitch in. Was just about to make a similar topic before the Search bar helped me out 
Iâll be upfront and preface this: the majority of the inspiration and emotion comes from something outside of Key that this work happened to link up with. Of course, in a sense, thatâs true for all our answers; I just mention it because itâs not actually an explicit theme of the work (though you can argue for implicit). It comes to bear more clearly once Catholic first principles are applied. So Iâm not sure anyone else will have the same experience haha.
In any case, be aware: Iâll be speaking about religion and faith, as I canât separate it from why I felt as I did. Youâve been warned!
I was most affected and (re)inspired by the Angel Beats! anime.
First time: I binge watched it, finishing at 3 in the morning on a weekend at seminary. That should tell you my state of mind and stranger state of affairs. I remember seeing the first episode, hearing the ED, and being deeply moved. I had a sense I was going to encounter something incredible and awesome - emphasis on the awe.
As I watched, I enjoyed it; the humor was fun, and the story played out well.
Then came Episodes 10 and 12.
I cried.
But not because I was sad. It wasnât sad the slightest bit to me.
You see, as I watched this from my seminarian view, this is the general outline I saw: these teens died tragic deaths with their lives incomplete somehow and ended up here. Theyâre searching for a meaning to their suffering - their lives. And, when they find it, coming to peace with their lives-
This is where my Catholic understanding parted from the story. In the actual story, they disappear and are reincarnated. At least, the reincarnation is hinted at with the final few moments.
Thatâs not what I believed; so, before seeing that final scene, I had been interpreting everything in a wholly different way.
Their disappearance was akin to them entering Heaven.
That probably doesnât seem very emotionally moving to you, which is understandable. Heavenâs where you float around like angels and stuff. Itâs abstract happiness. Whatever; you donât think about it much, and the mention of it isnât a big deal.
However, I (and, hopefully, all the other priests/seminarians) have a different understanding of it. The very reason we wish to become priests is because we know the nature of Heaven, happiness, and God.
Love. Incredible, overwhelming, all-satisfying, unbelievable, shocking, absolute, almost terrifying Love. I do not joke when I say I have never known any pleasure, joy, emotion, or happiness greater than the love this heavenly, godly life entails.
It is a life of love - the purest happiness - which we long for every person to know and live, forever and ever, because of how supremely good it is.
So Angel Beats! changed, for me, from a story about reincarnation to a story of souls, after suffering painful lives and deaths, finding their way to the greatest, purest Love I know.
Itâs quite literally the End that weâre all striving for, and the most beautiful.
I cried, and I remembered why I wanted to give my life away.
Love.
So yeah; itâs not exactly what Maeda intended to write, judging from reincarnation being there, but Iâd like to think similar themes ran in the background (esp. with âGoodbye Daysâ being as it is).
Thatâs why Angel Beats! is my favorite, as well as the one that inspired me the most.
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Rewriteâs not on the poll, but that is hands down the one game that has made the biggest impact on me. Never again will I litter. God. I donât want rainbow swamps to form and the apocalypse to come⌠unless it comes in the form of a cute girl, of course.
REMEMBER KIDS. REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE
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While I personally dont think Clannad as the best of Key work anymore, itâs still one that inspired me the most :3
Clannad was somehow the only anime my family and I were able to watch together and equally enjoy, which is saying something a lot because we have completely different tastes. Anime had been mine and simply not theirs. Weâre not a chummy family which is ironic because we were raised as Christians and from what I have observed, Christians are supposed to be chummy people, especially to their blood relatives. Clannad did not exactly brought us together but it did for a while, which is something.
Iâm pretty sure many of the stories in Clannad touched us in various ways but perhaps Nagisaâs story struck me the strongest the most, or perhaps, the whole Furukawa family. Whenever I look back at the Furukawasâs story, I see my parents. My parents arenât exactly talkative about their histories coz, like I said earlier, chummy is not in our vocabulary. Their accomplishments, I learn from their friends and their failures, I realize them only today.
Itâs cheesy, but I sort of learned how to value these little stories people share about them because of the Furukawas and wonder what my parents would have done if I were a more reliable person. I didnât jumped into tears like Nagisa did, but more so, I learned to appreciate what my parents had done and follow my own dreams. Akioâs declaration at the end of Clannad still gives me goosebumps whenever I see it. We all need our own Akios and I guess he voiced out what my parents have always wanted to say for a very long time. I start to see the small acts they do to support me and I begin to realize that the smallest actions I make for them gives them joy.
I suppose I realized that my parents love me ahaha Things change once you start knowing that.
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