Which Key story carries the most powerful message, in your eyes?

Key Discussion
#1

This poll was closed on September 26, 2018 due the options being outdated. We will make a new one if there’s interest.

  • Kanon
  • AIR
  • CLANNAD
  • planetarian
  • Tomoyo After
  • Little Busters!
  • Kud Wafter
  • Rewrite (+ Harvest Festa)
  • Angel Beats!
  • Charlotte
  • Harmonia

0 voters

So seeing as how we’ve pretty much dedicated ourselves to deeply analyzing Key games and finding messages in them, might as well try and pit the competitors against each other. What Key story do you think leaves the most powerful message with its readers; or rather, which of them conveyed to you, specifically, a more powerful message than any other Key story?

Feel free to discuss whatever messages the story may have conveyed to you without spoiler tags, so long as it does not explicitly spoil the stories themselves. In regards to that, please mark any story references to any Key game beyond their early common routes with [spoiler] tags, providing adequate context in parenthesis. Also, when a discussion starts revolving around a single game, consider taking it to its respective discussion topic instead. And of course, the golden rule of respect is always to be upheld. If someone else got a different message from a Key game than you did, that doesn’t make them “wrong”.

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#2

What I find interesting in Rewrite is that compared to stories of its genre (the dark, edgy, angsty types), it’s dark without being overly cynical. In fact, the story essentially rejects cynicism, and believes that humanity is capable of helping each other out as they move towards the future. It also believes in the value of each people’s lives, that we are going to struggle, but our lives are worth it.

It maintains a sense of realism, while carrying a sense of hope all throughout (I think someone has already said this before, but I’ll just reiterate). It believes in life, and it’s shown in all the routes in the game, no matter how tragic the routes can get (yes, even Shizuru route).

All, in all, hope is Rewrite’s strongest theme, or at least that’s how I view it.

Of course all Key games carry their own brand of powerful messages, but that’s just something in Rewrite that hits me hard.

3 Likes
#3

I’m pretty split between Clannad and planetarian but ultimately I chose planetarian, solely because I listened to the planetarian bookclub podcast but I have yet to replay Clannad and listen to those podcasts. I’ll just list why those carry the most powerful meanings personally.

Clannad is my favorite anime of all time and the first visual novel I ever played so naturally it carries some significance. Add to that the fact that the focus is on family, something that all of us, blood relation not required, have… I hope. It simply is not possible to live without family. They are the ones who shape your life and your morals which you keep with you even when you leave home or whatever. Also, upon analyzing Fuko’s route, I learned that you will simply find more meaning by observing the story more and more. Since I’ve spent more time on Clannad than any other anime, it is very powerful to me.

I think planetarian carries the most powerful meaning because well… It was the easiest to extract meaning from. Because it is they shortest Key story, it’s easy to reread and focus on certain elements such as the rhetoric. I even used planetarian in some English homework essays like twice. Thanks to the bookclub I realized how easy planetarian was to analyze so I was able take from it the themes of hope for humanity, and to appreciate the little things, like the night sky.

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#4

I really wanted to pick Rewrite cuz it has a message that not only made me rethink about a lot of things in my life, but it also delivered with style.
however, I had to choose clannad, Clannad’s message is something relateable, sometimes I thought about my own future while watching it.

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#5

Whew, this is a tough question. I originally thought about choosing Little Busters!, but then I started remembering the first time I saw Clannad.

I thought about which one had the most effect on me, as a person. While I’d say Clannad was not the most emotional story I’ve experienced, it definitely had a drastic impact on me, specifically how I see my father.

I lost my father when I was about 12. I won’t go into too much detail, but for a few reasons, I was going through the entire grieving process again years later. I was trying to convince myself he was a horrible father, and that I didn’t care that he was gone. Of course, this was idiotic, but people do stupid things when they’re like that.

It was at this time that my friend introduced me to Clannad, and Key in general.

As soon as it started focusing on Tomoya’s relationship with his father, Naoyuki, in After Story, I realized my Dad wasn’t dissimilar to him, and neither was how we treated each other, basically strangers. Clannad (as cheesy as this sounds) really slapped me in the face as to how stupid I was being at the time. I obviously miss my father very much. He wasn’t a bad father, either. Nor do I hate him anymore.

Of course, Clannad didn’t completely change how I thought of him, but it was definitely the starting point for that change. For that, I’d have to say this spot belongs to Clannad, in my eyes.

I might’ve strayed from the question just a bit, if that’s the case, I apologize.

7 Likes
#6

Little Busters! clearly has the most important message of all:

image.gif802×603 179 KB

The second most important one to me, is one you get when you combine CLANNAD and Little Busters!: I’ve never been on super good terms with my family, but CLANNAD (After Story in particular) really taught me the values of a family - from a parent’s perspective, and more powerfully than I can really put into words. Little Busters! then showed me, that a family doesn’t have to be one through blood relations or marriage - there are bonds far stronger than just being stuck together, or simple attraction.

13 Likes
#7

If there’s any Key-related question that is difficult for me to answer it’d be this one. See, the thing is, all of Key’s stories have absolutely amazing messages. These messages are things that I can agree with, and things that I believe other people should take to heart, and woulf help make the world a better place.

The problem for me arises because I am asked which is the most powerful message, and I think that is hard because I believe a message is the most powerful when it goes against your current mindset, but, because of the story, you just can’t help but agree with it.

And that is hard for me. I gotta admit, I’ve had life pretty good so far. I have a pretty closely-knit family, grew up a fairly normal middle-class life, had good friends over the years, and have been able to achieve practically anything I put my mind to. That being the case, I have a pretty good mindset in that most of Key’s messages are things that I already believe in and have internalized in my life. A message becomes a lot less powerful when it echoes what you already believe in.

However, that being said, there is one stand-out in Key in that regard: AIR. See one of the big things with my (our?) generation is that we are meant to believe that “we can achieve anything” which, as we all know, is kinda bullshit. Air shows something very much against that because it shows Yukito, a man who can’t do what he wants to because he is bound to his duty.

However, as the story progresses, we see that it gets to be a lot more complicated than that, especially in the character routes where he is forced to choose between his own duty and a more simple happiness. A goal of happiness which is echoed all throughout the Air portion of the story. It leaves us with the message to live our life making decisions, not regretting that which we have believed would give us happiness.

All my life I’ve had these beliefs that “I want to change the world” or “I want to do something to be remembered by” but, as I read AIR, pairing in with what I am currently doing with my life, it has made me see that I don’t really need that. That endless chase towards greatness would in fact be going against my own goal of happiness.

Thus the power from its message comes to me from realizing that, well, I don’t need to do anything more with my life. As long as I live a happy life, then that alone means that life is meaningful, and there is absolutely nothing to regret in that decision. To hell with the people who tell you you can be the “next big thing”. Just be happy, and your life will have meaning.

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#8

Interestingly enough, I got that same message, except I got it from CLANNAD. I also thought about the need to do something Special to be remembered, but CLANNAD taught me that no matter how dull things might seem, you can always find happiness in the most little things in life.

Also, friendship took a new meaning in Little Busters! In Refrain, the final revelation made me think of how true friends will go even further than I ever expected to help you.

However, all in all, my vote goes to CLANNAD.

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#9

Well, here we go!

I’m answering from the perspective of “which had the most impact on you,” since “in your eyes” would make me try to answer as objectively as possible… but the result would just be too vague. Also, I’m not particularly convinced that I fully agree with what I’m saying here. That is, I may change my mind upon closer consideration, possibly even within hours of posting this! So if you’re looking for something a bit more… well-established… it may be better to simply skip this post.

As @Pepe pointed out in his post above, all of Key’s stories have powerful messages. It’s a bit difficult to narrow it down, with AIR and even Charlotte (!?!?) being considered. So for me, considering the other options closely, I’m going with Angel Beats!… wait wait, hear me out! There’s a good* reason for this!

*in (a baseless) theory, anyway

I’d consider the “message of Angel Beats!” to be an amalgamation of the various messages it presents, since they all seem to be under a vaguely common theme. That makes it pretty versatile, as anybody watching it has a good chance of finding something they can relate to, which then ties in with all of these other things.

The way I see it, Angel Beats!'s message could implicitly encompass the majority of other messages from Key’s works, and other works in general.

Regarding the anime presentation: For casual anime viewers, Angel Beats! is also, in my opinion (with some technicalities), pretty easy to get into compared to other Key works. That makes it easier to communicate the message, whether the viewer is fully aware of that or not.

In terms of actual measurable impact, there are definitely parts of the story that pretty much anybody can easily do (Angel Beats!, regarding Otonashi’s memory: organ donation).

All that said, I don’t really entirely agree with all of Angel Beats!'s message, as I’ve interpreted it anyhow. That’s another topic altogether though.

If I were to say which Key work delivered the message I liked the most, I’d say probably Rewrite, because:

^ that.

Little Busters! was a runner-up for most powerful message, but the “bad end” in Refrain wasn’t the “true end.” That’s another topic altogether, which I’ll save for the Little Busters! bookclub.

That! Yes, same here. I’m trying to discard that aspect when considering the various messages, but it’s not all that effective to do so, since it would mean reevaluating something highly subjective from a more objective view. :/

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#10

A peaceful everyday life hides its fragility. Fear and violence aren’t just something in another world, completely unrelated to us. If a disaster happens, we can’t change it. But as long as we small gears are linked together, we can keep moving forward, even if it’s only one small step.
~ Naoe Riki - Little Busters

Out of all the wonderful messages in all works of Key, the one that etched itself in my heart the most was that of Little Busters. It’s directly tied to the conclusion of Refrain, so it’s all heavy spoilers.

[spoiler]

The message I treasure the most is that while living means losing, the encounter is more important than the farewell.

Of course, the more you love someone, the more it will hurt to lose them. Experiencing this kind of loss can break a person. But if you close yourself off completely in fear of that pain, not only will you miss all the wonderful things life has to offer, your fear will cripple you. It will make you weak and helpless, unable to stand your ground when your happiness is about to be taken from you, just like Riki’s narcolepsy. You’ll be unable to shape your own life, let alone help anyone.

But once you do find the strength to accept your past, face the present and welcome the future ahead of you, no matter how harsh, you can say

It’s not enough

Use the strength you have gained to challenge fate. What Riki gained by accepting his birth was not only the strength required to live through a heavy loss while supporting Rin, but also the courage to face great danger and prevent the worst from happening. Without his fears binding him anymore, Riki took action and protected what was most important to him, surpassing everyone’s expectations and creating his own miracle.

Just because you have accepted what is to come doesn’t mean you have to stop there. If you can face your fears, you may as well walk up to them and take back what’s yours.
Acceptance isn’t just being fine with bad stuff happening. It’s also the first step of defying them. It doesn’t always work that way, but if you have any chance of taking the reign, this is what you have to start with.[/spoiler]

This message, that not only shows you the way but also fills you with hope and determination, is the most powerful in my eyes.

14 Likes
Little Busters! - Refrain Arc Discussion
#11

I really wouldn’t consider Angel Beats! a Key series that I necessarily like. Mine will always be Rewrite and CLANNAD (which both have great messages), but ultimately, Angel Beats! has the stronger message for me.

The whole premise of why the characters are there, is because they’re fighting against fate, because they did not like certain aspects of their life, or have lingering feelings they can’t get rid of from their lives when they were alive. Ex - Iwasawa never got to become a singer, which was her dream. Yui was paralyzed and her mom had to support her, which made her feel saddened. Yui also never got to do anything with her life. Hinata didn’t catch the baseball, making his team lose an important game. Yuri lost her 3 siblings from thieves, because she couldn’t find any valuable things for them.

I think Angel Beats! taught me (maybe you as well), that we should live our lives to the fullest no matter what. Not everyone gets a life like yours. Not everyone has the capabilities like you. Not everyone gets to live out their lives. Not everyone can even support their own selves.

The world is a nasty place filled with nasty people, but if you can find those people who do support you, then you can accomplish the dreams you want.

Don’t waste your time becoming what your parents want you to become, cause guess what. It’ll make them happy, but it won’t make you happy 10-20 years in the future.

Don’t waste your time playing games and criticizing everything. Life is too short to criticize people and waste time on gaming. Live your life getting to your dreams and goals, and don’t let anyone stop you. With Iwasawa in the real world, she never became a singer because she never had support from anyone but herself. But in the Afterlife, she had support from Hisako and the other members, and she became a singer, and got into a band. She achieved her dreams when she got support

Don’t even try to say that (legit) dreams can’t be accomplished. You still have all your life to get there. Its just a matter of whether you decide to give up now, or whether you decide to keep on going no matter how many times you get rejected.

6 Likes
#12

I understand the gist of your post and I agree with it, but I think we should avoid heading into those judgemental values when you realise that a lot of content that allowed people to have a more open-minded view towards the world was produced by people who spent lots of time on video games and had many stories to share.

I also feel that statement fairly goes against AB’s message. Life isn’t “too short to waste on video games” because life is something that’s special to an individual, and if spending it on video games is what they want then I feel they deserve about as much happiness as someone who dedicates themselves to other things as long as we don’t cross over to unhealthy ways of going about having hobbies.

I mean, by that kind of logic none of us should have ever played any Key games, and if we did then we should now stop to do more productive things, lol.

Now onto the actual topic, if there’s one thing I can praise Key for, it’s for its rather broad range of powerful messages split between its novels and its routes. The story that struck the hardest, though, if I exclude my beloved Little Busters, is certainly AIR’s Misuzu/Air routes.

Once you remove the fantasy aspects from it, I find AIR to be a pretty meaningful story that represents the impact of a topic that’s not often represented in such ways.

And that’s neglect and its impact on both a child and a parent.

It’s something not a lot of people truly realise when they’ve only watched the anime or absent-mindedly played the VN: Misuzu is a socially inept girl that’s been subject to her curse mixed with such emotional neglect that she was stuck in a bubble of loneliness that she couldn’t pop open no matter how hard she tried because her breakdowns scared off everyone including her mother. Her childish attitude and odd actions may seem like coping mechanisms but they aren’t, even if seeking out bizarre juices is one of the ways she found to kill the overload of time she has. They’re simply who she is because she never had enough of a spotlight focused on her to allow her to truly grow up.

She’s a girl who spent her entire life looking at groups of people of her age saying “see you tomorrow” and heading back home after a day filled with fun, while she always had to do everything down to eating dinner on her own. That’s pretty heartbreaking if you ask me.

On the other side of the coin, though, you also have Haruko who was just as impacted by the neglect she showed towards Misuzu. Even though she herself wanted to indulge her far more than she did, she just didn’t know how to deal with Misuzu’s breakdowns. Instead of making her a neglectful parent, the story made her a reasonable human by showing that not everyone in charge of a child knows how to deal with everything thrown at them and people make mistakes they can regret forever even if they thought that they were doing well. Haruko did such a thing by deciding to stay at an emotional distance from Misuzu.

AIR highlights the importance of communication between a child and a parent and the bad effects of neglectful upbringing until it’s too late to correct; it shows the human mistake that is “neglect” even if it’s meant for good. To me, it’s not simply the story of a girl who was cursed, her and her reincarnations, to be alone until the end of time; it’s a story about one of those “reincarnations” that lived a very difficult life that was plagued with such loneliness that the average person cannot even casually imagine how mind-numbing it is. Some people out there live the exact same life as Misuzu and I feel that Maeda hit the bullseye with how it was represented.

But hey, I’ve yet to actually do my ritual of beginning of summer AIR playthrough to refresh my memory so I could be wrong. :yahaha:

9 Likes
#13

I don’t know, Clannad and Angel Beats were amazing but they didn’t really carry a message for me, or at the very least, not a powerful one. Even Little Busters didn’t, but I choose it because it did encourage me to value friendship more. Not to say Clannad, Angel Beats and Little Busters weren’t moving cause god they nearly made me cry. Maybe because I’m only going by the anime and not the visual novel (not for long though, gotten Clannad on disc now and can’t wait for translation of the others) but am I missing out something here or are you guys getting these powerful message because it relates to your life on an emotional level?

#14

Speaking personally here, I think Key works have thought-provoking messages because they show the lives of individuals that go through difficulties without showing it at first, which is something a lot of people do on a daily basis without others ever knowing. It expresses hardships that they may or may not gain growth from, and it shows how they feel about and deal with those hardships up until the end.

It’s something I not only relate to, but also want to understand more deeply when it concerns other people.

Angel Beats, for example, bears as @Totoro_Futaki said the message of living your life out so as to not regret anything. That’s a strong message because it shows that some people bear regrets because they were unable to do things that are “normal” to others that had the opportunity to do so and may have rejected it. It has the power to make you think “oh, I really want to do [x]. I would die happily if I did it.” in a society where you’re merely encouraged to do what is considered mature and respectable by showing you the thoughts and feelings of people that never had the chance to do so.

Of course, let’s not forget that it, including this post, often all boils down to personal interpretations~!

1 Like
#15

Choosing between Clannad and Little Busters! in this regard is extremely difficult for me. It doesn’t really help that both works deal with similar themes, although Little Busters! deals specifically with friends while Clannad tackles both friends and actual family.

I’m inherently biased towards Clannad because it actually sort of went against the grain of my mindset at the time that I watched it, whereas there wasn’t any mindset for Little Busters to change. I already immensely valued my friends and our time together above all else. For that reason, I think Clannad has a more powerful message despite my near infinite fondness for Little Busters as a whole. It didn’t necessarily completely change my mind about anything, but I have put a lot more thought into how I value my familial relationships than I would have had I not watched, and later read it.

It helps greatly that After Story addresses life beyond high school, something few works starting off in high school do. Tomoya’s struggles with transitioning to a full fledged adult just feel heart rendingly real, and his development as a person throughout After Story is incredibly multifaceted. Tomoya’s imperfections are constantly thrown at his face, and he just keeps stumbling on and dealing with them. Yeah, he does pretty shitty things after Nagisa’s death, but eventually he finds the strength (with a little help, naturally) to even overcome that. Finally, I’m just a sucker for good romance, and Clannad easily has Little Busters beat on that front.

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#16

I think that Clannad has a more relatable message and I like it better. However, Rewrite’s message is more in you face. I should’ve voted for it, but I completely forgot about it when I went to vote.

#17

You can change your vote any time.

#18

I’m feeling like reviving this topic. Let’s see how much people’s minds have changed since then. I still give my vote to Tomoyo After. How about you guys?

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#19

Stil AIR and its chasing of a simple hapiness. It’s one message I’ve internalized ever since :slight_smile:

#20

I did change my favorite series to Harmonia and the reasoning behind that was it’s message. While it was not necessarily more powerful than planetarian’s message, it struck me harder than anything else personally. So I guess I will change my vote from planetarian to Harmonia. The reasoning can be found here.

1 Like