I wanted to wait to post another entry until I finished these two routes.  The Misae route is somewhat connected to the Tomoyo route, and if you complete her route before Tomoyo's, you get a bonus scene and an extra light.

I really enjoyed myself on the Misae route.  I didn't really expect anything to come out of it, since the anime has hardly ever touched upon her character in the least.  But wow, that was a good story.  It focused on how Misae became the person she is, as the dorm landlady, and it even takes a bit of a detour into the past to when she was the Student Council President, who is being followed by a young boy who wants to grant her wish.  I won't get into it any more than that, since I've already spoiled some of it, but trust me, this is a good little detour from the normal heroine paths.  I definitely appreciate her character a little more, but I have no clue as to how they're going to translate this into the anime.

The Tomoyo route, though... MAN!  I never cared for Tomoyo before, but I absolutely love her character, now.  It's no wonder she's the only one who got a sequel ("Tomoyo After"), because her story was so engaging... and long, don't forget long (took me three and a half hours or so to complete only part of the route).  It focuses on her friendship with the main character, but also how that relationship with him is hurting her chance to succeed not only in the Student Council election, but her academic pursuits, as well.  Getting into it even more would spoil it so much, so I'll refrain.  But this is a fantastic route, and I enjoyed it so much.

Give me a good story, and I'll love it despite its faults, it seems.  There were a few minor quibbles I had with the routes, but nothing that even remotely tampered with my enjoyment.  I just can't get over how amazing this game is, and if there are more visual novels like this, I want to import them all.  I just wish I knew where to get more translation patches, or else it'll kinda be meaningless to play the game without understanding what's going on...

My thoughts?  Clannad is simply beautiful.  It has plenty of humor, but not too much to where it's annoying, and the deep moments are truly gorgeous.

I'm still just worried that they won't be able to do these routes justice.  The Kyou route would be difficult enough to do, but the Tomoyo route?  Nigh impossible, to me, unless you cut out the ending or change it so drastically to where it's a new beast, altogether.  The only remedy I can see for this is if they animate the Tomoyo After story.  That would be awesome, since I can't play it without a patch (and that version has... stuff I don't care for).  I think it'd be awesome if they made an OVA series that tightly wrapped up Tomoyo's story from this first game, and then moved onto the After story.  I'm sure they could make a four-episode series, since the manga is a single volume that wraps up the entire After story, far as I know.  I'm trying to find the manga, but it's difficult to locate something like this that's actually translated, so I'll probably just get it RAW, and look at the pretty pictures.

I'm actually hoping the Clannad anime gets licensed, just so I can watch it legally with subs.  And so I can buy it for a lower price.  That'd be nice.  Since Kanon and Air both got licensed (and Shuffle! is on its way), I don't see why it couldn't happen.  And I want them to translate the games and release them here.  With the release and success of the Phoenix Wright series, it's obvious that visual novel-esque games can succeed here in the states, if branded properly and rightly advertised.  Why couldn't they release one of these games, here?  If the related anime series succeed, people would obviously like to explore the original story, right?  Put 'em out cheap enough, and I'd buy several copies just for myself.  Or they could translate and release the PS2 versions and put them out for really cheap, considering that it's hardly a problem to put out PS2 games, anymore.  It seems to be the go-to video game console these days for putting out low-risk games.  Or just translate the PSP versions and bring them over, for an even lower risk!  I mean, c'mon, Game Companies, we'd love to buy these games, but you aren't making them available to us!  It can't be that difficult to translate these games if you see these fans putting out patches for them, right?  Just get a small team together, with translators and editors, and just sell us something awesome.  I'd buy it legally, no problem, first day of release.  I'd preorder it, for crying out loud.  And I know so many other people would love to indulge in the games.  It wouldn't sell fantastically, I'm sure, but even a modest success is a success, right?  I'd advertise it like crazy, on every forum I could.

I just want something.  Gimme something.  Anything!

Well, anyway... Tomoyo.  Misae.  You gals are great, you gave me good stories.  I'm hoping I'll be able to continue on the former's route someday in the future.



(I'm so addicted to this game... xD)

I'm definitely taking a break from Clannad, tonight.  I've spent quite a few hours digging into that game, but it's kinda taking over all of my spare time to watch anime and play video games (which is, anytime after 8:00PM).  I need to catch up on my Digimon viewing, not to mention the various other shows I need to watch.  I can't help that I love the game so much, but moderation (at least, my definition of the word) is definitely something I need to practice.

I can't believe all this Super Smash Bros. Brawl news that's been coming out.  I mean, I expected it, considering that this is a blockbuster game that just came out in Japan and will be out in a month and a week here, but the amount of spoilers is overwhelming.  I'm kind of disappointed by the secret characters, but eh, it's not that big of a deal.  I'll get over it.

There's not much to say about the Vegas trip we took, last weekend.  We just stayed down for a single night, saw little Sarai and Kasandra, and left.  Nothing too big, but still enjoyable.  We're waiting for Kasandra to send the pictures she took of Sarai to our e-mail address, so maybe I'll post a few pictures up of her when I get them.  Can't wait until she has the little boy, because then I'll finally have a baby nephew to teach all sorts of cool stuff. :3

I'm just tired of all this school stuff.  I don't feel like all this applying and whatnot.  And financial aid and everything... it's just a pain...

I'm doing fairly well in Harvest Moon: Boy and Girl.  I decided to go after the Doctor's assistant, Elli.  She's one of the girls that I never married in the games based on Mineral Town, so I thought it'd be a change of pace.  I'm at the end of Spring in the first year, and I already have her at a light blue heart, so, go me.

You know what?  I think I'm just going to go legit.  I want to legally buy my music from now on.  I should have morals, I should have integrity.  Even though most of what I listen to is expensive Japanese music, I should still purchase it.  That's what I'm trying to do.  But now that I'm trying to do that, I can see quite clearly what all this excessive downloading has done to the import music market.

You see, I've been trying to find the Clannad anime CD single.  I really enjoy the music that's on it, so I thought it'd be good to import it.  But, you see, I've looked around about eight different websites, and only ONE store has it.  I mean, I can't even find the CD single from Play-Asia, and that's concerning, to me.  I can't even find it on eBay or Amazon Japan, and the CD was just released back in October!  I mean, Play-Asia and eBay still have the CD singles from Digimon Adventure!  Why is Clannad the only series that I can't find hardly anything for?  Or, for that matter, most of the Key Sounds albums in the first place?  The only place I could find the CD single at was HimeyaShop, and it costs $14, plus $19 to ship it to America, which equals $33 to buy the CD.  Now, I want to buy it legally, and I will probably end up buying it soon, but c'mon, $33 for seven songs?  I know that's the norm in Japan, but at least cut down the shipping a bit and don't get my hopes up with the base price, you know?  Play-Asia has cheap shipping, so why don't they have the CD at all?  It's just mind-blowing, to me.

I'm assuming this is all because the constant downloads that these songs have, that they're not even trying to sell them to America, which makes me sad because I would like to spend money, now.  I see quite clearly what I've been doing, and I'd like to atone for what I've done, but I guess I'm reaping what I sowed.  I just wish it didn't have to come at the cost of not being able to listen to songs that I really, really enjoy...

I just really want to listen to the "Dango Daikazoku" song in some way, shape, or form...

I ended up ordering the Digimon Adventure CD Single for "brave heart", in the meantime.  It was cheap, only $9.90, plus $3.60 for shipping.  That's pretty cheap, especially for Japanese CDs.  Hopefully they'll put up the Clannad CD Single soon, or else I'll be a Sad Wesley.