A rant about Key

Okay, just to clarify: I do not hate Key or Kyoto Animation in the slightest, but the way they write some of their stories (namely their endings) makes about as much sense as Lindsay Lohan winning the Nobel Prize for Science.

Also, just as a bit of a warning: spoilers for Angel Beats, Air, Kanon, Clannad, and Little Busters.

Spoiler: Angel Beats!

Now in all honesty, the story for Angel Beats may be answered in the visual novels. But as someone who has not gone near the visual novels for AB because I cannot understand the Japanese language, I am basing this analysis off of the anime series.

Obviously, to anyone who's ever seen the series, we all know that the last few scenes for AB made no bloody sense with the whole "I lived because you gave me your heart" because of Kanade being in the purgatory high school before Otonashi. Furthermore, the whole scene with Yuri and the unnamed man in the room with all the computers and the shadows is never explained at all. I suppose Kyoto Animation just ran out of production money and decided to write a half-baked scenario that had no answers. Again, maybe this will get answered in the visual novel, but until an official or patch release is put out, I'll never know.

Spoiler: Kanon

I suppose out of all of the series that Key has made, this one is the one I have the least to complain about. The only real complaints I really have with Kanon is the lack of an explanation as to how Mai is able to materialize the "demons" that she consistently has to fight every night and how she is able to tell where Makoto is when she ran off after Yuichi yelled at her in her arc, especially after she told Yuichi that she can't really explain how she knew and then refers Yuichi to Mishio.

And speaking of Makoto, how are the foxes able to obtain this magical power to transform into humans anyway?

Spoiler: Little Busters!

This is another series that doesn't really explain its supernatural tendencies. Two of which bothered me were the scenes where Noumi is prevented from moving because of shackles which are magically removed for some reason and the whole universe that Kyousuke and the others seemed to have created. Does Kyousuke have some sort of godlike ability or did he just wish for his friends to be saved?

Spoiler: Clannad

This was the one that made me the most upset because of the fact that it was the one I was most attached to out of any of the series made by Key/KyoAni. Like in Little Busters, the whole "wish upon a star" concept is rather jarring because of the fact that they're using a bit of a cop-out tactic to wrap up the series. As I said in the Angel Beats spoiler, maybe the visual novel explains things. And yes, I know that the visual novel has been officially released in the west, but it's just too damn long for me to sit down and play.

Spoiler: Air

Now really, this show was just a mess of unexplained situations. So here's a list of what was wrong with each arc:

Kano: what was the story of the spirit who possessed her?
Minagi: why did Michiru even exist?
Misuzu: why did Yukito turn into a crow?

So those are basically my qualms of Key's and KyoAni's works in a nutshell. I don't know if I'll get to Charlotte or Rewrite, but I'll probably get to them in the future.

Also, if any of these have an actual confirmed answer, forgive my ignorance.

 

The visual novel for Clannad is really beautiful. It's worth the price that it is. I got it for 15 percent off though. It's about 80 to 100 hours depending on if you play everything or not. It's easier to play with the walkthroughs because it gets confusing if not.

I understand what you mean about Clannad. I haven't seen all the others yet.

 

Except for watching Pokemon, Dragon Ball, and Anime Bible Stories as a little kid, Clannad and Kanon were the first animes i ever watched and so they hold a special place in my heart, but I agree that Key animes are predictable and really the only Key Animes that I i ever liked were Clannad (but After Story much more than the first season) and Kanon. The plot of Little Busters had no substance to me, the episodes seemed to drag on forever, and I found the characters and the situations they got into very boring and stereotypical. On the other hand i felt that Angel Beats had too much going on.

 

Spoiler

It has to do with Japanese Mythology.

My thoughts on Key: I honestly don't like his writing. I didn't like Clannad or Angel Beats, and I could not STAND Charlotte. I liked the Little Busters VN and I thought Kannon and Air were okay, though not anything amazing.

Spoiler

My biggest problem with Key is how he kills off characters, only to bring them back to life with MAGIC. I hate it so much. It's like he wants to have both a sad ending and a happy ending.

 

Spoiler

 

[To 2 above statements]
Kitsunes, that should be the name.