Otakuism

Fuuko’s finale is definitely another Key ending to tug on the heart strings. Whether you’ll be outright crying or not depends on the viewer and how much they loved or were annoyed by Fuuko. Admittedly Fuuko got on my nerves in the beginning, but her moeness was just too undeniably cute for me to ignore for long. It helps that she actually managed to grow through her time with Okazaki and Nagisa, evolving from an annoying brat to just an earnest kid. I really liked how at the end Fuuko actively worked to unite Okazaki and Nagisa, realizing they obviously had feelings for each other and being mature enough now to know she wouldn’t unite them forever. Fuuko meeting her sister was just the icing on the cake, obligatory happy ending for me. Still kind of sad that Fuuko hasn’t woken up yet, or maybe never will, but it’s no Planetarian. Now there’s a sad Key ending, but I’m digressing.

From a critical standpoint however, it’s hard not to admit that Fuuko’s story was nothing more than a patchwork of the out of body experience of Ayu’s story and the disappearing act of Makoto’s with a family aspect thrown in. No one was ever really in doubt of the conclusion, only perhaps whether Fuuko would actually wake up or not, but even by the middle it was easy to see a Key bittersweet ending coming. I’m also concerned with how much time it took to tell Fuuko’s story. We’re almost halfway through the series and there’s still four other girl’s stories to tell, with Nagisa’s being notably long. However, maybe the rumors that Clannad is a 50-episode series will pan out and that won’t be a concern. Hopefully, we’ll get to hear one more DOZO! before the series ends.