Hyouka and Clannad

I did like Hyouka. I liked it a lot. The pace was meditative, tranquil, languid; entire arcs were ordered around apparently irrelevant quotidean details like a teacher's remark on helicopters (no, I am not making this up) and the resulting 'drama' actually reveals the intricacies of the characters and their relationships. Almost nothing dramatic happens, and yet it's still a beautiful exploration of a friendship that slowly catches fire. Understated, subtle, and seldom (if ever) dramatic in the usual sense.

Clannad was also fantastic. The writing suffered a bit, falling into the shonen school life cliches a lot, and fanservice irritates me more the older I get, since it is completely extraneous to anything important. But those faults I readily excuse, since it was one of the most beautiful depictions of family and love that I have seen in any medium ever. At times I could hardly believe it was real. The otherworld flashbacks were almost mythic in their power and simplicity, and over and over again the journey from friendship to love to marriage and beyond was astounding. I saw the beauty of family life enfleshed. It is one think to know that being a father means to sacrifice for your children, but it is entirely another to see it realized before your eyes.