Clannad

Clannad: The Virtue of Humanities Patience Generic Romance-some teenager stumbles upon potential wife amongst this cliché mist of cherry blossoms-watch it for 16 hours-ish so hopefully you sob, because Barrack Obama actually-and legitimately waited for such life-taking moments on this anime. 95% of this show consists of teenage bonding (not good or realistic bonding mind you) since “two-dimensional Japanese animated people” are highly complex caricatures. Then the viewers liked moments of “Award Winning” comedic gold to suffice Slice of Life monotony? When was this, time, when audiences ever found anime slap-stick, funny? It never happened back then, it never happened now, then will it never happen? You, the Poo is vigorously anticipating to twitch those pubes in the TV screen Your watching until (after this century of patience) tears vomit out from the sorrow as You Look-at this incredibly overly-dramatic-moment as a reward for waiting! What was the point of building too many intolerable work day episodes? SCORES: 5.5/10 – Story 5.5/10 – Characters 6/10 - Animation 7/10 – Music FINALE: 5.5/10

The world, as many of us know, has been polluted with anime called harems. Five plus girls. One oblivious tool of a man. There can be only one. Yeah, that can get old. You can count on at least two every season, with nothing to be worthwhile. That is until I caught sight of Clannad, an anime adaption of my favorite visual novel created by Key. At first I was skeptical, ESPECIALLY after the horrible movie adaption, so I went into it with low expectations. Fortunately, Clannad didn't let me down. Unlike other harems, the main male, Tomoya, is less fortunate the other leads. His mother died at a young age leaving him with his father, who became an alcoholic and a gambler out of depression. Hating the town he lives in, he continues on living with no motivation until one day he meets Nagisa, a fragile girl who stands nervously at the bottom of the hill on the way to school, scared. After encouraging her to be strong and make new memories in her new year, he finds himself motivated to helping her with her dilemas including joining the schools drama club. Among other characters are Sunahora, the comedic dope who is Tomoya's closest friend, Ryou and Kyou, who are twins who hang out with the two, Kotomi, a quite genious who's socially awkward, and Tomoyo, a strong woman who is running for student council president. The series basically goes through their school life as many harems do, but the comedy is some of the best in anime, as well as the drama being very heavy. The art is very sharp. Within the first 5 minutes, I knew I'd be in for a treat for sure. Not only is the art good, it combines crisp CGI animation as well, which completely impressed me. I was on the fence about the soundtrack honestly,, mainly because I played the game. The soundtrack is the same, with the exception of the ED, which is one of the tracks with words put to it (Dango Daikazokou), which isn't the problem, because the games soundtrack is nothing short of a master work. The problems lies in where those tracks are placed. The songs didn't really go with what was happening some of the time, and was a little confusing. This was the only thing that made me think it might end up like other harems, but thankfully, this wasn't that big of a deal. In fact, there were some moments where it does work, and very nicely. The characters would be Clannad's strongest suit. Each character has such personality, it can be overwhelming. Not only the main characters are this way, but supporting as well, notably Nagisa's parents, Akio and Sanae. Each episode was ball to watch, and it was easy to keep watching. I never had a moment where I wanted to drop. However, I didn't have a moment where I needed to see the next episode either. Clannad is easily the best harem out there, but it needed to be more than that. NOTE: I am specifically reviewing the FIRST SEASON. If you believe I am being harsh, wait until I write my Clannad AS review. In short, I would highly recommend it to viewers because they would then be able to watch the second season. As far as the first season is concerned, it will still be a great watch full of laughs and watery eyes, and in itself, I would recommend it as well.

By far one of the most captivating anime I have ever watched. It had a great blend of all the genre I, myself, considered great. I don't know about all the other reviews but the 3 reviews I've read were extremely long on this anime and I don't know about you but I'm not gonna read an essay for a review. Story (10/10): The story developed rather fast but I guess that's what you had to do if you only had one season to make certain events happen. But I believe the director made it work out. But the main thing is whom Tomoya will end up with. There are also tons of flashbacks that hint the fate of our main character, Tomoya. Amazingly, in the sequel, all of the hints are connected together for us and we find what becomes of Tomoya; everything, who he goes out with and what happens after season 1 ends. Art (8/10): I don't even know what to write about in art. I mean the art... was it important. For some of us yeah... But I believe that there could be some changes when they animate someone crying. Kind of looks like they were happy instead of sad. I could never tell... But everything else for art, I would say it was proficient. Sound (8/10): Same thing as art... Just replace art with sounds? Simple... But it was not the art or sound that made this anime great. Don't let that hinder your judgement. In fact, don't judge until you watch both seasons. Character (10/10): Some people may say that the characters always make different decisions for the same situation and that they were not being static. Meaning that the writer failed to decide what the character would do accordingly to the personality/behavior created for the specific character. But I don't think so. Cause they are static characters... Meaning they change. Why did they change. Well be nice if you watched it... These character were also uniquely made/created, they specifically were made to trigger certain events in the story/plot. Without these characters the story may as well fall apart. Enjoyment (10/10): It was a captivating anime. It kept me asking what would happen in the next and following episode and trust me I was not disappointed to know. But if you don't trust me, ask yourself this: Who else knows me better than me? If you like a Romantic-Comedy, this is an anime for you. But let's not forget that there are still drama in it but I'm not a genius and I don't know genre or how to put them together but my best guess is Dramatic-Romantic-Comedy. Don't ask why I'm so smart. I'm not took me years to figure that one out...

If you are into comedy/romance/high school slice of life this anime is perfect. By far the most great anime with those themes. From the first impression till the end it's great. I started it because I fell in LOVE with the art of the anime. From there on the story just sucked me in the anime. It has all kinds of elements in it. It's funny, heart-warming, sad. It gets so many emotions out of you. The great thing about the main characters are that they aren't shallow. They are portrayed as realictically as possible with interesting backrounds, which adds a deeper understanding to their characters. I have seen a LOT of animes, but none of them left such an impression as this one to re-watch it a million times. i don't want to give too much away. I just recommend you to watch the first episode and you will get a good impression of this anime. But a lot happens throughout the whole anime and you definitely need to watch till the very end, which is so beautiful. GO WATCH IT NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T YET!

Don't let the hype fool you. This is quite possibly one of the worst romances I have ever seen. I'll start off with the characters: They are all annoying as heck with one dimensional personalities and most of them act so innocent and dumb it's hard to watch. The art style is so bland and the eyes of the characters are humongous. It's art style looks like its aimed towards 3rd graders. The ending song is the only redeeming factor of the sound/music in this series and after hearing it 20 times, It just gets dreadful and annoying and reminds me of the really bad characters. Each "arc" where the main character helps some side characters that disappear forever afterwards take wayyyyy too long and are plain uninteresting. The two MC's have no chemistry at all and this is a disgrace to romance.

This is a complete anime. Sadness, Laughter, Romance, Comedy, there's a wide variety of flavors you can find in this relic. Story [9/10] The story starts off by introducing us Tomoya Okazaki, a delinquent who has bad grades, is always late for school and is always followed by his "wing man" Sunohara Youhei. One day he finds a girl on is way to school, Furukawa Nagisa, she mumbles a word out loud which calls his attention, from that point forward their relationship will change while new characters are introduced and new experiences flourish. Art [7/10] / Sound [9/10] / Character [9/10] When it comes to characters this is a great example of how they should be done, every single new character we get introduced has a new and interesting story behind them, those stories on which our main characters are involved and will allow them to create new friendships, create bonds with each other and create a deep emotional feel and meaning to what love and friendship should be like without too much drama. Although they all seem to look the same each character has a different personality, a different background which made me want for more, you'll see as the story progresses that some personalities like Tomoya, will change over time and that's what makes the anime so memorable and desirable, i just feel sorry for Sunohara, became a punching bag all the time, he did not deserved it. The art was relatively good, mostly the background scenarios were mostly based on buildings with street views, and the sound was just pleasing, fitting the dramatic and comedy sections very well. Enjoyment [9/10] This is a remarkable experience for anyone to watch, i cried a lot, i laughed, it creates such a deep impact in you, the meaning of friendship, how a person can change, what a true smile really means, the cries, simple words are just not enough to describe it, if you want to feel, definitely go watch it for yourself. Reserved a place on my heart just for Clannad, if you are looking for a sweet romance with story progression and lovely characters this is for you.

This is going to be a fairly short anime review but itll be worth once you have read it all. I am going to tell you guys all why i rated this show as I did. So lets get started. (no spoilers) First off the story 8/10: The storyis about Okazaki Tomoya is a delinquent who finds life dull and believes he'll never amount to anything. Along with his friend Sunohara, he skips school and plans to waste his high school days away. One day while walking to school, Tomoya passes a young girl muttering quietly to herself. Without warning she exclaims "Anpan!" (a popular Japanese food) which catches Tomoya's attention. He soon discovers the girl's name is Furukawa Nagisa and that she exclaims things she likes in order to motivate herself. Nagisa claims they are now friends, but Tomoya walks away passing the encounter off as nothing. However, Tomoya finds he is noticing Nagisa more and more around school. Eventually he concedes and befriends her. Tomoya learns Nagisa has been held back a year due to a severe illness and that her dream is to revive the school's drama club. Claiming he has nothing better to do, he decides to help her achieve this goal along with the help of four other girls. As Tomoya spends more time with the girls, he learns more about them and their problems. As he attempts to help each girl overcome her respective obstacle, he begins to realise life isn't as dull as he once thought. (synopsis) I rated the story 8/10 because at times the story would have dull moments where you would be thinking what the heck just went down? For instance when I first started the show and it kept showing the robot and the girl I was thinking to myself what the hell does that have to do with anything, but I soon realized what it was all for later. Anyways the story sets itself on the right track right out of the gate. The biggest problem would be the pace at the beginning of the show and how he solves the problems, I personally thought that its was very obvious what was going to happen. The art 9/10: Very very great detail the outside setting was amazing. I'll give a big hand to the artist's of this show they are very skilled. Not much else to say about the art haha. The sound 9/10: the english dub was great though I did see a few flaws but it wasnt anything worth mentioning in this review. I have not seen the subbed version so this is purely dubbed. The Character 9/10: Each character was developed nicely. You got a piece of every character throughtout the show. Which is a great thing because they all bring personalities that are all different. My favorite character in the show would be Sunohara because his personality was the best. I liked the way he would be perverted and was always funny in the show. Which made the pacing of the show seem a bit quicker. He was also great because he would get beaten up by a chick which is something you dont see very often. Enjoyment 10/10 : personally I am a big fan of the romantic genre so I really really enjoyed this anime. From beginning to end I sought my self being brought to tears. If you watch this from beginning to end you will get hit so hard in the feels its not even funny. I got alot of enjoyment out of this anime because I liked to see all of the different situations that they would get themselves into and how they would solver their problems. What an outstanding anime to watch. There are alot of words that can be used to describe this anime. Overall 9/10: all of my reasons above. WHAT A GREAT ANIME TO WATCH IF YOURE A BIG FAN OF THE ROMANTIC GENRE. IM LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING ANOTHER GREAT ANIME THAT WILL COME OUT IN THE NEAR FUTURE THAT WILL COME TO PAR WITH THIS SHOW. I KNOW I WASNT SUPPOSED TO PUT A SYNOPSIS BUT I USED IT AS A GUIDELINE SORRY MYANIMELIST XD

Do you hate your city? Find it difficult to cope with attending to classes? Do you even love your family? What are your feelings toward your father? What will you sacrifice in order to live the path you have chosen? and these lights... what are they for? What do they mean? Are you happy? What I find special about this series is its uniqueness. At the beginning of watching it, I was rather thinking it is going to be a typical and dull story, but to my astonishment it went totally differently. Once it catches your attention, you will treasure it wholeheartedly. The whole concept of the story may be seen as boring - since, what is so special about high school students who fell in love with each other? As it turns out, there is something more beyond it. There is solitude, love, family problems, school problems, dreams, desires, death, friendships. It's a story where one event, one single meeting turns upside down someone else's life. Till the very last episode the ending is not obvious. Every little detail matches each other, which is great. Some characters appear unexpectedly making it even more mysterious. In spite of various personalities, different points of views, the characters actually get along very well together. Every step the main characters attempt, is meant for something. Love brings people together, love makes the wishes come true, love is the most powerful tool in the world! Music is marvellously composed. I assure you that you will cry like a baby. I find it impossible to not cry at all. It is such a unique story, or rather an exceptionally beautiful one...

If you ever want to watch an anime that will warm up your heart, this will do. why did i give it a 10? the story was very clever. even if the drama is very cliche, the writer did an excellent job of finding a creative different approach to express love, dreams, family, friends, relationships, and all the life's most dramtic events. Very sad in a happy form. (i cried numourous times...very heart warming) this anime has a lot of metaphors and expressions used to convey human emotion through different conditions. Very artistic, quick paced, and very reasonable length of different stories within the series. I enjoyed this anime so much i watch the an entire 19 episodes in 1 day. that is pretty much iver 85% of the entire series. I recommend this anime to people who loves to venture into a more indept personal feeling within the characters and who can handle a lot of drama. The mood killer really was necessary for me. the anime became way to heavy quick. i hope you guys enjoy this anime.

Romances/Dramas aren't really my bag, and to be honest, I came into watching this Anime with low expectations. But with low expectations, come outstanding surprises. The show focuses around the life and times of a senior in High School, Tomoya Okazaki. He's a self described delinquent and frequently skips school, however, underneath his tough guy facade and satirical jokes, he's just a regular student who lacks direction in his life. That is, until he meets the love of his life and several other buxom beauties. The story is great as it mixes real life problems, such as relationships, troubling pasts and the inability to articulate oneself in public with other problems of a more supernatural nature. While I wouldn't describe this story as entirely realistic the message it communicates is very strong and the voice acting and music is lovely. However, I will complain about the opening and ending songs, as, I felt they ruined the atmosphere of the show or just didn't mesh that well no matter how well they were actually related to it. Tomoya's friend, Youhei Sunoharo, remains particularly static throughout the series, and while that does leave some disappointment as I was hoping he would come into his self during his senior year of High School as the other characters did, he was still amusing for comic relief. On Tomoya's quest to do as little as possible during his senior year he meets a variety of interesting characters, ranging from ex gang members to super genius's and in doing so recruits a makeshift harem of weirdos and oddballs. While not every member of this harem is interested in him at first, he soon captures the hearts of all of them with his satire, cruel jokes, and compassionate side he modestly brushes off. While there are no actual cat fights over Tomoya, there is still a sportsman like competition for his affection. In so doing, Tomoya learns of the many problems of his friends and possible lovers. These side back stories of the main characters were poorly done in most cases. Whereas the characters could have been much, much deeper they instead portray the entirety of the character and simplify them. By this I mean, the entire personality of the character can be summed up in a few episodes regarding an event in their past - making the characters slightly shallow and lacking the many intricacies of the human psyche. But, this story is a tear jerker, if you will, and does have some really nice moments where it's completely depressing, and thanks to the wonderful voice acting and beautiful music, they really hit home - especially if you have some semblance to one of the character's past. While times are good while the story's progressing, in it's finality it felt lacking. For some reason, after watching the final episode the story felt unfinished. It completely left the story open for anything to happen, and the main character, just like in the beginning of the story, has no balls. There weren't very many inconsistencies, however, it never actually describes how the main character gets money. They say that he has a part time job, but they never explore that and with his situation at home, his unlimited funding seems out of place. While it's a small complaint, things like that just bug me. So, despite a few static or shallow aspects, a bad ending, and a few inconsistencies along the way, it's really a great anime that I would suggest to anyone who likes the stereotypical romance story. Not bad for guys, either. I'm telling you, I was really pleasantly surprised with this one.

All it took was a small trip to my local anime store that was having a 2-for-1 special for secondhand DVDs for me to come across a series which I'll always hold a special place for in my heart, a programme which was no doubt an emotional roller-coaster that was a harrowing tale of love and loss. Unfortunately, that very programme suffers from a *very* lacklustre beginning. What is this programme you ask? Why it's none other than Clannad: After Story and its lacklustre beginning is this very season. It's no secret that us Desi folks get pretty damn melodramatic and sentimental at times. We LOVE the shit out of our romances and melodramas. Can you name ONE Desi person who hasn't cried once whilst watching Kal Ho Naa Ho or Baghban? Okay, maybe the younger folks don't have a taste for that stuff but I certainly do (and so do my parents... who like to kick me out of the house every time we watch Baghban together because of the infamous guilt trip that movie begets). What does all this shit have to do with anything? I don't know, but one thing's for certain: this season of Clannad is a romantic melodrama to the core and yet it completely failed at eliciting an emotional response out of me a good majority of the time (which is a feat in and of itself given my tastes). Regardless, this season ain't all bad. In fact, I really did like it but I didn't find it "poignant," "compelling," or "heartbreaking" like the back of the DVD box says it is. ***THE CONCEPT AND SETTING*** Clannad follows the story of Tomoya Okazaki, a delinquent high school student who hates where he lives because it's full of too many painful memories and his adventures with several other girls, each with their own sets of problems that he needs to help them solve. However, there's another event happening in different world as Tomoya et al are going about their lives: a girl who is the last of her kind all alone on an unknown world builds a companion out of junk who wants to help her leave this place before the winter comes and eventually takes her life. How do these stories connect? Tune in to find that out and MORE on the next episode of... DRAGON BALL Z!!!! In case you haven't noticed by now, this is the third instalment of a series of visual novel adaptations produced by Kyoto Animation and KEY Visual Arts and a hallmark of these visual novel adaptations is a seemingly mundane setting mixed together with a supernatural element of sorts which gradually becomes more important as the series progresses. Now I haven't seen (nor do I have any interest in) Air or Kanon (2006) but I can safely say this: if you are NOT a fan of moe, inadvertent harems, supernatural stuff in your slice-of-life programmes, or moe drama... you probably won't like Clannad which is a real shame because After Story is definitely several leagues above this season but I digress. As for the concept and how it's explored... well, it isn't explored very much here (or all that much in After Story... oddly enough). The first episode literally starts with an opening monologue from Tomoya who says "I hate this town, it's too filled with memories I'd rather forget." What are these memories that he'd rather forget? Why is his relationship with his father strained? None of these questions are answered at all and whilst After Story does a good job of cleaning up those loose plot threads, there are still some questions left unanswered as the show puts more focus on the story of Tomoya et al in the here and now rather than explaining what happened in the past. This is more or less the case throughout the entirety of Clannad for various plot threads, especially given how it puts more emphasis on the stories of certain girls but then throws everyone else to the wayside as the anime adapts that particular girl's arc from the visual novel. Remember Nagisa? You know... the girl that Tomoya meets that one fateful day at the beginning of the first episode? She's no better than a supporting character for the bulk of this season. The same goes for Kyou, you know... that tsundere twin who Tomoya should call Jacoby and Meyers on? Granted, After Story DOES put in some work to fix this, but it's too little too late by that point. ***THE STORY*** Considering the fact that Clannad is a visual novel adaptation (a romance visual novel adaptation at that), it's no surprise that there is an inadvertent harem that forms over the course of the series and that Tomoya is the only useful guy around for the bulk of this programme's run. Unfortunately, that's my biggest problem with the story of Clannad. As far as visual novel adaptations go, it isn't exactly a cut above the rest of its competition when it comes down to execution for a variety of different reasons. For one thing, there are certain nuances which make perfect sense in a visual novel context but when translated over to an anime context, they work to its detriment. If you need a good example of what I'm talking about, look no further than the way that the characters are handled. Visual novels are fundamentally designed in such a way where certain characters and arcs are often thrown to the wayside based on the route you choose to play through. In an anime context, that nuance doesn't work well and is often considered to be poor/lazy writing. This especially works to its detriment when we're talking about how each of the girls' arcs are adapted. In short, KEY's visual novels were never meant to be adapted in a linear fashion. This is a ROMANCE visual novel adaptation. You know that Tomoya would've hooked up with the girl whose arc was being adapted by the end of it all, and yet somehow this show still gives off the vibe that Tomoya and Nagisa are going to end up together (spoilers: they do). Now this didn't really bother me that much since I understand the context of the adaptation but that still doesn't change the fact that these problems could've easily been avoided had there been more foresight. I mean, why didn't Tomoyo and Sunohara have a romantic subplot which actually adapted her arc of the visual novel? In hindsight, that would've worked a lot better rather than having Tomoya move over to Tomoyo once he was through with Kotomi's arc. There are WAY more instances like that than I let on, by the way. The supernatural aspect of Clannad is also something that a great many people end up taking umbrage with and I definitely understand that sentiment as it DOES get rather ridiculous at times. There is a way to do supernatural stuff in drama right (look no further than the 1990 film, Ghost), but this doesn't apply to Clannad or the rest of the KEY visual novel adaptations whatsoever. At the same time, the supernatural elements of Clannad become far less prevalent as the series progresses (even moreso in After Story) so it's not as bad as it would initially seem. What is present however is intrusive enough to deter prospective viewers from giving this series a proper chance. The last thing that I want to talk about when it comes down to the story of this season is the fact that it plays out more like an archetypal moe drama. We're presented with a bunch of cute girls who are then swiftly beaten with the angsty crowbar until they end up like Jason Todd and then they turn into cardboard cut-outs for the viewer to project their fantasies of consoling and/or fucking vulnerable girls. As ugly as that sounds, it's the truth and no amount of pathos, gorgeous animation, endearing character quirks, and funny/heartwarming moments can ever change that. It's all about eliciting an emotional response out of the viewer and because of this, nothing about this season feels genuine. Can the same be said about After Story: NO. Unfortunately, first impressions tend to last forever and as far as first impressions go... Clannad fails to leave a strong one and in many cases, the fact that this season is so underwhelming has actually caused MANY to not even bother giving After Story a chance which is a …

Clannad just made me want to write a review. Many people seem to LOVE Clannad, I guess I'm the oddball who thinks its just a generic romcom harem show with a bit of drama. Story 6/10 Not bad,but very very generic. The drama club arc was good, but Fuko's and Kotomi's arcs were just pointless fillers in my opinion. Other than that I also enjoyed the comedy episodes , but on the other hand some of the drama was kind of stupid. Art 7/10 Even though it's done by KyoAni, the animation is just average quality. Sure the characters look cute, and the show overall is very colorful... but its nothing outstanding, to be honest. Sound 8/10 Not very much to say about this, but the music is good and fits the show well. Characters 6/10 This is the worst part for me. I didn't really like the characters that much. Tomoya was fine,though he suffered from the " chick magnet without a reason syndrome" It wasn't that bad but,he was just Mr.Nice guy helping all the girls. Nagisa....well wasn't horrible,but she had annoying crybaby moments. Fuko and Kotomi were just......uhh how do I say this..... retarded. (Seriously, a girl who thinks about nothing but starfishes and a "genius" who can't introduce herself properly...) Kyou and Ryou were pretty cool. They reminded me a lot of the Hiiragi twins from Lucky star. I actually liked them. Tomoyo was also a pretty good character,she wasn't annoying at all. Sadly she didn't get too much attention. Now, Sunohara and Mei were probably my favorite characters. They were so funny, and it they didn't get boring at all. The episodes involving them were the most fun. Overall the characters aren't too horrible, but the show focuses more on the characters I don't like,so I guess it's just bad for me. Enjoyment 8/10 Even though the Fuko episodes nearly killed me,there were some fun episodes that were a joy to watch. (for example the episode where they played basketball) I liked the comedy,romance and slice of life parts of the show. The drama didn't interest me that much,but it was pretty emotional. Overall 7(maybe 7.5)/10 Clannad was a good show. But not a super amazing masterpiece. To me it was a pretty generic,but enjoyable romcom. It was a very nice story,but I just didn't see whats so special about it.

Clannad: An Anime Romantic Comedy At It's Finest It's really a shame that you don't see more romantic comedies done as well as Clannad in the anime industry. From beginning to end, I found myself laughing, smiling, and crying at everything that was going on in this series. I found the strongest aspect behind this series was the characters. There really wasn't one single character I can say I despised. I absolutely loved the lead character, Tomoya. He had a great personality for someone who is considered a delinquent, but also kind-hearted at the same time. Yuuichi Nakamura was a perfect casting for his character and I'd say this role might have propelled his career to play other notable male protagonists, such as Alto Saotome from Macross Frontier and Oreki Houtarou from Hyouka to name a few. Overall, I found all of the female leads to be extremely likable. Nagisa, Kyou, Fuko, Kotomi, and Tomoyo were all interesting, unique characters. What's funny is the best part about this series is while on the outside it seems like a harem series, it really isn't. There really isn't that much of a love conflict between the girls for Tomoya like you see in many series nowadays. There are quite a few moments where Tomoya does bond with each character, but it doesn't feel like a forced romance. There is some tension present, but it's very minuscule and it becomes obvious later on in the series who the main love interest is. Even the characters I like to consider "main supporting" like Akio, Sanae, and Youhei were strong driving points, from mostly a comedy standpoint but also the dramatic standpoint as well. As for the story, I found it to be solid but not without its faults. The basic start behind this story is Tomoya despises the city he lives in due to a tragic series of events. These events occur off-screen and are just forced exposition to the next event. It doesn't help that I don't think the series got off to the best of starts when Tomoya meets Nagisa for the first time and finds out she's repeating her senior year after missing an entire school year due to an illness. I found it kind of flawed, mostly because the writers didn't make it very clear as to what illness she had. Overall, I found the entire first episode to be a little too vague with its character backstory, for both Tomoya and Nagisa. However, despite this rather forced start, I found the series rebounded quite a bit as it progressed and covered some of its tracks it missed early on. This series was extremely character driven and the overall story revolved around how Tomoya's character changed due to the relationships he formed his senior year of high school. While this series struggled to portray backstories, the present characters more than made up for it. Another factor I found to be a strong suit for this series was the sound production. I really enjoy a series when the music and tone can set the mood perfectly. I give major props to Shinji Orito for the music composed for this series. It certainly didn't hurt to get the perfect performer for the series OP. Lia became pretty well known for her performance for the Air OP and also went on to do the OPs for Clannad: After Story and Angel Beats! as well. While there are a lot of great things to say about this series, I did feel it had a few flaws. As I mentioned before, I found some of the character backstories to be rather vague. While I wouldn't say it completely ruined the series, I did also find the "tragedy" theme to be rather forced among all the lead characters. It seemed as though each and every lead character had some sort of forced, tragic backstory. While I found the Fuko arc to be endearing, I also found it to be rather "out-of-place," especially considering there wasn't exactly a proper explanation as to who or what she is (trying my best not to spoil it). While I consider this more of a personal preference than a flaw, I'm not a huge fan of Kyoto Ani's animation style during the mid-to-late 2000s, with Clannad being no exception. Most specifically, the character designs. I'm not a huge fan of how the facial designs are on their characters...however, I cannot necessarily call that bad animation because it is more a personal preference than an animation flaw. There was one minor plot point that wasn't completely covered within the Clannad storyline and that had to do with the off-story dream sequences/Nagisa's play, mostly revolving around Tomoya's involvement. I won't spoil it, but it didn't feel like it was completely elaborated upon. Overall, Clannad is a touching romantic comedy that seems to balance everything out extremely well. There are great comedic moments, touching dramatic moments, and even a sweet romantic buildup to boot. The scriptwriting and characters were downright magnificent in this regard. This series has just about anything you could ask for in a romantic comedy. While I wouldn't say this was the best romantic comedy I've ever seen, it is definitely one of the best and I highly recommend this series to anyone looking for a good laugh and cry.

Browsing through Kyoto Animation's page on Wikipedia, I wanted to look for more laughs produced by the wonderful studio. Finished with the very popular Haruhi, Lucky Star, and K-On!, one of them had caught my eye. That was Clannad. And I have to say, Clannad may quite possibly be one of the best anime I've ever watched in my life. Story: The story of Clannad is set in a Japanese city, with the majority of it taking place in the city's high school. Clannad is pretty much similar to Kanon (2006), which is also produced by Kyoto Animation. They both start off with character introductions in the early episodes, and later the story is separated into different arcs that focus on one character or a group of characters. Tomoya Okazaki, the main protagonist of Clannad, is known for being a delinquent throughout his school. A frequent slacker and a straightforward person, which at some times others call him rude for that, Tomoya is truly a delinquent. But after one fateful encounter with a girl, Nagisa Furukawa, who randomly says "anpan" on his way to school, Tomoya's life is soon to be changed. And so begins Clannad, a story that shows how valuable having a family can be. Characters: Clannad's main cast is what truly makes this anime a spectacle. They're all likable as you advance through each episode and each one of them are very unique. Traits such as Tomoya's hilarious straightforwardness, Nagisa's lighthearted, yet literal, attitude, Kyou's tsundere personality, Kotomi's airheaded cuteness, Tomoyo's assertive attitude, and Fuko's cold, yet funny, approach towards others are enjoyable throughout the series. Needless to say, the supporting cast is also great. From Sunohara's stupidly-funny cockiness to Nagisa's dysfunctional, yet very caring, parents, the supporting cast of Clannad is one of those that ACTUALLY support the main cast and they do a great job with it. Art and Animation: Once again, Kyoto Animation does what it does best. The art and animation is truly superb in every aspect. From moe girls to the many different facial expressions throughout the series, KyoAni truly did a great job with Clannad. Sound: I'm not too fond of scoring sound, but Clannad did a pretty darn good job with it. The characters' VAs really suit the character they're voicing. The music is pretty top notch as well. They did an excellent job choosing the music for the comedic, light-hearted, and dramatic scenes. However, I wasn't quite attached to the opening and ending songs. Sure they show how Clannad is, but I just could not get myself to enjoy them. They are, however, memorable and unforgettable though. Enjoyment: At first, I never thought I would get into the story since the reason why I wanted to watch this was for the comedy, but ironically, the story eventually drove me to watch this anime. Even the characters kept me enjoyed and urged me to watch more since they're such a unique bunch. It's nice blend of comedy, drama, romance, slice-of-life, and a little bit of harem thrown in there, truly made this anime an enjoyable experience that's never to be forgotten. Score Breakdown: Story- 10 Characters- 10 Art- 10 Sound- 9 Enjoyment- 10 Overall, Clannad is a series that you should not pass down. It does everything in the right places, from the comedy to the drama. Looking at it for the first time may deter you, but guaranteed, there's something in that anime that will make you enjoy it.

First impression: As my first romance anime I had next to zero expectation to Clannad, since I picked it up as a change from mecha/action. The intro really made a big impact on me, the music, animation and colors are well timed. The opening song is sweet yet with a feeling of energy. After the opening song you get introduced to several main/support characters. With a splendid use of humor, animation and BGM I’m left behind with a small yet solid knowledge of what awaits me in the future episodes. The ending song is cute and simple animated, not quite my taste but I’m sure I belong to the minority here. Great episode, I’m hungry for more. Few episodes later… The main focus is on Fuko (one of the main girls), a rather mysterious girl who hangs out with Tomoya (protagonist) and Nagisa. It becomes clear to me that Clannad is divided up into several arcs but I’m not sure what the main plot is about. It doesn’t matter though, since the characters really deliver the entertainment, so I’m tagging along. Around episode 10ish Clannad shows its true potential. The arc of Fuko culminates in such a manner that swept me away; I couldn’t believe that I didn’t foresee the outcome. Even though I’m a newcomer when it comes to romance, school-life animes, I’m now sure I’m watching a big giant in this genre. Story: It revolves around Tomoya Okazaki, a male student who believes himself as a delinquent. He is very helpful and shows good understandings of other people. Throughout the show he meets several female fellow students, who in one way or another need his presence. That means the show is build up around the girls in the opening and divided up into the following arcs, and Tomoya interacts with them one by one and hopefully ending with one of the girls. The main story is plain and simple, but it is the background stories of some of the characters that show us the depths. Art: I’m surprised how well made the ‘insert-scenes’ are. The correct word for it is yet unknown to me, but scenes like Tomoyo kicking Sunohara or Kyou ranting around the guys are hilarious (like when she gets embarrassed or mad). There is many more and every one of them delivers. The backgrounds are well used to add up the effect of particular scenes, the animations and the colors are made with lots of efforts and are a great joy for the eyes. Sound: The sound in Clannad is outstanding. It creates a great atmosphere and becomes in one with the animation. It could have been great with another opening and ending song throughout the show, but nevertheless both of them are very catchy. After a while the ending song grows on you, so you can’t stop yourself humming to the tune. Character: Each of the main and supporting characters is very colorful and full of life. It is hard not to be fond of them, but on the other side they are very static. Meaning after a few episodes you don’t get surprised by their actions anymore, but that doesn’t matter in this case, since you just want more and more screen time with your favorite character. Enjoyment: From hilarious jabs to tearful events, Clannad has it all. Great animations full of colors and details, amazing voice acting and amusing dialogues blended together with gloomy background stories are great tools to make the theory of relativity to come true. You lose the sense of reality and get surprised how fast each episodes pass’ by. Overall: This show is the new benchmark when it comes to romance, school life. I got this feeling that Clannad is rather a melancholy than a happy series, but when the show masters all the aspects of ‘what an anime should be’, it really doesn’t matter in the end. Stunning voice acting and perfect interactions between the characters are the corner stones of this show. Watch it if you… … are nothing more than a normal anime fan. You don’t want to miss this one.

Spoiler-free should-you-watch review of Clannad + After Story: I seriously don't even know where to start with this review, I've started it five different ways at five different points from five different perspectives. My feelings about Clannad are a complete mess, much like Clannad itself; there are parts of this show that I simultaneously treasure and despise. I don't know if I can recommend Clannad, because it gets so close to reaching greatness that it only hurts that much more when it squanders everything it builds. For your entertainment, the tragedy of Clannad in five simple truths: First simple truth: Clannad's first season is quite bad. The show has no idea the story it wants to tell, and so it feels like they grabbed a handful of random Visual Novel routes and slapped them together. Consider, for a moment, the genre tags on MAL: "Drama", "Romance", "Supernatural". It will come as a shock to you, then, that Clannad is godawful at evoking those genres, but pretty decent at Comedy. It has no problem slam dunking Drama and Romance into the dumpster to make a stupid joke 50 times an episode. Even when Clannad is trying to be serious, it doesn’t give you enough time or reason to care about any of its characters. Another genre tag that Clannad is missing is "harem", because its first season follows the tropes pretty well; a mostly uninteresting guy is suddenly surrounded by lots of cute girls (each a different dating sim archetype) that for some reason are interested in him. And where some anime might let a compelling setting pick up some slack, the super-natural element is closer to super-fluous; it's not really used or needed in the story and feels totally out of place. The cast of Clannad is full of Manic Pixie Dream People who do quirky nonsense for no reason, and the plot of Clannad is full of random disconnected traumas to trick you into thinking it's well-written. This means that it needs to use cheap tricks and emotional manipulation to get you to feel feelings, and it rarely works. Characters suddenly reveal *trauma* to surprise you into caring. "Oh no! Anyway…" Second simple truth: Clannad has a weird presentation. I wasn't sure about giving this its own section, but in hindsight it's probably the elephant in the room. Homo Sapiens display some fairly strong sexual dimorphism: body fat and muscle distributions, genitalia, height, etc. In Clannad, however, men are mostly regular anime guys, and women are sad baby aliens. I understand they wanted to maintain a consistent art style with the visual novel, but it's still uncomfortable. It only really works when they're drawing (you guessed it) sad babies and young children, and that would be fine if Clannad were more about babies, but unfortunately it's mostly about teenagers and above. It goes beyond the art, though. The soundtrack feels like it's ripped straight from an old visual novel, which only really works for the more ominous and atmospheric pieces. The dub isn't horrible but it's not spectacular, which is sad because I really like some of the voice actors. I get the feeling that Seraphim Digital generally has a hard time directing and editing dialogue to sound natural. Third simple truth: Clannad botches its references to queer identities. This is kind of standard fare for older anime, but it'd be wrong not to talk about it a little. Also, I consider this paragraph more of a trigger warning than a spoiler, but it's on the fence, so be warned. Being gay in Clannad is a punchline, not a real thing that could ever actually happen. To Nigisa's credit, she is quite openminded about homosexuality at one point, but the show itself really isn't. If someone is suggesting two characters are gay, it's supposed to be 1) funny, 2) hot because they're lesbians, or 3) both. Worse, though, is the main character's best friend: he's a perverted douchebag in general, but this dude spends way too long trying to out a girl at their school as trans. Granted, yes, he's supposed to be an idiot, it's a joke, har har. However. The main character pretty much enables him the whole time, and eventually his actions bear fruit because she realizes she's not as feminine as she wishes she was. It's this weird disempowering arc that just doesn't need to happen. Fourth simple truth: After Story has some really great parts. It's very hard to explain this well without getting into spoiler territory, but I'll do what I can. After Story starts with a similar feel to the first season, but very quickly develops into a show that's capable of taking itself more seriously. The little floating stories, despite sometimes being unrelated to the main plot, are better put together, and the main story itself is much more focused and poignant than in the first season. Although it drags sometimes, After Story actually gives you developed characters and moves the story in a really compelling direction. The supernatural elements seem like they're actually going to lead somewhere meaningful. One half of the romance is much better developed than the other, but it's still nice. There are heartwarmingly sweet and cripplingly sad moments, but the saddest moment of all is when Clannad betrays those previous touching moments for absolutely no good reason whatsoever. Fifth and final simple truth: Clannad loves to shoot itself in the foot. Clannad's tragedy is not in plot, but in construction; it squanders the little good it can dredge up, and makes you feel like an idiot for thinking it was going somewhere. And, to clarify, a story isn't bad simply because it doesn't go where I hope it's going to go, I know this. I will do my best to explain how it fails without spoiling the details. If vague, I at least hope the following sections will be interesting. In the first season, the problem was that Clannad wanted to spend all its time making jokes and messing with narrative novelties, rather than developing a compelling drama. When supernatural elements show up, Clannad makes sure they they feel pointless and distracting, particularly after the fact. When something compelling finally happens, it makes sure to add in some confusing detail that ruins what made it compelling in the first place. In After Story, Clannad takes some time to get rolling, but eventually it starts using those little details to make you feel like maybe there was a coherent story here all along. It zooms in to show you tender moments and complicated motivations. And then it has one idea too many. A brand new idea, definitely not a lesson we should have learned during the first season, no no no: add in a detail that ruins what made it compelling in the first place. If Clannad: After Story was tying your shoes, it got through one half of the bow, then stopped and told you your shoe was tied. No tucking the second loop, no pulling the knot tight, nothing. You take a few steps and it just falls apart. But boy, wasn't it great when it was still tying your shoes? Back when you thought your shoes would be tied once it was done? It even gave you hope; you realized that maybe After Story would be able to use some of the tangles Clannad Season 1 left in your laces to form a pretty knot. You thought "boy, After Story sure seems to be much better at tying my shoes than season 1". Those were the days. Clannad then hands you a third shoe that's already tied. "But Clannad, I wanted you to tie MY shoe. The shoe on my foot! What am I supposed to do with this?" Clannad smiles, thinking it did a good job, and floats off into the sky. It's not deus ex machina, it's something even less satisfying, and more than disappointing it's just really lazy. Closing Thoughts: There's something beautiful here that I can't quite put my finger on, something that transcends the show: the real-life failure of Clannad to live up to its own story makes me think of the in-story meaning I had started to derive while watching. That meaning isn't gone just because Clannad dropped the ball, but it's weak, an…

Ah, Clannad, another copy paste by sir Maeda, poorly. Sometimes, I've hope for animes who take a wrong start, because It could be better later, I guess. But here, the atmosphere is the same during all the godamn 23 episodes, an atmosphere a way too slow for that kind of stuff. School life is already an difficult kind of show to make, because it quickly fall into clichés. So, with Clannad, we got a combo of all the errors you need to dodge to make a good anime. Let's get started so, enough of free insults without arguments. At the beginning, few month ago, I was thinking of Clannad and his sequel like the crème de la crème of japanimation, a chef d'oeuvre without any equal, a masterpiece of animu. But after some re-watching ( and viewing of other great animes ) I come to the conclusion that is just overrated, nothing else. After all, it's like all key/maeda animes, the same story, the same overrating. Look at AB, for example. Who the hell it is rated 8.50 ? This thing doesn't worth 5, because it's too short, too anarchic, too fast-paced and there's a way too much bullshit in the end. And here, same problem, without the supernaturel side ( or not ). Maeda has a big problem with scriptwritting : this is always the same context. This is the same melo-drama high school atmosphere, the same male protagonist who seems inexpressive, the same female protagonist who's shy and got some serious illness, the same retard sidekick who's constantly the casting's punching ball. And this is always the f*cking same tearjerker, and shit, that's quite boring. I'm not against forced drama ( 'cause I'm a pussy ), that's why I like AnoHana or Shigatsu. But it mostly introduced at the END of the series, unlike maeda's shows where you're constantly about to tear bust. And made of tearjerker a main argument of watching is not a very very good thing, you see ? Because when you start criticizing it, people are like "it's so sad, how can you say it's bad ?" and so, the debate become sterile. But well, let's talk a bit about the story in itself. Story - 4 I love theater. I'm actually practicing it and I enjoy it as hell. But here's, theater is just a fake selling argument because except some few passages and the ending, this thematic is totally absent. Yeah, there are scenes where they're trying to do it but it's just to show some moe discussion. The reality it's that Clannad is not a theater show with some drama, it's a drama-moe show with some theater and that's very sad. Sad because it's exactly like Shigatsu, the show is not focusing on music but on drama. And that's why I found the story of Clannad totally devoid of all interest. There's absolutely no originality in the school-life part, all of the scenes are just scenaristic fragments of others series, nothing else. Another big BIG default is the lenght of some parts, like the Fuuko arc. Who, in this universe, give a single god damnit shit about some frickin' wood starfish, WHO ? This part is during almost 5 episodes, 5 EPISODES IN A 23 EPISODES FOR SOME STARFISH. Plus, it's was totally useless, except for the protagonist who gain some sympathy at the viewvers regards because "ohhh, he's helping everyone" and well, that's creepy... Add the get-out-of-nowhere fantasy context and bingo, you got some shitty story, yey. Uuuuh, like I don't want to spoil you guys, it's better if we stop shooting at the ambulance now, don't you think ? Art - 6 Well, moe animation. Some people are scared out byt those BIG eyes but well, that's not my case. I actually kind of like the character design, and the way to draw of the studio in general. I'm not a big fan of moe, ecchi and all of those weebs shit but well, it's agreable I must recognize. But If you don't like it, just look at those sceneries ! Just look at the encounter of Nagisa and Tomoya at the first episode. Cherry blossoms blooming, petals twirling, beautiful ! The animation is fluid and nice but the tears seems fake, a really bad point to an anime who's trying to make ya cry like a little girl. Sound - 5 Ok, legit here. Legit because I hate that opening but love at an unimaginable point the ending ( this is one of the cutest thing I've ever heard ). And what about the ost then ? Well, Maeda is an excellent composer, not good as Yuki Kajiura or Nujabes, but still very good. But in a sens, I love some of the musics and I hate some others, that's very unbalanced. But in general, there's a good utilisation of musical themes. Character - 3 To settle things, I love the Tomoya's character. He's one ( not in my top but still ) favorite male personn of all japanimation because of his coldness and attitude in general, the extrem opposite of Sunohara ( that I like too ). But for the harem ( lol ), god, I'm suffering. Nagisa is an absolute cliché of weak girl who's doing her best. I kinda like her look and voice but damn, she is so naive. Kotomi is stupid, drop that f*cking violin before my ears get rape one more time. The twins are ... well, twincest anyone ? Not some shoujo-ai there but well, Kyou is a bit like the coleric seme and Ryou the shy uke, pretty disturbing. Fuuko is a bitch, end. Tomoyo is an interesting character but well, she's not developped at all, badly. And the best character is obviously Nagisa's father. He's hilarious but mature, a bit like a higher level Sunohara ( less stupid too ). But well, his presence can't just delete the accumulated garbage by the harem-shit girls. Enjoyment - 4 I like it sometimes but I found it too slow and unbearable more often. Some parts are really sweet and worth watching, some others are just cancer for eyes and mind. Overall - 4 Clannad is a bad anime. Not bad for his defaults, but bad because it's dishonest. The anime is trying to hide the evident lack of ideas by placing some theater element and that's very sad. Because If you it throw out, Clannad is just a melo-drama romantic school life story, like a tons of others before. I guess people are liking it mainly because of the after story, but well, if it was less bad, it wasn't perfect at all.

I have always been drawn to tragic, sad stories. A story that can evoke a lot of emotions and touch one's heart tends to leave a stronger, lasting mark for me. I watched Clannad because I knew of its reputation in the anime community, and that's why I was so eager to finally experience the story for myself. To say that I was disappointed to find out it wasn't my cup of tea is a bit of an understatement. I love drama if done well, and I'm no stranger to slice-of-life stories with or without romance. Unfortunately, the drama in Clannad was handled in an overbearing way. It lacked subtlety. You, as the audience, are made aware of the oncoming collision so when it finally hit you, it feels more like a nip on the leg rather than a severe body trauma. But if I were to pinpoint exactly where Clannad lost me, I'd say the biggest culprit is its characters. I didn't feel any connection to any of the characters at all. I loathed the moeness and whenever a character does something so stupidly cute, it's all I could do not to stop watching. To be clear, I have nothing against moe characters. It's just that in Clannad's case this "moe problem" detracted a lot from my enjoyment and it seriously contributed to my overall detachment from the story. This is a minor snag but I also didn't find the character design appealing and I don't know about you, but this anime deserves a harem tag. Ok, I'll stop nitpicking now. Interestingly, I liked the father figures better. They represented qualities that I craved: A complex character in Tomoya's dad and a mature one in Nagisa's. I admit Nagisa's dad can be childish, but it makes his mature moments all the more powerful. I actually wanted to know more about Tomoya and his dad because it is when they are interacting that I get quite emotional. Sadly, Tomoya never gets his backstory but maybe we'd see more of this in the After Story? Please, say yes. I know this review is negative, but it's not my intention to diss those who loved Clannad. I tried so hard to love it and even though it has its moments and it generally improved in the latter half, I'm still perplexed by how different my viewing experience is from the majority. I guess people do have different tastes and I'm one of the party poopers this time.

I didn't know what to expect when sitting down for the first time to watch Clannad. I heard quite a few good things about the show since it was released and so I finally decided to watch it. After the first episode I was hooked. This isn't your traditional anime. It is more like poetry. From the first episode I pretty much knew that I wouldn't regret spending my time with this show. Little did I know, it was much more then that. As the show progressed I realized that it wasn't the usual teenage drama, it delved into some really emotional themes. Clannad pulls at your heart at every chance it gets, and when you're down and you think you can't take any more it kicks you again. The animation style was beautiful as well, it gave a euphoric feel to the entire show. The character design was rather bland but being based off a graphic novel the character design was spot on. Clannad has had a weird emotional impact, one that I can't really explain. All that I can say is that it was beautiful, emotional experience. It was poetry. It wasn't simply another good anime, it was in a league of its own. I highly recommend that you watch Clannad and Clannd After Story but be prepared to feel emotions you have never felt with any other anime or TV series before.

Clannad was not just a television series, it was an amazing experience that has changed my life. From the outstanding story, the beautiful art styles, the way that the music was implemented, the character development and back stories that were thoroughly satisfying I found almost nothing to complain about in Clannad. This is the type of anime that will make you go from tears to undeniable happiness in a matter or 5 minutes. Clannad is without a doubt one of the best visual novels in the last decade or so, and I believe that watching it is an experience that everyone needs to have in their life.