Clannad: After Story

This sequel to 'Clannad' starts shortly after the events in that series and covers the events in Tomoya Okazaki's life for the next seven years. We see his relationship with Nagisa develop and lead to marriage and the birth of Ushio, a daughter. There are various events which will have life changing effects on those involved. The story involves various alternate realities where we see the events play out in different ways.

I've tried to keep my precis as vague as possible as there are certain key events which shape later parts of the story which I'd rather not spoil. To use a cliché this series is an 'emotional rollercoaster'; at times it is very funny with both slapstick humour and character driven humour at others it is genuinely tear jerking... I don't mean 'there's something in my eye' tears but proper sobbing! This is because the characters involved are well developed and feel real. The animation is of a high quality throughout. Overall I'd say this is a must see if you enjoyed the first series; I wouldn't advise going straight to this as certain elements might seem more than a little confusing.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

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 simply a teenage drama, it delved into some really emotional themes, especially in the second season (After Story). 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. The thing that annoyed me most was that there were three characters all with purple hair and it took a while to learn who was who.

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.

I'm an action junkie, I usually watch anime with lots of violence, actions, etc. I have lots of favorite anime like Black Lagoon, Space Battleship Yamato 2199, Soul Eater, etc. I decided to give this anime a watch one day. After the first episode, I got hooked. After I finished watching the entire series, both first and second seasons, I was crying like a baby...no joke. I stayed up till 4 am watching this anime. I have seen lots of great anime before, but Clannad and Clannad After Story is considered my number one favorite anime of all time. It's simply one of the greatest anime EVER! It's funny, it's serious, and especially sad. This show is guaranteed to make anyone cry. If not, that person has a heart cold as stones. It's one of those shows you have to watch before you die. And this anime will stick to you forever. I'm a Clannad Man! Clannad forever!!

I have never been so moved by another film, TV series or animation in my entire life as I have been with 'Clannad'.

Prior to watching this, I had seen 'Air' which is another made by the same company. 'Air' was the first thing that had ever brought a tear to my eye, I considered myself as emotional as a stone wall when it came to watching things like films and TV series because I couldn't connect with the characters but for some reason I cannot explain, I was simply captivated by 'Air' whether it was the animation, the voices, or the story, it was incredible.

I truly believed I would never experience something greater... and then I watched 'Clannad'. Clannad is split into two parts (Series), the first revolves around Tomoya Okazaki helping Nagisa Furukawa re-establish the theatre club and as a result become better socially as they meet characters along the way, I won't divulge any further about what happens in the second part because it all builds up from the very start.

Prepare your heart for an intense emotional roller-coaster that never stops until the very end. In a lot of series, you can often find episodes that are somewhat irrelevant or weaker compared to others. Fortunately this doesn't occur in 'Clannad'. Characters are explored in incredible depth, not just the main characters either, but all of the peripherals too.

The characters are simply unforgettable, the OST (Original Soundtrack) is incredible and fits seamlessly with the entire series but 'Clannad' strikes hardest with its beautiful and incredibly touching story. I shed so many tears while watching 'Clannad' and it felt like a truly cleansing experience.

While 'Clannad' would be the first Anime I recommend to someone, the story can be quite difficult to understand in its entirety due to the unconventional subplot that is often seen in Anime that prevents them from being immediately accessible and I don't wish anyone to have a tainted experience of it by not understanding it fully. However I believe anyone that has even a decent experience of watching Anime would be able to understand it fully and appreciate it for what it truly is. A masterpiece.

This is a review of both 'Clannad' and 'Clannad Afterstory', if your wondering.

Story: Based on the visual novel of the same name, 'Clannad' tells the story of Tomoya Okazaki, a former basketball player who had been forced to quit his school team and all of basketball, and who's now going through life aimlessly. With him on this downward spiral is his 'friend' Sunohara, a former soccer player who had also been forced from his team, after he had attacked his coach; it's hard to tell what their relationship actually amounts to, though that'll be mentioned in a minute. Okazaki has to go up this hill to get to school; one day he meets this girl, who's standing along the path, who asks him if he'd go up it with her. This incident sparks a kind of chain-reaction. Okazaki develops a relationship with this mysteriously gentle Nagisa Furukawa, her family, others from his school and all of these girls who all, in normal harem fashion, fall in love with him.

Simple enough. Of course, the visual novel this is based after was developed by 'Key', and in true 'Key' fashion, the story doesn't end too happily, or begin happily, as a matter of fact. After a while, what little which has been established is fully revealed to us, like why Okazaki isn't playing basketball anymore or why Nagisa talks with him. It's not depressing. Sad maybe? It's ending isn't depressing either; it may even make you smile, while your crying manly tears (or maybe that's just me). That's not to say the story isn't fun either, in fact there's more of an emphasis on comedy than on romance, and for a harem, the humor's pretty smart. There are laugh-out-loud worthy scenes to be had, if your interested, and when I say Tomoya's living life aimlessly, I'm not saying he's moping. He's sad and depressed of course, but he manifests it by playing pranks on others; he mentally tortures Sunohara, in particular, and all with this sarcastic smile. Getting past that and going back to the romance and this whole emphasis on 'family', the whole production has this warm, genuine heart to it. Unlike with most other harem shows, this develops it's heroines (if only just enough) to all be likable instead of just setting up some caricatures to drool over. Okazaki himself defies how a male lead in a harem should be by not being a completely unlikable failure, and then comes when you try to decide the story's genre; there's romance and comedy, but then there's fantasy and tragedy thrown in, and then there's the drama-club plot that's been developing this whole time. It accumulates back to this being a very comfortable/nice show (in tone and story and it's production-style) to watch, which ought to get you emotionally involved, if only a little.

Production: The music score sounds like something from a visual novel (no shock there). The opening looks like something from one as well (maybe it's the same opening as the game's; I don't know). This was produced by Kyoto animation in between making 'Lucky Star' and 'K-ON!', and it shows; it tries looking like the visual novel and that works, and the actual animation is very fluent, like everything after Lucky Star, though not so much as K-ON!'s.

Conclusion: A sometimes visually breath-taking show with simple but engaging intertwining stories and characters, who could've been forgettable but who are handled by obviously talented writers (I mean, it was written by Key, the people who did 'Air', would did you expect?).