CLANNAD: Their journey starts, on this long, steep slope

[blkmage]

[SIZE="1"]「-幻想世界-」/「chocolat。」[/SIZE]
[SIZE="7"]CLANNAD (クラナド)[/SIZE]

CLANNAD and CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ are the anime adaptations of Key's visual novel, CLANNAD. Produced by Kyoto Animation, the first season aired in Fall 2007 with the second season following up in Fall 2008. Both the visual novel and anime are critically acclaimed, with the visual novel debuting first among bishoujo games twice and having thirteen out of sixteen volumes of the anime rank first in sales in their first week.

[SIZE="1"]「どうか」/「ichinomi」[/SIZE]
Dango, dango, dango, dango...

Okazaki Tomoya is a high school senior who's considered kind of a delinquent. He hates his home and the city he lives in. One day, he bumps into Furukawa Nagisa, a shy girl who's all alone now that her friends have graduated. Not much later, he's helping her reestablish the theatre club at their school and, in the process, meeting and getting to know several other girls at the school.

[SIZE="1"]「花びらの約束」/「ながれぼし」[/SIZE]
Nope, not actually about them.

But why all the fuss? It's just about a guy surrounded by cute girls throwing themselves at him, right? What good could come of that? Well, contrary to what you would think from gazing at the promotional art and genre, CLANNAD is not about those girls. CLANNAD isn't even really about the girl that the main character ends up with. No, CLANNAD is actually about our protagonist.

[SIZE="1"]「クラナド詰め」/「ちこ」[/SIZE]
If you couldn't see this coming, I don't know what to say to you.

Beneath the fairly thin and conventional plot synopsis is a story that is much, much deeper and far more significant. CLANNAD is a story about family. This theme is present throughout the entire work, whether it's about handing out starfish, buying a robot, or singing that song. CLANNAD is about families and CLANNAD is about a family. And in doing so, CLANNAD goes far beyond the scope of the typical romance/drama anime.

[SIZE="1"]「CLANNAD」/「嘎哦」[/SIZE]
If you wish, would you like me to take you? To a place in this city where wishes come true.

CLANNAD is the story of a guy who's kind of a delinquent and his stumbling along a journey that turns him from an ungrateful kid who hates his family to a man who treasures it.

[Falx]

[Atria35]

I... think that I will be watching this as soon as I finish one o the others on my 'watching' list.

[TWWK]

CLANNAD is the story of a guy who's kind of a delinquent and his stumbling along a journey that turns him from an ungrateful kid who hates his family to a man who treasures it.

That's a perfect way of putting it. It's a powerful, beautiful story because it's go a place few anime go.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

And so...my journey to the dark side begins...

[Tsukuyomi]

[2:59:33 PM] Rena Ryugu: "If you wish, would you like me to take you? To a place in this city where wishes come true."

I love you for quoting this <3 I've actually been looking for this quote ;____;

At first glance, most would think it's your typical shojo romance, but it's much more then that ^^ I wish more would give it a chance :\ Same goes with the other Key productions.

I didn't tear on all of the episodes, but perhaps a good majority of the episodes ^__^; Especially, with Nagisa always tearing up.. I just can't stand seeing people cry (irl or in anime).. I just burst out in tears lol

On an emotional scale of a comparison of the three (I haven't seen Angel Beats yet), it would go as followed (for me): Clannad>Kanon>Air TV

For those who have seen Clannad already, who is your favorite character?

NOTE: PLEASE REMEMBER THAT NOT EVERYONE HERE HAS SEEN CLANNAD/CLANNAD AFTER STORY, SO PLEASE REMEMBER SPOILER TAGS!

Thank you ^__^

[TWWK]

On an emotional scale of a comparison of the three (I haven't seen Angel Beats yet), it would go as followed (for me): Clannad>Kanon>Air TV

Clannad>Kanon>Air TV>Angel Beats

On the "which is my favorite scale," though, it goes like this:
Kanon>Clannad>Angel Beats>Air TV

For those who have seen Clannad already, who is your favorite character?

You know, I normally would say a female character in this sort of show - I like Nagisa, Tomoyo and Kotomi particularly - but Tomoya is my favorite. He's the most real character, and the one whom we have to connect with to get the most out of the series. He's not super witty/funny or particularly easy to sympathize with, and I suppose it's his "normalness" that in part makes him such a terrific character.

[Psycho Molos]

Nagisa, Kotomi, Fuko....

and somebody gets "semi-Washburned" (those of you all that have seen the movie Serenity might know what I mean.

[Tsukuyomi]

As for my favorite characters....

Kotomi > Fuko > Taomoyo > Nagisa > Ryu > Kyou

That's just the main girls though. I do like Sanae (I think that's how you spell it). I just find her funny at times lol Sunahara is pretty funny as well.

Who would you guys say you related to more?

[SPOILER]I say I relate/is like Nagisa and even Ryu more then the others.

I say Nagisa because we're both pretty corny people.. I just want others to be happy.. Yeah, told ya.. Corny >_< I'm pretty emotional to... Especially, when I see others down :\

Why I said Ryu is, because we're both soft spoken. Regardless of this though, we still try to speak our thoughts.. Example, when she had to tell Tomoya to try not to be late for class lol My time as a mod (here and other places), I' had to tell people to cool it, but a bit hesitant lol

Second thought, I'd add in that I can relate to Tomoyo as well ^^ Just as she's misunderstood, there's parts of me that people misunderstand.[/SPOILER]

[ChristianKitsune]

Hmm this looks interesting... I thought it was just another harem anime. Or an H game turned into a cute anime. (like AirTV was?) But if it's got as much to chew on as you say then it might be worth a shot!

[Tsukuyomi]

That's the thing with Key VN's... They're more then just.. what they are lol

I loved Air TV as well ^^ It was my first Key series ^^ I wonder if there's any cameos hidden in Clannad like there was in Air TV with Kanon characters :-?

I actually rewatched an episode of Clannad yesterday.. There was something that Kyou said....

[SPOILER]She ran down Tomoya the first time.. I haven't seen After Story yet, but I wonder if they have met before in their past?[/SPOILER]

What makes me love these series so much is that they deal with dreams (or the sorts). I've always been that type even long before I've even seen Air Tv and the rest (even my writing was/is similar).

/Stops hijacking Blkmage's thread lol

[blkmage]

My Key-meter goes: Clannad > Planetarian >>> Tomoyo After > Kanon >>> Angel Beats! > Air.

As for my favourite character, I think Tomoya is pretty high up there, what with the whole thing being about him and all. His growth during the story makes it hard for me not to like him. The other character I'd say is a favourite is Ushio, one of the new characters that shows up in the second season.

~

About Clannad's origins as a visual novel: visual novels are not universally eroge/h-games (like, say, Ever 17) and Clannad has the distinction of being Key's first non-h game (with Air and Kanon being their first two).

The other thing is that being an eroge does not mean that it's a harem thing. A strange thing about the Japanese visual novel market was that at the beginning, many publishers thought that they wouldn't be able to sell their games on the strength of the story alone, so they threw in some h-scenes. Over time, they realized that they didn't need to do that anymore, so a lot of them don't. Key is one example and TYPE-MOON is another.

Now, that's not to say you should go and play h-games (you shouldn't), but that does mean that there may be all-ages versions that are safe to play (Fate/stay night is one excellent example, with the Realta Nua version) and that anime based on them aren't necessarily awful (see: ef - a tale of memories, really good).

That said, a lot of them are terrible and have no redeeming qualities, but that's true of any medium. And of course, the converse is also not necessarily true; that is, not all terrible harem shows are necessarily visual novel adaptations (today, it seems like a lot of them are light novel adaptations wwwww).

[DangoDaikazoku]

I love Clannad so much (as you can probably tell). This anime made me cry, laugh, and occasionally get really angry at characters. I have to say, I consider this the BEST anime of all time (but I haven't seen very many so don't take my word for it). Though it is very amazing (the songs still pull at my heartstrings *sob*). The word Clannad is actually Irish Gaelic for family (why some Japanese person decided to go Irish on us, I have no idea). My favorite character is Fuko, because she is funny and is ridiculously random. I love the movie as well as the anime (and own both!!). I recommend this anime to anyone and everyone. (My dad loves this anime too for any of you guys out there who might be hesitant, lol). I have made so many Clannad fanatics the past few years. They always think it's going to be terrible, and then they fall in love when I force them to watch it against their will (jk). I feel like dancing because there is a thread just for me to obssess about Clannad, HOORAY!! I actually have wstch through the whole sha-bang every year since I discovered this anime... Ok, I let you guys get back to reading other people rant about the awesomess of this anime. Tee Hee ^-^

[TWWK]

As for my favorite characters....

Kotomi > Fuko > Taomoyo > Nagisa > Ryu > Kyou

That's just the main girls though. I do like Sanae (I think that's how you spell it). I just find her funny at times lol Sunahara is pretty funny as well.

Who would you guys say you related to more?

Kyou's at the bottom of my list as well...and I think Sunahara and Sanae (as well as Nagisa's dad) are hilarious.

I relate most to Tomoya...and I don't like plugging this again, since I did earlier, but my reasoning was given in a post I wrote on my blog. It's an extensive post I put up yesterday in the "Anime of a Diary Lived" series. Please check it out if you're interested.

[blkmage]

It's probably worth mentioning again that that blog post is super Unlimited Spoiler Works, so don't read it until you're done the entire show, really.

That said, I'd imagine most guys would relate most to Tomoya.

[ABlipinTime]

I like your synopsis, blkmage. Very well put.

My .02
As a kid, I watched Kirby RBaY, and that was the only anime I watched. Once I learned it was anime, I started looking into anime, and I'm quite pleased that the very next anime I watched was Clannad. I enjoyed it enough to watch the second season (which is quite important to the rest of the story) and extracted a few important life lessons from it.

My brief ratings/review (if you don't mind, this is for those considering viewing Clannad and impatient for our rating system. feel free to comment):
Story:
Captivating (obviously, or I wouldn't have continued watching). Had a lot of what felt like were cliche moments, but nothing too frequent. I didn't really like the Sunohara scenes, but those are prob meant for comedic relief.

Directing:
Very well done. Professional looking to the point where... yeah, no complaints whatsoever, or at least, in the end.
[SPOILER]I noticed in the beginning the camera angle / view is not properly centered, but they fix that.[/SPOILER]


Artwork:
This kind of goes under directing but not really. As a director, I look for two major things in cartoons: shadows/lighting and depth perception.
Good examples:
http://asu.ath.cx/2008/06/15/shakugan-no-shana-second-2/?nggpage=17
http://asu.ath.cx/2008/06/15/shakugan-no-shana-second-2/?nggpage=17
(I don't endorse this website, and I refuse to post bad examples for fear of offending a fan)
Clannad filled the requirements quite well in my opinion. (potential SPOILER: see attached, if it loads)


Music:
Opening music to season 1 and background music is awesome.
[SPOILER] Though the ending music to the first season seemed slow, they made different renditions of the song to play as background music, which improved the emotional tone of the scene. Episode 17? even has music of the opening theme to After Story. [/SPOILER]


There are lots of other things to comment on, such as transitions, character development, and other things I have done no justice to whatsoever here and refuse to spoil. That's my disclaimer.

[blkmage]

The music is actually exactly the same as the soundtrack from the visual novel (composed by Maeda Jun, Orito Shinji, and Togoshi Magome), and the music for the OPs and EDs are based on them. The first OP is a remix of the visual novel's OP, Mag Mell, by eufonius. The first season's ED, Dango Daikazoku, is actually based on Nagisa's theme, which is the background piano version. The After Story OP, Toki wo Kizamu Uta, is based on a track called To the Same Heights, which is the background piano version in the show.

[ABlipinTime]

The music is actually exactly the same as the soundtrack from the visual novel (composed by Maeda Jun, Orito Shinji, and Togoshi Magome), and the music for the OPs and EDs are based on them. The first OP is a remix of the visual novel's OP, Mag Mell, by eufonius. The first season's ED, Dango Daikazoku, is actually based on Nagisa's theme, which is the background piano version. The After Story OP, Toki wo Kizamu Uta, is based on a track called To the Same Heights, which is the background piano version in the show.

Wow, you really know your trivia.
Thanks for adding that.

[blkmage]

Let's keep talking about Clannad.

I hold Clannad in very, very high regard because it's one of a handful of anime or manga that not only evoked an emotional reaction in me, but forced some retrospection and inner reflection. The other two are 5 Centimetres per Second and Solanin.

[Tsukuyomi]

Hmmm, family seems to be an ongoing theme (in one way or another) in the three Key productions I have seem.

[Juliannesan]

I love Clannad.
There is so much heart in that anime, that it definitely makes my top 5.
It is about family, and you can definitely tell who ever created the story, put a lot of heart into it. And it turned out to be a masterpiece because of it.

I want it, sooo bad.

[TWWK]

You know, I've gotta say - Clannad is important to me because it made a personal connection in me like no other anime I've ever watched. But at the same time, I think it's very flawed. I don't think its characters (with the exception of Tomoya) compare favorably with those in Kanon. It's also very slow at times, not to mention the mostly bland episodes that begin After Story and cover the minor characters.

That said, I rate it just under a masterpiece in my book because of what happens when Nagisa and Tomoya's stories pick up again in After Story.

Just thought I'd mention what's wrong with it, even though I think as a whole it's amazing.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Anyone seen any of the dub of the first series? It is supremely frustrating. Some of the voices, such as Tomoyo's, are pretty good, and then some are just disgracefully bad...

[blkmage]

Anyone seen any of the dub of the first series? It is supremely frustrating. Some of the voices, such as Tomoyo's, are pretty good, and then some are just disgracefully bad...

You might want to consider checking out clips of the Japanese version]You know, I've gotta say - Clannad is important to me because it made a personal connection in me like no other anime I've ever watched. But at the same time, I think it's very flawed. I don't think its characters (with the exception of Tomoya) compare favorably with those in Kanon. It's also very slow at times, not to mention the mostly bland episodes that begin After Story and cover the minor characters.

That said, I rate it just under a masterpiece in my book because of what happens when Nagisa and Tomoya's stories pick up again in After Story.

Just thought I'd mention what's wrong with it, even though I think as a whole it's amazing.[/QUOTE]
As for Kanon, my biggest gripe with Kanon is that it's essentially Clannad without After Story. That is, it's essentially Clannad without something to tie the entire thing together.

I found most of Kanon's characters far more irritating because they're much more archetypical (which makes sense, since Kanon was Key's first game). That's not to say that Clannad's characters are unique snowflakes by comparison, but they served more purpose than providing another route to finish. And like I suggested earlier, this is essentially the result of Kanon just going through each route one after the other while Clannad does that but has something to bring it all together.

Clannad is just a structurally and thematically stronger work to me than Kanon. I mean, I think Kanon's alright, but like I've already said, I think it's about as good as Clannad's pre-AS material. Which is why it bugs me so much, because it feels like a bunch of short stories chained together rather than one great story.

Hmmm, family seems to be an ongoing theme (in one way or another) in the three Key productions I have seem.

Yeah, family is a recurring thing in those three, but it's not the main theme for all of them. In Clannad, every single arc is about family and it's the main message and overarching thing that it's trying to convey throughout the entire show. Kanon, on the other hand, is about promise, a lot of which has to do with his presence in the city seven years prior and his subsequent absence. Air is about, uh, the sky or something, which I'm guessing is a metaphor for something, but yeah.

[Juliannesan]

As for Kanon, my biggest gripe with Kanon is that it's essentially Clannad without After Story. That is, it's essentially Clannad without something to tie the entire thing together.

I found most of Kanon's characters far more irritating because they're much more archetypical (which makes sense, since Kanon was Key's first game). That's not to say that Clannad's characters are unique snowflakes by comparison, but they served more purpose than providing another route to finish. And like I suggested earlier, this is essentially the result of Kanon just going through each route one after the other while Clannad does that but has something to bring it all together.

Clannad is just a structurally and thematically stronger work to me than Kanon. I mean, I think Kanon's alright, but like I've already said, I think it's about as good as Clannad's pre-AS material. Which is why it bugs me so much, because it feels like a bunch of short stories chained together rather than one great story.



Yeah, family is a recurring thing in those three, but it's not the main theme for all of them. In Clannad, every single arc is about family and it's the main message and overarching thing that it's trying to convey throughout the entire show. Kanon, on the other hand, is about promise, a lot of which has to do with his presence in the city seven years prior and his subsequent absence. Air is about, uh, the sky or something, which I'm guessing is a metaphor for something, but yeah.

*applauses* I couldn't have said it better!
I thought that there WAS something lacking in Kanon, and Air was just too much of an emotionally devastating story. It brought no real hope or solidifying or satisfying conclusion. Whilst Clannad did have a great depth and closure. And even brought about different point of views.

But yeah, to me nothing in Key beats Clannad. but I haven't seen Angel Beats yet, so we'll see.

[Tsukuyomi]

Air is about, uh, the sky or something, which I'm guessing is a metaphor for something, but yeah.

Lol, I think Air confuses some.. Once I think of it, it kinda confuses me too @__@

I guess Family is a big thing in Air as well (but not as much as the others).

[SPOILER]Misuzu and her aunt, Kano and her sister, Minagi and Michiru... There's the relationship between the three from the past as well ^^[/SPOILER]

I should really watch After Story, but one story that had me in tears was Fuko's.. Especially, with Nagisa tearing up all the time (lol) >_< Do they go back to her in After Story?

[TWWK]

As for Kanon, my biggest gripe with Kanon is that it's essentially Clannad without After Story. That is, it's essentially Clannad without something to tie the entire thing together.

I found most of Kanon's characters far more irritating because they're much more archetypical (which makes sense, since Kanon was Key's first game). That's not to say that Clannad's characters are unique snowflakes by comparison, but they served more purpose than providing another route to finish. And like I suggested earlier, this is essentially the result of Kanon just going through each route one after the other while Clannad does that but has something to bring it all together.

Clannad is just a structurally and thematically stronger work to me than Kanon. I mean, I think Kanon's alright, but like I've already said, I think it's about as good as Clannad's pre-AS material. Which is why it bugs me so much, because it feels like a bunch of short stories chained together rather than one great story.

I think it's also about understanding each story for what it is. I think Kanon almost perfectly captures what the creators wanted to capture. What it as deep as Clannad? Not even close, but I felt it flowed wonderfully in 26 episodes. Clannad was much more ambitious, and I thought it failed on some fronts. It did BEST when it was most ambitious, which is why, I feel, it leaves such an impact.

As for the characters, that's just a matter of taste. I'm sure if found Nagisa as interesting as Ayu, I probably would've liked Clannad slightly more than Kanon. But Ayu, and to only a slightly lesser extent, Nayuki, put the series over the top for me.

[blkmage]

Yeah, personally, I'm extremely forgiving if a show manages to do something interesting well and falls short in a few other places (e.g. Bakemonogatari, Higurashi, ef - a tale of memories). On the other hand, if a show is technically really good but it does something that feels a bit off to me, it'll bug me to no end (e.g. ef - a tale of melodies, Kanon, The Place Promised in Our Early Days).

I should really watch After Story, but one story that had me in tears was Fuko's.. Especially, with Nagisa tearing up all the time (lol) >_< Do they go back to her in After Story?

I'll say this: in the game, if you choose to do one of the non-Nagisa routes (e.g. Fuko, Ryou and Kyou, Tomoyo, etc.), Nagisa won't be there. In the show, she's always around with Tomoya. There's a reason for this.

[ArellaEliora]

I'm glad I found this thread. I've seen Clannad three times now and still cry at certain times.

As for my fave character in Clannad... I like Tomoya and Nagisa, but my fave is [color="Yellow"]Akio[/color]

[battletech]

Clannad After Story has been picked up by Sentai Filmworks. To be dubbed and released in April.They will have an exchange for those you have the sub only release.