Clannad

Tomoya Okazaki is a delinquent who finds life dull and believes he'll never amount to anything. Along with his friend Youhei 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 Nagisa Furukawa 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 realize life isn't as dull as he once thought.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Okazaki, Tomoya Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Furukawa, Nagisa Main

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Sakagami, Tomoyo Main

Kuwashima, Houko Japanese

Fujibayashi, Kyou Main

Hirohashi, Ryou Japanese

Ibuki, Fuuko Main

Nonaka, Ai Japanese

Ichinose, Kotomi Main

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Sunohara, Youhei Main

Sakaguchi, Daisuke Japanese

Fujibayashi, Ryou Main

Kanda, Akemi Japanese

Furukawa, Akio Supporting

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Furukawa, Sanae Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Hatta, Youko Producer

Nakamura, Shinichi Producer

Tafu, Naohiro Producer

Matsunaga, Yuuichi Assistant Producer

Reviews

Mar 20, 2025

Joe_Devaney

Recommended

Note: This will be a review of both the first season and "After Story".

Overview:
Key, a studio under the company Visual Arts, are very well-known for creating some of the most emotional, tearjerking visual novels you could find anywhere, and Kyoko Animation have done a fine job of translating these heartfelt stories into animated form (which, for a visual novel, is a lot more difficult than you would probably think). "Clannad", an anime whose name is taken from the Irish word for "family", is considered by many to be the magnum opus of both studios, and for good reason, as it is, bar none, the best ... slice-of-anime that I have yet to see.

Story (8.5/10):
Set in the fictional Japanese town Hikarizaka, "Clannad" primarily follows the life of Tomoya Okazaki, a third-year high school student who has grown extremely disillusioned with life in his hometown. However, his life begins to take an unexpected turn when he meets Nagisa Furukawa, a somewhat outlandish but very shy and sweet girl who goes to his school and is in the same year as him. As time goes on, Tomoya gradually gets to know Nagisa and various other people he meets, both in school and outside of it, he discovers that these people have various problems that he ends up helping with. And as he goes through all of these endeavours, Tomoya himself gradually begins to discover his own reason to live, particularly as he spends time with Nagisa and helps her fulfil her dreams, as well as spending more time with her family, which helps him experience familial love for the first time since the death of his mother, which turned his father into a broken, alcoholic mess.

As I mentioned above, "Clannad"'s name is derived from the Irish word for "family" (a name that, as an Irishman, I very much approve of), with family being the story's primary theme. Much like KyoAni's previous Key anime "Kanon", "Clannad" is a slice-of-life story with doses of magic realism. However, it also largely lacks the mystery elements of its predecessor, a change that ultimately proves to be to its benefit, since it means you won't be asking yourselves a whole bunch of questions that you won't get the answers to until near the end. And speaking of which, if you thought that the story would end once high school ended, you'd be wrong, as most of the second season "After Story" follows Tomoya's life after he graduates, and deals with his newfound struggles as an adult. An anime that covers a character's life from high school all the way into adulthood is something you rarely find even to this day, and this just makes the series all the more compelling.

Even so, the story is definitely not without flaws. For starters, while it only takes a few episodes to get into the arcs of the series, these arcs tend to vary quite a bit in quality. For example, the first arc involves Tomoya just randomly deciding to help this girl he just met for no explained reason, focuses on one of the show's weaker characters, has a story that's just not all that interesting and ends on a rather weak note that makes you question what the point of it all was. By contrast, the second arc doesn't suffer from any of these problems and is easily one of the best arcs of the entire series, never mind the first season. And while I can definitely promise that "After Story" is a lot better than the first season, the ending may not be to everyone's tastes, as it requires that you paid very close attention to the series as a whole to truly understand it, particularly the scenes set in the Illusory World, a mysterious void that we see glimpses of all throughout the series, with the importance of it not becoming clear until the very end. But while the story may have its low points, as a whole it is a very well-written and extremely touching tale that is guaranteed to pull at the heartstrings many times.

Art & Animation (9.5/10):
Kyoto Animation is well-known for creating anime with beautiful visuals, but "Clannad" manages to surpass even those high standards, taking the art style of "Kanon" and "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" and improving on it. The characters are all incredibly well-drawn and detailed, the animations are smooth and fluid and the environments look absolutely breathtaking. However, while the series in general looks fantastic, special mention has got to go to the scenes set in the Illusory World, which features even more vibrant and crisp character models and environments than usual and has a CGI character that somehow manages to fit into the rest of the scenes perfectly.

Sound & Dialogue (9.5/10):
It's pretty hard to say just what my favourite part of "Clannad" is, but the soundtrack is definitely a big contender. Not only are the opening and ending themes of both seasons ("Mag Mell", "Dango Daikakozu", "A Song to Pass the Time" and "Torch") good enough that I never once skipped any of them, but there are plenty of great tracks that play during the episodes themselves like "Town, Flow of Time, People", "To the Same Heights", "Roaring Tides", "Shining in the Sky" and "The Girl's Fantasy", and that's not even getting into all the one-off songs that play over the series. The voice acting is excellent as well; David Matranga and Luci Christian both deliver fantastic performances as Tomoya and Nagisa, respectively, as do Kaytha Cocker as Tomoyo, Emily Neves as Kotomi, Shelley Calene-Black as Kyou and Andrew Love as Akio, as well as several others. Hell, even Greg Ayres managed to impress me, with his voice being the perfect fit for a character like Sunohara.

Characters (9/10):
When the series begins, Tomoya is someone who has all but given up on life as a whole. Hell, his opening monologue has him talking about how much he hates his hometown due to having so many experiences that he would rather forget, most notably the death of his mother and his father abusing him to the point of leaving him with a permanent injury, with said father eventually deciding that it was best to keep his distance from Tomoya hence not to hurt him any further. The result is that Tomoya's grown into a deeply sullen and snarky young man who doesn't give a crap about skipping classes and is often blunt to the point of being hurtful. All of this immediately makes him more compelling than "Kanon"'s Yuichi Aizawa, who while not a flat character by any means had very little in terms of personal backstory. Furthermore, while Tomoya is quite rude most of the time, he has a good heart and is willing to help out anyone who might need it, making a surprising number of friends along the way. Most significantly, getting to know Nagisa and her parents allows him to finally experience what it's like to have a family again, which in turn enables him to develop back into the kind person he always was deep down. Though, that's not to say that this new chapter of his life is all sunshine and rainbows. In fact, while every character in "Clannad" is tragic to some extent, Tomoya definitely takes the cake, with the sheer amount of trauma he suffers both before and during the series being more than some people could probably bear, though this just made me love and sympathise with him all the more.

As fantastic a character as Tomoya is, however, my favourite character would have to be Nagisa. Unlike Tomoya, who is best described as a nice guy with a bad mouth (at least at first), Nagisa is a sweetheart both inside and out, even showing kindness to Sunohara, whom almost everybody else picks on in one way or another. However, she's also initially severely lacking in confidence and is largely ignored by her classmates in school, which may have to do with her repeating the year. She's also very shy and timid, and often says her favourite foods out loud as a way to give herself confidence, which just makes her all the more loveable and cute. While she is certainly a huge ray of hope in Tomoya's life, their relationship certainly isn't one-sided as she has her own character development as well, as Tomoya helps her become much more confident in herself, with much of this change occurring in the first season (by contrast, most of Tomoya's character development happens in the second). Confidence issues notwithstanding, Nagisa is overall a very well-adjusted person, with her home life being significantly happier than Tomoya's, though that's certainly not a bad thing since it means they complement each other really well. In fact, "After Story" really rams in just how much the two of them need and depend on each other, no matter how many other friends they make over the series. As a whole, while Nagisa doesn't play an important role in every arc, emotionally she is the core of the entire series, and "Clannad" would be a very different (and most likely worse) story if she wasn't in it.

The rest of the cast is great as well. Coming in third place among my favourites is Tomoyo Sakagami, an incredibly strong girl who used to be a delinquent, but has cleaned up her act and now only attacks people if they attack her. Given "Clannad" isn't a fighting series, she rarely gets to show her strength, and when she does it's mostly played for comedy, though it helps that she's also a very nice girl. Not Nagisa levels of nice, mind you, but still a lot more friendly than her stoic nature would have you believe. She even has her own bonus episode featuring an alternate timeline where Tomoya dates her instead, which is good because if it wasn't for Nagisa, I'd ship her and Tomoya hands down, no questions asked. There's also Kotomi Ichinose, a very strange girl whom Tomoya occasionally finds in the library doing really odd things. Despite her eccentricities, she's also extremely smart, though she's also socially inept and terrible at playing the violin, which makes for some really funny moments whenever she tries her hand at it. In many ways, she's a lot like Nagisa, both being really sweet but quirky girls with some common interests, on top of both having really compelling (and sad) character arcs. It's pretty hard to talk about her in detail given how much of her is a spoiler, so I'll just let you see for yourselves. Another female character of note is Kyou Fujibayashi, who is notably more brash and abrasive than the last three girls I talked about (and practically every other girl in the series, for that matter). In fact, of all the girls Tomoya meets and interacts with over the series, she has the most in common with him, being very blunt and prone to playing pranks on others, especially Sunohara, though she's undeniably a good person at heart. Like Tomoyo, she also has her own bonus episode, though sadly it doesn't focus on her quite as much as you would probably like.

Last paragraph of this category, and I have yet to mention Akio and Sanae, Nagisa's parents who did a damn good job at raising her, though that's pretty self-evident given how well Nagisa has turned out. Personality-wise, they're suspiciously similar to Tomoya and Nagisa, though unlike Tomoya, Akio at least knows when to be tactful (even if he doesn't always succeed) and is a lot more energetic despite being in his forties, serving as one of the show's main sources of comic relief. The other main source is Yohei Sunohara, Tomoya's best friend (somehow) who is, to put it bluntly, a complete idiot. Most of his screentime consists of him getting into one unfortunate situation after another, and while characters that suffer constant misfortune are a dime-a-dozen in anime, Sunohara is almost unique in that he brings almost all of it on himself, either by being a jerk or simply by picking fights he can't win. However, while he's pretty obnoxious more often than not, he's a loyal friend and can make a surprisingly good point from time to time. But I'll be honest; I've only begun to cover the cast of characters in this series. In fact, if anyone has so much as a name in "Clannad", it's practically a guarantee that they'll have at least an episode or two that focuses on them... with the unfortunate exception of Ryou, who despite getting plenty of screentime and being a part of Tomoya and Nagisa's circle of friends never really develops beyond her initial image of "Kyou's shyer, more feminine twin sister".

Enjoyment (8.5/10):
You've probably heard somewhere that "Clannad" is one of the saddest anime ever, and if you think that's an exaggeration, let me be clear when I say that it isn't. At all. In particular, "After Story" features one of the most heart-wrenching sequence of episodes you could possibly find anywhere, which is especially jarring for what starts off as a fairly light-hearted school life series. Even so, the series has plenty of funny and heartwarming moments to balance this out, and if you manage to endure all of the angst, the pay-off is more than worth it.

Overall:
"Clannad" is a very well-crafted anime that holds up brilliantly even a decade and a half after its initial release, and just gets better and better the more it goes on. Pick any part of the series and you can guarantee that it will be at least "great"- whether it's the heartfelt story, vibrant visuals, amazing music, fantastic voice acting or loveable characters, the series really doesn't fall short in any department. Ultimately, "Clannad" is a truly great accomplishment for both Key and Kyoto Animation, and sets a standard that every other slice-of-life anime should attempt to follow.

Score:
8.5+9.5+9.5+9+8.5=45/50=9.0/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 30, 2025

Raiusu

Mixed Feelings

The show is really weird to me like I enjoyed it, but I didn’t understand what’s going on because there isn’t really a story it’s just the main character helping all of his friends with their own issues but it doesn’t really explain them

for example the first mini story I didn’t understand until two episodes before that story ended so I didn’t really understand it and then the second part I kind of understood a bit better because it was more generic to other shows like this

It was a pretty good watch, but not crazy and I think that’s because I couldn’t figure out ... the premise of the show the only thing that I do understand is that some small child will randomly appear with a starfish which I thought was quite funny but apart from that it was just one of those shows that I had on to watch whilst I had nothing to do which is a sad thing, but it was a good show. I did enjoy it whilst I watched it even though I understood none of it.

Overall, 6 out of 10 and I feel like that’s pretty low just because I didn’t understand I feel like it does have potential to be an eight but I will now watch after story and hopefully understand it

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 14, 2025

BankuroPrince

Not Recommended

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This show is an absolute disaster. The main character, Okazai, is incredibly bland, though still somewhat tolerable, as is Sunohara. Then there is Fuko, whose presence is nothing short of infuriating. Her voice, demeanor, and entire existence are exasperating beyond belief. However, the most detestable character of all is Nagisa. No words can fully capture the sheer hatred this character inspires. Feeble-minded, weak, and unbearably fragile, she is an insufferable presence. How anyone could possibly relate to or enjoy this character is incomprehensible. Her voice is grating, akin to nails on a chalkboard.

Even her father’s sacrifice, abandoning his dreams of becoming an actor ... for her, elicits nothing but pity. It would have been better if she had never survived childhood. This character is utterly loathsome.

Watching this show felt like pure torture, an experience akin to enduring the iron chair, agonizing, endless, and unbearable. The only reason to persist through such misery is the much-praised After Story, often described as one of the most heartbreaking anime experiences. Now it remains to be seen whether that reputation holds true.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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