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

Ishihara, Tatsuya Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Oct 20, 2024

Sorumsuz

Recommended

Clannad definitely delivers when it comes to presenting a coherent and engaging plot. Each arc within the show may not entirely pertain to the overall story but it definitely offers a feeling of build up and anticipation to the final arc. It feels as though everything prior to it was leading up to it and it's very rewarding to see the culmination of everything that had happened.

The characters, though tropey at times, are interesting and their stories are entertaining to watch. Most of the arcs pertaining to the characters in the show tend to be dramatic and emotional. Focusing heavily on interpersonal relationships and ... inner struggle. It does a good job at conveying the proper tone so that these character arcs seem fulfilling to watch, and they are. Each arc ends with adding something to the main overarching plotline.

Other points to note
- It's pretty funny
- The music, though repetitive at times, is good
- The ending track is very memorable
- Very wholesome and cute a lot of the time

Overall Clannad is an engaging anime that is fun and uplifting to watch. I would highly recommend it if you haven't seen it yet.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Oct 22, 2024

Inbetweener

Mixed Feelings

Story: 2/10
There is no plot. The scenes of the toy robot story were confusing in the first few episodes and had no connection to anything. You might argue that it foreshadowed Nagisa's play but it just made the viewing experience worse. Including supernatural elements was also jarring because it adds nothing to the story and only involves fuko. The decision to do separate arcs for each girl was a bit disrespectful to each of their 'character developments' because it eventually led to them being sidelined at the end of their respective arcs. The comedy was repetitive and was never funny. Watching sunohara repeatedly challenge tomoyo ... never made me laugh and only made him look like a fucking idiot and fuko coming back randomly was not funny either.

Characters: 3/10
MC is OK, he is not as annoying as the typical harem lead(the bar is in hell) and has his own issues with his dad, which were never explored in enough depth. Unfortunately, I just don't see why characters like the twins or tomoyo would fall for him-it's not like their relationships were built up overtime and the attraction just sort of happened. MC probably has the most screen time with Nagisa, who is not an interesting or entertaining character. The twins were randomly placed into the story and contributed nothing to the plot. Short haired twin was utterly useless in the story whereas long haired, tsundere twin was probably just there for fan-service and also has absolutely no reason to fall for MC. Tomoyo was not given enough development despite being one of the better characters-her love for MC was the most surprising.

Soundtrack: 7/10
The opening was catchy and the OST was great during 'emotional' moments. Never paid much attention to the ending though.

Art: 1/10 (does not contribute to overall rating)
Objectively fugly faces unless you're attracted to bugs or something.

Overall rating: 4/10. I don't know what people find endearing about these characters who don't even feel like real people. They are all a bunch of cliches and you can tell this was adapted from a harem visual novel. I just hope afterstory will be better.

EDIT: Afterstory elaborates on the supernatural elements and the robot storyline, making everything finally make sense. Tomoya and Nagisa's developments were amazing to see and Ushio is a very cute addition to the cast and also very essential to the plot. Even though I had to force myself to sit through the sunohara siblings' and yukine's arcs, everything during and after graduation were beautiful. The second half was probably a masterpiece. The comedy and lighthearted moments worked too when they stemmed from likable characters like the main 3, Sanae and Akio. The problem with the prequel was probably that it gave too much screentime to useless characters and didn't flesh out the main ones the same way afterstory did.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Apr 7, 2023

lastnameEver

Not Recommended

Funny

Clannad is a visual novel created by Jun Maeda and adapted by the only anime studio in Japan to respect the human right to a salary for a day’s work. Clannad is astonishingly trite. It would take an unbelievable amount of naivety to take on its clearly manipulative storytelling tactics in good faith and glean any sense of enjoyment out of it. It’s considered a classic by people who have no idea what they’re on about. They must’ve been off a perc, off a xan, too much henny, baby-battered out of their mind to consider Clannad a classic. Clannad is not a classic. A classic ... implies it has stood the test of time. Clannad can’t stand any test. It is chronically paraplegic. The story is paced so slowly that it feels as if centuries pass before an episode finishes. You can marry, have kids, buy a rabbit, buy a dog, watch the dog eat the rabbit, watch every season of Friends on Netflix twice, adopt a cat, sell its kittens online, shoot the dog, sell your kidney to a Nigerian politician for his daughter, brush your daughter’s teeth, become the head executive of five oil companies, lose it all, write detective fiction, understand an anime directed by Ikuhara, decipher the entirety of Ulysses, grow old, and die, and the same episode will still be playing. That’s what it feels like watching Clannad. That is exactly how it feels watching Clannad. The minutes stretch on like hours. Each frame of animation lasts a lifetime. Any enjoyment cultivated will wither up and die before the narrative reaches any sort of conclusion. You will wither up and die watching Clannad.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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