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If you read 10 reviews and didn't find anything helpful, either the reviews all suck or your reading comprehension sucks. Save yourself 10 minutes of reading and just mark this review unhelpful. If you haven't stopped reading, enjoy.

Pros: Top notch production value, engaging storyline, detailed characterization.

Cons: Lackluster ending, rough/nonexistent transition, mood-ruining ending song.

Either/or: Different feel from first season; less comedy, more tragedy. Less focus on harem/romance as dictated from the storyline continuation. Cameos Few and far in between.

A much more focused and engrossing storyline makes Clannad: After Story the best Kyoto Animation title thus far.

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Let's get the minor stuff out of the way first.

The animation is top notch, with special attention paid to character design. Being a direct sequel to Clannad, the improvements will seem relatively minor; that's still no small feat, considering Clannad already feature some of the best character designs in the harem genre. The article below by Crisu is a great read comparing the eyes of several generations of KyoAni characters: http://cjblackwing.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/the-eyes-of-kyoto-animation/ It also serves as a reminder of how much the KyoAni style has matured over the years. There really are no corners cut here. Meticulous detail is put into each and every thing. Even characters that only appears for one scene are animated in great detail instead of the blurry or silhouette approach others take, while the background is full of vibrant scenery and landmarks based on real life models.

Keeping with the tradition, most of the Seiyuu and BGM used in the anime are the same as the ones used in the original game. The voice acting is top notch, with characters sounding anywhere from convincingly stupid to mind-numbingly grievous depending on the situation. The background music, while fitting for the most part, does get a bit repetitive in some places. There have been a number of official and doujin albums released in the 4 years prior to the After Story animation, and it would have added more variety to incorporate some of these tunes to the fray. The biggest change easily comes from the new opening and ending, both sung by Lia.Toki wo Kizamu Uta is easily one of the memorable anime opening songs ever. It's an arrangement and vocalization of another Clannad track, To the Same Heights, which also happens to be one of my favorite Clannad songs. On the other hand, Torch, the ending theme, feels way too energetic and out of place. Even though the Dango song isn't my cup of tea, it is much more fitting and should have taken the place of Torch here.

Onwards to the bulk of the review.

Clannad: After Story is a bit of a misnomer. Being the direct continuation of the first season, instead of starting the After Story arc right off the bet, the first few episodes followed the same "mini-arc" format that KyoAni has used since Air, much to my disappointment. The approach makes the gap between the arcs seem unnatural and segments a series too much to fully explore an engaging storyline in depth. The saving grace comes from the fact that these are dedicated to the supporting cast in the first season, which is a nice change of pace. The fact that the protagonist isn't romantically involved with any of these characters also makes the transition a bit smoother.

The second portion(about 2/3) of the anime is dedicated to the After Story, basically a direct continuation of the Nagisa arc where Tomoya starts to date her. Many consider this to be the meat and gem of the original game and it's not hard to see why. It is one of the most emotional stories ever crafted, and romance doesn't even play a big part in it! It is also here when Clannad really bombards the audience with its central theme: Family. With as many as 3 concurrent tales at any given time, Clannad: After Story is one emotional roller coaster after another, only climbing uphill all the way until the climax. The only breaks come in forms of the sparse cameo appearances of former Clannad cast, in events such as Christmas and New Year gatherings.

Then, once again, KyoAni drops the balls again. Because of After Story's intense and focused buildup, it's really easy to forget KyoAni's biggest weakness : Transitions. First few episodes featured arcs that coexisted relatively independently and harmlessly, while the After Story just keeps building on itself Until the end. Traditionally, what KyoAni has done in the past is to just drop down the next arc or alternative and expects you to move right along, which is both its greatest strength and downfall in forms of faithful adaptation and plot segregation. This time, however, KyoAni favored an altered presentation and an attempt to incorporate the true ending to the existing After Story ending, an attempt which fell flat on its face. It's just as confusing as if the two were left alone, and the new approach left more questions than answers. However, I do applaud KyoAni for finally making a change. Segmented arc presentation has always been my biggest gripe with KyoAni adaptations, and it's nice to see something being done about it.

Despite the shortcoming in the plot device, the art direction and cinematography during the end sequence is among the best in the entire series, which should be fulfilling enough for those who are just relieved that the ride is over. Hopefully KyoAni will not be discouraged by this result and continue to experiment to find the perfect presentation for their future works. Despite the less-than-revolutionary storyline and the obtuse ending, Clannad: After Story is possibly the most moving tale to ever focus on family, with only Grave of the Fireflies as a possible contender.

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Short. That was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this manga. A game that's as long as Nagisa's story line in Clannad is condensed into 4 chapters? Let me tell you now that if you have played Tomoyo After already don't bother reading this manga.

Admittedly, when I first read through it, I thought the manga was a poor adaptation. However, taking the merits of the original game and the length of manga into consideration, I can say that the author did fairly well.

Storyline is entirely hit or miss depending on whether the reader has played Clannad and Tomoyo After. The story moves way too fast with not enough transitions for a reader new to the series to fully grasp the situation. Having watched/played Clannad isn't a necessity, but it does help flesh out the story background.

If you've played Tomoyo After, though, that's another story. Taken on its own, before or after Clannad, the story is anything from good to great. However, if, like me, you have already played the game you'll be glad that it's only 4 chapters and didn't waste more than 30 minutes of your life. Some events are added in manga that doesn't really add anything to the storyline. Not only that, due to the extremely short length of the manga, many events and even characters are outright missing.

Speaking of characters, this is probably the strong point of the manga adaptation. Even though a main character from the game is missing, the rest of the characters do have some depth despite the length deficit. Both Tomoyo and Tomoya will grow on you, each with their own distinct personality, problems, and viewpoints.

Stylistically the manga stayed pretty close to the game, which isn't a bad thing at all. Especially, the manga does a great job portraying fear and insecurity each person felt at different points of time, which really helps convey some of these experiences and emotions and make readers feel for these characters.

Did I enjoy the manga? Definitely not when I first finished it. However, this is not the fault of the manga alone. Annoyances like missing characters aside, I never liked the ending in the original game either. However, it is a very moving tale, and all in all I enjoyed the story's progression towards the disappointing ending.

As you can see from the overall score, even though I pointed out a lot of the negatives, my lasting impression is still a very positive one. There are far more people who hasn't played Tomoyo After than those who has. Taken on its own, the manga is still a great story with memorable characters, and as such I recommend to the majority of people who read manga. The only gripe I can see is the brevity. Four chapters is definitely not enough to develop these characters, and the events seem rushed. That, and don't play the game before you read the manga.

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