==STORY==
The story plays out how you would expect a VN adaptation to. We basically follow Tomoya Okazaki as he interacts with the female cast through different story arcs, helping them with their problems. Some arcs are far better than others, and vary in length but do well to keep the focus on to 1 girl at a time. Throughout these Clannad offers a host of different things for different types of viewers. A fair amount of humour, quite a lot of fanservice, some is just blatant, but mostly subtle (some attire choices and close up shots I noticed were indeed intentionally there to appeal to the audience watching Clannad for its Harem elements), and contains a lot of fantasy related themes. Clannad is also very heavy on drama which carries it at most points, and even the occasional action scenes.
==CHARACTERS==
Clannad offers a healthy variety of likeable characters, they consist of many different personalities, but some characters being far more interesting than others. One of the problems I had was with the main character Tomoya, the self-proclaimed 'deliquent.' There is the problem already, Tomoya is no deliquent, actually he is probably one of the friendliest protagonists you'll see, often helping out people for no particular reason, despite having a troubled past, and a horrible relationship with his father, overall I found his character often monotonous. But it is his interactions with the girls which remain key throughout the series. I feel Tomoya's friend Youhei at times offers more intriguing moments and at some points kept me watching.
==ART & ANIMATION==
It's hard to put into words how spectacular the art is in Clannad but then again I'd expect no less from KyoAni. The female characters never fail to be moé, Nagisa in particular as her character has a naivity that accompanies her design. If you do notice the backgrounds (which you most likely wont considering the characters often stand out) they provide mostly the colours of greys, beiges and browns which are often known for being particularly dull, however in this case, they manage to give those colours a shine that brightens up the background as a whole. The addition of fallen Cherry Blossoms near Cherry Blossom Trees and on roads in outside settings is a nice touch. Animation is less to be talked about, since most episodes are the characters, sitting, standing or walking not much about animations needs mention, when animations occasionally become more complex (referring to Tomoyo's 200 hit combo, among others) it delivers flawlessly.
==SOUND==
The OP in Clannad is nice and very fantasy-like. The ED IS catchy, at first it'll seem like a Japanese nursery rhyme, but hear it enough times and you'll be singing along to it. Background music is often a solo piano score to fit romantic or sad moments which is pulled off well, but other than that, background songs aren't anything noteworthy. And seiyu's do well to sound as cute, youthful and as energetic as their character may be, but I can't judge the voice acting properly since I don't speak Japanese.
==CONCLUSION==
I've given Clannad a fair amount of praise so you are probably wondering why didn't it get a higher score? And here it is, not enough happens in Clannad, it will often be a series of tiring conversation and boring/mindless activity, one after the other. And it is this activity such as, handing out stars, playing random sports, designing posters that left me often dissatisfied. More so when the story as a whole tends to drag on through some parts. At times I wanted to get the episode over and done with. I did intend to give Clannad a lower score but when noticing the overall quality of Clannad I could never give this a true low score. I just feel Clannad is not enjoyable enough, everything is done OK, from story to character development but satisfaction is not usually present. Despite this Clannad can appeal to a wide audience and is one of the most universal animes you'll probably see.
