Is that a slight hyperbole? Yeah, probably. But it still holds true that we view teenage relationships with a bit of apprehension. It is odd then that the most popular (and most praised) romance anime takes place in high school. I'm going to be honest, I have no clue why this anime is viewed with such reverence. Clannad and it's sequel series Clannad After Story are by far and away viewed as the pinnacle of their genre. While most of the praise is reserved for the sequel series, Clannad itself has many rabid fans waiting to pounce and explain why it is worthy of such praise and devotion. I'm here to provide an alternate perspective, I don't think this is one of the most emotionally compelling anime there is. In fact, I found the romance of this anime to be the show's greatest hindrance (I will elaborate on that shortly, don't discount me just yet, save that for later).
Oh, and one more thing to mention, this show is a harem. BOOM, take it fans! Fuck your painfully biased opinions, allow my foot to make contact with your ass and send you flying into a large target with CLANNAD'S A HAREM painted in the center. Yes, Clannad's a harem. That being said, it is vastly different from the general thoughts applied to that genre. This show has more emotion attached, the main character doesn't get a "harem ending", and there aren't as many accidental sexual situations for the main character to get slapped. But it is still a harem. To quote the synopsis, *AHEM* "Claiming he has nothing better to do, he decides to help her achieve this goal along with the help of four other girls." One guy (most of the time) and four girls. Accept the truth people, accept the truth.
Anyways, onto the meat of the review:
Story: 5
Let me make one thing clear, Clannad's story and premise deserve better than a 5. The reason the score loses so many points is due to the execution. Clannad was my first foray into an adaptation of a romance visual novel. Prior to starting the series I expected genuine wonderment as to which girl the main character would end up with. Unfortunately that expectation was brutally murdered in the first few minutes as we met the main heroine (only heroine, if we're being entirely honest) of the story. If you have a brain you can immediately predict the ending of Clannad, it is so obvious you almost second guess yourself thinking it couldn't possibly be that obvious. That itself is not an issue. The issue arises when this show introduces other heroines and their feelings expecting us to latch onto the belief that these girls stand a chance.
All of the other characters had their stories and problems that were explored, and they really weren't bad, but I had to question their existence in this story. What was the point? Why introduce these characters and their stories? We all know that the main heroine is going to emerge the victor per se; so why not focus on her and the main character and their lives/friends rather then introducing pointless love rivals? Having more than one love interest can certainly be an interesting plot point, but this anime fails in execution completely as we meet a girl, say hi, help her out, before saying goodbye and returning to the main heroine. Said girl then becomes a very obvious side-character and is scarcely mentioned again.
This show is ultimately a character driven show, and the story should have focused on them more as a collective rather than honing in on the romance between only two...
Art: 7
The animation is pretty solid. It was easy on the eyes with a nice, and bright color palette. Overall it is nothing to write home about, but I have nothing negative to say.
The character designs are exceedingly moe. I still don't even know how to define that word, but these characters are all cute and adorable blobs of moe. Whether you like the character designs or not is entirely based on one's own tastes. Some people cannot stand seeing these older characters with cute childlike faces, an understandable perspective. Others love those designs, and others (like myself) just don't care.
Sound: 7
The OST does its job. When watching this show whatever track is playing will undoubtedly compliment the scene. But I'll be honest, I don't recall a single track from this entire anime.
The voice acting for this anime is hit or miss. To compliment the moe aspect of the animation, the voices of certain characters will sound exceedingly childlike. This touches back to that idea of personal preference, some will like this, others will not. Now granted, that is just the sub, but the dub is most definitely something I would not recommend. The dub has the opposite issue of the sub, so that many of the voices sound like they belong to people 5-10 years older than high school. The acting in the dub certainly isn't bad, but it just feels wrong.
Character: 8
On first appearance most of these characters can be filed into some sort of cliche. The nice one, the delinquent, the tsundere, the class president, the naive one, the eccentric, and finally the perverted best friend. So with a bunch of cliches why am I giving a score of 8? The answer is that nearly every character in this show receives excellent development. Even minor characters aren't left stagnant.
Tomoya Okazaki- The main character of this show. He is introduced as a school delinquent with a dour disposition. He is a pretty solid character. Avoiding spoiler territory, he has a fairly sad history and his demeanor towards life is understandable knowing that. He is fairly sarcastic at times and was by and large a good character.
Nagisa Furukawa- Ugh, here we have the main heroine of the story. Ya know, I don't dislike Nagisa. It is nigh impossible to dislike this girl. She is the cliche nice girl I spoke of earlier. She is also a character I feel doesn't get a ton of development. Sure she also has a history, but she is forever the sweet nice girl. For a character that is really the second main character, I found this to be extremely disappointing. There is a line in the sequel series in which the main character thinks to himself that Nagisa is one in a million. My thoughts on the matter were akin to "Umm, not really. I can think of a dozen other nice girls that could fill her role almost to a tee."
Many would vehemently disagree with me, saying Nagisa is an awesome character with incredible development. Really though, Nagisa's "development" comes from her parents. She is the only character who's family is really shown, and she benefits from it greatly. Her parents are both very solid characters, Akio and Sanae Furukawa are both good characters, and they provide a backdrop for people to like Nagisa. If you had given any of the other heroines half as much screen time as Nagisa they would've been far better characters.
Kyou Fujibayashi- The tsundere. The end.
No, not really. Kyou initially appears as no more than your average tsundere, but develops far beyond that. Kyou is my personal favorite character in this show. Her relationship with Tomoya is extremely funny to watch as they have a constant back-and-forth friendship. She is also very devoted to assisting her sister in her relationship endeavors with Tomoya, a very good sister, actually.
Kotomi Ichinose- The genius girl that is naivety personified. She also has a good history and it becomes apparent thanks to spoilers I will not be mentioning.
Tomoyo Sakagami- The class president. Ok, not yet, class president is one of her goals though. She is also an impossibly good fighter capable of reaching 1000 hit combos that the show will even track for you. Tomoyo is a really honest character that gives off an almost intimidating persona.
The issue with reviewing these characters is that I cannot accurately describe them without going into extensive spoilers. That's the degree of development we see from all of them. So my descriptions are only what can be viewed on the surface, but that is due to the fact that discovering these character's true value was my greatest treat in watching this show.
The above characters are the main male along with the "heroines" (Fuuko isn't a heroine!) There are a good number of lesser characters, but many of them are good characters in their own right. You have the very cute, very eccentric Fuuko Ibuki. She likes knives and starfish, and that's about all you need to know. She isn't particularly deep as a character, but is very amusing. You then have Ryou Fujibayashi, Kyou's twin sister who is a lot kinder. MAL has Ryou listed as a main, but she really isn't. She was side-lined a bit in favor of her sister.
Youhei Sunohara is the perverted best friend. He is also a delinquent slacker and really doesn't develop past that. The final notable side characters are the aforementioned parents of Nagisa, Akio and Sanae Furukawa. They really are two of the coolest parents in anime, and they receive some solid development as side-characters.
Enjoyment: 5
I really did enjoy these characters. I thought their interactions with one another were entertaining and well done. The reason I cannot label my enjoyment above a 5 however, is due to the romance. A bit odd, right? This show is most accurately a slice of life romance, and I think it would have benefited from just being a slice of life. I say that ignoring the sequel series, I know the two are always spoken in tandem, but you have to look at them as individual stories. Having this show as a romance took away from some of the of amazing aspects of the characters.
Though my least favorite aspect (prepare thy selves for a highly polarized opinion) is the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa. I really just didn't see how the two would work as a couple. Nothing about them ever seemed to mesh. I would have preferred to see Tomoya with literally every other heroine besides Nagisa as I thought each one of them would have been a better fit. These thoughts constantly nagging at my brain led to a not-so-enjoyable viewing experience as every emotional moment between Tomoya and Nagisa had me lamenting on how this could have unfolded with the other heroines. So take that factor with a large grain of salt, my opinion in that facet is by no means the norm. You may love their relationship, but it really did not work for me...
I also feel the need to mention the fact that as an emotional experience, this show did very, very little for me. I have been told many a times that I have a black heart, but that is not quite true. Though I have never cried in an anime (I have come close), I do feel emotional in certain scenes. But in Clannad, there were only two occasions I felt even a modicum of sadness. And from what I have read on forums, they aren't even the scenes many feel are heartbreaking.
If popular opinion is any sort of judge, I am an outlier in the emotion department. So for many who read this, you may still feel the incredible emotion that is commonly associated with this franchise. But for others that find themselves more emotionally disconnected, you likely won't find Clannad to be anything special.
Overall: 6
This show's high points from my not-so-humble perspective is most definitely the characters. Even the cliches are fun to watch. But sadly, the meat of this anime is the romance, and I believe it failed.
From an objective perspective, I cannot lay a ton of fault at the feet of this anime. But my goal all along was to provide a perspective that wasn't mindless hate, but wasn't blind worship either. This show lost almost all of its points because of my opinion on the how the story unfolded. Because of that this review may sink down into the tresses of MAL's databases as its unhelpful ratio grows ever larger.
If you are the type that can hone in on said romance and like it, by all means, go watch this anime right now. If you love what many believe to be emotional roller coasters, by all means, go watch this anime right now. I even encourage you to watch it now as it's sequel series takes those aspects and increases their effectiveness exponentially. But for everyone else, don't bother unless you have nothing else to watch. This show isn't bad, and certainly isn't a waste of time, but it's not a show I would label as high priority at all.
