Clannad's story revolves around third year, delinquent, high school student, Tomoya Okazaki, living alone with his father, Naoyuki Okazaki who had turned to alcohol and gambling after Tomoya's mother passed away in car accident when he was younger, resulting in a distant and hostile relationship between both characters.
Tomoya feels aggrieved yet indifferent to the life he leads and slightly resentful towards the town he lives in because of the negative memories that he associates with it combined with the lack of influence he feels from his father, attending school day in and day out and hanging out in the dorm room of former soccer club member and best friend Youhei Sunohara.
Whilst walking up the hill to school, one day Tomoya meets a strange girl who later introduces herself as Nagisa Furakawa who is a year older than him but repeating a year as a result of being physically weak and becoming ill regularly, the two gradually become closer over time which introduces us to the other characters, family members and childhood friends throughout the story.
While essentially comparable to Kanon, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Anohana, Angel Beats, Grave of The Flies etc, I have to say Clannad and Clannad After Story were the first anime series that I've come across to make me laugh and cry at the same time. Clannad is the type of anime designed to emotionally provoke its viewers and if you are an avid anime watcher who enjoys series with drama, romance and slice of life as its main genre categories, you have to admit it, Clannad does a pretty good job at what it intends to do!
To top it off, you can also incorporate and cover a wide variety of genres as Clannad throws in a few funny and light hearted scenes on top of symbolizing the importance of relationships, family and friends and even fundamentally changing a viewer's perspective on how they view their real life relationships.
For a 2004 Japanese Visual Novel, as an anime adaptation, Clannad is pretty impressive and if you're searching for an anime that's humorous as well as harrowing, poignant and really tugs at your heartstrings, I can guarantee you, love it or hate it, Clannad is one of the most common recommendations. I take my hat off to Key Studios!
The best thing about it for me is if that if you are dedicated enough to make it through the two, 23 episode long series, you really get to see how the characters grow, how the past of the characters is acknowledged and confronted and how Tomoya meeting Nagisa was an allegory that would beautifully tie the story together as a whole.
