It happens when you finish watching a show that is so amazing, it leaves you with a sense of emptiness, but you have no idea what you need to fill it with. A good emptiness, mind you.
However, a show doesn't have to leave a Void effect to be brilliant, Higurashi, Bebop, and Anohana are all excellent shows.
The Void is rare, and sometimes doesn't have as much impact as from other shows. But when it hits, it hits hard. The biggest anime void I have ever experienced is from Clannad, and its sequel, Clannad After Story. I also consider these to be my favourite anime ever.
Clannad (first season only this time) is a 24 episode anime by Kyoto Animation from 2007. It is the third of 3 visual novels by Key adapted by KyoAni. It is a slice of life romance anime with a hint of the supernatural, and it is bloody amazing.
STORY
The main story revolves around Tomoya Okazaki, a high school delinquent and waster. He hates his life, his family, where he lives, everything. One day though, he meets a classmate on his way to school. A strange girl called Nagisa Furukawa. Although she is a year older than Tomoya, she's in the same year, because she's repeating, due to illnesses in the past, causing her attendance to plummet. As a result, she has no friends, and decides to revive the old Drama Club and befriend Tomoya, who is obviously very reluctant to do so. Along the way, Tomoya meets different characters, each with their own set of strange problems, and it is up to him to "solve" them.
Since this is an adaptation of a visual novel, the first few episodes can be a bit difficult to follow, as new characters are being introduced quite often, and Clannad had A LOT of characters! This also makes character arcs feel like you're actually playing a visual novel.
At the same time, there's a second story being told. It is the story of a girl in an empty and isolated world. This story only gets about a minute of screen time every two or three episodes, which may seem like it isn't enough. But what that lack of screen time does is make you interested in the second story whenever it comes into play, as you will have probably forgotten about it by the time it is shown again. What I found really interesting about this story was that its "solution" came at the VERY END of the anime, i.e. the last episode of After Story. This really makes me want to watch more immediately, a feat only accomplished by Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni. However, you do get clues here and there to help you understand it.
The first season has 3 main story arcs, each with their leading character, with some filler episodes between them that are actually good, to be honest. The filler allows you to relax and prepare for another arc that follows.
I must admit, the start to this anime isn't great. The first few episodes make the show feel like a cheesy romance anime with a boring story, but soon after (about 3-4 episodes) it gets going. And when Clannad gets going... It gets going.
Clannad is one of the best examples of great storytelling. It takes a generic setting and genre and tells its story in a slightly different, yet incredibly effective manner. Sure, there are clichés here and there, but there's more uniqueness to the anime than at first glance. For example, each character arc features great development, but there's also another minor plot line, about Tomoya's bad relationship with his drunk father. You hardly see stuff like that in romance anime.
CHARACTERS
Clannad has many, many characters. Each has their own personality and their own story to tell, but this is where I have a small problem. 90% of the characters are based on archetypes. You have the bored MC, the airhead, punching bag, kickass cool one, the tsundere, the twin sister, the shy one, and a little sister. Now, usually this really annoys me, but where the Clannad characters redeem themselves is in the large amount of character development the series has to offer. Some characters get more development than others obviously, but what they got is perfect. What a lot of shows do, is create characters with common personalities, yet they may never explain why they act the way they do. They simply leave the characters with the less common and more interesting personalities to the side, while the tsunderes and the airheads get put in the spotlight, because they're more liked in the anime world. But if you look at Kotomi, the quiet and shy bookworm, her backstory (which is the best part of season one) perfectly explains her weird behaviour and different personality.
The biggest problem I have with Clannad season one lies with Nagisa, the main female character. She is introduced to us in episode 1 as the obvious female lead, and although she gets the most screen time, she doesn't get any proper character development until the end of the first season. Luckily, the wait is worth it, and so is the time getting there.
Lastly I'll talk about the main character, Tomoya. It's really difficult for me to talk about how good or bad a character he is, since his character REALLY gets to shine in After Story. The main reason why he's liked as a character in my opinion is due to his relationship with his father, and as a result, his constantly developing outlook on life in general. The change really is visible if you compare Tomoya at the beginning to Tomoya at the end of season one.
Overall, the characters are all likeable. Some moments may be cringeworthy, but they're all fixed by the huge amount of humour the first season offers. The first two character arcs are long enough for attachment to characters, the third one not so much, although it's still really good.
The OVA is very interesting and is definitely worth mentioning. The main story of Clannad is forgotten, and instead, the OVA takes place in another "timeline" and features Tomoyo as the main female lead, with Tomoya as her boyfriend. (names are confusing, I know.) It is a simple one-episode story that shows a "what if" situation between the two characters, if the main story didn't follow the path it ended up following. Very nice!
Side characters in Clannad are also excellent. Sunohara the Punching Bag acts as our main source of humour, while Nagisa's parents make you question why you can't have parents who are just as weird! Needless to say, since the three act for humorous purposes, the tone shift is glorious when they have to get serious, especially Sunohara.
SOUND & ANIMATION
The soundtrack is written by Jun Maeda, Shinji Orito and Magome Togoshi. Strange to have three composers, isn't it? It's a big soundtrack, totalling at 56 tracks. To sum it up in one word: Brilliant. The Clannad soundtrack is simply spectacular. The songs by themselves are however, quite below par as a few sound very cheap, being made using basic MIDI tracks. So how is the soundtrack spiced up? Simple. Effective track placement. Although this is quite obvious, and every anime out there does it, Clannad does it more effectively than a LOT of shows. There are just a few tracks that will bring back all the memories of watching the show. The best moments especially. There are some truly amazing tracks in the soundtrack though.
Fantasy, Shining in the Sky, Roaring Tides, they are just a few of the best tracks. But there is one, that surpasses every song in this soundtrack, and almost every other soundtrack I've come across. This is one of my favourite tracks of all time: "Snowfield".
This track is played during the most powerful and most emotional parts of the two seasons. Not only does it sound amazing, but the returning memories of those moments makes it much, much better. Just be careful when you look it up. Spoilers everywhere. (let's face it, spoiling an anime that is hailed as one of the best ever is a criminal offense)
The opening of Clannad is quite good. "Magmell" is the same song used in the original visual novel, the anime only plays a remixed version. I think. The visuals for the opening are brilliant. It follows the prehistoric tradition of Key visual novels and introduces the female characters to us as a slideshow with their names on-screen, and I really like that.
The ending song...well... Dango Daikazoku is just legendary. It's against the law to hate it. I'm serious. The melody is just so damn catchy, it will get stuck in your head and never leave. Kinda like the Chobits opening. Also it's interesting to note that the melody of the song is used numerous times for a few different tracks in OST...
Dub or Sub? Both are great, both have flaws. The sub will dampen the amount of humor in the show, and let me tell you, you'll need all the comedy you can get. The dub is awkward at times, and Nagisa's name is mispronounced, but it has much more humor than the sub. Both the dub and sub have a great cast though. Lucy Christian, Hillary Haag, David Matranga on one side, (Greg Ayres too, depending on your tastes) and Mai Nakahara, Ai Nonaka, and Yuuichi Nakamura on the other. It is a difficult choice, but I watched both anyway.
Looking from the outside in, Clannad has weird animation: Pointy chins and almost-square-shaped eyes. There's where many people have a problem with it. But that's just judging a book by its cover. It has an animation style VERY similar to The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (and the Disappearance) since it was done by the same company in a similar time slot. In terms of character design, not bad. Background animation however, is fantastic. Shots of the city the story takes place in are based off real locations, which is always nice to see. But since it's Kyoto Animation, good quality art styles are expected. However this time they have outdone themselves. The secondary story of the Illusionary World I mentioned before features a different style of animation. Every movement looks fluid, high quality, and is simply breathtaking. Even though KyoAni have released shows since 2007 that have amazing animation, the animation in those parts of Clannad are in my opinion, the best they have done so far. See it for yourself when you watch it.
FINAL EVALUATION
When you ask someone why they like Clannad, they will undoubtedly focus on After Story, the second season. So evaluating the first season is difficult without going into After Story elements. That is also why I can't add much else to this part of the review. Watching the two seasons back to back, feels like watching the Haruhi Suzumiya series. If you get through the first season of Clannad and its dull start, After Story is your reward. If you get through the Melancholy of HS, and through the torture of Endless Eight, the Disappearance movie is your reward.
To me though, the first season is a preparation for the masterpiece that is the second season.
Clannad is a strange anime. Some parts just will not make sense. It's only at the end of the whole anime that you get an understanding of the whole "supernatural" element... That's why people get bored easily by the end of season one. That's why I always worry when I recommend Clannad to people.
Clannad takes a typical high school setting and uses it to tell a different kind of story than what we're used to. It isn't a deconstruction though.
There is one anime that you can watch before Clannad, to get a taste of what it's like. That is of course, Kanon 2006. It's pretty much identical to the first season of Clannad in terms of characters, animation, OST, and the story to some extent.
So, the first season of Clannad..... Well, it's awesome. It has its fair share of flaws, but they're only brought out if you look at the first season by itself. If you decide to watch Clannad, which you should, and you don't find a liking to the first season, finish watching it, and then watch After Story. I promise it will be worth it.
9/10 for season one.
~thobiazz~
(P.S. The Void doesn't hit until the end of season 2. Sorry!!!)
