There are times while watching that I felt the story slowed down quite a bit and that was during the first arc. I almost completely lost interest during the first arc, I almost gave up on the anime. But I'm really glad I didn't, because it picks up greatly. It goes from very boring to very emotional and entertaining.
The art itself is very outstanding. The big BIG eyes that the characters have are almost laughably adorable, but one can argue that it adds to the emotional part of Clannad, which I can see, in a way, but I'll get back to that later. Every enviorment is lush and beautiful. Sometimes it makes me wish I were there, haha! No arguements with the art, but that should go without saying since it is Key we're talking about here.
The sound is alright. The music is outstanding, but my only arguement is that they seem to play the mediocre tunes more than the better ones, and that's very dissapointing, because the better ones are really memorable but can't be hummed because they don't play them enough. I'll go ahead and add voice acting to sound. With that said, the english voice acting is absolutely awful for me. Everyone's voices were very unfitting and annoying. The acting is pretty half assed too. However, as per usual with me, the Japanese voice acting is phenomonal and is part of what saved the anime for me. The sound deserves a solid 7 just because of the japanese voice acting and 45% of the soundtrack.
The characters were great, save for Fuko, I absolutely hated her with a passion. I was so emotionally attached to the cast of Clannad because I felt what they went through, and that's something this anime did greatly for me. Part of the reason I was so attached to them was, like I said, the way they were drawn. They were just drawn so darn well and looked so darn cute, that it was hard for me not to care, and that's part of the reason that makes the characters so fun to watch. Each character has their own unique traits as well, and some of the characters were really funny, once again save for Fuko, nothing she said really entertained me at all. I was debating on whether or not I should give the characters a 9 because of Fuko, but she was not enough to keep me from giving characters a 10.
I enjoyed this anime. Not from start, but from the middle to the end. The pacing may be half assed and the music may be overplayed to DEATH save for the 45% of the soundtrack that I loved, this anime is not for everyone, but those who like a good romance and a good Bakemonogatari-like story.
