Series Review: CLANNAD
While walking to school one day, delinquent Okazaki Tomoya encounters a girl, named Furuwaka Nagisa, standing at the bottom of a hill. He finds out Nagisa is repeating her senior year in school thanks to an illness that had her too short on attendance to graduate. She is determined to rebuild the Drama Club, and, with the help of Tomoya and a few others, Nagisa sets off on her mission.
During this time, Tomoya interacts with several other females who he is connected to in some way, shape, or form. Ibuki Fuuko, a first-year girl who hands out carved starfish to everyone; Fujibayashi Kyou, who throws dictionaries at Tomoya’s face and is ever-diligent in protecting her younger sister Ryou; Ichinose Kotomi, a badass genius who loves String Theory; and Sakagami Tomoyo, a girl one year younger then him who is fighting to become Student Council President. He also has an epic best friend, Sunohara Youhei, who is the funniest and stupidest bastard in the history of animu.
Tomoya’s home life kinda blows: his Mom died when he was young and his father became a raging alcoholic/gambling addict because of it. Tomoya and his father fought all the time, until he shoved Tomoya against a wall and messed up his right shoulder for life, which sucks for Tomoya because he loved basketball. Ever since that incident, Tomoya’s father treats him like a stranger and they have even less of a relationship. Now, since Tomoya can’t play basketball, he became a delinquent and befriended Sunohara, who was kicked out of soccer for being too badass. Being friends with Nagisa kind of grounds him a bit; he starts going to school like a good lil boy. But then drama ensues!
It is no secret that I love Key and it’s Key Magic. Clannad is ridiculous at times, but is 100% epic. Everything about it is great: the arcs are paced nicely, the humour is plentiful and great, the animation is beautiful, the music rules, etc. Nothing about Clannad is bad. The only thing it lacks is kissing, but you can’t always get what you want. It doesn’t disappoint on the crying front, considering I bawled my way through quite a few episodes.
Out of all the girls, Fuuko has always been my favourite (despite her being Ayu 2.0). I dunno, I find something about her to be really adorable, plus her arc is wicked sad. My least favourite girl is Tomoyo, because she’s.. really boring. And I get her and Tomoya’s names mixed up every five minutes.
Overall Clannad is 100% pro++. Did awesome sexy justice to the game.
Chibi’s Review:
Not only are the arcs paced nicely, the character development remains solid. If a main or semi-main character is introduced and developed in one arc, they will become a part of all subsequent arcs to come. They don’t just get shelved or disappear never to be seen again. In fact, some characters become key elements to the outcome of subsequent arcs!
The art and animation in this anime is highly enjoyable, making the anime really fun to watch. The scenery I found was always detailed and great to look at, and the characters really well drawn.
The opening features the same opening song from the game and does not change throughout the entire season, even with the season being 22 episods long. The ending features the Dango Family song, also does not change throughout the entire season. The ending song is really catchy and you’ll find yourself singing it long after you’ve watched Clannad!
PS: Dango song = best song in the universe.