Clannad
Visual Novels are interactive fictional video games that feature text-based stories adopting a narrative style of literature and interactivity. The storytelling is aided by static or sprite-based visuals, which typically appear in anime-style art and are essentially mixed-media novels. Now and then, a Visual Novel gets adapted into an anime series. Like most games that get their own anime adaptations, whether it ends well or not depends on too many factors. Among the hits and misses, there was a spectacular hit that invoked tears across countless audiences.
Clannad is infamous. This TV series spanned 23 episodes, aired from the 5th of October 2007 until the 28th of March 2008, primarily as a Fall 2007 title. It was produced by Pony Canyon, TBS, Movic, and Animation Do, licensed by Sentai Filmworks, and brought to life by Studio Kyoto Animation.
The primary staff behind it are Hatta Youko as Producer, Ishihara Tatsuya as Director, Episode Director and Storyboard, Nakamura Shinichi as Producer, and Tsuruoka Youta as Sound Director. It featured Comedy, Drama, Romance, School, Slice of Life, and Supernatural and received a RAting of PG-13 for teenagers 13 years or older.
Clannad is the anime adaptation of the visual novel of the same title developed by KEY for Windows PCs back in 2004. It was later ported to PlayStation consoles and the Xbox 360 as well. The game was a brilliant success, becoming the best-selling PC game of 2004 and getting charted in the National Top 50 Rankings several times afterward.
Following this massive success, Clannad was even adapted into a total of four manga adaptations, an animated film, two anime series, two OVAs, comic anthologies, light novels, and art books. Both the anime series and OVAs were licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America back in 2009. The Anime’s first season received mainly mixed reviews, while the second season gained wide critical acclaim.
The three main Manga adaptations are titled “Clannad (For You Not),” “Clannad: Hikaru Mimamoru Sakamichi de'' and “Clannad” with Story by KEY and Maeda Jun. The Clannad Movie aired in September 2007 by Toei Animation as an Alternate version. Two alternative setting special episodes were released as well; “Clannad: Mou Hitotsu no Sekai, Tomoyo-hen” and “Clannad: After Story - Mou Hitotsu no Sekai, Kyou-hen.” The second season was released under the title “Clannad: After Story” in Fall 2008.
Protagonist Tomoya Okazaki is essentially a delinquent who thinks life is dull and firmly believes he will never amount to anything. Thus, along with his friend Youhei Sunohara, he spends his days skipping school and wasting away idly. His grandiose plans will not go far as one day, while walking to school, he passes by a peculiar young girl muttering to herself quietly.
She then suddenly exclaims "Anpan!" without warning and catches his attention. He soon finds out that the girl's name is Nagisa Furukawa and that she has a habit of exclaiming the things she likes out loud to motivate herself. Out of nowhere, she suddenly claims that they are now friends, to which he responds by simply walking away, thinking nothing of the fateful encounter.
One way or another, Tomoya soon finds himself noticing Nagisa more and more around school. Eventually, he accepts defeat, befriends her, and learns that she had been held back a school year due to a severe illness. Even so, she dreams of reviving the school's drama club somehow, and Tomoya, under the guise of “not having anything better to do,” decides to help her achieve this goal.
Joining the two are four other girls. Soon he finds himself spending more and more time with these girls, progressively learning about them and their problems in life. Thus begins his unexpected school life where he attempts to help each girl overcome her respective obstacle and soon realizes his life isn't as dull as he used to think.
While After Story is a masterpiece, this prequel series has quite a few flaws, which caused the mixed reviews. It is undisputed that Clannad is a timeless classic with much to be felt while watching, but the sequel is what truly makes the franchise shine.
The Story of Clannad does not have much to work with as it simply follows the Visual Novel’s original plot. Most of the plot elements seem outlandish and emotionally manipulative, in turn weakening what could have possibly been a sweet story. In terms of romance, the characters feel highly one-dimensional, except for maybe two.
In terms of drama, the starting arc can be pretty annoying to most and building little to no emotional premise. In the present, most viewers will find it to be a complete failure of a story, but when viewed as an average Slice of Life anime, the plot barely manages to pass. The comedy is pretty decent too.
Clannad’s greatest weakness is the characters. This, too, can be credited to the source material. Even so, some of the characters get good development as the series progresses. At their base, they were either tsunderes, quirky, sweet, and the like. They are far too childish and insecure despite their age early in the series and make for unrealistic characters to whom viewers cannot care about or relate.
Tomoya is pretty bland from the start, too, and his motivations are left unclear. Why he even bothers to help Nagisa when he was so determined to laze his days away at the start is never made clear. The female characters seem to lack many things that could potentially attract a guy like Tomoya. Nagisa continuously acts like a preschooler and does not develop. Tomoya and Sunohara are pretty fun to watch, though. The rest of the characters ultimately feel unimportant and pointless.
The Art and Animation of Clannad are pretty good. This anime had a high budget, great production values, and art direction, so it is to be expected. The character designs are mostly “moe” type and may not appeal to every audience, but it is expected to consider the themes and time of production. The eye art, in particular, could be disrupting to some viewers, all except for Okazaki's.
The Sounds and Music of Clannad are decent at best. The OSTs are evocative without sounding too overdramatic. As for Voice acting, all the female characters sound like toddlers. The Opening theme is "Megumeru ~cuckool mix 2007~" by eufonius, and the Ending theme is "Dango Daikazoku" by Chata, both of which are okay.
Overall, Clannad is a good anime for fans of the genres looking for a very casual watch. This is definitely not a series to invest any brainpower in, so just watch it as it is. If you’re looking for realistic female characters you can relate to, this is not your anime.
The series could’ve been better if they hadn’t tried so hard to make a significant emotional impact and then messed up in the process. Regardless, it has some heartwarming moments and cute scenes. At the end of the day, Clannad feels contrived, heavy-handed, unrealistic, and falls flat. If you’re looking to watch the series for its unyielding legacy, go ahead and simply breeze through this prequel before you get the much better After Story. In honor of the Clannad franchise, this anime is recommended but prepare yourself for what's aforementioned.
