I'm a pretty cynical viewer. I honestly find much tragedy in anime and many other forms of media to be hilarious, and usually don't care because usually the events are predictable, the writing is poor, or I didn't even like the characters. Much of it has been overdone, and deux ex machina... just gives me more of a reason not to care.
I didn't think much of this show very much at first. It seemed to be a harem/romance/comedy anime, a genre which I simply dislike. Having female characters orbit around a single incompetent lead isn't very exciting. Not to mention the tons of visual novel adaptations that seemed to be flying around. "This is just a cleaned up porn, isn't it?" I thought.
That being said, I had liked Air, another key/kyoani production. It didn't feel like a harem show, despite its origin. While it was legitimately a sad story, it was a little forced. I thought they had a tendency to introduce annoying characters and then make them suffer to make you feel bad. I always thought that was a cheap shot.
Anyhow, I recently decide to give another shot, and I must say this is a fine work. It almost feels like they took what they have learned from the previous productions and applied it here. Clannad is truly the product of the long journey up the hill. The story to Clannad is pretty simple, but it also shows how you don't need massive special effects, tons of angsty pseudo-philosophical ranting, or other pretentious symbolism to make something work. The amazing visuals do help though. This show wins through solid story telling. I regret not following this series as it came out.
The characters are the strongest part of the story, naturally, since Clannad is about people. The way people interact slowly but surely evolves over the course of the story. While the situations they may be in may not be normal, but their reactions are. You do get this feeling that Tomoya does care deeply about the people he helps, and he's not doing it out of some vague sense of goodness or a chance to get into their pants (skirts). That's actually quite unique.
The main characters' backgrounds are gone over quite well, and you learn more about why they behave the way they do. Nagisa at first seems like a helpless annoying shy girl, but she actually is one of the most determined characters in the series and ends up supporting Tomoya emotionally as he had done before. Sunohara at first seems like he's a complete failure, but he's really just an idiot with a big heart and truly earned respect in his arc with Mei. Kotomi's airheadedness hides her regrets and her genius. And of course, Akio and Sanae, two nuts who turn out to be the world's best parents. Ushio must be like the only small child character that is not annoying.
I could go in depth about each individual character, but I'll save it for elsewhere.
That being said, it was kind of sad that Kyou and Ryou didn't really have that kind of development. I especially pity poor Ryou, because she never stood a chance (You could tell just because of the OP) I'd also would have liked most of the characters to have appeared a bit more in After Story, or at least give us some more notice on what they are doing. It'd be nice to have them all meet up one more time or something on screen.
But anyhow, characters can break or make an anime for me. I can accept many stupid plots if the characters are worth it. Generally, my like for an anime is related to the amount of recurring characters I want to kill. This series has none.
One thing interesting about this series is that the episodes are very packed with interesting things. What I mean is that they would often speed past tedious things that we don't need to see. Like, Tomoya is pulling weeds. Ok once we get the idea, we move on instead of devoting an entire episode to it and having muse about things that he's already gone over many times just to drag on the episode. Because of this, I can stay awake as usually something notable is happening.
But, I was a bit put off by the pacing at the midway point of AS as I simply just got hit by a ton of events. That weakened the emotional development for me a little. It didn't really hit me til Tomoya was telling Ushio about her mother for the first time. Another general complaint would be that many things seemed so convenient. People seem to be always walking around the right places when you need to talk to them.
Another unique thing about this anime is that we get to see what Tomoya and Nagisa's romance develops into. Often times, a show will take the cowardly way out, and simply dodge the issue, to not dash the hopes of fans of the other female leads. That usually just makes the guy seem like an inconsiderate prick. That being said, episode of 18 in season 1 is pretty brutal still, but hey, it's still better than limbo. It is a bit annoying that the other female leads are left hanging; we get nothing. Surely there must have been other dudes in the years that pass, but there's not even a mention.
Yes, there are those alternate world OVAs. It's nice to give what ifs but I surely think we should get to know what happens to Tomoyo in this world, which is the one we should be caring about anyways. [/fanboy]
The ending was a bit of a cop out, I will admit. Reset buttons are quite annoying but I just let them go for this one. At least the trippy other world scenes started to make a little sense. I think someone I know put it best " Realistic bad endings? Why do we need that? You can find those all around you in real life anyways" So this little bit of escapism, I will just take. It's not like DBZ where it happens all the time. This is a world where cats can turn into boys, and comatose girls can project themselves. This isn't that big of a stretch, imo. In any case the scene when "Small Palms" plays is simply amazing.
It seems kind of odd to give 10 for something I don't consider perfect, but to me ratings are relative and perfection is impossible. 10 usually means that's pretty much as close to you can get, and I'd probaly only consider 10s for 2-3 other series. In any case, predictable, contrived, or not, Clannad avoids all pretenses and presents a honest story with real emotion, something I find very rare. Despite the bumps on the way to the end, Key and Kyoani just simply overdid themselves for this one. It is rare to see an anime with so much dedication to detail and polish. It seemed like there was a lot of love that went into this series-- after all, how can you expect others to appreciate your creation if you don't have respect for it either? For me this will be a classic series.