[Kristen]

So then, after almost 2 years of anticipating, watching, anticipating, watching, playing, speculating, hoping, and following Clannad, it finally comes to an end. And there is just one word to describe it that has often been used to describe it. Epic.

On the outside, the story seemed like just a guy meets a girl, they fall in love, she has a problem, he solves it. But once you start getting into the story, you realize how deep and complicated the story actually is. Out of all the Key games, this really is the first one where not only the female characters have problems, but the male leads also have problems surrounding their lives. Tomoya is a delinquent. His father is a drunkard. He has no future, and so on. In helping the girls resolve their issues, he's not just resolving their issues, but solving his own.

The storyline carried through, and created an arching epic feel throughout that made it somewhat of a classic. It's the type of a show I will show my children ten years from now and watch with them, telling them about all the good things about family it shows.

First, we have the Fuuko arc. A fairly comical arc, but one that is needed to get you into the series. The second arc, the Kotomi arc, is really what I felt made season one so great. Her story of survival and determination, couple with Tomoya's undying commitment just emphasized the entire point of Clannad.

After Kotomi, there was a set of intermingled arcs, which is fine, and then Nagisa to close out the season. Being able to show Akio going insane over his daughter's performance and the fight they were able to do, they could create a great masterpiece.

The start of the second season was genius, doing the baseball route to re-acquaint us. But after that, they sort of slipped up. The 3 side routes were in and of themselves interesting, but to have them occur one after another, it made the first half of the After Story feel almost slice of life-ish. If anything, they should've had those intermingled in S1 and started with Nagisa's route in S2, or just gone a 48 week continual story instead of taking us out of After Story until episode 9 of S2.
However, I do give Kyoani a 10/10 for what they did to the Yukine route. To change her route from being this dull and boring route to a combat thriller with a purpose, it was just amazing. One of the few times deviating from the original material is a good thing.

Kyoani then was able to go into the after story fluidly, and managed to get the boring 6800/0 out of the way very quickly, which made me happy. And then came episode 13. This was an adaptation miracle. Episode 13, combining both the marriage and the graduation, moved me to tears twice. Granted, I really wish that Akio would've said "Idiot" to Tomoya when he asked, but can't get everything.

Afterwards, they carried the rest of the story out nicely with the pregnancy, death, and then the beautiful Ushio arc. And then they carried out the resurrection perfectly, chopping out all the mistakes Key made in it. Though, they did have quite a grotesque death for the robot...

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Now then, technical aspect. The artwork was absolutely phenomenal. The colors of the leaves on Nagisa's hair, the Sakura petals, her face on her death bed, the flower field... Nothing was left to be desires, except for DVDs since the station was so crappy.

Now then, the music. I like music very much. To me, it is the best part of the anime. And I really did not like a lot of Clannad's music. It involved a lot of synthesizer songs instead of orchestrated songs, it involved a lot of weird instruments, and it involved a lot of awkward chords. Now, some of the tunes were catchy, but i think it would've been a lot better to have had fully orchestrated pieces playing in the background. Allows you to appreciate it more.
But, the biggest flaw was Kyoani's lack of proper utilization of the music they had. They made country train seem like regular BGM instead of putting it right at the moment where Tomoya starts to act like a father (End of episode 17), and they completely misplaced the ED twice after Nagisa's death and Ushio's death. It wasn't that it was bad, it was that they could've done so much more with it than they did.
Chiisana Tenohira~ <3

For other factors, I think the voice actors/actresses did a phenomenal job, and I think 95% of the really important lines in my book were preserved. Adaptation was phenomenal as well, even though they skipped 2 routes.

And well, Clannad has been my life the past year and a half. It is the reason why I'm still alive today, and will be alive in the future. It is the anpan that kept me moving forward, and the drama club that'll always keep me company when I'm feeling lonely. It's the starfish to hold on to in times of sadness, and the violin to play in times of happiness (At the expense of others, of course).

Ratings:
Music: 6.3/10
Art: 10/10
Voice acting: 9.8/10
Adaptation: 10/10 (For perfect adaptation of what needed to be and fixing what needed to be adapted but the source was awful)
Storyline: 9.7/10
Intangibles: +2 (Keeping me going in life, being something to hold on to)
Overall: 9.8/10 (Rounded to 10 for the poll)

Excellent story, excellent experience, excellent anime. Summed up in one word: Dango.