Clannad series - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating

[DeX-kun]

Originally Posted by SJCrew

Personally, I slightly preferred the first season just for the nice mix of high school hijinks and serious drama, while After Story's center focus on real life drama felt a little slow and depressing at times. The episodes devoted Nagisa's pregnancy and Tomoya's job were pretty yawn-inducing.

Personally, the first season was pretty average all things considered. I can name a nice long list of school life/comedy/romance anime that end in the exact same way the first season of Clannad ended, whereas there are barely a handful of animes out there that would venture into the world that After Story did, especially after the pretty average start to this series.

You might be referring to some of the Slice of Life aspects of this anime without the comedy which some might find boring (although I enjoyed it,) but it's all personal preferences at the end of the day.

Originally Posted by SJCrew

As a matter of fact, I don't really remember crying at all in After Story. I mean, the emotional impact was there, but they build it up so as to have a soft landing when the inevitable occurs, rather than hitting you like a truck in S1's episode 18. Ushio's death almost got me, though, I'll admit. For me, that was the single strongest moment in After Story.

That's a shame, seems like you missed out on the most emotional moments in this series. And that's the problem with shipping for the most part, I'm guilty of it myself but I've only done it in series that never have a clear "winner" so-to-speak. Shipping can interfere with one's enjoyment of any series especially when the girl chosen isn't yours. Naturally, those that were rooting for Nagisa throughout the first season were highly effected by After Story considering the direction of the plot.

Episode 18 in season 1 is a pretty emotional episode but pale's in comparison to After Story's episode 18 in my opinion (which is more of Slice of Life elements without the comedy, seems like it isn't your preferred genre.)

[bladeofdarkness]

episode 18 of after story is easily one of the most tearjerking moments in anime.
and the irony, is that its not even that sad.
its amazing how much emotional payload you can score with just one single word.

Spoiler for the one word.:

Papa.

[Dobby]

Oh man, I cannot wait to be off work to continue the After Story. Hahah. Just reading the last few posts really wants me to plow through the second season.

Must fight the temptation to skip to episode 18, but I'm really enjoying the character developments and history of would-be "side" characters.

[DeX-kun]

Originally Posted by Dobby

Oh man, I cannot wait to be off work to continue the After Story. Hahah. Just reading the last few posts really wants me to plow through the second season.

Must fight the temptation to skip to episode 18, but I'm really enjoying the character developments and history of would-be "side" characters.

Oh, don't skip to any episodes. Watch After Story in it's entirety because you'll miss all the development to episode 18. I can't stress how important it is that you experience all the character development, it will be that much better

[Kotohono]

Originally Posted by DeX-kun

Oh, don't skip to any episodes. Watch After Story in it's entirety because you'll miss all the development to episode 18. I can't stress how important it is that you experience all the character development, it will be that much better

I agree skipping any episodes in Clannad[or After Story] is foolish D:

[Dobby]

Oh! But.. I'd totally be going back to finish up loose ends. I'm weird like that.

But, I won't! I'll hold on. I'm at... six, or seven in After Story right now, so it's not that far.

[Cream]

Gahh, Sorry guys. I am currently in the mix of summer school and a manga that my friend is litterally forcing on me. So I'm kinda being slow.(But making progress), Plus, I guess its kinda good since I usually rush things and I'm getting the full experience of the anticipation and stuff because i'm not rushing it. But , yea. I'm gonna be a big fan of Clannad by the end of these series .

[Khu]

Originally Posted by Dobby

Oh! But.. I'd totally be going back to finish up loose ends. I'm weird like that.

But, I won't! I'll hold on. I'm at... six, or seven in After Story right now, so it's not that far.

No seriously, you have to watch it start to finish without skippin. Otherwise you'll miss the Nagisa x Tomoya lovey dovey stuff and also:

Spoiler:

Something I cannot talk about.

[DeX-kun]

Originally Posted by Khu

No seriously, you have to watch it start to finish without skippin. Otherwise you'll miss the Nagisa x Tomoya lovey dovey stuff and also:

Spoiler:

Yes, something he cannot talk about

It's not a good idea to put spoilers like that even if you put them in tags. Remember that these are viewers that have yet to see anything. Just let them watch and get the full experience

Edit: Fixed.

[Khu]

lol, post fix'd. Suggest you fix your quote too.

[SJCrew]

Spoilers are already enough of a courtesy for the reader. I'm not going to miss out on discussing this just because a curious cat couldn't keep his prying eyes from wandering astray.

Originally Posted by DeX-kun

That's a shame, seems like you missed out on the most emotional moments in this series. And that's the problem with shipping for the most part, I'm guilty of it myself but I've only done it in series that never have a clear "winner" so-to-speak. Shipping can interfere with one's enjoyment of any series especially when the girl chosen isn't yours. Naturally, those that were rooting for Nagisa throughout the first season were highly effected by After Story considering the direction of the plot.

Episode 18 in season 1 is a pretty emotional episode but pale's in comparison to After Story's episode 18 in my opinion (which is more of Slice of Life elements without the comedy, seems like it isn't your preferred genre.)

You might find this a bit of a shocker, but I wasn't shipping Tomoyo at the time of the viewing. Her character didn't quite stand out to me until I read the VN, which I had no knowledge of by the time I had completed the series. I still didn't like Nagisa, but I had come to terms with the fact that she and Tomoya were the canon couple and went into After Story looking forward to their development. Needless to say, my reasons are a little different than shipping:

Spoiler:

Take Nagisa's death for instance; they make it really, really obvious that she's going to die a good number of episodes in advance. They tell us right off the bat that things are looking grim for her, and all the preparation and conversation leading up to it instill a sense of foreboding as if it were inevitable rather than possible. I wasn't happy about it actually happening, but considering how the shock of the event was sucked dry, I really couldn't muster much more than that.

I guess some of the emotional moments were a little softer on my end because of my dislike for Nagisa, but I don't think I really missed out on anything. I still enjoyed After Story a lot, but were it not for Ushio, I think S1 would be the clear winner.

[DeX-kun]

Originally Posted by SJCrew

Spoilers are already enough of a courtesy for the reader. I'm not going to miss out on discussing this just because a curious cat couldn't keep his prying eyes from wandering astray.

Well none of us necessarily need to miss out on the discussion because we've already watched Clannad in it's entirety. My gripe was that my good friend Khu was directly speaking with someone that clearly has not finished this series.

Just trying to be considerate, it doesn't mean that we can't have discussions about this series

Originally Posted by SJCrew

You might find this a bit of a shocker, but I wasn't shipping Tomoyo at the time of the viewing. Her character didn't quite stand out to me until I read the VN, which I had no knowledge of by the time I had completed the series. I still didn't like Nagisa, but I had come to terms with the fact that she and Tomoya were the canon couple and went into After Story looking forward to their development. Needless to say, my reasons are a little different than shipping:

Spoiler:

Take Nagisa's death for instance; they make it really, really obvious that she's going to die a good number of episodes in advance. They tell us right off the bat that things are looking grim for her, and all the preparation and conversation leading up to it instill a sense of foreboding as if it were inevitable rather than possible. I wasn't happy about it actually happening, but considering how the shock of the event was sucked dry, I really couldn't muster much more than that.

Point taken.

Spoiler for After Story:

But I believe this would work the other way around as well. On the contrary, I believed that they would never kill off a main character. It does happen but it doesn't happen often, as grim as things looked, I was expecting (and hoping) that Nagisa was going to come out of this ok. I've seen plenty of animes that tease a death scene and the next episode starts with that character up and alive (especially when it deals with the death of a main character.)

The ending of episode 16's emotional moment carried well into the first 5 minutes of episode 17. Why? Because it went against what I was expecting (excluding you, I'm sure this applies to most of the viewers as well.) I was expecting "fauxshadowing," yet the foreshadowing ended up being true. Which I feel was purposely done, this was an impressive way for the writers to play with our heads a little.

Let's take Fuko's arc for example. Episode 7 reveals that there wasn't going to be a chance that Fuko would wake up from her coma and this was the beginning of the foreshadowing of her "death." Right after the wedding Fuko disappears not only physically, but from both Tomoya and Nagisa's memories, at that point we can all assume that she most likely had passed away. But that wasn't the case, it was fauxshadowing and not foreshadowing. If they didn't kill off a secondary character, why would I believe they would kill off any other character, much less the female lead.

This was just clever writing by the staff, which is another reason why Clannad sits on the top of my list with no real contenders as of yet.

Originally Posted by SJCrew

I guess some of the emotional moments were a little softer on my end because of my dislike for Nagisa, but I don't think I really missed out on anything. I still enjoyed After Story a lot, but were it not for Ushio, I think S1 would be the clear winner.

That was my point for the most part. Regardless, you never grew to appreciate Nagisa's character and that interfered with the emotional impact of certain moments. Of course you still enjoyed it, but the emotional impact wasn't as powerful as it should have been. That's what I actually meant when I stated you missed out on After Story.

Other than that, we simply have a difference in opinion.

[SJCrew]

Oh yeah, I totally forgot about Fuko. I have no idea why they decided to go back and ruin that by having the "Fuko moments" afterward, which were neither funny nor amusing. But she was always more of a jokey character to begin with, so I didn't take her survival too seriously.

[Khu]

Well, she never really did 'die', her memories/ghost/whatever was/were just satisfied at the school, so she moved on.

[Kotohono]

Originally Posted by Khu

Well, she never really did 'die', her memories/ghost/whatever was/were just satisfied at the school, so she moved on.

I think of it like a certain other series's ghost/whatever

Spoiler for Bakemonogatari:

She was thus promoted/changed from a haunting/regretfully ghost to wandering one like Mayoi was when her regret/concern was resolved. Thus she could appear randomly if she felt like it .

[Triple_R]

I recently did a review of Kanon 2006 over on my blog.

It's very spoilerrific, so if you haven't seen Kanon 2006, you'll probably want to avoid reading the review.

However, I make some comparisons between Kanon 2006 and Clannad near the end of my review that I think Clannad fans will probably like.

Here's my Kanon 2006 review, which also discusses Clannad a bit.

[Sin of Memories]

I am not good with words, but to me Clannad is a very touching anime and one of the few that have actually made me cry or even go through a range of emotions.

The story itself I find enjoyable all the way through and I never loose interest like some other anime I have watched in the past. Definitely rated as one of my top 10 anime and manga for that mater.

[DeX-kun]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I recently did a review of Kanon 2006 over on my blog.

It's very spoilerrific, so if you haven't seen Kanon 2006, you'll probably want to avoid reading the review.

However, I make some comparisons between Kanon 2006 and Clannad near the end of my review that I think Clannad fans will probably like.

Here's my Kanon 2006 review, which also discusses Clannad a bit.

That was quite an enjoyable read once again Another well thought-out review and I must agree with most of your points. Although I had a much larger gripe with the way they handled Nayuki, she was most certainly shafted in contrast to all the other female characters in the series and it was such a shame considering she was one of my favorite characters. I guess that really affected my enjoyment of that particular series but I still liked it.

I have to specifically agree with your comparison to Clannad (and this is not simply because of my overzealous passion for Clannad either ) Just as you did, I also watched Clannad before Kanon 2006 and the romance was one of the biggest differences between them. Yuiichi x Ayu really did feel forced and the kiss felt entirely random. Naturally, I did see it coming once the moment arrived but there was no development prior to it, at least no development that convinced me of a possible romantic relationship between them.

Shiori would have definitely made more sense speaking solely in terms of romance of course. Plot-wise, Ayu is the obvious choice but it just never clicked in my mind especially at the end. I would have liked Nayuki as well, I felt such sympathy for her considering her hints to Yuiichi about her feelings towards him. Tomoya x Nagisa was just on a whole different level and just like you, I found new appreciation for how their relationship was handled in contrast to the Kanon couple (no pun intended )

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by DeX-kun

That was quite an enjoyable read once again Another well thought-out review and I must agree with most of your points.

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. I honestly was thinking of you when I decided to link to it here.

Although I had a much larger gripe with the way they handled Nayuki, she was most certainly shafted in contrast to all the other female characters in the series and it was such a shame considering she was one of my favorite characters.

Nayuki is a great character, and yeah, she really did get shafted. They could have at least given us backflash scenes pertaining to the letters she wrote Yuuichi. I felt a bit cheated there, honestly.

I have to specifically agree with your comparison to Clannad (and this is not simply because of my overzealous passion for Clannad either ) Just as you did, I also watched Clannad before Kanon 2006 and the romance was one of the biggest differences between them. Yuiichi x Ayu really did feel forced and the kiss felt entirely random. Naturally, I did see it coming once the moment arrived but there was no development prior to it, at least no development that convinced me of a possible romantic relationship between them.

Honestly, if Ayu had not been so prominent in the OP and the ED, I would not have guessed that she'd end up being part of the official couple of Kanon.
From the OP and ED alone, though, I kind of guessed "Yeah, she's going to win", lol.

Shiori would have definitely made more sense speaking solely in terms of romance of course. Plot-wise, Ayu is the obvious choice but it just never clicked in my mind especially at the end. I would have liked Nayuki as well, I felt such sympathy for her considering her hints to Yuiichi about her feelings towards him. Tomoya x Nagisa was just on a whole different level and just like you, I found new appreciation for how their relationship was handled in contrast to the Kanon couple (no pun intended )

If I had watched Clannad after Kanon 2006, I would have been much more forgiving to how After Story ended. After Story's ending feels like a minor miracle compared to the confluence of miracles at the end of Kanon 2006.

Grading on a curve (i.e. some animes have to get a 10), Clannad's a definite 10/10 for me now.

Even without grading on a curve, I'd probably give it 9.5/10 and round up to 10 now.

[Sin of Memories]

Just a general note from me for Clannad:

It is the first Anime to make me cry twice.