Clannad series - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating

[arias]

Originally Posted by Crazy Aido

*Cheers*

See? Like I said, this is an anime I wouldn't mind my wife catching me watching.

I think the entire thing goes slightly deeper than that though. Most things about CLANNAD was very familiar to me right from the start; the setting, the main character, the female characters he was to choose from, the default choice... etc. The one main difference from the outset was Okazaki's depressed father and their estranged relationship; that really clued me in on how the tone of this anime was more serious than others like it.

It was all nice and good, unfolding as it should with some great animated moments and even Nagisa's death wasn't that unexpected as the red flag was already raised when they said stuff like "You'll be with me forever, right?". This always means they won't.

I really couldn't care less about some of the side stories, but I understand they're there as tribute to fans of the other characters of the original game.

The big turn and ascension in quality came as the Ushio arc came in. Ushio is possibly the best animated child in all of anime history; even better than Mei in Totoro. The expressions, body and facial proportions, mannerisms, and even the voice was pitch perfect right to the very end (when she responds "Mama!", to the call of Nagisa). Her death was heartwrenching, almost manipulative, and I felt this irrational seething hatred towards KEY.. but then the deus-ex machina was triggered and all was well again



A lot of CLANNAD's success as an anime has to do with Kyoani than just KEY alone, and I'm very impressed with Kyoani. They are an animation studio of absolutely the highest, highest calibre and these are some of their golden years with Haruhi, Lucky Star, K-ON and KEY titles all masterpieces.

After doing research on Key's other titles, I realized that in some ways their stories are designed to be almost emotionally manipulative, reflective of the nagise game genre. The redeeming factor is the sincerity that still shines through the commercial intent, and Kyoani was able to express that amazingly well in the anime.

The utilization of a deus-ex machina (the "light orbs") to resolve everything is weird, because you sort of realize that it's an artifact of the creators trying to put their characters in as much pain as possible before relieving it with some kind of mystical handwave. In this case, I believe the logic of the Illusory Other World and all other similar mechanics in AIR and Kanon to really be bullshit of the highest variety that shouldn't deserve any time spent on rational discussion of their supposed logical mechanics.

But I reached a point where I still cared for the characters and their fates immensely despite knowing the deus-ex machina was a cheap ploy -- just like the entire build up of pain for all the characters. Their ability to bring out the best of Nagisa, the prototypical shy female character (with boring character design from the outset), throughout the entire anime was also stunning work... at the end her character came across as richly textured, ordinary but endearing and ultimately you rooted for her. The focus on the characters and how I got attached to them is the greatest achievement of CLANNAD, and pushes it up to the stratosphere amongst the very best in my book.

The only thing I would've changed is that I would've actually spent a lot more time in the actual payoff after the miraculous "return" to Nagisa surviving childbirth, it was a little short after that honestly. Wouldn't have minded seeing some of the useless side stories snipped off for the extra payoff.



I really would love to see Kyoani do Tomoyo After and rewrite the ending : )

[Brushfire]

I love the above reply. It sums up my thoughts wonderfully. I enjoyed but was not amazed by the other character's arcs- the first season especially. ~After Story~ was truly amazing and in particular Nagisa's death and the introduction of Ushio. Emotionally inspiring for me and it's amazed me how much this anime has impacted my life.

Fantasitc.

Clannad: 9/10
Clannad ~After Story~: 10/10

[ClannadDango]

I used to hate anime until I saw CLANNAD. I used to think all TV shows, films, and other forms of storytelling were emotionless until I saw CLANNAD. I used to think it would impossible to replicate real emotions on film until I saw CLANNAD.

This is one of the greatest works of art mankind has created this generation. I could understand if someone doesn't feel as passionate about this show as me but if someone watched CLANNAD ~After Story~ Epsiode 18 and still doesn't like this show then I think they must have no soul.

This is a masterpiece. 12/10 stars.

[Adanadhel]

Well, I've been surprised again.

A pity it was in a negative way this time. Due to the enormous repercussion Clannad has I thought I would give it a chance, since so many people said it was beautiful, tear-jerking, sad, etc.

Drama my arse.

Clannad is drama as much as Naruto is.

Yeah, you read it right. I'd dare say that Naruto might even be more successful on its attempts to drama than Clannad was. I was utterly disappointed by how lame the attempts to pull tears out of your eyes in this series are.

The producers relied so much on (poor) humor, that every time where you had a "dramatic" moment it ended up coming across as exaggerated or unnatural.

Even more unnatural are the attempts to a supernatural approach. They just don't fit, sound forced and nonsense.

Clannad might have been a lot more enjoyable if it was reduced to 12 episodes only. There were at least 7 complete unnecessary episodes, and several other ones that could have been reduced to half of what they are. Not only does this dramatically decreases the pace of the series but it also gives the show an overall feeling of lack of creativity since the episodes just drag on lame jokes and useless dialogues.

The characters are really shallow, extremely stereotyped and hard to connect with. They overreact or act unnaturally on almost every conflict that they face. Nagisa's constant promptness to tears drove me crazy.

While Kyoto Animation did a good job on Air and Kanon (2006) it's hard to understand what they were trying to do in Clannad. There was an attempt on focusing on family relationships, but even this is extremely poorly done.

The soundtrack is very repetitive, the art has nothing original to it and quite often I felt annoyed by the voice of some characters (Nagisa being the most annoying of'em all).

Once again, it's really difficult to me to understand the hype behind some animes. I'll give a chance to Clannad ~after story~. Since my expectations are so low I might as well be surprised positively this time.

Story: 4/10
Art: 6/10
Sound: 3/10
Characters: 3/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Overall: 4/10

[Khu]

...you do know this is for 'both', right. XD

[XGeneral2000]

Originally Posted by Adanadhel

I'll give a chance to Clannad ~after story~. Since my expectations are so low I might as well be surprised positively this time.

After Story is why Clannad is so well received. Season 1 is pretty meh in my book too.

[Proto]

Although I do like CLANNAD and it's pretty high in my list, I do see it too as nothing more than a set up for After Story. (specially After Story after ep. 9-10). And I see the whole of After Story as a set up for ep. 18.

[HolyLight]

clannad for me is a 10/10. i love the anime and it is one of my favourites

[shadyone]

C L A N N A D will receive a huge 999,999,999,999,999 out of 10 from me. Why? I just love C L A N N A D. KEY makes the best stories ever, and Jun Maeda is simply a god (metaphorically of course). The music is the best music ever made, I simply can't get enough of the C L A N N A D soundtrack. I am just starting to play the Visual Novel right now so I can't really say much about the adaption but from what I've seen I'd give it 10/10 aswell. C L A N N A D is a perfect anime in everyway, yes I know it impossible to be "perfect" but any changes to this anime and it'd break this fragile masterpiece of an anime. It certainly does make you change the way you think about life really.. C L A N N A D is the only show/anime that has made me cry. I cry everytime I see someone in the anime cry, even when Tomoya cries in After Story I cry.

[Frailty]

the first season of Clannad was ok
yeah sure it had drama but the problems weren't "that" big compared to the After Story

After Story, especially episode 16 onwards
made me shed a tear
and this rarely happens to me

I was just too moved.

well done for the After Story
handsdown for an awesome series

giving After Story a 10/10
and the first season an 8/10

[Runtest]

I just have to start of by saying. What the hell?

While being one of the best shows I have ever had the displeasure of watching, it was also one of the most depressing. Clannad hit way to close to home and I found myself very attached. I was rooting for the marriage, but I feel like their deaths were not called for. I watch anime and TV in general to escape.

I found no escape from life in this, but rather more of an immersion. I can not bring myself to ever watch this again let alone recommend it to anyone. Not that it is not good, it was just so depressing. But maybe that is just me, like I said, it hit way to close to home.

[Vegard Aune]

Originally Posted by Runtest

I just have to start of by saying. What the hell?

While being one of the best shows I have ever had the displeasure of watching, it was also one of the most depressing. Clannad hit way to close to home and I found myself very attached. I was rooting for the marriage, but I feel like their deaths were not called for. I watch anime and TV in general to escape.

I found no escape from life in this, but rather more of an immersion. I can not bring myself to ever watch this again let alone recommend it to anyone. Not that it is not good, it was just so depressing. But maybe that is just me, like I said, it hit way to close to home.

...Uh, did you somehow miss the fact that the series had an unambiguously 100% happy ending or something? Yes, it was pretty damn depressing along the way, but the characters did eventually get the happiness they deserved. Now, whether or not said ending actually worked or not is debatable, as it always will be when a story pulls the Cosmic Retcon-card, (as much as I loved the final episode, there is a part of me that feels the series should have ended when Tomoya finally made peace with his father) but I don't see how you can talk like that when the entire second half of the final episode was pretty much just a really extended way of saying "And they all lived happily ever after"...

[Proto]

Regardless of the happy ending it doesn't mean that the journey to get there wasn't painful

[SilverHeimdall]

A perfect 10 for a perfect story (adapation from the graphic novel 'game').
Even better than a 10 (better than perfect eh?) once you read up on what they couldn't explain through the animation and left to the graphic novel.

The entire parallel story with the 'other world' is what hooked me from the start. I didn't care as much for 'another harem anime' so the addition of this 'other world' story was something I wanted to see through and I am definitely glad I saw it through the painful events of the After Story.

Truly magnificent.

[speedyexpress48]

Combining both the first season and After Story, here's my rating;

Story: 9/10
Art: 10/10
Sound: 6/10
Characters: 8/10
Enjoyment: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

....too lazy to go in-depth tho.

[Digital_Love]

Fuck it. This show doesn't deserve an in-depth review.

For the most part, Clannad doesn't amount to anything more than bland wish fulfillment and empty melodrama. It doesn't have a story worth following, or characters worth investing in at all.

Not that the story could actually be followed. The narrative makes Michael Bay's directing look sensible, the producers decided to forego cohesion and the supernatural weirdness is comparable to the stupid shit Index and Railgun tried to pull off.

Oh and they forgot to develop the characters beyond their basic character type. Whoops.

In other words, Clannad is a show with a stupendously shitty story that takes place in a crassly created cacotopia with a set of characters that represent a preposterously puerile pipedream.

Fun fact: There's more creative ingenuity in this post than there is in entire episodes of Clannad.

[speedyexpress48]

Fun fact; Posting hate without much reason isn't exactly going to get you anywhere.

[Flawfinder]

Okay, let's wash away that terrible explanation and focus on my thoughts for a moment.

Anyways, I was just getting into anime at the time CLANNAD was released, but I had watched my fair share of harem anime and I hated them. The only reason I watched CLANNAD was because everyone kept on hyping it up (I never watched anything by KyoAni prior to it), so I thought I'd give it a shot. Animation and music were okay, but I don't usually pay too much attention to that when watching anime unless it's bad.

When I saw Tomoya, I realized he was a pretty cool character (he wasn't getting into perverted situations, wasn't getting beat up, wasn't stupid, etc.), and he was practically the only reason I watched the show, as the other characters were too stereotypical for me. I think most of the people who don't like the show admit that they like him. It was only later that I warmed up to the others, as they aren't limited by their stereotypes (ex: Kyou is a violent tsundere, except she can cook and is motherly, especially after she grew up) and were loads of fun. While still stereotypical to an extent, I still liked them.

The other thing that surprised me about CLANNAD is that for a so-called harem anime based on a visual novel (all-ages, but still), there was very little fanservice. I liked how there weren't any cheap shots towards objectifying females, and that when it did have fanservice, it was done tastefully or was actually funny (the storage room for example). There weren't any beach or pool episodes (I laugh every time someone complains about this), no fake dates, the festival episodes were actually fun,...what else do I need to say on that?

Story-wise, it was a bit of an over-complicated story that could have been a lot simpler. The story is at its best when it focused on Tomoya, as he was the only character I really cared about. However, it was still loads better than Da Capo (ugh). I didn't really care that there wasn't too much in terms of romance, as I like the family aspects more. Nevertheless, I loved how the show developed the romance slowly, went beyond the confession, towards marriage, and even being a father. Didn't see that much in anime (especially harem ones). I also liked how the student characters left to make way for the adult characters, whom I found more interesting (Akio and Yoshino FTW!). The ending was a bit cheap, but it wasn't bad enough to take away all the good stuff CLANNAD had. Reminds me of some Batman episodes to be honest.

People say the drama is forced and while I do agree it is to an extent, it's still much better than most drama I've seen. There weren't any stupid misunderstandings, no Ryou or Tomoyo catching Tomoya and Kyou when in the storage room (LOL), and especially no "anything Seo Kouji does". Instead, the drama is mostly character-focused and it works because it's those characters. People complained about Nagisa being upset because her parents gave up their dreams for her. I think it works because it's Nagisa, who's always been extremely sensitive (and maybe selfish) in that regard. It's not the most relatable drama, but it's still good drama, and it still works because it's happening to this character. Technically, 5cm per Second had more realistic drama, but I didn't care about the characters in that one (I'm not bashing people who like it), so the drama suffered a lot.

Basically, when it came down to it, CLANNAD had one original thing that I liked, and it helped that the show was mostly about that. I had never seen a (pseudo-)harem anime with a likable harem lead that was focused mostly on him growing up rather than the girls in his life. That was the reason I stuck with the show, and it's the main reason I like the show, even with the other reasons mentioned above.

Overall, when compared to other harem or romantic comedy anime, CLANNAD is a top contender. When compared to anime in general, it's probably not as good, but it still ranks amongst my favorites.

P.S.: I love some of the flaws people pointed out like Tomoya and Nagisa being way too chaste a couple. Every time I see a post concerning that, I just laugh.

[Digital_Love]

Originally Posted by speedyexpress48

Fun fact; Posting hate without much reason isn't exactly going to get you anywhere.

I guess you missed my comparison between Michael Bay's lack of judiciousness and Jun Maeda's inability to tell a story in a logical manner.

[SJCrew]

P.S.: I love some of the flaws people pointed out like Tomoya and Nagisa being way too chaste a couple. Every time I see a post concerning that, I just laugh.

My biggest issue with it was the consistency. I can understand Nagisa being chaste in romantic endeavors, but not Tomoya. He's such a cool and laid-back dude that it just doesn't make sense he gets worked up over holding hands or a peck on the cheek when he can date a girl without thinking twice or not react much at all to the rest of the female cast practically smothering him in affection. Even when they're married, he does this.

It's also a bit off-putting for people who've read the visual novel first (hardly anyone here, I'd say), since he has no apprehension whatsoever about what he wants and is usually bold enough to make the first move. This wasn't a relevant concern for me, having seen the anime first, but in hindsight, it was still very strange for Tomoya to act like a prude even after all the time he'd been with Nagisa.