Clannad After Story (クラナド アフターストーリー) is the continuation of Clannad. This slice of life dramatic romance is based, as Clannad is, on the sim game of the same name by the company Key. Both anime series represent both halves of the 'true' story line in the game. Clannad After Story originally aired on TV in Japan between 2008 and 2009 and ran for 24 episodes with a 25th episode released as an OAV.
Picking up where Clannad left off, After Story continues to follow the daily life of Tomoya, his now girlfriend Nagisa and their friends. The story follows quickly through finishing high school. Nagisa falls ill again and is unable to graduate, being forced to repeat the year again. Tomoya begins working for an electrical contractor in town and soon moves out of the Furukawa home. His father gets into trouble and ends up incarcerated, causing him mental anguish and a missed job opportunity. The stress of having to deal with his estranged father pushes him to moving forward to a new life with Nagisa and the two wed. Their dreams of raising a child turn tragic as Nagisa dies following the birth to their daughter Ushio. Experiencing the same trauma his father did before him, Tomoya breaks down and can barely function outside of working, drinking and smoking. Nagisa's parents take over raising their granddaughter, hoping for the day when Tomoya can overcome his incredible mental anguish.
As with the original series the first half or so of the episodes are mostly pointless exploits of mundane story lines dealing with Tomoya trying to help everyone. Once Tomoya graduates school and the story really focuses on him and Nagisa it becomes an enjoyable story. All of the juvenile trappings are brushed aside, the side characters all but disappear and you really only deal with the two main characters, Nagisa's parents and Tomoya's co-workers. Reality steps in pretty hard as Tomoya struggles with what it means to be an adult, reconcile his past and care for his brides health and well being. Known for it's tragedy, the back half of After Story does not disappoint in the feels department. Tomoya is cursed with a life of misery and sadness again and again. The most heart wrenching episode would be the 21st...which was promptly ruined by a reset in episode 22 that left me a little annoyed. The reset though apparently stays true with the way the game is meant to end and the series showed the two possible conclusions. Episode 22 is the real end of the story and the other 3 episodes are recaps and alternate story lines, much like the final episode of Clannad.
In the end watching this series was worth it, but the price of having to wade through 30+ episodes of garbage is a really high price to pay for the excellent writing and slice of life realism in the last 10 or so episodes of the main story arc. I crave realism like this in slice of life stories, as a wake up call. I enjoy fantasy too, but stories that deal out blows of true reality are hard to come by. Unfortunately, they ruined it in the end by resetting the ending with some magic and hope. The character designs are still annoying but I got used to them by the end. This series would have been amazing if it wasn't for all of the front end uselessness. Unfortunately that front end is 75% of the series. Its hard to tell if its really worth going through all of the trouble for people who are hesitant. Once could watch the first 10 minutes of episode 24 which is a recap of the entire story, then pick up from there with episode 9 or so. There is so much that can be cut out with out affecting the real plot progression of the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa. The side characters have almost no impact on their adult lives.
As with Clannad, After Story has been widely available in North America.
Picking up where Clannad left off, After Story continues to follow the daily life of Tomoya, his now girlfriend Nagisa and their friends. The story follows quickly through finishing high school. Nagisa falls ill again and is unable to graduate, being forced to repeat the year again. Tomoya begins working for an electrical contractor in town and soon moves out of the Furukawa home. His father gets into trouble and ends up incarcerated, causing him mental anguish and a missed job opportunity. The stress of having to deal with his estranged father pushes him to moving forward to a new life with Nagisa and the two wed. Their dreams of raising a child turn tragic as Nagisa dies following the birth to their daughter Ushio. Experiencing the same trauma his father did before him, Tomoya breaks down and can barely function outside of working, drinking and smoking. Nagisa's parents take over raising their granddaughter, hoping for the day when Tomoya can overcome his incredible mental anguish.
As with the original series the first half or so of the episodes are mostly pointless exploits of mundane story lines dealing with Tomoya trying to help everyone. Once Tomoya graduates school and the story really focuses on him and Nagisa it becomes an enjoyable story. All of the juvenile trappings are brushed aside, the side characters all but disappear and you really only deal with the two main characters, Nagisa's parents and Tomoya's co-workers. Reality steps in pretty hard as Tomoya struggles with what it means to be an adult, reconcile his past and care for his brides health and well being. Known for it's tragedy, the back half of After Story does not disappoint in the feels department. Tomoya is cursed with a life of misery and sadness again and again. The most heart wrenching episode would be the 21st...which was promptly ruined by a reset in episode 22 that left me a little annoyed. The reset though apparently stays true with the way the game is meant to end and the series showed the two possible conclusions. Episode 22 is the real end of the story and the other 3 episodes are recaps and alternate story lines, much like the final episode of Clannad.
In the end watching this series was worth it, but the price of having to wade through 30+ episodes of garbage is a really high price to pay for the excellent writing and slice of life realism in the last 10 or so episodes of the main story arc. I crave realism like this in slice of life stories, as a wake up call. I enjoy fantasy too, but stories that deal out blows of true reality are hard to come by. Unfortunately, they ruined it in the end by resetting the ending with some magic and hope. The character designs are still annoying but I got used to them by the end. This series would have been amazing if it wasn't for all of the front end uselessness. Unfortunately that front end is 75% of the series. Its hard to tell if its really worth going through all of the trouble for people who are hesitant. Once could watch the first 10 minutes of episode 24 which is a recap of the entire story, then pick up from there with episode 9 or so. There is so much that can be cut out with out affecting the real plot progression of the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa. The side characters have almost no impact on their adult lives.
As with Clannad, After Story has been widely available in North America.
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