Clannad (クラナド) is a slice of life romance series based on the visual novel/sim game of the same name developed by design studio Key. The anime originally aired in Japan between 2007 and 2008.
Okazaki Tomoya is a delinquent high school student with family problems and no sense of direction. Even though he's a delinquent he still shows up at school on most day. One day near the beginning of his senior year he runs across an odd girl murmuring food names. The girl turns out to be Furukawa Nagisa who is repeating her senior year due to illness. Nagisa is shy to begin with but faced with the challenge of repeating her final year of school surrounded by unknown classmates makes her life even more difficult. Tomoya, while difficult to be personally motivated, decides to befriend the lost girl and help her out. She confesses to him that she dreams of being in the schools drama club but is unable to due to the club being suspended. Tomoya and a few classmates join together to help resurrect the lost club for Nagisa'a sake. Along the way Tomoya comes to the aid of a handful of other girls, helping to give him some purpose in his drifting life.
Unlike the two previous anime based on Key sim game, Clannad is pretty mid when it comes to the harem department and the anime instead focuses, almost inanely, on being slice of life. The series is split into a number of small arcs in which Tomoya and the growing cast of comrades solves some sort of problem with one of the female characters he could end up with. It plays out like a game but the romance being a very low key aspect all together. Tomoya never has any outward desire to date anyone and the characters that are thinking about him in that way do so discreetly. Tomoya, who has an unusual sense of self sacrifice, goes from one girl with problems to another until everything starts to balance out. Nearing the end the show starts to focus on his issues and how his life becomes entwined with Nagisa's. The culminating moment of realization and acceptance of the main characters relationship happens with little fan fare but the course of the show sets up the end result to the point were its not unknown. Ultimately the story arcs do little to progress the actual plot of the show. That being said, the main story, which is the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa would have been better served over a few OAV's or a movie or two instead of painfully stretched out between 22 episodes. One highly notable saving grace for the show was the surprising lack of fan service...particularly considering the reputation the game creators have. The 23rd episode is set in an alternate world were Tomoya ends up dating one of the other girls, and honestly this was the best episode of the entire show. The enjoyment of this episode had nothing to do with who he ended up with. The writing the handling of the story was superior to the rest of the series and was actually interesting and well done.
The artwork has always been the warning flag for me, specifically the facial designs for the female characters...they all share facial markers for people with down syndrome. That said the artwork wasn't much to look at, even with it being done by Kyoto Animation. There were some clunky CG segments in he alternate dream world and some of the backgrounds were interesting. The series was really designed to look like the game. There were some entertaining moments when Tomoya's only male friend continues to be pig headed, causing various women to kick his ass. Beyond that though it really fell flat.
Clannad is one of the most revered romance anime of the current generation of otaku. This reason alone is why I finally broke down and watched it. I wasn't very impressed and wonder what people see in it anyways. Though it is more interesting than Issukan Friends, its still rather sub-par...and the character designs are abysmal. It has been licensed in North America for quite some time now in both dub and sub formats. The game is also available for English speaking audiences if that's your kind of thing. The series was followed up by Clannad After Story.
Okazaki Tomoya is a delinquent high school student with family problems and no sense of direction. Even though he's a delinquent he still shows up at school on most day. One day near the beginning of his senior year he runs across an odd girl murmuring food names. The girl turns out to be Furukawa Nagisa who is repeating her senior year due to illness. Nagisa is shy to begin with but faced with the challenge of repeating her final year of school surrounded by unknown classmates makes her life even more difficult. Tomoya, while difficult to be personally motivated, decides to befriend the lost girl and help her out. She confesses to him that she dreams of being in the schools drama club but is unable to due to the club being suspended. Tomoya and a few classmates join together to help resurrect the lost club for Nagisa'a sake. Along the way Tomoya comes to the aid of a handful of other girls, helping to give him some purpose in his drifting life.
Unlike the two previous anime based on Key sim game, Clannad is pretty mid when it comes to the harem department and the anime instead focuses, almost inanely, on being slice of life. The series is split into a number of small arcs in which Tomoya and the growing cast of comrades solves some sort of problem with one of the female characters he could end up with. It plays out like a game but the romance being a very low key aspect all together. Tomoya never has any outward desire to date anyone and the characters that are thinking about him in that way do so discreetly. Tomoya, who has an unusual sense of self sacrifice, goes from one girl with problems to another until everything starts to balance out. Nearing the end the show starts to focus on his issues and how his life becomes entwined with Nagisa's. The culminating moment of realization and acceptance of the main characters relationship happens with little fan fare but the course of the show sets up the end result to the point were its not unknown. Ultimately the story arcs do little to progress the actual plot of the show. That being said, the main story, which is the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa would have been better served over a few OAV's or a movie or two instead of painfully stretched out between 22 episodes. One highly notable saving grace for the show was the surprising lack of fan service...particularly considering the reputation the game creators have. The 23rd episode is set in an alternate world were Tomoya ends up dating one of the other girls, and honestly this was the best episode of the entire show. The enjoyment of this episode had nothing to do with who he ended up with. The writing the handling of the story was superior to the rest of the series and was actually interesting and well done.
The artwork has always been the warning flag for me, specifically the facial designs for the female characters...they all share facial markers for people with down syndrome. That said the artwork wasn't much to look at, even with it being done by Kyoto Animation. There were some clunky CG segments in he alternate dream world and some of the backgrounds were interesting. The series was really designed to look like the game. There were some entertaining moments when Tomoya's only male friend continues to be pig headed, causing various women to kick his ass. Beyond that though it really fell flat.
Clannad is one of the most revered romance anime of the current generation of otaku. This reason alone is why I finally broke down and watched it. I wasn't very impressed and wonder what people see in it anyways. Though it is more interesting than Issukan Friends, its still rather sub-par...and the character designs are abysmal. It has been licensed in North America for quite some time now in both dub and sub formats. The game is also available for English speaking audiences if that's your kind of thing. The series was followed up by Clannad After Story.
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