Clannad

This anime is the best,in my opinion,it's romantic,funny,dramatic,and has some fighting scenes,but, that doesn't matter.characters:Nagisa Furukawa,Tomoya Okazaki,Fuko Ibuki,Kotomi Ichinose,Tomoyo Sakagami,Sunohara Youhei,Kyou Fujibayashi,Ryou Fujibayashi,Sanae Furukawa,Akio Furukawa,Mei Youhei,Miyazawa Yukine,Katsuki Shima,Misae Sagara,and last but not least,Ushio Okazaki,the cutest little five year old:D

This anime is fantastic.. with it's conflicts...and the moods of the story even the when something sad happens or something bad happens then it's hard to tell what the resolution would be... I love this anime caz of the story... how it takes place i all of the characters problems!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All i have to say is: I LOVE CLANNAD!!!!!

I love the music, the characters, the animation...the plot didnt suck me in. But they did have very touching moments in the anime, i have to say. I love how real the characters are,how they have their flaws too, just like real people. I really enjoyed theis slice of life anime and i hope i find another one like it!

This anime made me go "awwwww~" to "waaaaaa~" it's bitter sweet and it will make you cry so much you'll probably need more than one tissue box with u. this anime is amazing and I really love it :') I hope everyone enjoys it as much as i did ^^

One of the best made anime series ever. The story seems simple at first, but gradually you realize how deep this show is, especially if you watch After Story. Both seasons complement each other, and you realize that everything that happens, even the strange asides, make sense and fit together into a greater whole. Episode 22 of After Story is perhaps one of the most complete and satisfying surprise conclusions of any show--the opening credits of Clannad finally make complete sense once you watch the finale of AS and you realize that this was the true ending they always intended.

There are so many great moments that it's not possible to summarize without spoilers. What's amazing upon second viewing is the motivations of certain characters make way more sense if you know what happens later. For example:

Yes this has been a long time coming and I do really apologize for the wait on this review so with out further ado let's get the ball rolling. Clannad is an "all ages" visual novel developed by key and published by visual arts on April 28th, 2004 on the PC . The original version of the visual novel had no voice over work what so-ever like key's other previous works. This particular visual novel is so popular in fact that it has ports on nearly ever console and handheld that I can think of, such as the PS3 or PSP with full voice over's this time around from the anime cast. This visual novel also has spin-off called "Tomoyo After It's A Wonderful Life" that continues off of the Tomoyo arc from the main game. I will do a review for that one was well as soon as a translation patch is up for it.

Despite this visual novel being as popular as it is, there is no official release in the states for it. So if you really want to play this game you can probably guess what your going to have to do, but please at least try to import a copy for the game to show your support for this franchise, or at least buy the DVD sets and movie that happen to be licensed in the states by sentai film-works.. Normally I wouldn't care about pirating the hell out of game or series in general but a franchise like this deserves a huge amount of support from it's fans. Like many other visual novels that are never localized, you will need to download a translation patch to play this game unless you can read Japanese, just follow the instructions carefully for which patch you choose to download.

Now with all this aside lets get to the main point of review, how does clannad hold up after all of these years?? I has held up wonderfully despite being nearly eight years old now, it still holds it's own from even the newer 3D visual novels/eroges that are coming out now. With it's wonderful cast of characters, music and plot development there is something here I believe nearly any-body can enjoy. However I would not recommend this to anyone that does not like drama/slice of life/comedy visual novel then this is not for you. I know there is people out there that do not like this genre so I will just be upfront about it right now to save your time from playing something that you will not like. For those who do love this demographic of visual-novels then you will love this one, I can promise my right arm on this.

This visual novel is about high-school senior delinquent named Tomoya Okazaki who just all around hates where he lives the few people that are around him. This is due in part that his mother died in a horrible accident when he was young, and his father has never gotten over it to this day despite that ten years have passed. Tomoya's father also did happen get physical at one point with him thus making hugely estranged to the point that Tomoya avoids his father as much as possible. It wasn't until one day walking to school late he happens to see a beautiful girl named Nagisa Furukawa. She was talking to her self saying "Do you like this school??" She continues to talk to her-self "I really really do, but nothing...can remain the same forever." Tomoya interrupts her by saying "You just have to find it, right?" This little conversation he has with Nagisa will change the course of his life forever.

Depending on what you choose to do from this this point onwards will determine if you end up the main hereon Nagisa or another female character such as Tomoyo I needed to set up the essential plot points for everyone but there is one huge thing that leaves a lot people with their heads scratching, which is "Other World". This is a place where nothing can grow, nor can nothing give birth/live a lonely desolate world. Think of this as Tomoya's feelings that are in his heart through at the course of the visual novel. It is suppose to represent how Tomoya is closed off and doesn't want anyone in his life due in part of how much he has been hurt before in the course of his life.

The "other world" changes depending on how you choose to play that also represents his actions of what good deeds or whishes that Tomoya grants, by helping out people in each route or arc "hence the glowing orbs of light". There happen to be only two livable creatures in the "other world" a young girl and a small robot that she is unable to hear "These represent two very important characters in the physical world, but I will not spoil who they are". That is all I am going to spoil for your guys story wise, if you really want to find out more just play visual novel for more of the story.

Okay maybe I am praising Clannad a bit to much however there is one thing that will keep some people away. No it's nothing nasty or sexual, it's the level of difficulty for visual novel. Even for a seasoned veteran like myself was frustrated at points of what to do " I had to go-online and find a hint guide to move on at some points". So to be nice I will go ahead and tell all of you one major thing. In order to get the best ending possible, you must first obtain light orbs/ get one hundred percent complete for the game. So yes you are forced to play through every single arc, unlock after story and obtain ever good ending for the other characters before you can obtain the good ending with Nagisa. I find this to be a huge chore but worth the effort in the end unless your a fan of bitter sweet ends.

Moving on past the insane level of difficulty is something that I do happen to love which is the characters. I have stated three of the main characters but some others such as Tomoya's friend named Sunohara, who has to be the biggest comic relief character of all time and brings down some of the drama to make it bearable at some points. Even he Sunohara has his own arc in the game as well that is serious to discuss why he is living in the males sports dorm despite not being on any team. One other honorable mention goes to Kotomi Ichinose who is a child-hood friend of Tomoya's "who he doesn't remember". Not really that original I know but her character arc and growth with Tomoya deserve a huge mention because of the way it was written/handled that even after all of that time Kotomi still loves him because of his kindness that was showed when they where kids.

Another huge plus is the music score for this game, no visual novel at the time comes close to the Musial score form this game. Every piece of music written for Clannad is very well done, has emotion flowing through it and syncs up to the emotions for what's happening at the time. This defiantly gives a new meaning to that music helps to set the mood. Hell the soundtrack to buy for Clannad VN is three Cd's, along sixteen to eighteen tracks for each Cd. The is also a wide variety of music as well, from the OP being fully voiced over to something as simple as an theme for a character, which could have piano to violin pieces of music. I will flat out say it alone just on the music for Clannad it bumps it up beyond any normal visual novel that you will play in this day and age.

One last thing to mention is the artwork or visuals for Clannad. Unlike most that I am used to playing it is very bright, well drawn but there is one thing that does bother me the huge eyes. Despite this small flaw, everything is well drawn and holds up very well to other visual novels on the market "expect for School Days". Each character has a very unique design/fell to them so despite some copy-paste features for each character does stand out due to how they are drawn "despite the big eyes".

Now the emotion that is displayed by each character to is also very characterized by the emotions in their face and hand gestures they make. Say if for example Tomoyo is pissed off about so meting "believe me you will know why and see the end result of her fist". The only other I do wish to add is that the back-grounds are a bit plain in certain places "the school for example". However this is the only other flaw I was able to find.

Well that's all I have to say about Clannad VN, I could write a whole book if I really wanted to but I need to move on with my life. Despite some of the flaws that I have mentioned that are present, they are no where near bad enough to hold this Visual Novel back from being a classic. I pretty much have given nothing but praise for this visual novel so if you haven't figured out what rating I am going to give Clannad you need to learn reading comprehension. Peace out everyone and until next time.

-Cecil The Dark Knight

Rating 5/5

Age Rating 12+

I love it. It has the same feeling as Air: 1000th Summer. It is rather cute and childish but also kind of sad and sweet. The artwork is amazing and the voices are pretty nice. The music is so cute and I love the Big Dango Family! I find myself almost singing along every time I heard it!

when they story changed quite a bit, I Dont really like it when that happened with anime but Kyoto animation managed to keep this an awesome anime

this is a very funny anime

another win for Kyoto animation in Japan

Kotomi is another schoolmate of Tomoya's in the same year, but, like Kyou, is in a separate class from Tomoya. The "Koto" in Kotomi is derived from the Japanese musical stringed instrument of the same name. She is in the top ten for every subject throughout the whole country in standardized exam results—she always goes to library to read extra materials, especially books in foreign languages. Kotomi is a very quiet girl and it is quite difficult to communicate with her. In her spare time, she plays the violin, although she is very poor at it to the point of causing pain to those who hear her play.
Tomoya meets her for the first time when he skips class. He enters the library and finds Kotomi sitting on the floor barefoot (she is often seen with her shoes removed), reading books with scissors in her hand. Tomoya stops her from cutting the book with her scissors, then strangely, Kotomi offers her bento to him, and asks him to come again the next day. When they meet again, Tomoya asks her whether she likes to skip class, which Kotomi agrees. One day, Youhei meets up with Tomoya, and is told that there is a girl who offers free food. Youhei enters the library but he gets ignored. Youhei is surprised that Tomoya knows Kotomi as she is an academic student who got top ten in the nation-wide, and is exempted from lessons. Tomoya starts skipping the fourth period and spend his time with Kotomi in the library. Tomoya later decides to have Kotomi make friends to make her more sociable.
Just when Kotomi becomes more sociable, a bus accident causes her to breakdown in front of everyone and has to return home later. Tomoya visits her in her dark house and learns that he and Kotomi were childhood friends, but lost contact with each other after Kotomi's parents died in an air-accident as their plane malfunctioned. She does not want to lose anyone she loves anymore, and asks Tomoya to leave her alone. Wanting to bring Kotomi away from her past, Tomoya decides to renovate her garden. The drama club members want to gift Kotomi a violin, but it got destroyed by a speeding biker. After renovating Kotomi's garden, Kotomi appears to Tomoya, and after some poignant conversation, Tomoya brings Kotomi out of her house to see the outside world inside her heart and returns to her usual self. The next day, her guardian presents Kotomi her parent's briefcase that has traveled all the way to Japan, and inside is a teddy bear and a letter, asking Kotomi to live the way she wants and grow up to be an adult. Kotomi realizes she is still being loved by her parents and cries. After this, Kotomi becomes more mature, and the drama club members finally give Kotomi a violin.
In the movie, Kotomi only made a cameo appearance, as she is only seen conducting a song for the members of the Choir Club. She, however, did not play any role in the movie.