This Review will NOT Spoil the Anime Experience!

[Overview]

Clannad mainly focuses on Tomoya and the events that occur around him. Tomoya slacks off, skips school, lazes around and gets labeled as a delinquent, or simply someone who doesn’t really care about defying authority [which is most likely a result of his laziness too xD ]. The story all begins when Tomoya is walking back from his first day of his third year at High School when he meets Nagisa Furukawa, and this is where everything begins. Tomoya meets Nagisa once or twice more and learns that she wants to re-establish the schools Drama Club, however with Nagisa’s lack of self-confidence, she feels that she won’t be able to fulfill her dream, but Tomoya encourages her not to give up on what she wants to do, to get the Drama Club running again, and he goes on to offer a helping hand.

There is also a deeper, dreamier, fantasy aspect to the anime, which involves a character that resembles Nagisa. This is a very interesting part of the story and one that can be related to.

Clannad will follow Nagisa as she tries to fulfill her dream, meeting and making friends with people along the way (Tomoyo, Kotomi, Fuko, Nagisa, and Kyou), as well as getting through obstacles they never thought they would have had to face.

[Feeling and Animation]
Going through the first half of Clannad will get anyone who has seen Kanon to think “Hey, this is just like Kanons story structure!”, and its no surprise, as they are both derived from Visual Novels, whereas Clannad goes through fixed Story Arcs instead. Bearing that in mind, all viewers will get to watch the highest level of Animation, as expected; it’s Vibrant, Colourful and nothing less than a pleasure to watch. It perfectly resonates with the Story it’s working with.

The Animation stays true to Key/Kyoto’s previous adaptations, yet getting that much better – a pure anime wonderland

[The Story]
The Anime progresses around individual characters while working with everyone else at the same time, most importantly the Main Characters, Tomoya Okazaki & Nagisa Furukawa.

The characters personas are individually brilliant, and you are able to tell who is who very easily, meaning the Voice Acting is no less than perfect, which, in combination with the superb Animation, guarantees a quality viewing experience. Not to drift away, the Story is presented very cleverly, instead of resetting the Anime to certain times to go through the Characters Stories, everything is progressive, and their stories blend into each other giving it that progressivism element you would expect in a day-to-day Anime. It’s expected to find Keys adaptation work out so well in animated form, and it really works with this truly wonderful story.

[Conclusion]
First of all, this is a Key Visual Novel turned Anime. Key is responsible for other fantastic titles like Air & Kanon that were also turned into Anime productions thanks to Kyoto Animation, and Kyoto Animation done what they did, they brought Clannad to life, and as beautiful as Kanon was.
It was bound to be a fantastic production as with most work by Key and/or Kyoto Animation, and it done more than just match our expectations – it exceeded them.

Clannad is a Story about the Value of Family and Friendship, a truly heartwarming tale for anyone who wants to watch a beautiful story play out upon incredible animation and a wonderful story following unique characters that you won’t forget.

[Technical Points]
Animation: 10/10
Voice Acting: 10/10
No. of Episodes for Story: 9/10

Don’t get me wrong, I gave the last 9 with a slight hesitation, that doesn’t mean it makes it bad in any way, but quite a lot of people may feel the same as I do about the last few episodes being a bit short for its own story, whereas some people may be thankful for the way its structured, as anime similar to this one has the tendency to fall short for its own story. Ultimately, however, the ending is simply precious, some would say perfect, especially with a bonus 23rd Episode you will thoroughly enjoy!

~ Rating ~

10 – Perfect

Nothing is Perfect, but if anything gets near, this is it

[ My Ratings work with the Enjoyment Factor as Priority, without tainting the obvious flaws. I will take any flaw into consideration and take it into account with my final Rating. My Ratings are based on a never-perfect basis - meaning its impossible to score 10 - so you can alternatively look at is as 9 if you think nothing can get 10 ]

I Hope you enjoyed reading this review as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it!
~ Senseito

My Review Originally Posted at Endless Paradigm

[Fantasia not over…]

There are points that would make you think its over, and others where you know theres an unresolved portion to Clannad that has yet to be resolved. Clannad’s story isn’t over, “Clannad After Story”, the continuation of the first season, has been confirmed as “In Production” in the Bonus 23rd Episode. We have no idea when to expect it, but this is an amazing thing to happen – the very original sequel Visual Novel is being adapted as its continuation [I think] and Kyoto hasn’t done a Second Season before, and after watching Clannad, I’m expecting nothing less than a masterpiece like this.

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Filed under: Anime, Comedy, Fantasy/Magical, Reviews, Romance, Slice of Life