Review - Clannad

Clannad

Studio: Kyoto Animation
Licensor: Sentai Filmworks
Distributor: ADV Films [Import Only]
Episodes: 23 + 1x24min OVA
Year: 2007/2008

Clannad is the anime adaptation of the visual novel of the same name, developed by the renowned Japanese visual novel studio Key, who also produced Kanon and Air, which have both also been given anime adaptations, but before Clannad.

Clannad basically tells a love story between its two protagonists. Tomoya Okazaki is a delinquent student who is forever skipping school with his best friend Youhei Sonohara. Tomoya's mother died when he was young, leaving his father to care for him. However his father took his mother's death badly and turned to drink and gambling, which resolved to fights between father and son. In one fight, Tomoya's father breaks his son's shoulder, and the two become virtually estranged. You could say this is part of the cause of Tomoya's dark attitude towards life. This begins to change however when he meets a girl at the bottom of the hill.

Nagisa and Tomoya, the series' protagonists.

Nagisa Furakawa is a frail girl who is repeating her final school year after being ill for most of her first attempt. She adores theatre and has a fascination with the anime's cuddly mascots, the Big Dango Family (in Japanase Dango Daikazoku). Even though she's practically a year older than Tomoya, she does seem very childish, as she is easily upset, but when she does she shouts out one of her favourite foods to cheer herself on. Indeed, when we first meet Nagisa in the opening episode, she shouts "Anpan!" (Anpan is a bread roll filled with sweet bean paste.)

Dango Daikazoku, as seen in the ending animation.

Nagisa's love for drama forms the main focus for the first season. Her main goal is to reform the school's drama club and put on a production at the culture festival. Her determined nature to do this is what draws Tomoya to Nagisa, who proceeds to help her in varying situations throughout the series.

Fuko in her starfish trance

However, you do have several different plot arcs that fill a big gap between the beginning and end. The first of these is what I call the Fuko arc. This merges in from episode 2 until its conclusion in episode 9. It concerns what seems to be a freshman girl who has a fascination with carving wooden starfish. Fuko Ibuki is one of the best characters in the series, providing some excellent funny situations, as well as a troubling situation. I won't go into the troubling situation for spoilers, but whenever she appears throughout the story you find yourself laughing as Tomoya attempts to get her out of her moments of ecstasy where she goes into her own world after hearing something to do with starfish. Her situation is very saddening, and it's this contrast between that and the happy girl we see that provides such a great character.

The second arc, or the Kotomi arc, is still quite emotional; which is really the word that describes both this and even more so the second series. Kotomi Ichinose is a genius girl who is the daughter of two well-renowned scientists. When we first meet her she is a very shy girl who sits in the library reading books instead of going to lessons. When Tomoya sees her, his compassionate side comes out once again and he decides to help her find friends and get her out of her introvert shell. As the arc progresses, we see her becoming ever more integrated into the cast of secondary characters.

The secondary characters themselves interact well with the two main protagonists, Tomoya and Nagisa. We have Sonohara, who I mentioned before, joined by the Fujibayashi twins, Kyou and Ryou, who interestingly both have their eye on Tomoya; Tomoyo Sakagami, who used to fight crime in her spare, and as a result features hilarious stand-offs between Sonohara and herself, which always results in Sonohara being pummelled; and Yukine Miyazawa, who looks after the second library where old books that nobody reads are kept, and is the go-to source for any type of (mostly helpless) advice.

Early on, we are also introduced to Nagisa's parents, Akio and Sanae. They could be considered key characters in the series, as they appear various times throughout. Her father, Akio, is very much the comic relief in the story, with almost every episode Akio and Sanae are in featuring a very comedic situation where Akio insults Sanae's bread, which causes her to run off crying. Akio then pursues with bread in his mouth crying "I love 'em!". Oh, I should explain that Nagisa's parents own a bakery, which like everything in Clannad, has a tragic story to plunge into.

The actual animation is of a very good quality, with well drawn backgrounds and great character expression. Colours are well defined, with the use of bright daytime environments in scenes with happy vibes, and night or rain for the some of the more sad scenes. The use of fire in one particular is episode also gives a great effect, especially when contrasting with the dark rooms of the night scene.

The audio is absolutely fine, featuring what I would say is typical incidental music that does not get in the way of any particular scene and can heighten any particular feeling of emotion that needs to be portrayed. The first series' opening song, Mag Mell (Megu Meru) by Eufonius is taken straight out of the visual novel. It's a song that in my mind fits the series perfectly due to what I believe is the song's rather bittersweet nature. The ending theme is the series' infamous song Dango Daikazoku, which is in itself a theme for Nagisa.

From what I've heard, if you are going to watch Clannad it is advised that you avoid the recent dub. People have said that the dub is terrible, but as I own the subbed import collections I have never heard it. The subbed version is great, and once you hear the characters as played by their voice actors it is hard to imagine anyone else voicing them. This is due to the voices in the sub totally fitting each character's personality and actions. The lack of a decent dub however may restrict viewers who aren't keen on reading the subtitles.

The Hidden World

As we progress to the end of the first season, we unravel more about Nagisa and her family, and learn of events that will ultimately seal her fate in the second season. Throughout the entire thing however, mainly in the pre-titles scenes, we are slowly told a story of a young girl who is in another world all alone. She collects junk and crafts it into a doll, which mysteriously comes to life. As you progress through the first season, I guarantee it won't really connect with you. But we can say that the girl does look very similar to Nagisa... The world itself is filled with bright orbs floating up into the sky. These orbs will eventually have a direct influence on events in the second series, but here we are introduced to the myth about the happiness orbs. For it is said that if you catch one your wish will come true.

You'll also notice the final episode is an OVA. Each of Clannad's two series ends with an OVA in the same style that portrays events in a parallel world. In that sense it shows Tomoya going after a different girl other than Nagisa. The OVA carries over all the themes from the series and is a great way to finish things off.

Clannad is an emotional tale intercut with great humour. It's lively characters and great atmosphere will have you cracking smiles, laughing, and may event make you shed a tear. It's a great series that everyone should watch at least once, as long as you avoid the dub. If you stay 'till the end, I'm sure you'll be satisfied and be wanting more from the second season.

+ Emotional sequences pull you into the story
+ Very funny in all the right places
+ Great animation quality
+ Fantastic cast of characters
- Mediocre dub, but of course you won't listen to that

9/10