Clannad

[blkmage]

CLANNAD is Kyoto Animation's anime adaptation of the visual novel of the same name by Key. The first season aired October 2007 to March 2008 and the second season, CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ started airing in October 2008 and is set to wrap up by the end of the month.

Clannad follows Tomoya Okazaki, a high school senior at the beginning of the story, as he meets Nagisa Furukawa and helps her revive the drama club at their school. Along the way, he meets various other people and get caught up in their problems and trying to help them. After Story follows Tomoya and Nagisa after they graduate from high school and their life together afterward.

So what are some notable things? Well, Kyoto Animation, of Haruhi, Lucky Star, and other Key game adaptations fame, produced it, so expect fairly high quality animation. It's a Key game, so expect some tragedy here and expect some light supernatural bent to some aspects of the world. Also note that two of Key's other works, Air and Kanon, have both been adapted by Kyoto Animation as well. Clannad is Key's second longest work and is often considered its best.

So why a thread now? The finale of the main story has just finished airing this week, with only an extra episode left. I'd like to know what others who've been following it think of it and I'd like to recommend it to other people as well. I also hear that there's going to be a DVD out in North America sometime soon too?

[Roy Mustang]

I also hear that there's going to be a DVD out in North America sometime soon too?

Clannad - Collection 1 DVD with ep 1 to 12 came out on March 3rd.


Clannad: Complete Collection 2 with ep 13 to 24 comes out May 5th.

DVD cover for Collection 2



[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[S.M.O.G.]

Just watched the first episode on deman, and thought it was great. To bad with the cable package we get I don't get more than 2 episodes of any given series, and unfortunenately Clanned only has one. Guess I'll have to get the dvds.

[blkmage]

So right now, the internets are split as to whether or not the ending was any good. It's pretty interesting how it's split. Pretty much everyone who has played the visual novel completely understands the ending, why it's so significant, and agrees that it is a good ending. Everyone who didn't think it was a good ending had their first exposure to Clannad as the anime.

I hadn't played the game, but I did read a lot of it and a lot of the explanation behind the game and its themes long before we got to the good parts in After Story. I can understand why the ending is confusing in the anime.

[Heronwing]

I love Clannad! It's my favorite anime, by far.
I've been having Clannad marathons after school this week to get caught up (I watched nine episodes today). My best friend (She's a MAJOR Clannad fan) is going to have a sleepover Friday for the last episode. The two of us are going to watch it for several hours, then watch the movie. We're not going to get ANY sleep at all. XD

[blkmage]

The Clannad movie was done by a different studio (Toei), before Kyoto Animation's TV series. It's a very different take on the series, especially in the After Story portions, where it deviates from the source material. I can't say I'd suggest it, especially with how great Clannad After Story is in comparison, in addition to the amazing animation quality that KyoAni is known for.

[TriezGamer]

So right now, the internets are split as to whether or not the ending was any good. It's pretty interesting how it's split. Pretty much everyone who has played the visual novel completely understands the ending, why it's so significant, and agrees that it is a good ending. Everyone who didn't think it was a good ending had their first exposure to Clannad as the anime.

I hadn't played the game, but I did read a lot of it and a lot of the explanation behind the game and its themes long before we got to the good parts in After Story. I can understand why the ending is confusing in the anime.

Yeah, the anime leaves out a bit of context that makes the ending confusing. I do believe the anime improved on the ending itself from the original, but the lack of explanation makes it difficult for someone who hasn't played through it.

[wildpurplechild]

I just watched episodes 1-5 of Clannad yesterday, it was interesting but the plot confused me a bit.

[Kung_Fu_Master]

Um. Would someone post a spoiler for those that only saw the anime, you know to fill in the cracks? Please.

[blkmage]

Um. Would someone post a spoiler for those that only saw the anime, you know to fill in the cracks? Please.

About?

[Kung_Fu_Master]

The ending. duh.

[blkmage]

Oh, ha. Okay. I guess that makes sense. I'll just copy and paste the relevant parts of the blog post I already wrote about this for your convenience.

[spoiler]Visual novel adaptations are hard. Visual novels are not linear and when something like Clannad exploits that structure, serializing it is made even harder. Because my superpower is not caring about spoilers, I’ve read a lot of stuff about the visual novel and what the ending is supposed to mean. And the ending is one of those things that exploits the structure of the visual novel.

Outside of the context of the visual novel and paths and whatever, the ending is very deus ex machina. I mean, we get a’splosion, some talking, and then Tomoya “wakes up” at the critical moment but everything is bright and we get a happy ending. It’s sort of like the first time you go through Higurashi. You become disoriented and wonder what the hell just happened.

So two things are key to understanding the ending. The first is that Clannad is about family. The second is that Clannad is a visual novel.

What we got in the anime was the true end. So what was the bad end? The bad end was if there were no deus ex machina. So in a sense, we got to see both ends. But what’s the prerequisite for the true end? The anime almost makes it look like it was the decision to call out to Nagisa. In fact, what’s required is that you have enough light orbs.

The light orbs are explained as the happiness of others. They also happen to be a gameplay mechanic. Once you finish an arc, you get a light orb. This seems like it’s just a way to get you to play all of the paths. The function of the light orbs isn’t that obvious, since Yukine sort of explains it offhandedly and Ushio seeing the light orb enter Tomoya didn’t really spell anything out. Even after Ushio’s explanation in the imaginary world, it isn’t clear that Tomoya was collecting these things.

After all, why would Ushio’s and Nagisa’s fate be tied to these light orbs instead of meeting Nagisa? Why is it impossible to save Ushio and Nagisa without playing all the other arcs? Remember what Tomoya says and what he’s like when we’re first introduced to him. He hates the city he lives in. He has no understanding of what a family is. He continues to hate the city all the way until the end. Upon your first time reaching the end, in the imaginary world, Ushio sends you back to collect light orbs.

Through collecting the light orbs and finishing the various paths, which we see accumulating in the anime at the episode title screen, Tomoya learns what family is. Only after finishing all the other paths is he able to come around to the fact that the town that he hated, which also happens to be some town that grants peoples’ wishes, is a giant family. And only after he learns all of this is he able to save his family.

Obviously, this isn’t as easy to show in the anime. In the anime, our experience with the true end happens right after the bad end and is fairly abrupt. In the visual novel, Tomoya works his way to the bad end and realizes that there’s no way to avoid it except to collect the light orbs. He is then set on the arduous task of collecting these light orbs, while keeping in mind that he’s working to save Nagisa and Ushio, knowing what will happen if he fails.[/spoiler]

[Kung_Fu_Master]

Thank you.