Clannad is an
anime that I hear about since I started watching anime in a more constant way.
This fact puts my expectations at a high level, which probably affected my
opinion of this anime and consequently affected my review.
" A Simple and Boring Love Story"
Anime Score:
Total Score: 70.75%
TOP 2008 entrance: 2º
All Time Top entrance: 49º
STUDIO – Kyoto Animation: 73.25%
Directed by – Tatsuya
Ishihara
Studio – Kyoto Animation
Year – 2008
Season 1 / 23
episodes
Warning this review could contain spoilers!
If the reader wasn't watched this anime,
this could reduce the enjoyment!
For instance Sasuke will kill Naruto in
season finale!
See the danger of a Spoiler? Now this was a
lie, only to show the power of a spoiler!
The reader was been warned!
Loose notes – Pick
one from the past Winner
Clannad
was the first winner of my post “Pick One
From The Past”. For this survey I selected
three animes from past seasons and asked to vote for the best for me to see and
review!
Clannad beated
animes like Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain (It was a little surprise
for me, sincerely I thought the winner would be Evangelion :P)
Clannad is a Moe
animation love story, in direct competition with K-On and Lucky Start for the
title of “Moe King”!
The Opening
Well I screwed up
on this, the version I watched had the opening removed and I only understood that
in the end!
(Clannad - opening)
The naming of the
characters is very important in this type of anime because the plot is too centered
in the characters itself!
Analysis
When watching this
anime, I had a serial of conditionings! I had high expectations because Clannad
is an anime that every anime watcher knows, I rarely see any criticism of it,
an anime that makes you cry!
I usually cry very
easily, just a little emotion it is enough :P and sincerely (with exception of
2 or 3 punctual moments) I got really bored! But in my analysis I will try to
give a discount because of the age (aired 2007-2008)!
This is an adaptation of a visual novel with
the same name, in my opinion this season splits in 4 arcs.
1.
The Ghost Arc
2. The Genius Arc
3. The School Clubs
Arc
4. The in Love Arc
Each arc basically
makes a presentation of the characters giving air time to the secondary
characters although the constant presence of Tomoya and Nagisa.
Besides 5 or 6
secundary characters, history is centered in Nagisa and Tomoya from the
beginning. The only exception is in the the genious arc (Kotomi) where Tomoya
and Kotomi are the only ones to show up.
The Ghost arc is
the paranormal part of this story and probably the saddest. In this arc we
assist to Fuko a first year student, trying to convince people to notice her
and to invite them to her sister’s marriage (a former teacher in High School).
(Clannad – Fuko Ibuki and her Starfish)
(Spoiler Alert)
The first arc is
too long for me (even giving a time discount due to the introduction of
characters). Basically Tomoya and Nagisa meets Fuko and connect her to a
school’s myth of a ghost. So they decide to help her! Their help increased
Fuko's reputation and everybody in school acknowledged her existence, except
her sister. At this point of the history the climax is reached, so from this
point on everybody starts to forget her, including Tomoya and Nagisa (do to the
fact of Fuko condition deteriorate). This arc ends with the marriage of Fuko’s
sister where she recognizes Fuko’s ghost!
Until this point
Clannad was not being nothing special (with except of the interaction between
Tomoya and Fuko), reminding me the interaction of Aragari and the snail Mayoi
(without the lolicon part) in Monogatari (I bit my tongue)
Then Clannad turns
into a harem, which bores me a lot. The only exception, I admit, is the fact
that Tomoya chooses one of the girls!
After a very long first
arc where we received a slight introduction of each character (except Fuko that
almost disappears in a literal form :P), Clannad advanced to present us the
school genius Kotomi!
(Clannad – The
genius Kotomi Ichinose )
Kotomi has some
enjoyable moments, like her clumsiness to interact with people. The best of the arc is when she says the sentence
that Tomoya taught her with her monotonous voice and not adapted to the
situation. Unfortunately this is very little.
This arc is
centered in a memory plot (I’m not a big fan of this type of plot) where we
going to find out that Kotomi holds a terrible past and that Tomoya forgot that
he is her unique friend!
The third arc
marks the beginning of the romance between Tomoya and Nagisa. It is here that we are sure that they will
stay together. In this arc we learn the
story of Tomoyo Sakagami (a girl who knows the arts of kung fu). Nagisa and
Tomoya need that Tomoyo be elected president of the student's council in order
to help them to reborn the Drama Club!
(Clannad – The
brutal Tomoyo Sakagami)
Basically we
assist to several events (games) of Sakagami with other sport clubs to show her
athletic ability and gain votes to the election (always with the price of if
she lose she goes to the winner club).
In one of these
events (for me this was the better episode) we take sure that Tomoya chooses
Nagisa leading to disappointment of the Fujibayashi sisters!
(Clannad – The
lovely Fujibayashi sisters, Kyou on the left and Ryou on the righti)
In the last arc,
on the one hand we see the deterioration of the relationship between Tomoya and
his father. And on the other hand the inner battle of Nagisa: fight for her
dreams versus the guilt sensation because their parents have abandoned their
own dreams to take care of her!
The only valid
point of this arc is the confirmation of the relationship between Tomoya and
Nagisa, instead of annoying and unfortunately very common ends where is left
only the feeling that two characters like each other!
(Clannad – The
Power Couple Tomoya Okazaki and Nagisa Furukawa)
One a final note:
I need to give a
discount because Clannad was aired in 2008. The Clannad's story is the origin and
geneses of much anime productions, but I saw nothing special in story that
justifies this great love that Clannad has received!
Probably I need to
watch second season (ClannadAfter Story) to understand this phenomenon, like in
Higurashi. In this season I didn’t watch anything phenomenal or innovative!
Future Seasons – Clannad After Story
The advantage of
making reviews of past animes is that I already know what happened in terms of
future seasons.
I still don’t know
when, but I will watch the second season. I only know that it will follow a 7
years’ timeline and the characters presented in this season will grow
(something I enjoy to see in anime and is very rare to happen!)
Final Conclusion
This season in
particular is overrated, perhaps the second season is better. I saw nothing
special!
*Watched by me in
2014 – originally released in 2008
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