Deliquent Okazaki Tomoya finds himself starting his final year in high school with no hope for the future, no girlfriend, bad grades, and a strained relationship with his father.
All seems lost, until the moment he meets Furukawa Nagisa. This girl brings forth hope, love, and family into Okazaki's life.
Story & Characters
Contains slight spoilers, but I'm assuming that most of you here who reads this review has completed Clannad. Skip
the details if you haven't watch it yet- it ruins things for you.
Just like any other KEY's production, the storyline of Clannad is divided into major arcs, focusing it's
attention upon each major/main character within the anime. The usual harem consisting of one male character and twice
the amount of girls (in this case, thrice). If you're pretty familiar with the studio's products, then
it's a normalcy.
-Tomoya Okazaki- a somewhat boy who would have made a better impression if KEY had emphasized on his personality more.
Tomoya also has a father who sinks into depression and alcohol after the death of his mother; and in a moment of rage,
ends up arguing -more like fighting- his dad, resulting the injury upon his arm. That wound disables Tomoya's
ability to shoot in basketball, and he soon drops out of the team, and ends up a failure at life and school. His talent
to let lies flow out is practically entertaining, and I wonder why the producers didn't put his intelligent brain
to use.
- Nagisa Furukawa- the main female protagonist of Clannad. She is sweet, sickly, and a fan of the Dango Daikazoku.
Nagisa is also a female character you can' help but be reminded that she is somewhat of a damsel in distress and
needs helping from Okazaki. A hell lot. There's nothing outstanding about how KEY designed her- and she's too
short for her own good.
I wouldn't bother about the others, because these two are the main characters and Lariel is a bit too lazed to
write out the personalities, past and description of every single character because you can certainly get more detailed
information from Wikipedia.
As from what you can see from my summarization of these two characters, it like girl meets boy, boy and girl develops
affections for each other, faces hardships in life, and all ends up well at episode 22 (END). Oh, and a few love
triangles here and there; it exists in every dramatic /romance anime. You'll enjoy it as a light watch and
something to pass your time with, but for those who were expecting some heavy, tear filled scenes, don't get your
hopes up.
Rating: 7
Art
To be blunt, it's KEY. What can you expect? Great color, solid details, big, large, glittering eyes (I'm
implying Nagisa). I wouldn't say that it's beyond Carnelian or whatsoever outstanding artist that ever existed
in the world, but nevertheless, impressive. Although Nagisa's hair constantly reminds me of Shito Tachibana's
(Zombie Loan) antenna twang. One thing I found slightly irritating was that three out of the six female characters
possessed almost the same hair color (Ryou, Kyou, and Kotomi). I know, I know, it's KEY, but even Kanon had done
better. I thought that KEY would improve, but to my greatest disappointed, it degraded by 0.10 percentage.
KEY has done a fair job though, and the scenes on Kotomi's arc was particularly vivid and beautiful. I would also
say the same for the background scenes. At certain episodes I would wonder if they were dropping on the budget, because
all we get to see is distance scenes.
The ED scenes were dangos. And my first thought was 'gaaah, it's just too cute!', but for a 22 episode
anime, I wished they would just alter it slightly. Sure, the 'Dango Daikazoku' that Nagisa favors so much is
abnormally adorable -like Porings from Ragnarok, really- but after ten episodes or so, I found myself hoping that KEY
would change the background themes.
Rating: 7
Sound
Nagisa's seiyuu was plain annoying. Period. Her character and personality was tolerable, but the squeaky,
high-pitched voice really grated on my nerves. However, she was still likeable till the very end, so we won't go
there. Occasionally. And Kotomi... well, she just reminds me of a character in AIR which I've forgotten.
There's no great impact on me on the seiyuu's part, and I'm disappointed, to say the least. And well,
Okazaki Tomoya... it's just like seeing a replay of Kanon 2006 all over again. The seiyuus voicing Akio and
Sunohara, in my opinion, was better than Tomoya. Their characters could go from humorously idiotic to a pathetic
seriousness that I found intriguing (You don't find many characters like that nowadays in animes). Seriously, who
goes from being a pervert to a sudden love philosopher?
The background music was fairly... alright. I found myself amused by Dango Daikazoku, which was performed by Chata-
it's flighty and traditional at the same time- at least for me, it was. Megumeru -performed by Eufonius- attracted
me at once when I saw the trailer of Clannad. For me, it's a 'so far, so good', and I don't plan on
giving up on listening to Megumeru for quite some time. Ana was my favorite song of all- it was just too bad that they
did not place it as an insert song. The repeating BGM wasn't very well suitable for me as I prefer different
varieties.
Rating: 6
Presentation
So far I would say it's entertaining, and it almost pains me to put an 8- for I really quite enjoyed the show from
top to bottom, but to be fair and critical, it doesn't go really higher than that. I constantly get the impression
that KEY's 'angsty feel' is not present within Clannad. Of course, Kotomi and Fuuko's arc tugged on
my heartstrings and made me shed a few tears here and there- who wouldn't?-as well as the ending, but other than
that and a few humorous and silly scenes (Tomoya's lies about Sunohara loving him had me cracking up like an
idiot), I guess Clannad didn't really mean much to me.
I honestly thought that they had spent TOO much time on Fuuko's arc, and thus, ended up dedicating only ONE mere
episode to the Fujibayashi sisters, who I thought would get more credit on that. And Fuuko popping up from time to time
really ruined her own touching disappearance. As the main character, Nagisa didn't really impress me much- she was
just there and there for convenient sake. I guess the whole point of her existence was to change Tomoya's opinions
on his family, or particularly, his father and to end the show with tears and confessions. Common. I would after been
better if they slotted in 'After Story', which will make more significant to the entire show.
I started watching Clannad with high hopes as I did for Kanon and Air, even prepared tissues and chocolates for a
supposedly suitable ending, but ended up thinking that 'this is boring' more than enjoying it's plots. I
wouldn't say that it's ENTIRELY un-entertaining, Clannad has it's 'awws' and 'ohhs'
here and there, which was certainly enjoyable, and I give KEY credit for that, but so far, if I have to rate it, it
would only be a mere 'good' and 'Clannad could have done better than this'.
I'm really sorry if you dislike my opinion of Clannad or my words somehow offended you greatly, but that's how
I think. Or perhaps I'm venting my frustrations out in this review.
Please point out my mistakes and don't hesitate to be critical.
Rating: 8
Final Verdict
7.1667 (above average)
Reviewed by Lariel, Mar 28, 2008
