Clannad

Clannad is Kyoto Animation's adaptation of the visual novel by Key. It follows Tomoya Okazaki, a delinquent high school student who has given up on things. At the bottom of a long hill he meets Nagisa Furukawa, a shy girl who is repeating her final year. Through her, and through a group of classmates who each carry a private sorrow, Tomoya begins to take part in the world again.

The first season (24 episodes) is mostly a warm, often funny school series that works through several heroines' stories. Running through it is a strange side story about an "Illusionary World." The second season, After Story, follows Tomoya and Nagisa after graduation, through work, adulthood and parenthood, and the tone becomes much more serious.

Taken as a whole, the 44 episodes form one long story about growing up. They show a young man learning what family, community and responsibility mean.

The series is a metaphor for growing up, and its main concern is familial love. It argues that the happy things in life will change, that people will be lost, and that we can still choose to love the places and people we have. After Story builds on this with the ideas of community, legacy, mono no aware (a gentle awareness that things pass) and the cycles of life. It suggests that people break the pattern of hurt they inherited by forgiving their parents and becoming better parents themselves.

The ending is the most debated part of the series. Some viewers find it confusing at first but in the end beautiful, because it brings together the themes the show had been building from the start. Other critics argue that its magical elements clash with the realistic tone and amount to escapism instead of a real engagement with grief. A third reading treats the Illusionary World and the ending as an allegory: the town's collected kindness and community make a better outcome possible.

Clannad was the third of Kyoto Animation's adaptations of Key visual novels by director Tatsuya Ishihara, after Air and Kanon. It helped establish the reputation of Key and KyoAni's collaborations for emotionally powerful drama. After Story in particular is often described as being \"on a whole other level\" compared with the first season. Critics point out how it changes from a school romance into an adult story about family, and it is regularly held up as one of anime's great tearjerkers. \"Dango Daikazoku\" became one of the most recognizable songs connected with the franchise. A separate theatrical film, also titled Clannad, adapted the same source.

The first season was praised for its attractive animation and likable characters. Some reviewers found it slow, and some felt it did not do justice to the visual novel. After Story is received much more strongly. Reviewers say it improves on the first season's execution with a far more engaging story, and it is known for how hard it hits emotionally, with episode 18 singled out. The ending divides opinion: many call it beautiful, while others think it undercuts the realism. Overall, the series is widely regarded as a landmark drama. Most viewers recommend sitting through the lighter first season to get to the payoff in After Story.