Aired: October 5, 2007 - March 28, 2008 (After Story: October 3, 2008 - March 27, 2009) Studios: Kyoto Animation Episodes: 23 (47 with After Story) Hello again Otakus! Are you ready for the feels this week? Well I warned you guys last week so you had one whole week to prepare yourselves (ц`ω´ц*) This week we will be talking about Clannad and Clannad: After Story. These two animes are based off of a visual novel created by Key in 2004 and has been adapted to many medias including mangas, books, a film, and drama CDs. I know many of you have heard about this anime as being the saddest animes and haven't wanted to watch it because of this, but I assure you that it has an incredible story. Even if you don't want to watch it, come and read on to get a better understanding why people think it's so sad. So get those tissues ready and hear about THE saddest anime I have ever watched. Synopsis: Tomoya Okazaki is a high school student who finds life dull and boring. Tomoya and his best friend, Sunohara, often skip school and plan to waste his days until graduation. One day as he was walking to school, he passes by a girl muttering to herself where she loudly exclaims "Anpan!" which startles Tomoya. He later figures out her name is Nagisa Furukawa and shouts out things she likes to motivate her to push herself. Nagisa tries to befriend Tomoya, but he ignores her and continues on with his life. Unable to not see her around school in the following days, Tomoya relinquishes and befriends Nagisa. He then figures out that Nagisa was held back a year due to a severe illness and tries to make her dream come true: revive the drama club. With the aid of four other girls, Tomoya learns about each character's problems and starts to help each out with their obstacles. Tomoya then starts to learn that life isn't so bad and starts to be cheerful and happy. Clannad: After Story continues the story of the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa after high school graduation and tells the story of their hardships going into adulthood. Storyline: I can't believe I made myself do this, but I'm starting to tear up trying to recall all of the moments within this anime (இ﹏இ`。) Okay where to start... The first series was pretty much a standard camaraderie, slice of life anime where one troubled protagonist starts to look on the brighter side of life after meeting a couple of individuals who persuade him that life isn't a punishment, but a gift. There are moments within the anime where the hardships these characters face is a little too real for our comfort (remember Nagisa has an illness) and makes you face the reality of these problems. Some people like to watch animes or dramas to escape their reality, but this anime has a good amount of real world problems that individuals experience despite them looking just fine on the outside. As a result, the story pulls you in to sympathize with our protagonists and grows our attachment to their situations. This anime does an amazing job of showing the emotions these characters are feeling during their hardships, most notably Tomoya. The grief, frustrations, and helplessness he feels is something that majority of us felt at one point in our lives and Clannad does extremely well to make us recall those memories to help us understand why he acts the way he does. It also allows us to sympathize with the irrational decisions some characters make in attempt to help their friends in trouble. This is one of the reasons why some do not want to watch this anime because they don't want to have those feelings especially when things get too real. The After Story, however, is where the waterworks start flowing. Again, things might get too real for people and drop the anime, but I think it is a really good story with a strong message to the viewers. In After Story, Tomoya and Nagisa struggle to get a grasp on adulthood and what they should do for their future. Thankfully, Nagisa's parents guide them and give advice on what they should do to overcome their obstacles and barriers. However, things keep going wrong for Tomoya in whatever path he chooses. Nagisa's strong support gets Tomoya through his hardships and is able to accomplish the little things he can. The message here is a powerful one that discusses that life of an adult is hard and you won't be able to get everything you wished you would. However, having strong support from friends and family can get you through your conflicts. Despite everything going horribly wrong in Tomoya's adult life, he takes to heart Nagisa's positive mentality and continues to push forward. I'm not going to spoil the moments that will make you cry every time you see it, but you will know which exact scenes I'm talking about if you watch it. Music: Okay there isn't much to say about the music in this anime as it wasn't as impactful or contributing to the message the anime is trying to give. The story-line itself does that job on its own. I will just be leaving one song that will stick with you forever, however, once you watch the anime. Some of you might have heard the song and thought it was cute, but the anime changes that meaning and I cry every time I hear it. If you have already watched it, I'm not sorry for making you hear it again because I had to listen to it as well (ToT) Art: I'm not going to lie, but looking back on this anime, I was thinking that the art wasn't going to be as good as when I first watched it because it is a relatively older one. Minus the character design (which was normal back in those times), I was thoroughly surprised at how nice the background and settings were drawn. The CGI didn't seem too tacky either and was well integrated with the rest of the animation. This use of CGI becomes more apparent in the After Story, but it lends itself to create the fantasy elements needed to tell the audience what's effectively going on. It's hard to explain without spoiling but there are moments where firefly-like things float as a character is speaking that has a significant meaning. The aesthetics and detail of the background you see throughout the anime will make any artist appreciate the effort that Kyoto Animation put into making an aesthetically pleasing anime to watch. There you have it friends. A little insight of why this anime has been dubbed as the saddest anime ever. If you don't like sad animes, I suggest you don't watch it because you'll just end up hating yourself and me for watching it. If you are curious or a fan of sad animes, I highly suggest you watch it because it really does have strong messages and amazing story telling. You guys know me, I'm a sucker for good stories no matter how sad they are. Don't worry, next week I'll lighten up the mood and make you guys enjoy reading about an action anime. Thanks for reading and putting up with my depression! Thanks to those who have watched it and I made you recall your feelings from this anime. You guys are the real MVP. See you Otakus next week!
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Coffee senpaiJust an Otaku who also loves his coffee. Grab some coffee and watch anime with me ٩(θ‿θ)۶ Posts for this blog every Friday!
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