[Spoilers, so beware]

If you know me, you probably know that this anime is the whole reason behind my identity and my passion. I will agree with most and say that Season 1 does have its shortcomings and won’t deny that it does for a second (more on that later) but as a whole, I generally respect it as one of the most enjoyable emotional, empathetic, humorous and character-driven SoL anime I have had the pleasure of watching.

For some context, this anime is KEY’s third work created 4 years after AIR and was the last of the seasonal trilogy to be adapted by Kyoto Animation, coming out in the Fall 2007 season. At this point, I had watched the Clannad adaptation four times and I am basing this review off of my most recent watch which I had documented.

With that said, I believe we should summarise what Clannad is about. So our main character here is Tomoya Okazaki, a third year high school student who only has a mind filled with regret after past events and has nothing but spite for the town he lives in. Walking up the hill, he finds a girl in the same year standing underneath the cherry blossom trees.

This girl is Nagisa Furukawa, someone who lacks confidence but is very delightful and passionate which makes up for it. After attempting to talk with Nagisa some more, Tomoya then finds out that Nagisa is a repeater for the third year, was sick before the exams hence the repeat, and is passionate about restarting the drama club in school after it was disbanded the year prior. So with Nagisa wanting to do drama and Tomoya having nothing better to really do with himself, they decide to do whatever it takes to restart the club and conduct a play at the School Festival.

Once again, this premise for the plot is very straightforward but within the plot itself, there are a few roadblocks which I will get to much later. But before we do, I feel like we should discuss the characters within Clannad first and foremost. We have essentially covered Tomoya and Nagisa, so what about the others?

First off is Youhei Sunohara, a delinquent and slacker much like Tomoya but generally is a lot more unrestrained and chaotic compared to Tomoya’s more laidback “not a care in the world” attitude, attempting such things as battling or meddling with Tomoyo every day or getting beaten up by said Tomoyo, Kyou or the rugby team in the boy’s dorm.

I consider Sunohara personally to be a comic relief character, someone who brings light out of a dark and sad situation. Even with this trait though, Sunohara isn’t exempt from being involved in situations and conversations that he has to take seriously and this will be especially true in After Story with his arc.

Next is Fuko Ibuki, an oddball character to me personally but that quirkiness is her charm and definitely solidifies her appeal as an odd but lovable character. Her arc is the only one that really shows her character to her full extent and although she does appear again a handful of times through the first season after her arc, these moments are hit or miss in my opinion but again, more on that later.

We next have Kotomi Ichinose, a well-known genius student at the school who spends all of her time in the library, a recluse. In her arc, she tries to make friends with some of Tomoya’s friends in order to boost her courage to get out more and socialise. Her social awkwardness and neurodivergent takes on everyone else’s statements are really what make her a lovable and important character from the get go. She is an honest gem out of our main group and my favourite personally.

We now have Kyou Fujibayashi, who unlike any of the female characters so far, is a much more abrasive kind of character. Which is what Tomoya does tend to like about Kyou, granted. As far as the anime is concerned, there are hints that Kyou does have something for Tomoya… but her sister Ryou, also does and so Kyou would rather put the happiness of her sister first, making Ryou get closer with Tomoya instead despite their being no real mutual connections other than participating in the gang’s situations more often than not.

This rewatch kind of did make me realise Kyou’s shortcomings a lot more and the crux of her character. Not to say that Kyou is a badly written character in the slightest but I don’t necessarily like how pushy she can be with setting up Ryou’s relationship and wanting Tomoya for herself at the same time. Taking the opportunity to ward away Tomoya from Nagisa even though those two are already mutually connected but Kyou and Ryou aren’t.

Speaking of Ryou, I guess all I can really say about her is that she tends to rely on her sister a lot. She is a good character all things considered and she deserves a lot more love but I would have loved to see her character developed a lot more rather than being given the short end of the stick, no matter if it’s the anime or the VN.

This ends with Tomoyo Sakagami, another character that I can appreciate a lot more. She is a responsible character despite being younger than the majority of the main cast, she is helpful, has her goals set, and is genuinely a sweet character to boot. I really grew on her due to the one phrase she said in Episode 18 about a family is not just being those related by blood, but also your friends. Linking to the main integral message of Clannad as a whole. She is knowledgeable, smart and sweet. Definitely grown to be a better character in my eyes.

And that would be the main cast, I could discuss the other characters such as Nagisa’s parents, Sunohara’s sister, Yukine Miyazawa, Tomoya’s dad, etc. but I’ll talk more about those characters in the necessary arcs, 3 of which are important mostly for After Story but this review is for Season 1 only, I’ll only cover 1.

With that, I think it’s as good a time as any to discuss the arcs of Clannad. Beginning with the introductory arc, Episodes 1-3.

Just like the introductory arcs of Kanon and AIR, these are really only here to serve as world-building, getting to know the setting, engaging in mutual conversations and dialogue with characters and not much else. I still feel as though it is a nice inclusion to have here though and makes sense for a series of this type.

This arc then perfectly segues with the next which is Fuko’s arc, Episodes 4-9. If I am being honest with you, this may be the point where most turn off the series and I don’t blame them personally since the arc’s pacing in and of itself is very slow. Still though, being that I have watched this all before, I pressed on with no issues.

Rewatching this arc really revitalised Fuko’s character for me and made me care about her a whole lot more than I usually had. Her arc revolves around her carving out starfish to give to random people and this starfish is an invitation to her sister’s wedding. Her sister happens to be Kouko Ibuki who used to be an art teacher at the school before leaving and she has been wanting to marry her fiance, Yusuke Yoshino.

We then later find out that Fuko can not be seen by Kouko at school, “my voice won’t reach her”, the Fuko at school is merely a vision to people who don’t necessarily know the truth about her condition, but the real Fuko is in a coma at the hospital and has been since entry. But despite that, the vision is seen by everyone but her sister and have been handed starfish… but little by little, every student seems to forget about Fuko’s existence, even the main characters including Tomoya and Nagisa do by the end of the arc until they remember the wedding venue is at the school, Kouko’s wedding… which then makes both remember Fuko and she reappears for the wedding to appear in front of Kouko, telling her to be happy and not to grieve because of her current condition. Her sister would rather want her to be happy with the person she loves. This is our first hint at our integral message for Clannad as a whole, unspecified yet but makes a lot more sense as time goes on.

Not to mention, technically speaking throughout all this, Fuko was the catalyst for everything. The gathering of all the drama club members (eventually), the first to bring us the integral message of Clannad as a whole and most importantly, forming Tomoya and Nagisa’s relationship with each other from get go and giving them that mutual bond. If you put time into it and pay attention to Fuko’s arc, you could come out and see why Clannad would be special to people and see a new light.

After Fuko’s arc is Kotomi’s arc, Episodes 10-14 and it is one of my personal favourites. Not because Kotomi is one of my favourite characters but more so in the sense of relevance to the actual story but more on that shortly. Kotomi’s arc starts out because of Tomoya telling Sunohara about her… in which, knowing Sunohara, of course, he tries to make moves on her with no success. However, this does get Tomoya thinking that she does tend to spend a lot of time by herself in the library, so he insists on helping her make friends with her social awkwardness and all.

It’s more or less this for the first 2 episodes, having her acquire a violin (a dangerous weapon in her hands), playing in a small concert held by Kyou and the others, and having her try making friends with Nagisa, Kyou and Ryou, all in an attempt to get her to come out of her shell which she eventually does by Episode 12.

By Episode 12 though, even if she is confident enough to break out of her shell, disaster strikes when Nagisa is told that one of the school buses has had an accident which gets Kyou all worried about her sister Ryou who does take the bus but thankfully, she took a later bus. The accident is something that sparks Kotomi’s traumatic past as she starts to cry uncontrollably, leading to her sheltering herself away in her own house.

We later find out that since she’s an exceptional student, she is wanting to study in America but it is unknown what for at that point. In this episode and the next, we find out what business the “bad man” that Kotomi refers to really has. He was a colleague of Kotomi’s parents who we then find out died in a plane crash. Kotomi’s guilt for saying she hated her parents added with the trauma of their loss was what drove her to try and be exceptional at academics and later pursue in her parents’ field of study.

This field of study is the thing that is important to the plot, as it details an existence of another world out there somewhere… which is what links to the scenes featuring the girl and robot in a field of nothing. Somehow, those two worlds are linked with each other and Kotomi’s parents, their colleague and the organisation they are a part of know about its existence, just not its purpose which also correlates to the existence of the light orbs that appear now and then for Tomoya. This is a huge plot point because until now, these girl and robot scenes in the other world were random but now they’ve been given a purpose.

To make Kotomi come out of hiding, Tomoya decides after finding out those two were childhood friends and everything else considered, to work on her garden and do whatever he can to help. I think these gestures alone are what show Tomoya’s true kind-hearted nature and not that he is just a delinquent like he always says he is. He has a heart for people and wants to do whatever it takes to make others happy. And eventually his hard work does pay off, with Kotomi entering the garden, showing that she’s all OK. This was an exceptional arc for me that really dives deep into the character drive and the emotional factor, it’s brilliant.

Next up is something I like to personally call the “harem arc”, Episodes 15-18.
Gotta be honest, it’s one of my least favourite arcs but it’s still fairly good in some regards as we get a lot more stuff to like about Tomoyo. The arc starts off with having enough members and a teacher in mind to supervise the drama club so things are looking up for Nagisa, but it turns out that the choir club already have Koumura as their supervisor and some members of the choir club aren’t going to be as easy to convince to let go of Koumura.

This all leads to Sunohara setting up a basketball tournament to decide which club gets to have Koumura as a supervisor, the “be-all, end all” deciding factor. Tomoya, Sunohara, and Kyou were facing off against both classes of the basketball team, due to Tomoya’s past with basketball, the leader knew exactly how to throw the gang off. All in all, it was a close match but Tomoya’s team came out on top.

This moment is nice too because Tomoya was doubting why he was even doing all of this in the first place but Nagisa’s encouragement made him win for them. A good example of Tomoya’s and Nagisa’s relationship strengthening each other. The choir club and drama club thought about the possibility of having Koumura advise both clubs but due to the school council’s set rules, that thought was crushed and so the drama club was postponed once again. Also due to Nagisa falling ill.

These next 2 episodes were… odd ones for me, while I do enjoy that the characters do get their spotlight, Kyou in Episode 17 and Tomoyo in Episode 18. I honestly wasn’t a fan of Kyou’s approach to the situation. She was hinting at liking Tomoya from earlier on in the season, but because of her tendency to put her sister before herself, it created an awkward love triangle between her, Ryou and Tomoya when neither of them have any real mutual connections with each other besides from hanging out now and then.

Kyou just came off as pushy and forceful here, not allowing Tomoya any privacy or peace to himself, heavily insistent. I feel that this was what dragged down Kyou’s character for me, not that she’s bad, it’s just how she came across in this arc which didn’t sit right with me. And I also feel like Ryou was also sort of being dragged into it as well, Ryou and Tomoya I feel don’t necessarily have much chemistry because of the lack of mutual connection.

Tomoyo on the other hand was the major one in the spotlight this arc, this arc really does highlight her responsibilities as a character, her motivation and her reasoning for how she is now. In comparison to someone like Kyou, her backstory involving her brother illustrated her development to where she is as a person now and no longer picking fights because of her own issues, Tomoyo is just such a more developed character and a sweeter and much more reasonable one to boot.

And I couldn’t forget this line she said to Tomoya being that a family is not just being those related by blood, but it can also extend to your friends. I am really glad a rewatch has made me really think more fondly of her.

The tennis scene in Episode 18 is regarded as a “funny scene” to some? I don’t think it is anything like that in the slightest. Paying attention to everything that has gone on in the season thus far, it makes a lot of sense as to why Kyou and Ryou are crying profusely and why Tomoya instinctively stopped the other tennis player from helping Nagisa after getting hit.

It was to signify that those two are a lot more mutually connected than the others had thought and the fact that Tomoya has Nagisa on his mind the whole time is an obvious hint that “yeah, they are bound to get together at some point”. Tomoyo is sensible hence why she wasn’t as bothered, in fact she was happy that they’re a thing and I’m glad that Kotomi never really had any feelings, mainly because I feel as though Kotomi should just be left as a childhood friend in the story.

Not that I’m against a romance route, it just makes sense for this adaptation personally. In Kyou’s eyes, she just saw every other girl as competition hence the forcefulness but again, wasn’t a fan of that. Despite that though, I feel as though this was definitely a good scene and a good way to wrap up the harem arc.

I neglected to talk about Fuko’s appearances in this arc but yes, she appears now and then just as a funny gag and… that’s really it to be honest. I don’t know how to personally feel about these scenes, I don’t dislike them by any means but I’m more confused as to why they made her return as some gag character now and then after her arc. Feels out of place personally.

But now, the final arc is upon us, the Nagisa arc which are episodes 19 to 22 (23 is an extra episode)

After the events that transpired in the last arc, Tomoyo is now the student council president and she has cleared her name with everyone. Because of this, the drama club can now finally be open again with Koumura looking over both drama and choir clubs. After some situations and misunderstandings concerning Tomoya and his dad, Nagisa is fed up with Tomoya’s avoidance and takes him to see his dad with his teacher.

Nagisa eventually regrets it and allows Tomoya to live with her and her parents for a while until things work out between Tomoya and his dad. Her parents, Sanae and Akio, are generally happy to have him around and it’s this happiness and this joyousness that does get Nagisa a bit bummed out as we later find out in the arc, but she convinces herself that nothing is wrong and focuses on the play for the upcoming school festival.

She takes references from other plays and combines that with her own knowledge of the play that she wants to do. It is at this point that Tomoya becomes happy because of what he has become all thanks to Nagisa, it is that relationship I talked about earlier. Tomoya regrets past events but puts it aside to spend time with Nagisa and feels happier now that he does and Nagisa used to lack confidence and that is what Tomoya tries to give her. This is the most organic relationship in the entire anime and it really does show how natural they bounce off of one another.

With the play coming to fruition and the school festival around the corner, everyone prepares for the play by doing a small rehearsal the day before the play starts. After learning from Akio about Nagisa’s past and the reason why she has a fever every year, Tomoya is obviously concerned for Nagisa’s own wellbeing but still encourages her. Nagisa still has the feeling that her parents are hiding something from her but she doesn’t exactly know what.

It is the night before the play and goes into the shed to find a flashlight only for boxes filled with memories from the Furukawa's past to fall out. She finds the photo albums of Akio’s past where he used to be an actor and Sanae used to be a teacher and becomes depressed because she feels responsible for Akio’s and Sanae’s dreams getting crushed.

This leads on to Episode 22, the day the play is held, Nagisa is still depressed but decides to be with Tomoya for the majority of the school festival until she takes a detour to the archive room and finds her dad’s plays, which then makes her even more depressed. There is a problem that I do have with this conundrum, I feel like if and when she found out and Akio did realise that she did find out when she had the photo albums on the table, this conundrum could have been resolved a lot earlier.

Nonetheless, the play is now set to start, Nagisa is up on stage and because of her dad’s passion for acting, she begins to cry as she can’t help but feel guilty but Akio comes through and gives out a speech to Nagisa, egging her on and says that she didn’t halt his or Sanae’s dream, rather that she is their dream. A heartfelt speech from family, there is a consistent theme with family in Clannad and that is the message it tries to reflect. Family is important to people.

To reinforce Tomoyo’s earlier statement a few episodes prior, Sanae begins to egg her on as well as Tomoya himself. It’s this encouragement which gets her to put on the play. If I am being honest here and this might come as a controversial opinion, I sort of prefer the actual play scene from the movie than from the anime. The previous encouragement from Akio may be a bit late but was really empathetic, sure but in terms of an actual scene we get to see of the play and in terms of direction, I really like the movie’s interpretation a whole lot more and that’s really surprising considering I don’t like anything else about the movie. Still a good play scene in the anime though and it ties really well to the girl and robot story as well.

After the play, Nagisa decides to stay with Tomoya after the play, the whole gang celebrate their efforts and the day after Nagisa and Tomoya go to the drama club by themselves and now Tomoya finds the perfect opportunity to ask Nagisa out. A perfect ending to any romance anime if I ever saw it and makes sense for both of them. Their mutual attraction, how they bounce off of each other, everything, is perfect for the both of them to be together.

The extra episode (Episode 23) is just the aftermath of that situation given form as Nagisa is made to be the one who takes initiative in the relationship thanks to Sunohara’s sister, Mei and because Tomoya and Nagisa don’t exactly know how to take their relationship, they’re given a little extra help until they just decide to do it how they want to. Once again, showcasing that Tomoya and Nagisa are the perfect match for one another.

And with that, that concludes the rundown of those arcs...

The OST, like I had said previously in the Kanon and AIR reviews, “very melodic soothing tracks with heart and emotion” but I definitely feel as though here, it has a nostalgic and heartwarming factor. Must be because I’m a lot more familiar with these compositions when comparing them to Kanon or AIR.

The art and visual style was definitely where I feel KyoAni peaked when it came to adapting the original source material, being Hinoue’s original art style from the visual novel. It does change up quite a bit again once After Story comes around but Season 1’s art style is nothing to be concerned about, once again I feel as though the eyes have a good placement and they aren’t too big. I feel as though they are more square than round which is what I feel is the defining feature of Hinoue’s adapted style but even still, I find no issues with this art style AT ALL.

Clannad Season 1 is definitely a candidate for one of the best SoL experiences I have watched, even without After Story. Hard to really say that I resonated with the characters though, I was feeling Tomoya’s struggles though, that much is for sure and this is probably the most I ever resonated toward a character from a KEY work thus far.

Was the message in the details strong? Absolutely, family is probably one of the most important things you can ever have that is close to you, so hold it close to you for as long as you possibly can. And that’s just not your actual family, it’s your friends too. Everyone is special to you.

Did I enjoy it for the duration of the time? Yes, I definitely did. Again, there were a few hiccups and things that I didn’t like about the characters but I doubt that it is that much of a problem to me. It doesn’t make me feel as though it really drags down the quality of Clannad because it is still high the whole time. So the problems I had about some of the characterisation, plot or pacing weren’t really an issue. I can see why some have major problems but they definitely aren’t problems to me.

Do I like the characters? Yes, the characters here I love the most. Whether it be comedic relief from either Akio or Sunohara, saddening and beautiful moments from Kotomi, Nagisa, Tomoyo or Fuko or just downright relatable moments from Tomoya. I honestly can say, hand on heart, I love this cast.

In conclusion, Clannad is probably one of the best SoL experiences that I have had, many people have already watched the anime and so if you would like to get into KEY works, Clannad is also a really good entryway to the world of KEY. In comparison to maybe the VN, I feel as though the Clannad anime is arguably the better option for consuming. Even with the issues that I did experience on this watch through of Clannad Season 1, it was still a really good watch that I heavily enjoyed it all throughout. I personally consider Clannad Season 1 my second favourite of KEY’s works as of right now, above Kanon’s 2006 anime but below Planetarian’s movie.

Because of that reason, Clannad Season 1 for me personally receives an 8 in score, once again this feels like the supreme SoL experience for me and not many SoL anime have actually topped the influence and the feelings that this anime delivers to me on each rewatch of it. I am more than happy to give this an 8, I am more than aware that it has its shortcomings but I still love it for what it is regardless. I would give this between a low and decent 8 score.