It was during the summer holidays 2011 I watched Clannad for the first time. It was a journey.
I am at a loss for words when writing this post to be honest with you all. Clannad, or more specifically its sequel After Story, is considered to be one of the few truly masterpieces of anime out there. While I certainly enjoyed both seasons, I cannot say they were without flaws. But as the time passed, my bad memories started to fade at a remarkable speed. And today, I only remember Clannad with a feeling of happiness.
In some marvelous way this show must have entranced me, telling the brain to be quiet about logic and instead listen to the heart. You know what? I am totally fine with that. Watching Clannad was special and it is barely possible to explain it with words. If any of you still have not watched it, you now know what you have to do.
When watching it, I was fully engaged with what happened. It is something you can call a journey. It was so warm and had a family full of fun. You cannot stop watching it when you have started.
I am sorry everyone, I really cannot write any further. I truly am at a loss for words. Instead, have this sweet scene:
AND DO NOT OPEN THE VIDEO IN YOUTUBE OR YOU WILL BE SPOILED, SO DO NOT OPEN IT!
Anime Viking 
Yes, this post is a bit of an excuse to show that scene.
After Story was really terrific (the last half at least) because of how unexpected it was and how Tomoya developed through the course of events. And the show certainly had a dreamlike quality to it, I think, not only created an emotional tone, but enhanced the feeling of “journey” in the series.
Yes, Tomoya was a really well-developed character, a real gem in a world crowded with bland male characters.
It really felt as a journey when we followed the characters grow up. 🙂
The last few episodes of Clannad AS almost made me cry. I consider the whole Key group of anime adaptations (Kanon, AIR, Clannad) to be masterpieces.
I have yet to watch Kanon, but call Air a masterpiece? I’m not too sure I agree with that. It felt too forced and it only became good when it focused on Misuzu in the end.
The visual novel versions really made me cry more so than the anime. Very nice stress relief mechanism watching one of Key’s projects. Now, if only Little Busters would be animated my life would be complete. Not going happen I know =_=
That’s life lol. If I’m not wrong, the story behind LIttle Buster is that they are afraid of LB’s anime adaption getting f***** up. Remember Kanon where they are literally 2 different seasons? Key thought Kanon was ruined when the first season aired and so, a remake was made later on.
Anyhow, they are supposed to find KyoAni to animate LB for them, but KyoAni didn’t have the time or what… I don’t remember the reason but just that they ended up didn’t animate it for them. And Key isn’t so trustworthy with any other anime studios so LB ended up without any anime. Probably Rewrite’s gonna be in the same fate too. Saaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
I’m sure KyoAni will pick it up sometime, right? They just have do finish their next show… or perhaps there will be more Haruhi by then.
Whilst the first handful of episodes of Clannad After Story were a bit lacklustre the second half of the show managed to have this wonderful, ethereal quality to it, despite the fact that it was dealing with the dark side of adult life, that’s why it deserves a place in my top 30 shows…
How long have you been an avid anime watcher Marow?
Hm, hard question actually, as I don’t really remember. I came in contact with anime when I was around 6-8 and have liked it since then, but at that time it was mostly manga since I was so young and computers not as… good as today.
Around two years ago I think I started to watch anime at a bigger scale. Mostly finished stuff, though. Toradora was my “comeback”. I also followed Cross Game on a weekly schedule and so on.
But it was fall 2010 I started to watch anime as I do today, watching each season and so on.
Something like this, I’m not too sure myself to be honest, haha!
Nagisa was adorable, but to be honest I didn’t had any favourite girl in Clannad…
Maybe Kyou?! But I’m not really sure…:P
I really liked Tomoyo for some reason and her OVA was superb.
Are you rewatching this, right now? Now’s a good time to see how you’ve GROWN as a watcher of foreign cartoons from the mere cartoon initiate you once were
No, I watched it for the first time this summer. 🙂
What do you mean by grown? You mean by watching other kind of shows now as opposed to back then? Shounen vs other?
No, grown as in emotionally and spiritually and all of that. When you recently rewatch a show that you watched five years ago, you’ll find differences in your perceptions of the show because you’ve grown, etc. etc.
I’m afraid I don’t remember too much from my first viewing.