General discussion thread for the CLANNAD Visual Novel and itās adaptations. Please tag late-game spoilers and references to outside works with the [spoiler] tag with adequate context provided in parenthesis.
Clannadā¦What can I say about it? I watched the Anime adaptation in late 2012 and I fell in love with it. Itās my favorite of Keyās adaptations and my second favorite Anime overall. I love the story and the way it was set up, the characters felt like they were real people whom you can relate to, I love the romance, the comedy was hilarious, the animation was really good, and I really loved the music.
I can go in further detail about these details but Iām going to be re-watching this show later this year and post a review on my blog. I will say this though : Clannad really holds a special place in my heart because it changed of a lot of things both in terms of Anime interest and personal life. It revitalized my interest towards Anime because around the time period of 2011-2012 my interest in Anime died out due to interest in Letās Plays via YouTube. Through Clannad I got my interest towards Anime back and then I started watching other shows like Haruhi Suzumiya, Chobits, Higurashi, The Fate series and recently Steins;Gate.
Not only did it revitalized my interest towards Anime but it opened my mind towards the different genres of Anime like Slice of Life, Drama and Romance. Prior to Clannad my experience in Anime shows was with Shonen series like Dragonball, Detective Conan, Inuyasha, etc.
Additionally it showed me how powerful and emotional an Anime show can be. Even though I didnāt really cry when both Nagisa and Ushio died in the After Story I canāt deny that both deaths were heartbreaking and it made me feel depressed. But itās not just those two moments, every sad moment in the show hit me in a personal āhit you in the gutā level (Tomoyaās past, Kotomiās backstory etc). I guess thatās a testament to how much you grow to like the characters in the show that when something bad happens to them you feel really sad. *
I watched the show around a time when I wasnāt at the best of times. I wonāt go into to much detail but letās just say that it was not a very good time period. So to see a show that captured both the happy times and sad times of life gave me a lot of comfort. It taught me that life is going to always have both happy moments and sad moments and that you gotta make the most out of it and be optimistic. To cut the long story short: I really love Clannad. I know there are people out there who say that this show is overrated and thatās fine and dandy but I canāt help but love it. I canāt wait to rewatch this show.
Clannad has to be my favorite Key anime to date. It is also one of my least favorite Key Visual Novels (but ahead of Litbus, Rewrite and bottom-placed Harvest Festa by a mile.)
While I donāt agree with the animeās lack of Higurashi-themed route play, I do believe that the anime was of a more suitable length than the Visual Novel.
When it comes to VNs, Iām the one who ends up hitting the lonely end of the common route every time. (I struggled to get into a route sooo much with Da Capo!) Somehow I missed this bad end in Clannad and flew straight into the Nagisa route. There are two problems with thisā¦ One, I dislike Nagisa, and two, I didnāt know enough about Tomoya or Nagisa to care about them. It really is more of an end-game route.
My route order then went like this: Nagisa > Yukine > Misae > Tomoyo > Sunohara > Koumura > Give up and quit.
I later went back and played through Kotomiās and started Kappeiās but I had no motivation.
Yukineās, Misaeās and Tomoyoās routes really got me. They were pretty amazing. But the rest felt kindaā¦ meaningless. Somehow the Visual Novel just didnāt connect me with the characters enough to actually care about them.
Itās been so long that I donāt remember whyā¦ maybe I was just inexperienced with Visual Novels, but Clannad never meant much to me.
The writing was good, no doubt. Akioās shooting game, Misae routeās strange perspective, Sunohara routeās test of friendship. The writing was good and certain moments were memorableā¦ But the VN as a whole had a lot of boring moments. Maybe the writers just werenāt used to writing a VN of that length, or maybe I wasnāt used to reading a VN of that length.
The art wasā¦ ugly to say the least. While Keyās art has always been slightly behind competitors, Kanon and Air still looked great at the time. Clannad however has this weird mix of 90ās anime proportions and modern shading Except for the fairly monotone CGs it was very unappealing to look atā¦ For me at least ^^;
The soundtrack is great to listen to. It has all the makings of a great Key soundtrack. Unfortunately compared to other Key VNs, I find the soundtrack to be forgettable. āMachi, Toki no Nagare, Hitoā was lovely. āĆtude Pour les Petites Supercordesā is greatā¦ even if I donāt remember how it goesā¦ āThe Girlās Fantasyā is absolutely stunning, and āAnaā is a song that everyone wants at their funeral~
When I am listening to the soundtrack it is enchanting. I can sit and listen to it for aaages! But Iāll forget it sooner than Iāll forget the soundtrack of Kanon, or Planetarian, or Little Busters!
The Visual Novel of Clannad is pretty good. However compared to all of the other Key VNs it isnāt a favorite of mine.
Compared to the anime, the VN of Clannad is veryā¦ muddledā¦
I cared more about the anime characters. I remember more about the BGM tracks used in the anime. The anime made me want to actually know the After Story, whereas the VN felt like it was pushing me away from itā¦ On the plus side however, the VN had less Nagisa-interruptions, a better Yukine route, and additional content.
Awkwardly, a lot of my fond Clannad VN moments come from Clannadmanās fan-made novel āThe Past Pathā which was decently goodā¦ even though it relied 100% on Clannad memories, struggled with meaningful writing, and had weird art.
Wooow, thatās big praise~ Whatās your number one? o.o
The Clannad anime is definitely one of the better anime out there~ In my opinion, itās the only mainstream āover-hypedā anime that actually deserves all of the hype it gets (apart from maaaybe Steins;Gate~ Ahaha~)
That happened to me as well~ After Spring 2011 my interest plummeted!! Compared to other years 2011-2013 were pretty dullā¦ but '11 was the best of the trio~ I am terrible at navigating Youtube so it didnāt work as a substituteā¦ I just loitered on Crunchyroll forums =w=
Clannad is the perfect Ice-Breaker for getting into other genres. It has some action moments, and a lot of great comedy. It also slowly drifts into the romance genre allowing viewers to get accustomed to it.
Every year we get a big Shounen or Action anime that draws in a crowd. Great shows like TTGL, decent shows like SOA, and meh shows like SnK. Kill la Kill seems to be the most recent example~
They are all worthwhile anime, but the fanbases donāt involve themselves in any other genreā¦ and it becomes really easy to hate those shows just because of the obsessive fansā¦ It really messes up the rating system on anime chart websites as well! >A<
Give 'em a dose of Clannad~ Wahaha~
There were a lot of heartbreaking moments~ The great thing is that it caters for everyone. I myself didnāt really like Nagisaā¦ so After Story didnāt mean much to meā¦ until Ushio happened. Kids get to me~! ;~;
Fukoās arc was a groundbreaking moment for a lot of people. The characters, the music, and the animation all worked together amazingly!
For some people, seeing Kotoriās breakdown moment was reeaaally big! That shook me like crazy and I wasnāt even a fan.
For some, Tomoyo was the big thing. She even got a AU ending~ (I cry everytime T ^ T) Kyou (and Ryou kinda) got a similarā¦ albeit not so great AU chapter as well~
Yukine had a great āfriends are familyā story that told of commitment. Misae portrayed a story beautifully from a perspective of an unspoken character (thatās impressive!!)
Even the male charactersā¦ Sunohara and Naoyukiā¦ had tear-jerking moments, foreshadowing the perfect character design of the males in Little Busters.
Everyone has something they can connect with in the story, and everyone takes something new from it.
To be fair I havenāt watched the classic Anime shows like FMA, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun etc yet so maybe after watching some of those shows my claim that Clannad being āmy second favorite Animeā will change. But I will say itās one of my favorites. My favorite Anime right now is āDetective Conanā but that could change.[quote=āTakafumi, post:3, topic:33ā]
Yukine had a great āfriends are familyā story that told of commitment.
[/quote]
Yeah Yukineās story arc was really good. I marathon the entire arc one night and it was really emotional, especially at the very end when she disguised herself as her brother and took the hit from the opposing gang members. I did not see that coming.*
Sunoharaās story arc was pretty emotional and well done. The scene where he saves Mei from the soccer players is probably favorite moment in the story arc. It showed how much he cared for his sister. *
Appreciate the discussion guys! Thereās a glaring absence of Clannad discussion on Kazamatsuri.org. Would either of you be interested in starting an arc-specific discussion thread? If you are, just borrow the basic template for the other arc threads and get started~
Ahaha, itās been forever since I touched Clannad~ I think my last experience with it was back in early 2010~ OAO; Time flies~!
Iām waiting for Dokiās new TP before I revisit it. I donāt remember much about the translationā¦ so Iām not certain why there is a finish-it projectā¦ but I guess itās to polish the rough parts of the translation? I skipped a few routes admittedly, but nothing in my memory tells me that a cleanup was necessaryā¦
Incidentally, would an Ai Sp@ce thread be welcome? It suddenly came to mind when thinking of Clannad~ Iām not sure how many people here got on board the Sp@ce train back then thoughā¦
Iām pretty sure itās just to make it an actual patch of the game than just a replacement for the SEEN.txt. (I think thatās what itās called?) So Iād expect things like word wrap and translated menu graphics to come with it, among other fixups.
That said, this IS doki, so the estimated release date is about 2045.
So the Clannad anime got licensed in Germany. Interesting. Looking forward to seeing how horrible the dub will be. I tend to like German dubs better than English ones so thatās a start.
Anyways thisāll be the perfect reason to watch Clannad a fourth time, and since my PS3 copy is supposed to arrive very soon I can combine it with reading the visual novel. I would wait for the Steam release but god knows when that will be. Clannad was my introduction to Key so itāll always hold a special place in my heart. Itās my favorite anime and among my favorite visual novels so Iām really looking forward to re-experiencing it now, about a year after I got to know it.
Oh no, I just complain a lot. The VN is generally seen as the better format because the anime missed out a lot of crucial things, and a lot of fun things.
Little Busters! was longer I think. It had less routes than Clannad, but Clannadās routes were all pretty much better than Little Busters!'s
I gave it a 6/10ā¦ High average. I gave Clannad a 7/10 simply because it had more content, but Clannad was much less enjoyable to me. I like Naoyukiās character much more than Tomoyaās.
[quote=āTakafumi, post:11, topic:33ā]
Little Busters! was longer I think. It had less routes than Clannad, but Clannadās routes were all pretty much better than Little Busters!'s
[/quote] I guess that would justify a purchase of CLANNAD in the near future. Ecstasy, and Perfect Edition by extension, is longer than CLANNAD by a few thousand words. I bought the vanilla version (the original version without the three extra routes and erotic content), mainly because it was cheaper.
[quote=āTakafumi, post:11, topic:33ā]
I like Naoyukiās character much more than Tomoyaās.
[/quote]Both characters are pretty angsty. Naoyuki seemed to actually have development to his character, unlike Tomoya, who pretty much stayed static throughout the anime. Itās not good to have a weak main character in a story full of interesting and extremely likeable major characters.
Ah, no. This is just how Taka and I talk to each other. Donāt worry its normal and (I donā think) either of us is mad.
[quote=āEisenKoubu, post:18, topic:33ā]
Iām sorry to offend you.
[/quote]Donāt worry. You didnāt offend me. I was only just recently in the ānew to all thisā position as well. I just feel really passionate about Riki and the Little Busters, especially after having only finished the VN under a month ago. Youāll understand one you read it.
And sorry for making you feel rushed. Because of me, theres kind of a running gag here now about people who havenāt read LB!. Donāt worry about finishing it right away or something. It took me over 4 months.
[quote=āEisenKoubu, post:18, topic:33ā]
I am not rich either.
[/quote]Ah yes. Chronic problem of art lovers.
[quote=āEisenKoubu, post:18, topic:33ā]
So youāre telling me to take everything he says with a grain of salt? And how am I supposed to get othersā opinions? I canāt will people to answer my questions. I might as well just shut up and not ask at all.
[/quote]Ah, no. Youāll understand once you get to know Taka better. I honestly respect his opinion more that a lot of people here because heās just seen and read so much stuff. But heās often that one guy who hates something everyone else loves. Now not that everyone thinks LitBus! is the best, but I just didnāt want you to start having doubts about your purchase when almost everyone else here will sing its praises.
So Iām genuinely curious about this: Has anyone on our forum not seen nor read CLANNAD at all yet? I feel like, if anything, this is the series that everyone would already know about
Probably not because Clannad is the first thing you get thrown in your face when you search for Key. Or it will get you into Key because you will find it when you start liking anime and vnās. And if you donāt, Clannad will find youā¦
Someone in here mentioned the clannad ost āana.ā Did anyone else not notice how weird that song is? The melody is fine but when I noticed it when rewatching I was dying because the lyrics made no sense at all. Unless it was just misheard lyrics it said something along the lines of āthe place is a lofty lord, canāt meet nobody put onā
