While hunting for good slice of life anime, I came across a YouTube video by the AnimeMan with the title ‘5 anime series that will make you cry like a bitch’. Four out of the five were Key works and Clannad After story was ranked 1 on his list. He said, ’ You might say that you did not cry after watching Anohana or Angelbeats but there is not a single person I know who hasn’t cried watching Clannad AS. I cried continuously for the last six or so episodes, that’s like three hours. Three hours of crying really takes a toll on your body. You have to watch it. It is simply amazing’. And so I did. I thought he was exaggerating but after completing the series, I realised that what he said was an understatement. This was how I was introduced to Key works. Since then, I have become a huge fan of Key and a die-hard fan of CLANNAD.
I saw worst anime lists, one had Clannad: After Story, which had given me a bad first impression, but I also looked up anime memes, Clannad being present, then I asked one of my friends to give me a copy of the game, I played it, then did research, and I changed my mind, I loved Clannad, it was amazing. Kotomi and Fuko along with the baseball route are now among my favorite moments in gaming. I decided to watch the series, I am currently watching it still, and I will finish it and After Story, along with the movie and TOMOYO AFTER.
If I remember correctly I first saw Angel Beats for the social pressure then, some time later, Clannad and LB anime without even knowing that all 3 were from the same company (in fact I saw LB’s anime without knowing that is from Jun Maeda, my cousin recommended it to me because he liked the characters design without even seeing it before and because of the synopsis I thought that was a baseball anime). After LB I saw people complaining about a bad adaptation and then I read the VN so I can respond correctly to the complains but after reading it I understand more or less the complains 
(actually I like the adaptation even now)
Finally I read the Kanon, Rewrite and Planetarian VN, see Charlotte, Kanon(2006)…
ahem The year was 2006… Anime Network on Demand was still a huge thing on major cable networks, and from there I found treasured classics such as… Area 88, Getbackers, Tenjo Tenge, and of course… Air TV. All dubbed too, of COURSE!
In all seriousness though, yeah I started with Air TV on that ol channel, with Vic Mignogna’s strange Yukito dub (like honestly it was just strange, he didn’t fit it too well). Then after that, I bought Kanon’s 1st volume since it was like 3 dollars at a secondhand store and fell in love with those 4 episodes. You can pretty much guess the rest… I went on to finish Kanon (and Kanon 2002), found Clannad+AF… then discovered visual novels and read Little Busters first, before Clannad… Angel Beats anime was ok, not really a favorite… etc. on and on until I finished a few Key VNs (Clannad, Tomoyo After, Planetarian, LB!, and Rewrite) and have watched every Key animation that exists so far (even the old Clannad and Air movies).
Oh hey look, a topic I never knew existed.
Back in 2013 was the first time I ever got into anime. After watching three or so animes I consulted a list of animes that don’t suck and saw Clannad on it. I thought, “Ha, a feelsy anime? That must suck.” Gave it a chance, and here I am.
Time 4 a little backstory
I first discovered Key (in a sense) when I first saw a YouTube review of the anime adaptation of Clannad. After some time had passed and (at the time) had watched Toradora, Anohana and other animes that had romance, slice of life and some drama in them, I figured I’d give Clannad a shot especially since there was so much praise for it. I soon begin to see what everyone else had seen in it. As the episodes passed by, I started seeing myself in some of the characters like Okazaki and through all the character arcs, I also started seeing some important morals in life that I had either forgotten or didn’t feel like I could apply them properly. Sometimes fiction can come off high-handedly when trying to convey those kind of morals and can seem like disingenuous platitudes.
Even before I finished it, I felt like Clannad did narrative morals better than most I have seen up until that point. I felt the themes organically became part of the narrative & characters. If this makes any sense whatsoever, I also felt while watching Clannad that, for the first time, someone wasn’t just making art to make people cry like they’d stepped on a spiked lego brick; it was as if Maeda and the writers were aware that there might be people watching with their own problems, so they used some portions of the narrative to pass down some wisdom and morals they were taught or learned. Either way, that plus the stellar emotional storytelling is what drew me further into Key’s works (I was only vaguely aware that they had existed at the time). After watching Clannad (and a lot of other stuff related to it I experienced that I’ll likely make a monolithic post about in another topic), it changed a lot of things for me, including to an extent how I view expressing emotions and the importance of family.
After many tears, I decided that I simply couldn’t have enough of an anime kicking me in the emotional balls repeatedly and watched Angel Beats, Little Busters, Kanon and Charlotte (briefly tried Air). Despite not ever loving them as much as I had Clannad, I still have a special place in my heart for each of them and had grown a love of Key’s works. It was once I had played the Visual Novels of Clannad and Planetarian that I realized the stories this company created had immense and profound impacts on me as a person, so I became the Key/Clannad fanboy I am now.
Well, honestly when I first read the Clannad VN and then got the anime on DVD I wasn’t even thinking about Key - it was only after joining Kazamatsuri that I even became aware that Clannad was only one story in Key’s catalogue and wasn’t even thinking about looking specifically for their other works. Then of course I changed after some discussions here and wanted to explore other titles.
With PC/PS games generally the publisher is low on my radar. I mean that for example with GTA5 I think of it as enjoying a GTA game not a Rockstar one that would push me to try out RDR.
Back in 2010, I started to watch the Clannad anime. I am not fully sure who or what got me interested in watching the anime, though something in the back of my mind is telling me the ending song had something to do with it haha.
After that, I came across a twitch streamer who was playing through Little Busters. It was then I started to delve more deeply into Key as a whole and started to keep more up-to-date with new releases from them, upcoming anime adaptations, mobage/gree games such as Little Busters Card Mission and Angel Beats Operation Wars though I didn’t know about the Rewrite one until I saw the thread here actually!
I’m hopeful more key games get their time to shine and more people get to play them in english :D!
The first ever Key anime I watched was Clannad but that was the first time I started watching anime so I didn’t really pay much attention to it. Then, when I played the Rewrite VN, I was attracted to Key’s anime, games, and soundtracks.
Two years ago, I watched Clannad, and that’s what started my love affair with Key. It was unlike any other anime I had seen. What I really loved about the show was the characters, with Kotomi being my favorite. She’s a lot like me, personality-wise. I could truly relate to her. I also loved Fuko, who is probably the cutest character I’ve ever seen.
I’m actually thinking about carving out a wooden starfish. 
I did some research and learned about some of the other shows produced by Key. I’ve seen Clannad, Angel Beats, Kanon, Little Busters, Air, and Planetarian. I’m planning to get Rewrite for my PS Vita. Is the anime worth watching?
Oh boy, you’ve done it.
Nobody tell Helios.
The response is probably going to be overwhelmingly “no.”
I’ve heard that the visual novel is great. The anime adaptation, not so much.
I still recommend you watch it just to see how crazy it is
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think the Rewrite anime is a good “extra dish” for the VN. Once you read the VN you’re inevitably left with a void (you all know what I’m talking about), and seeing our beloved characters do new things is pretty fun.
And you get to see Luis’s face on the second season too, which is probably reason enough to watch it.
But if you haven’t read the VN… then don’t spoil yourself. It’s horrible.
Yeah that’s true. For me, I watched the anime first because I didn’t know there was a vn and it ended up spoiling the vn a little bit.
my friend recomended i watch kanon, but i did’nt know there was 2 versions, so i ended up watching the 2002 adaptation, aside from the animation it wasn’t that bad so i guess that was the first key anime i watched. after that i watched Angel beats and enjoyed every second of it and one day while i was looking for the creator of the anime i discovered key, and from there on i watched and played every single key work (except for tomoyo after). my favorite writer is jun maeda for his work in little busters and angel beats! and altough kanon 2002 wasn’t that good, it’s very close to my heart
probably cuz of the retated facial animations XD
My first Key work experience was with Clannad anime. At that point, I did not know what Key was. Then, only after Rewrite, I found out about Key.
Rewrite : I discovered it while watching Animenz piano covers. I stumbled across the Philosophyz piano cover and realised that it sounds so good. Therefore, I checked the series info and thought it was interesting.
Clannad : I was looking for emotional anime and found tonnes of people suggesting it to me.
Angel Beats : I was looking for anime similar to Clannad and found it on another forum. At this point, I did not know the company Key.
Charlotte : Similar to above, I found it while looking for anime similar to Steins; Gate. I wasn’t sure how it is similar except for time leaping but i enjoyed it nonetheless.
Little Busters : @Aspirety san should know very well.
My first discover about Key was when I finished watch Clannad anime. I didn’t know back then that Clannad was made by Key. Also come to my forst play VN it was AIR same I didn’t know nothing about Key. Just thinking that both works are great (i.e. made me crying) 
Began searching through Clannad then AIR. Found about “Visual Art’s Key”, trying watch other works made by Key (Angel Beats). Then began watch Little Busters! that Haruka arc, honestly made me crying, also Kurugaya is the best 
And then I started download Key’s VN. Bu the first I game that I downloaded as a newbie for Key is Rewrite. Then collected it all, until I have complete series. In my bored time I play Key’s games. Due to the heavy element in the VN that I playing now (Subahibi) I play Key’s games. The music, the story make my heart and head feel light. Also because of Key, now I know that Visual Art’s isn’t only included Key only but also Saga Planets, toneworks (Their pure romance is good 
)
Back into Key’s works my most favourite character development was in Clannad meanwhile Rewrite is good for the advanture element. AIR is good for its story about girl in the sky and reincarnation. Kanon is good for Ｍａｋｏｔｏ👍 and LB is good for its friendship (I want have a friendship like that)
Sorry for my broken english.
My first Key anime was Kanon, as I was introduced to it by an old Youtube video centering around the end of Mai’s arc.
For the rest of Key’s works, my way of discovering them varied.
Air - I was browsing around Youtube for anime openings and stumbled across Air’s several years ago. To this day, it’s still one of my favorites.
Clannad/Clannad After Story - I used to be obsessed with AMV’s (still am, but to a lesser extent), and I was introduced to Clannad while looking for sad AMV’s.
Angel Beats - I don’t know if I got introduced to the series before this, but my earliest memory of it is seeing it in a top 10 saddest anime video.
Little Busters - This is probably the most unique way that I got introduced to a Key series. Several years back, there used to be a certain rhythm game on the Google Play store. It’s since been removed, but I used to play it constantly. The songs it had were so random though. It had a Linkin Park song, a weird German song that I somehow like and still listen to to this day, and a few Hatsune Miku works as well. And of course, it had the Little Busters opening theme. Like Air’s, the Little Busters’ opening is still one of my favorites.
Rewrite - I think I got introduced to Rewrite while looking for romance anime on MyAnimeList, but dismissed it due to its low score (I don’t think I made a bad decision there).
For Planetarian and Harmonia, I wasn’t aware of their existence until I specifically looked up a list of Key’s works.
