Clannad After Story is without a doubt one of the loveliest series of anime I’ve ever seen, and also one of the most heart-breaking.
Now, don’t let the fact that there are tragic moments in the series (and there are… many of them, in fact) put you off of it. Clannad After Story does what its predecessor did and make sure that any moments of sadness are lightened with happy moments and a healthy dose of comedy, too. To all things there are a balance, and Clannad After Story gets it just right.
Clannad After Story picks up right after the events of Clannad. Nagisa and Tomoya are still dating, and all of the characters from the Theatre Club are still in school – but not for much longer.
The story of the series can be broken quite neatly into two halves. The first half is similar to Clannad, with a focus on the character’s school lives and also storylines that focus on those that Tomoya and Nagisa help. In this season the pair help siblings Mei and Youhei Sunohara reconcile, help Yukine (a kind girl who watches over the reference room of the school and provides the other characters with advice), and Misae (Sunohara’s dorm mother) shares with them her past, and find out more about why Yusuke, formerly a famous musician, gave it all up to become an electrician.
The storylines in this first part of the series are a bit of a mixed bag, to tell you the truth. I do like the fact that we get to know more about formerly one-dimensional characters, such as Sunohara (he becomes much more than just a comic relief character in this series). However, not all of the stories are as interesting as other ones in this series or in the original Clannad. I’m thinking primarily of Misae’s story, which seems a bit more of a distraction than anything else.
There’s also another reason why I don’t love some of the stories in the first half of Clannad After Story as much as the ones from Clannad. It’s because I don’t care about the characters as much as the ones Nagisa and Tomoya helped in the first season (with the exception of Sunohara, of course, who is one of the best characters in the series whether he gets a backstory or not). I really love Mei, but I’m not that interested in Misae or Yusuke.
Excellent characters such as Ryou and Kyou are also notably absent for most of this season. This does makes sense from a storytelling perspective – this series is based on the continuation of Nagisa’s storyline from the original interactive graphic novel – and it is obviously good that they didn’t just rehash the storylines from Clannad, but characters like Ryou, Kyou and Kotomi are just so loveable that their absence is sorely felt. As in, I love these characters so much that I genuinely miss them when they aren’t in episodes (especially Kyou).
Aside from helping out other characters, a lot of the first half of the series also focusses on the pressures of graduating. Nagisa falls ill and again falls behind in school, and Tomoya is worried about his future prospects after spending so much of his time in school slacking off. This part of the storyline is explored particularly well because it’s all very realistic; Nagisa doesn’t miraculously make a recovery in time to graduate with the rest of her friends, she has to stay in school and catch up on her studies. Tomoya doesn’t magically graduate with job prospects knocking down his door, he has to find opportunities for himself that may not be exactly what he wants.
The second half of the series then focusses on Tomoya and Nagisa’s life together after school finishes. They enjoy domestic bliss for a while before things take a tragic turn (remember how I said this series had a tendency to be heart-breaking?)
The latter episodes then deal with the fallout of the series major tragedy and how it effects Tomoya and other characters like Akio and Sanae. It’s absolutely devastating but absolutely compelling, and you’ll be watching these final episodes through your tears, your eyes glued to the screen.
Clannad After Story is such an enjoyable watch for the same reason that Clannad was: the characters are a delight. Their journeys in this season (Tomoya’s in particular, as the main character) take them to new and interesting places and you really do feel like you’ve lived years of their life with them.
The series has 22 main episodes and three “bonus” episodes. The first of the bonus episodes is set a year before Tomoya and Nagisa meet in the first series of Clannad, and shows how Nagisa struggled to make friends even then and how much of a pair of delinquents Tomoya and Sunohara really were. I liked this episode mainly for the comedy caused by Sunohara and Tomoya’s stupid pranks, but it was also nice to get more a glimpse into what Tomoya’s character was like before he started on the path to reformation. The second bonus episode is a series retrospective presented in the form of Tomoya telling the story of how he met Nagisa. The third bonus episode is an alternate-timeline story, similar to the Tomoya/Tomoyo one from the first series. This one, however, focusses on a love triangle between Tomoya and the Fujibayashi sisters. Again, it’s a nice little self-contained storyline, but like the Tomoya/Tomoyo episode it mainly just highlights that there really is no better pairing than Nagisa and Tomoya.
Everything beautifully animated again, and the theme song for this series is even more of a jam than the one for Clannad. There are also plenty of jokes that will make you actually laugh out loud to punctuate the sad times.
Just like I did with the first Clannad series, I watched the subbed version instead of the dubbed. I did find that there were a few awkward translations, but as a whole I think it’s the best way to experience the series. The Japanese voice actors all, once again, do a fantastic job.
So, should you watch Clannad After Story? Absolutely. If you watched the first series and were enchanted by the well-written characters and the charming storylines, you’ll be just as impressed with Clannad After Story. I compared the first series to a big bowl of soup, like comfort food. I’d say the same thing about Clannad After Story, except that when you’re watching those last few episodes, you might need a bit of comfort food yourself to get through them.
BEST BITS
- The main characters are well-written and believable. Their storylines make sense for the characters and are a good natural progression.
- It’s honestly just a joy to have more episodes featuring such lovable characters.
WORST BITS
- Misae’s storyline isn’t that interesting. It adds a little bit of backstory to the overall workings of the series but it didn’t need to be more than one episode, really.
- I wish there was a bit more of Ryou, Kyou and Kotomi in the series. It would have been good to see more of what they did after school, too.
FINAL RATING: 8/10
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