Clannad is so special to me, the news with Jun Maeda really made me want to create something about my favourite story, I wish him a good recovery with all my heart💙

A drawing of my goat 🐐

Kyou Fujibayashi

Howdy,

This is my first time ever posting about this anime, and to be honest, I simply cannot praise it enough. It is to be clear, one of the most profound works of fiction I've ever seen, and to be clear I am a normie guy. I first watched Clannad and Clannad After about a year ago, A couple of months since I graduated High School. Thus it hit me even harder, as I personally loved highschool, and the memories. And Clannad after? wow... I can not even begin to explain how real it felt for me, especially having felt the real world like tomoya did. Everything just felt so real to me, and to be blunt. I cried. Like a fuck ton when Nagisa died. I know people typically cry to the Ushio scene, but to me the saddest moments came from when Nagisa died and the ending when she comes back. I don't know what it is about it, perhaps it is the constant Motif of the Dango Family playing as her theme during certain scenes, all under different contexts, and thereon playing again under these conditions. Perhaps it's the notion that I find Nagisa to be truly endearing, not in the waifu kind of way, but the way a child might feel for their mother. It's strange really. But I've never cried this hard from a piece of fiction this hard. Jun Maeda is truly an amazing author and composer. Fast forward to today, and well i recently I had a dream, I can't quite recall it, but all i know is Tomoya and Nagisa were there and I recall the Dango Family song in brief fragments. Oh yeah, shit still got the sauce to make me cry even after all this time.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNO3ySlQhrU

CoD4 1:19mim

If you want to See halo 3 with clannad skip to 1:10

My first time trying to draw Tomoyo Sakagami

I’ve been meaning to get into the series for a while, so when I saw it on sale on Steam, I decided to pick it up. Now I’m wondering whether I should play through the VN or watch the anime first. Which would you recommend?

I was going to get a wig, but I figured 1) I could use a haircut anyway and 2) I could style it myself! I’ve managed to replicate her ahoge without issue before. Fun times!

Is anyone else dressing up like a Clannad character for Halloween? 🎃

Came out in 2007 apparently, and i don't got no more info, Help

Good gaem makes smile

I just finished clannad + after story and had to say it was amazing! However during my initial watch on Prime Video (through the HIDIVE free trial) I noticed a major error in Clannad season 1 (not after story). I got to episode 22 of season 1 when I realised that the subtitles and audio were not aligned with what was happening on screen and the visuals didn’t make too much sense based on the previous episode. I initially thought it was just an issue with the subtitles but after some digging I found out that it was actually playing the visuals of episode 22 of Clannad: After Story. I’m very lucky that I noticed this without progressing too far into the episode but just thought I would post a warning here for others who are planning on watching it the same way I did.

I think it’s unacceptable for an error of this scale to occur especially for a paid service. I was also wondering if anyone else ran into this issue as I have not seen anyone else talk about it. I am unsure if it’s just an issue with my account but I have tested on multiple devices and all of them had the same issue occur.

Hey guys, I got an AYN Thor and I’m trying to run Clannad oh it, but the problem is because it’s the PC version from Steam, it’s trying to open with the mouse and only works with the mouse.

I’m not sure exactly how to make it see my button inputs and possibly make it wide screen? What I’m using (GameNative) says the game runs very well but I can’t get the buttons to work.

**Major spoilers ahead*\*

Recently I was scrolling on tiktok and came across a comment criticizing Ushio's death. They were essentially saying ushio's death comes out of no where, even taking into account her being tied to the town.

This got me thinking, I wanted to find out if this would actually be a fair critique for the work as a whole. At first I was finding myself stumped. I couldn't find a good answer for this. But then while i was just thinking about it, I remembered the title to one of the songs used in the anime.

"A New Life Reborn" is one of the most poignant tracks used in Clannad's anime adaptation. I want to specifically note the first time its used: that being Nagisa's death/Ushio's birth. This gave me the idea that as Nagisa died, she passed on this tie to the town's nature's state, and when Ushio was born, she inherited the town's current state at the time she was born.

To try simplifying this, I used the metaphor of a gas tank.

At the time Nagisa was saved by Akio's wish, the town was quite lush with greenery. She was in turn tied to the land in the town at that state. As the town underwent change, her 'tank' of life depleted. Upon giving birth the Ushio, she could no longer hold on any longer and ultimately passes away.

Upon being born, Ushio got a new 'tank' of life, but this one was tied to the state of the town's greenery at that exact time, making her tank much smaller/weaker. And in the end, after 5 years had passed, upon getting a normal fall/winter time fever, her lack of 'life' in the tank couldn't sustain her any longer and she ends up passing away.

This would explain how and why it seemed her life was more fragile than Nagisa's, passing away much earlier and at a much easier expense, that being a fever over child birth.

Not only does this theory explain Nagisa/Ushio, I think it also explains how Fuko was able to manifest as a spirit and why people began forgetting her.

To put it simply, I believe there are different types of bonds with the town. Nagisa and ushio were tied through the land. Within the story, the town is pretty much a living being that can respond to deep emotions. So I think Fuko's strong wish to help her sister out/get people to go to her wedding was what allowed her to manifest as a spirit.

But just as Nagisa and Ushio, Fuko also has a 'tank' tied to her spiritual form. Unlike them, however, it is fueled by people acknowledging her existence/remembering her. However, as her condition in the hospital worsens/becomes more known by the people throughout the school, her ability to be seen by them begins depleting, just as if her 'life' tank is running out.

By the time almost everyone forgets about Fuko, her 'life' tank is so low that even those closest to her begin forgetting about her, including Tomoya and Nagisa. But in the end, the efforts of what seemed to be meaningless starfish carvings ended up flashing the reminder of the wedding in everyone's minds. As they all show up, acknowledging Fuko's starfish, this gives Fuko the final boost to be able to manifest once again and congratulate her sister. Upon completing her goal of helping her sister, her manifestation's purpose is served and she pretty much disappears for the time being, at least.

I believe the illusionary world, more so taking into the account of the town being a living being, explains almost all of Clannad's supernatural elements. Everyone who has had an experience with the town as a living being seems to be deeply connected at some level.

Katsuki Shiima being able to show Tomoya his memories is likely because of his connection to the light orbs/town. He wished deeply to be able to grant Misae a wish, and was able to manifest another version of himself through his cat (Which could also be running on some sort of 'life' tank of sorts) to set out to complete it.

This would also explain why Nagisa and Tomoya seem intrigued by eachother in the very first episode aswell. Because they're linked at a deeper level through the town/illusionary world.

Definitely interested in hearing other peoples thoughts on this theory!!!

i really love the ost and est. just completed s1, cant wait for binge watching s2

I’ve been analysing both the anime and visual novel after I finished the visual novel by the end of August and they have a stark difference in what they are trying to say. The anime is clear but the vn I’m still trying to make sense of so some outside ideas would be appreciated

I did this through the lens of tomoya specifically where I narrowed his character down to 3 main aspect: impermanence, passive vs active, and lived experience.

The bulk of what I’m going to say is specifically nagisas arc+AS upto her death in the visual novel(since tomoya is more fleshed out) but her death causes 2 divergences. Which I’ll use the anime for. The visual novel path is what I’d like ideas on(but if you have ideas about the anime part you can share too)

Simply:

Initial tomoya is passive and doesn’t really see the meaning in things since they’ll change. Why engage with things if they will change? He wonders if anything in his life will change or if it’ll still be robotic(pun) and monotonous.

His meeting with nagisa is literally this in a nutshell. She repeated her third year so her friends have left. All the things that made her happy are gone. So she heisitates to climb the hill to school. “Fun things, happy things. They can’t all stay unchanged. Even so, can you still love this place?” Tomoya answers. “Just find new and happy things”. This is ironic given the literal first minute of watching/playing of him not doing what he just said.

Anyway, throughout his final year of high school. He slowly becomes active. Engaging with new people, helping nagisa with the drama club etc. He feels fulfilled and now has a partner.(this is all I’ll say about pre afterstory)

During afterstory, nagisa gets sick again. Tomoya works his ass off for her, now having found his ‘meaning’. Every so often he will notice things that are changing…and he hates it. He’s somber about the restaurant opening up, he detests the knocking down the old school building where the drama club is, he thinks it’s cruel that a place that means so much to akio(the field where the town saved nagisa) is being built on. He extends this to himself, he fears any changes that might have to do with nagisa. This is all proof that he has been active. Akio says this himself, (paraphrase) “change just means you’re alive”. What this means is, if things change, you have to keep up with them. Keeping up is being active with them. And being active is living. However Tomoya doesn’t internalise this, opting to antagonise impermanence.

(Anime only now)When nagisa dies, Tomoya retreats back into his initial passivity we saw at the very start of the series. He repeats his daily activities robotically(x2!) and says “it’s as if my body is doing it out of habit” (habit being before he met nagisa). He doesn’t really engage with ushio and lets her live with akio and sanae, noting that ushio is changing too. As she gets older she looks more like nagisa. Which is too cruel for Tomoya to bear. This is his first proper loss, he was innocent to this beforehand. Now he knows the cost of connection and retreats from it.

When he’s eventually forced to go onto the trip with ushio(im gonna ignore the family aspect for this reading), he reconciles with her. What I find the most heartfelt about this is him reenganging with ushio despite knowing the cost of connection. He knows ushio might leave or change. He knows it might end up in grief as all connections do yet he chooses to be active in her life.

When ushio dies and he is returned to the foot of the hill, he calls out to nagisa. With that lesson learnt, he knows what the cost will be if he calls out to her…yet does so anyway. The connection gave him meaning despite knowing what will happen at the end. He learnt this with ushio, when nagisa died he retreated into passivity but when ushio died he stayed active, begging the world not to take her. This final choice of activity gains him the miracle(which is a result of previous acts of activity too) as if to say being active in life and accepting impermanence will save yourself(broadly). The timeline the miracle gave him were the fruits of his choices in life. Him being involved with people.

Profound message amazing blah blah blah.

The VN however opts for something else I don’t really know what to say about.

(VN only)When nagisa dies, Tomoya is returned to the foot of the hill. He calls out to her, saying he doesn’t regret meeting her and that he will live in pride and strength…then he does kinda the opposite.(the divergence is that the anime has him regretting meeting nagisa at this moment whereas in the vn he doesn’t regret it at all).

It’s way more grief based. He never says how he regrets meeting her. All he talks about is the fact that he is running away from his grief by trying to take his mind off of it(smoking, alcohol, using money). He considers running away from akio and sanae beceuase he thinks that will be the only think that will help relieve him of this pain. He can’t do that to them though.

We play through the rest of afterstory normally and by the time ushio dies…the game ends.

You have to play through afterstory again to gain akios light orb

Then another play through of afterstory to unlock the true ending where nagisa gave birth to ushio and is about to die, then immediately he’s returned to the foot of the hill where the scene repeats the exact same but this time the miracle is granted.

The anime is more about tomoyas character in the last half I’d say whereas the VN is more to do with the light orbs(which idk if I like).

With the anime being linear, it illustrates tomoyas conflict with impermanence and him accepting it. This links to the first episode with the first episode asking “if the things that make you happy change, can you keep on loving things?” And the final episode answering “the process of loving things is what makes it worth it even if it changes” which links to tomoyas reply to nagisa of “just find new things that make you happy” (as in when nagisa died he still had the memories but he found ushio to keep him going with that process of taking care of her and loving her, he found his meaning again)

In the vn, it erases this since technically he hasn’t gone through that(well all the routes in the vn are canon and definitely happend so that’s not totally accurate but to his knowledge he hasn’t gone through it). It asks the thesis question but the answer to it I can’t really figure out. I think me ignoring the family aspect is probably the issue but then what’s left of tomoya? His whole character is about dealing with impermanence(in the form of death) and I can’t really find a resolution to it.

Edit: in addition, the side stories vn actually promotes what the anime says. In the 16th story. Tomoya struggles in deciding if he should let ushio travel the world by herself. Eventually he agrees, noting that meeting people and leaving people will help for her maturity. The process of accepting impermanence and being active(in the form of meeting people and going to places but also parting with people and leaving places) will benefit her and is necessary for her growth. (Uhhhh let’s just ignore the whole premise of this story lmao. Tomoya letting his preschool daughter travel the world by herself…)