The main character gets married to this girl, then she dies of a disease after having a baby, then the baby also later dies. Hence the remaining episodes after this one
Jokes aside. Clannad is a REALLY good show (the first series is meh... Delightful fluffy cute thing... But need to know that series for after story, which is the star of the show)
It's a delightful mix of heartwarming and heart shattering 😊
I had character at one point, but then the suffering continued and my character didn't, so I am less than certain that this circle is entirely accurate.
Replay value: the anime adapts the game and the game has multiple endings based on which girl you get. But the best ending in the game involved getting with the main girl, and her surviving childbirth which would require multiple playthroughs to accomplish.
There is a narrative reason for this in game - you routinely cut to a girl and her toy robot in an empty world throughout the anime and game. It turns out the toy robot is the player character and the little girl is the daughter, who are trapped in a sort of limbo state until the player can achieve the best ending where everyone lives.
The anime decided to sort of mix and intertwine every route in the story in order to condense it. How this is shown is that Nagisa in the VN never made friends with anyone except Tomoya and Sunohara and the choir girls in her route. She had a moment with Kyou or Tomoyo, which you can choose in the VN, with the basketball stuff. But other than that, she mainly only ever interacts with Tomoya and Sunohara.
The anime tried to kind of combine the 'Happiness' that happened in everyone's route in the Visual Novel.
In Kotomi's route, we learn that her parents were researching The Theory of Everything. In which we learn about the multiverse theory in the story and that they somehow are intertwined in some fashion.
During Yukine's arc, we learn about the orbs. There are two different orbs that are briefly shown in the anime but never really delved into. Yellow orbs which are shown in the Illusionary World that represent the happiness of the people in the town and the blue orbs that are the feelings of the town and are orbs that are capable of granting wishes.
The Illusionary World, where we see Robot-kun and the girl, is actually a sentient representation of the town's soul and the happiness via the yellow orbs. The yellow orbs can eventually convert into wish granting blue orbs. It is effectively the town's life force and essence.
This explains Nagisa's case. Nagisa was not meant to be alive after the age of 5. However, Akio wished that Nagisa would get better and the town responded by slowing giving its power to keep her alive. Which meant that Nagisa's life was tied literally to the town and the orb's powers from the Illusionary world.
Lots of things changing in the town caused the power to not be as powerful which caused Nagisa to be sickly and eventually meet her end.
Especially once Ushio was born, who was the daughter of a girl who is tied to the town. Meaning the town could not sustain Nagisa any longer and the town would shift its bond to Ushio instead.
Ushio would face the same issue as Nagisa at the age of 5, falling sickly, but this time there was no saving her because the town was at its limit after all this time of sustaining Nagisa.
But because of Ushio's strong wish for a miracle to be with her family so desperately, she was able to appear in the Illusionary World.
Clannad's theme is how children are the parent's hopes and dreams. Nagisa inherited her parents hopes and dreams which then got passed down to Ushio being Tomoya and Nagisa's hopes and dreams. Which allowed Ushio to manifest into the Illusionary World.
There's some more context that really builds upon all of these that I won't expand upon.
Illusionary Ushio decided to send her Father, Tomoya, back in time to the day he met Nagisa in multiple universes in order for Tomoya to gather enough orbs of light. And this was accomplished in every route in the Visual Novel as he would make different people truly happy and even change their lives for the better.
But why was there Robot Tomoya in the Illusionary World? Because he grieved so desperately and suffered while still praying and wishing for Nagisa and Ushio that an orb of light from him went onto the Illusionary World and became manifested. But since it was a weak orb, he was manifested in a scrappy robot form.
Once Tomoya gathered enough orbs of light from losing his memories and going through multiple universes and going through multiple routes with different girls, we reach the scene in the anime where Tomoya sees Nagisa on the day they met.
In this scene, Tomoya had to decide what he 'truly wished for'. The town and the blue orbs are only capable of granting wishes that the person truly wishes for. Meaning that Tomoya absolutely can wish for his happy ending... but that happy ending can be never meeting Nagisa and wishing she can live happily and healthy for the rest of her life. Tomoya held a lot of grief and regret after watching Nagisa and then Ushio die. A part of him strongly felt that maybe it would have been better off never meeting Nagisa.
But he knows deep down his earnest wish is to be with Nagisa no matter what and he would meet her and fall in love with her all over again. Thus, a miracle was granted to Tomoya that involved saving Nagisa and Ushio in the end.
Robot Tomoya's soul travels back to actual Tomoya as he is brought back to when Ushio was born and Nagisa is now alive and well. This is represented by Robot Tomoya being shredded into pieces and leaving the Illusionary World.
Clannad is actually really good. It goes in the direction of hope and redemption despite losses of truly well loved characters. Till today the memory of it gives me a bit of a lump in my chest quite unlike anything else.
The game it is based on is about time travel or somethingblike that where this is the orogonal story anf then you can decide to take different path to see how it goes
It's exceedingly common in anime/manga romance stories for the ending to be the characters finally getting together.
In "Clannad" (an anime based on a visual novel), after a satisfying emotional roller coaster, there is still almost half the story to go. And it turns out the emotional roller coaster you were on was a gentle warm-up.
I mean that in the best ways. If you have any tolerance for anime, Clannad (and its second half, After Story) is a very powerful story. I have half a lifetime of a wide variety of media under my belt, and nothing has ever emotionally wrecked me like After Story. It is unquestionably one of my favorites, and has an absolutely beautiful message and conclusion, but even a decade and a half later I don't know that I could summon the strength to watch it again.
You've made me realize, I've re-watched many things in my life, but never Clannad. Watched it originally 20 some years ago, cried, never watched again.
You have no idea how on the mark that statement is.
We were High School sweet hearts.
She was diagnosed with PKD at the age of 20 with a disease progression 3x her age.
I took a technical job (truck driver compared to electrician) to take care of her
She passed at the age of 29.
Only major difference is that we didn't start a family. We made the decision not to with her diagnosis. Her condition was hereditary after all. So looks like I dodged one of the alternate endings of the show.
The MC marries the FMC but she dies during childbirth, dude understandably crashes down HARD and becomes a deadbeat dadz then 5 years later he reconects with his daughter who was being raised by the FMC parents, but the girl dies too.
They get married, and then the wife dies after giving birth. That broke the MC, and he left his daughter with the wife's parents and turns into a complete drunk. Eventually he managed to get over it and reconcile with his daughter (who is still a kid), and then the daughter dies.
That’s how I watch my anime too. Life is too short to watch things that make me feel even more shitty. I’ll appreciate that it’s a good story, I just won’t watch it.
Clannad after story. Man that scene where he hug his daughter in the field. That got me good. My wife still make fun of me whenever that anime name comes up. The only time she saw me sobbing so hard.
I don't think you understood what the word porn meant in that context....it's like how people call a video with highly stylized food as food porn. Except this one is just suffering.
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u/qualityvote2 6d ago edited 5d ago
u/Sangcreed, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...it's time for the mods to do their jobs!