Hoshitachi☆

Clannad (クラナド, Kuranado) is a Japanese visual novel created by the software company, Key, who also produced Kanon and Air. This anime has a great and interesting story, and also a beutiful animation, and it totally an eye candy. You won't get bored watching this anime, comedy and heart-touching scenes are ready to welcome you when you're starting to watch this anime.

There are recurring themes that appear in the story. But, the main theme is the value having a family, as the title of the series since according to the main scenario writer, Maeda Jun, Clannad means "family" or "clan" in Irish. Of the six main characters, Tomoya, Nagisa and Kotomi have no siblings, through their parents factor majorly in their story.

The first half of the story takes place primarily at a high school in Japan, which is the best school in the city. Outside of the school, frequented locations include the bakery run by Nagisa's parents, and the dormitory where Sunohara Youhei lives. Throughout the story, glimpses into an Illusionary World are shown. This world is devoid of all life except for a young girl, though she later makes a body out of junk pieces through which the player can interact with her. The remaining half of the story takes place in the same city, after the conclusion of the first half.



Story--School Arc

This arc revolves around Okazaki Tomoya, a third-year high school student who dislike his life. His mother died in an accident, and his father turned into alcohol and gambling. One day, on his way to school, he met Furukawa Nagisa, a soft-spoken girl who is repeating his third year because of her illness. Her goal is to join the drama club, but they find that the drama club was disbanded. Nagisa decided to reforming the drama club, and since Tomoya has a lot time to kill, he decide to help Nagisa.

After that, Tomoya meets and hangs out with several girls and help their individual probelms. Like Fujibayashi Kyou, Ichinose Kotomi, Sakagami Tomoyo and Ibuki Fuko.

OP theme: Mag Mell ~cockool mix 2007~ by eufonius
END theme: Dango Daikozoku by CHATA


Story--After Story

In the second season, the story focused in Tomoya and Nagisa's relationship. In the half of story, they already married and live together. Tomoya has to endure several hardships that the family has been suffering from, mainly involving Nagisa's illness. Just after Nagisa gives birth to their daughter, Ushio, Nagisa dies, leaving Tomoya to fall into a state of depression. He turns into alcohol and gambling, just like his father. This causes Nagisa's parents to look after Ushio.

Five years later, Tomoya meets Okazaki Shino, his grandmother on his father's side. Shino explains to Tomoya about his father's past and tragedy, similar to Tomoya's current situation after Nagisa's death. After hearing that, Tomoya decides to raise Ushio and acknowledge Naoyuki as his father. Shortly after Tomoya regains his purpose for living, Ushio is struck with the same disease as Nagisa. Tomoya, Sanae and Akio struggle to save Ushio, with Tomoya retiring from his job, but all efforts are futile. In the coming winter, wanting to do anything for Ushio, Tomoya decides to take Ushio on a trip, but Ushio falls unconscious and dies shortly after.

Tomoya's psychology developed in his dreams of a bleak world where small orbs of light float around called the Illusionary World (幻想世界, Gensō Sekai). In the first few dreams, he sees a world devoid of all life except for one girl. Each time he dreams, he finds out more about the world. Tomoya discovers the girl has a special ability to fuse junk together to create new things, with which she creates a body for him. Thus he is reborn in this world, and fills time following the girl around. Tomoya conceives that only the two of them are "alive".

To pass time, Tomoya and the girl try to build another doll with more junk they find, but as it has no soul, it fails to come to life. Remembering a distant world where he came from, Tomoya convinces the girl to build a ship so that the two can escape the approaching winter and continue a happy life. Eventually, winter sets in, and the girl becomes cold to the point where she cannot move any more. Upon meeting this tragedy, the girl tells Tomoya that he has another chance to go back and make things right. To do so, he must collect certain "lights" (symbols of happiness) similar to those floating around in the Illusionary World. If all the "lights" are collected throughout both story parts, a chance to save Nagisa from dying in childbirth will become available, and the true ending where Nagisa survives and lives with Tomoya and their daughter Ushio will also become available.

OP theme: Toki wo Kizamu Uta by Lia
END theme: TORCH by Lia


The story and animation is really good. The comedy in this anime is really funny, but the heart-touching moment can make us cry too (for your information, I cried 4-5 times while watching this anime). The music is GREAT. The BGM is beautiful, and really fits the moment. Every heroine has her own theme, and I love all of them.

The voice actor is great too, several most-known seiyuu like Nakamura Yuichi (Tomoya), Nakahara Mai (Nagisa), Hirohashi Ryou (Kyou), Mamiko Noto (Kotomi), Kuwashima Houko (Tomoyo) and Nonaka Ai (Fuko). Even Fukuyama Jun and Paku Romi plays as a supporting characters in this anime.

There's two OVAs for this anime, the first OVA is: Alternate World ~Tomoyo's Arc~ that tells us about when Tomoya and Tomoyo is dating which is based on Tomoyo's arc in the game. The second OVA is Alternate World ~Kyou's Arc~, which tells us about Tomoya and Ryou is dating, while Kyou try to help them but realize that she loves Tomoya.

There's even a internet radio drama, called Nagisa to Sanae no Omae ni Rainbow (渚と早苗のおまえにレインボー), hosted by Nakahara Mai as Nagisa and Inoue Kikuko as Sanae (Nagisa's mother). Several voice actors from the anime appeared as guest, like Nakamura Yuichi, Kanda Akemi (Ryou's VA) and others. The second radio drama for Clannad After Story is Nagisa to Sanae to Akio no Omae ni Hyper Rainbow (渚と早苗と秋生のおまえにハイパーレインボー), hosted by Nakahara Mai as Nagisa, Inoue Kikuko as Sanae, and Okiayu Ryoutaro as Akio (Nagisa's father).