Clannad: After Story

Clannad: After Story is one of the most emotional works I have ever watched. After a first season that sets up the characters' relationships and group dynamics, the sequel plunges us into a more mature and poignant exploration of the themes of family, love and loss. Each episode offers an emotional roller coaster, which takes us from joy to sadness with disconcerting ease. This anime does not only tell a love story, it also explores more universal themes like parenthood, loss and resilience.

I find that the art direction is of exceptional quality especially for this period of release, with particular attention to emotional details. The ... everyday scenes are magnified by soft and warm colors, creating an atmosphere that resonates deeply with the emotions of each character. The music, meanwhile, is one of the major assets of the series. The ost, opening and ending are very striking, and I still listen to them :D

For me, it is a work that will remain engraved in my memory forever. It offered me a unique emotional experience (I did not cry but I was very touched), combining deeply human characters with universal themes that resonate with any viewer.
Even if some scenes are difficult to watch, they are crucial to understand the true message of the series: that of perseverance, love and redemption.

Sorry for my approximate English, I am basic French.
Have a good day and have a happy life you who read my text :D

Clannad: After Story – A Beautiful Disaster or an Emotional Masterpiece?

Introduction – Ready to Cry Over Fictional People?
If you’ve ever wanted an anime to emotionally break you, glue you back together, and then slap you in the face for caring too much—Clannad: After Story is here to help! This sequel to Clannad takes everything from the first season (school life, lighthearted comedy, and mild drama) and throws it out the window. Instead, it gives us a depressing yet heartfelt exploration of adulthood, grief, and responsibility—until it doesn’t. The ending? Oh, we’ll get to that. But let’s just say if you like consistency in storytelling, ... you might want to brace yourself.

Story – The Emotional Equivalent of a Sledgehammer
The first half of the anime is deceptively calm, showing Tomoya and Nagisa transitioning into adult life. Then, somewhere in the middle, the series decides, “Hey, what if we made the audience suffer?” and unleashes one tragic event after another. It’s gut-wrenching, it’s painful, and it feels real—until the infamous plot twist at the end. Without spoiling too much, let’s just say the writers went full "Oops, let’s undo all of that!" mode, which completely undermines the emotional weight of everything that came before. A bold choice? Sure. A good one? Debatable.

Characters – Cry, Laugh, Repeat
Tomoya gets some of the best character development in anime, going from a sarcastic, aimless teenager to a broken yet determined adult. His struggles feel painfully authentic, and watching him grow is easily the highlight of the show. Nagisa remains the same fragile cinnamon roll as always, but at least she gets some solid moments before… well, you’ll see. The supporting cast—Akio, Sanae, and even side characters like Youhei—help keep things balanced, providing comedy and warmth amidst the tragedy. Then there’s Ushio, the adorable daughter who single-handedly carries the second half of the series—only to have certain events make you question why you even invested your emotions in the first place.

Enjoyment – A Love-Hate Relationship
Let’s be real—this anime will make you cry. The animation is gorgeous, the soundtrack is hauntingly beautiful, and some scenes hit so hard that you’ll be emotionally wrecked for days. But enjoyment is tricky. If you like suffering (in a good way), you’ll appreciate the deep emotional storytelling. If you prefer narratives that stick to their themes without last-minute “just kidding!” moments, you might find yourself screaming at the screen by the end. Either way, it’s an experience you won’t forget.

Overall – Who Should Watch This?
If you love emotionally charged dramas, can tolerate slow pacing, and don’t mind a little narrative betrayal, Clannad: After Story is absolutely worth watching. If you prefer tight storytelling without cheap emotional resets, maybe go for Violet Evergarden or Your Lie in April instead. 7/10—great emotional depth, beautiful execution, but that ending? Still controversial. Watch at your own risk… and keep tissues nearby.

What is this? Is this anything?

Clannad: After Story is the anime equivalent to watching a YouTube video titled something like “Sad animal videos to make you cry - Part 6”. Is what I’m watching “sad”? In the most basic sense, yes. Does it in any way rely upon a particular connection to the characters/animals involved? No. It relies upon a sense of sympathy/empathy that most people just instinctually have. Clannad: After Story is, to borrow a phrase, all fart and no shit.

To accuse a piece of fiction of being “emotionally manipulative” feels strange; most, if not all, art falls under this umbrella. Of course any ... given movie/show/book/song/whatever is attempting to instill within you a certain emotion. Whether or not it succeeds in that, however, has to do with subtlety, pacing, tactfulness, and a ton of other factors that a writer (and their team) should carefully consider and balance. At no point in my viewing experience did the writing in Clannad (either season) feel carefully considered or balanced in the slightest.

I found Clannad (S1) to be thoroughly uninteresting. It was essentially impossible for me to care about its boring world, one-dimensional characters, and contrived drama. Adding to that, the humor was about as funny as being told that I have terminal cancer and the supernatural elements were so awkwardly implemented that it led to more confusion about the rules of the world than suspended whimsy. Still, I persisted because the light at the end of the tunnel (After Story) was promised by hordes of anime fans to be complete and ethereal salvation. And I swear to God if I keep falling for this shit...

Clannad: After Story is better than Clannad (S1) in the sense that being kicked in the balls is less painful than having all your teeth pulled; both are still thoroughly unpleasant experiences, but at least one doesn’t leave you permanently disfigured. The worst fucking metaphor I’ve ever come up with aside, I will give After Story (AS from here on out) some credit for at least trying to be ABOUT something.

Sure, S1 was about Tomoya and Nagisa starting up the drama club and their relationship, but most of what actually transpired was just a bunch of dumbass kids awkwardly bumbling around. S1 was, essentially, a harem that was too scared to call itself such. AS tries to strengthen its focus and be more mature. Does it succeed? Relative to S1, yes it does. AS is more “mature” than its predecessor. It focuses on more serious subjects and has slightly more of an edge. In the wider world of fiction, however, it’s more like the difference in maturity between a 10 year-old and a 15 year-old. Nobody in their right mind would describe it as “mature” except for in relation to S1.

To illustrate my point, newlyweds Tomoya and Nagisa are shown to be borderline nervous to hold each other’s hands. In their own apartment. In front of nobody. The subject of them having sex is broached more as though they just figured out how to roll a condom onto a banana than that they’re both high school graduates living together alone.

When AS cuts that nonsense out and focuses unabashedly on Tomoya’s struggles with acclimating to his job and adult life in general, it really shines (at least in comparison to what S1 and the first half of AS were doing). As compelling as THAT is though, I’d still never really think to call Tomoya (or any of the other characters) anything close to compelling, interesting, or likable on their own. Or even together, actually.

Tomoya in S1 was almost unbearable for me. His only real character flaw was that he was a “delinquent”. As much as he slacked off academically, though, he still found the time to help a gaggle of girls out with all of their personal issues, offer his services and time selflessly to an insane degree, and act heroically in the face of any and all threats. Outside of Optimus Prime, Captain America, and maybe Goku, the whole “my only flaw is my devotion to others and unfettered heroism” is a super boring and often times annoying archetype to me. Being “too good” is not compelling or relatable 9/10 times. Fortunately, AS does go out of its way to shit all over Tomoya and knock him down a few pegs and, as a result, the situations he finds himself in become more interesting.

The same can not be said for the rest of the characters, who remain thoroughly whelming in every facet. Am I honestly supposed to care about Nagisa? Why? Her personality is just so aggressively nothing. She’s earnest, shy, naïve, and just so moe, but whatever. Outside of S1 stuff related to the drama club, she doesn’t want anything or have any ambition. That’s actually one of my biggest issues with AS as a whole; nobody wants anything aside from stuff they’re given or already have.

What does Tomoya want? To be with Nagisa, of course. Okay, well he already has her, so what else is there? He wants to keep her, obviously. But Nagisa seems almost incapable of independent thought, so I don’t think her leaving him of her own accord is a situation to be fearful of. What does he want outside of the relationship? To just work wherever and be wherever? How interesting. Certainly I wouldn’t fault anybody in real life for being this way, but characters in fiction kind of have an obligation to be interesting to watch. The ones featured in Clannad seldom are. They neither come from the dirt and aspire to normalcy or start at normalcy and aspire to greatness. They start at normalcy and just kind of stay there.

This all comes to a head when a certain *thing* happens. I won’t spoil it, but if you even halfway pay attention to the OP it should be obvious (genuinely, even as someone who went spoiler-free the whole way through, I called it immediately). This *thing* changes the trajectory of Tomoya’s life until it doesn’t but I’ll get to that. Point is, this *thing* could have been easily avoided if these empty-headed idiots heeded even the most basic of warnings they had been given. That’s the impression I got, anyway.

I understand the themes of “the importance of family” and “the value of overcoming adversity and finding something to live for” as trite as they are, but would they not be more impactful if the characters actually, y’know, fought for something? They mostly just roll with the punches in a terribly blasé way. It’s just a series of things happening to them and them reacting in either a supremely uninteresting or insanely saccharine manner.

The *thing* I mentioned eventually gets reversed and, with it, the themes collapse in on themselves spectacularly. It would be one thing if it felt like something we’d been working towards for the duration of the show, and ostensibly there are, like, barely hints that *something* will happen, but it’s not really enough. The *thing* doesn’t get reversed because the characters work towards it, though, it just... happens. It might as well have been a dream. Sure, it dictates how Tomoya approaches life, but it’s not all that different from how he would’ve without the *thing* happening in the first place. There’s no sacrifice and there’s not even any real compromise – things just suck to make you cry and then they don’t because the showrunners wanted to hit a certain tone.

This next metaphor probably only serves to showcase how terminally online I am, but here goes... Y’all know the “Chad” meme? Of course you do, but do you also know the one where it’s the male and female “Chads” and it’s really pushing “traditional living” and stereotypical gender roles? The dude says something like “My only purpose is to provide for my wife and child” and the wife says “And my only purpose is to take care of the house and children while you’re out providing” or whatever? That’s all Tomoya and Nagisa feel like at the end of the day. That’s all it feels like Clannad has to say and it does it with a hilarious amount of earnestness and an equally hilarious lack of self-awareness.

I don’t know, I just cannot fathom how this is the 16th highest rated anime on this site. That’s higher than anything Ghibli, Your Name., Cowboy Bebop, anything Evangelion, Wolf Children, anything Satoshi Kon ever made, etc. It’s astounding.

But it looks nice I guess, and the music’s nice. Whatever. Nagisa and most of the female characters look more like what I’d find under a rock in my yard than any human being, but whatever. Most anime characters look like cats, so why not have them look like praying mantises?

Certainly not the worst show I’ve ever seen, but it’s just utterly unsurprising and unchallenging. Not that something being “challenging” is synonymous with quality, but when the characters are this flat, the drama is this poorly plotted, the story is this obvious (aside from the ridonkulous ending), and the emotions I’m intended to feel are this plain and unsubstantiated... Eh? I’m not a particularly unemotional guy (I’ve cried like a bitch at stuff like Anohana and Wolf Children) so when you’re showing me an “emotional” moment and I’m either laughing my ass off or my face resembles Squidward’s house, you’ve done fucked up.

Scores:
Art (7/10)
Music (6/10)
Characters (3/10)
Story (2/10)
Objective (4/10)
Subjective (4/10)

If nothing else, Clannad is proof that you can accomplish your wildest dreams. If somebody’s still paying Jun Maeda to write garbage, then by golly, the sky’s the limit for us.