Clannad: Tomoyo Dearest

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This is a manga I've been wanting to read for quite a long time now considering I love Clannad and I especially love Tomoyo. As you'd expect by the synopsis and title, it tells the story about Tomoya and Tomoyo by taking inspiration from the original Tomoyo route in Clannad.

Now like I said before, this takes inspiration from the original route. Tomoyo Dearest takes many of the plot points of the original route such as Takafumi, the preservation of the sakura trees and of course, her goal of becoming student council president. For such a short manga, it manages to tell the story it needed ... to tell in a great way. Sadly, many characters of the original Clannad franchise were not apart of this manga just like the original route such as characters like Kyou, Ryou or Kotomi. However, two characters do play a great aspect in the story and they are Nagisa and Sunohara. Sunohara was already a recurring character within the original route but this manga introduces Nagisa who didn't have as much as a big role in this route before.

The way the characters were written did truly feel like them and weren't just some half-assed recreation. The art was not the best of all manga however it was still pretty good and got the job done very well. All in all, I believe this manga was a great experience especially for someone like me who loves Clannad and the best girl, Tomoyo Sakagami.

When I first starting reading this I was expecting it to just be a retelling of Tomoyo's story from the visual novel or anime OVA, but instead it is a reimagining of her story. While the basic plot points stay the same, including Tomoyo wanting to become student council president so she can save the cherry blossoms, there are enough differences that make this a unique and engaging story. Most notably, Nagisa plays a key role in this version of events, acting as a catalyst that bring Tomoyo and Tomoya closer together. Unlike the authors previous work Tomoyo After, the pacing here felt a lot ... more natural. The art is clean and has a mature feel, which is fitting for the tone of the story. My only gripe is that the art style changes slightly in the last chapter which makes the characters look slightly younger/cutesy. It isn't a bad change, it's just a shame the art isn't consistent the whole way through.

Overall this manga is able to stand on its own and is a nice alternate story that expands upon Clannad's pre-existing character's and themes.