Back to Fai-ry's Profile Fai-ry's Profile

"Sanae told me where it was okay to cry. It was in the bathroom and in daddy's arms."

Both Clannad and Clannad: After Story are amazing animes (and if you haven't watched Clannad and are planning to watch After Story first, make a U turn and rethink that... seriously), however none is flawless. For this review, I'll present, in the first place, the positive aspects of each category and then proceed to present the negative ones.

Story: 9/10
Clannad:After Story proceeds with Clannad's story and does a wonderful job at that. What makes this story so good is that it's a slice of life tale of forgiveness ... and hope which deals with important matters such as the responsibility one gains while growing up, recovering from something and moving on, etc. The story doesn't move forward at a fast pace, dedicating the needed time to each scene and not rushing everything.
Now, for the negatives aspects, the first episodes/arcs presented can be seen as instruments to diminish the anime's consistency and quality, since they're not essential to the outcome. I personally liked them a lot, though, and think that they're good to clear your head before getting to the heavy stuff (but that might be just my love for Sunohara talking). Additionally, the overly dramatized situations and the fantasy part might lead to the loss of the sense of reality that the anime plans to achieve.

Art: 9/10
The art in this anime is amazing. It's easy to understand what each character is feeling based on their expressions and the way the colors and lights are manipulated in the surreal world is very impressive.
The only downside to the art is that the characters don't seem to get older physically.

Sound: 9/10
The voices of the characters match with their personality and are easily distinguished.
However, even though the opening theme is very versatile and helps setting the mood for every episode, the ending theme has the opposite effect.

Character : 8/10
The characters are very human, in other words, their personalities are compatible with the ones that the people we know have and it's easy to create a connection with them and like them.
The "Character" category is the one who has the lowest score because it sins in the development of Nagisa in contradiction to the development of Tomoya, which makes their relationship seem a bit immature. Even more, on the second half of the anime, the only secondary characters which are shown and which take any part in the action are Sanae and Akio, so if one of your favorite characters is from the "school gang", I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you won't be seeing them for a while.

Enjoyment: 9/10
I enjoyed watching this anime because it has a little bit of everything, it makes you think about your own future and makes you see people in a different way, which will make you try to understand their opinions and struggles.

Overall: 9/10
If you love slice of life animes and are ready to have some strong feelings for fictional characters, this is the anime for you!