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Clannad AS, more than anything, is a story grounded in the humanity of its characters. It contains none of the heartbreaking romance, breathtaking action sequences, or mind-boggling mystery we see so often in the anime, or in general entertainment medium, yet manages to be even more tell a tale even more gripping than any other I’ve seen. Clannad AS is both a complex and simplistic work, and personifies people; we witness people at their happiest, living to protect what only they can protect, and at their lowest, falling into a pit of despair and grief over the loss of loved ones. We see them change ... as they meet new people and broaden their horizons, as they become optimistic about the world around them, yet down the road, regretful of these very changes as they bear the pain of loss. We see them gain, lose, re-gain, then lose again, in a cycle of hope and despair.

At the core of Clannad AS is the story of one man, who seems to have been abandoned to a hopeless fate, despising all and despised by all around him. His mother died young, leaving him with his drunken, abusive father who shuns him after an accident that left him crippled. However, his pessimistic, hate-filled view of his surroundings changed when he met Nagisa, the woman who changed every aspect of his outlook and personal life. As he learns the hardship, yet ultimate joy that comes with the burden of protecting the one he loves, life suddenly becomes worth living. Yet it is the loss of his loved ones, his failure and inability to save the people he cared about, that sent him reeling back into his pool of self-fueled hate and grief. And through this black hole of pain, the shining light of hope, the last remainder of his love, was able to be his salvation.

It would seem that, from the premise, Clannad AS is simply a romantic story, a story of a happily married couple spending each day doing what they love. However, the story transforms into something much deeper than that, it explores the confines of what it means to be human. What does it mean to protect? What does it mean to love? Is love worth the pain that comes with loss? The human relationships depicted in the anime are extremely beautiful and touching, but above all they are realistic. Watching Clannad AS made me realize how amazing humans really are, that the strength of familial bonds and friendship can truly overcome any obstacles, whether it be grief, responsibility, or death. Indeed, the lines between fiction and reality blurred as I became absorbed into the realistic and heartfelt storytelling of Clannad AS.

Clannad AS is certainly a very sad anime, and you will see this stressed in many other reviews. However, it’s not simply a tearjerker; the sadness has more depth than simple melodrama. What truly brought tears to my eyes was how touching and beautiful human relationships can be: a father who collects all the fragments of his shattered life to protect his daughter, a daughter who forgives and continues to love a father who abandoned her, a grandfather who sacrifices anything and everything to protect what he loves and believes in. For such a seemingly simplistic anime about the bonds of a few people, Clannad AS has an amazing depth. The magnitude of its depth is shown magnificently through the relationships and unbreakable bonds of family, through both the struggle and the happiness of its characters.