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May 29, 2017
This review is written by someone who has watched the prequel first, then read the visual novel, and then watched this anime without reading the novel for this anime. Spoilers will be present and announced later in the review.
The prequel was fun enough for me to want to read the VN and watch the sequel. The VN was a nice addition but the anime itself was a good one. However I can only say I'm very dissapointed in this sequel anime. I've seen people claim Fate/Stay Night is the kiddy version of Fate/Zero because the cast in F/SN mostly consists out of kids. I heavily
...
disagree since plotwise Stay Night is just more complex than Zero. However this sequel does seem to be the kiddy version of the prequel.
The original Utawarerumono was written for 18+ (and the anime 17+) and I think that reflects in the story and characters. The sequel was originally written for 15+ and the anime itself is 13+. As such, we got a lot of bathing scenes to start with for horny young boys and yaoi jokes for fujoshis? It's not just these details, it just reflects in about everything.
Anyway since this is the sequel of the anime from 2006 I expect you to have seen it or atleast plan to watch it before you watch this. As such I will make comparisons since I don't think this anime should be watched as stand alone.
Before I start to point out all the things I'm not satisfied with or just want to adress, I have to admit, the anime is well animated and does looks good.
The points I want to adress are:
Structure of the story
Fanservice
Humour
Plot
Characterization
Inconsistencies
The structure is as follows. You do not get an introduction to your main character, it's pretty much like how the prequel started, guy with no memories is found. Someone takes care of him. They then travel around and meet people. The first 2-3 episodes are somewhat about fighting, survival and introduction to the setting of the world we're going to be seeing. Then a part which people like to call the slice of life part follows, in which a lot of characters are introduced episode by episode. Some of these characters will join the main cast actively. This isn't actually slice of life as it actively seeks out events to introduce more people. As such, you will have no idea how much time has passed as this is aslo never mention. Then action happens and doesn't stop till the end. You may or may not like the slow 9 episodes after the first 3, but that's pretty much what it has to offer.
The fanservice is is mostly at the start and in the early stages of the slice of life parts. There are tons of bathing scenes where they're basically showing everything except for genetalia and nipples. My personal opinion is that it felt like they had to put these in to keep the attention of people who can't keep focused unless stimulated.
The humour is pretty decent half of the time, other times it's repetitive or misplaced. One of the most recurring themes for humour is yaoi. Now it's not wrong to try to entertain people with yaoi, it is however getting old fast if you use the existence of yaoi and embarrassment of being associated or reading yaoi repeatedly.
The plot is a pretty meagre one. A guy with no past basically gets a girl to help him out. Then for no reason girls start flocking to him. The MC spends some time in the capitol before he finaly gets caught up in battle (by choice). For some strange reason great things are expected of Haku, our MC.
The characterization is also pretty meagre at best.
Haku is the MC, he's lazy and somewhat smart. Since he tries to actively avoid doing anything you don't learn much about him except his fondness of being lazy. Oh and he does like his friends.
Kuon is traveling around she claims she sees Haku as someone she has to take care of and acts motherly around him. She has a lot of family who she respects or so it seems at first.
Ukon is a strong man who likes to help people out, he's also very devoted to his emporer and for some reason very fond of Haku.
Nekone is obsessed with her brother and basically looks down on everything silly.
Rurutie is a princess that likes yaoi, cooking and is perhaps a bit jealous. Oh and she's not very fond of fighting and has a bird that's combat capable.
Atui is a princess whom is combat capable, she's pretty easy going and I think she (or else it was Rurutie (this is how important this detail was regarding the story)) was looking for love.
Maroro (cowaredly)/Kiuru very fond of Haku for some reason.
Some inconsistencies are that Yamato, the region where this anime seems to take place, doesn't seem to exist at all in the prequel. If it existed, then the Avu Kamu arc would probably have gone drastically different. Also powerlevels seem higher here and technology a lot more advanced. Magic also plays a much greater role. Also I cannot imagine Dii or however you wish to spell his name not having interfered in Yamato. Also there's a huge tamed bird that's combat capable, if so many combat capable creatures were out there, where were they in the prequel? Also for some reason Onvitaikayans or however you want to call them and ultra strong bugs are now roaming the earth freely.
Anyway my conclusion is that the art and animation are pretty good, the story is told in such a way that there are gaps here in and there which makes events harder to explain and timespans aren't clear. Humour is good at times and at others it could have better been left out. If you liked the setting of the prequel and only look for something like it, this anime can be ok. It's just important not to expect to see any characters from the prequel or any dept in story or characters.
====Spoilers/in dept start here====
Yaoi is ok, you can make jokes about it, but when you send Yaoi to your general out at war to raise her morale and the General actually goes ahead and read it... That's just forcing the humour out. Also there were lots of moments in serious epsiodes which were about fighting and surviving where predictable humour was added. Not only do these things ruin the atmosphere they also ruin the pacing and what not.
The plot in my eyes is very very bad. Kuon saves Haku, that's ok. Haku saves Maroro, that's ok. Ukon saves everyone, that's ok. Then they get to the capital. About 9 episodes where nothing plotwise happens is OK. But these episodes are not used to establish bonds, to make characters flourish which basically bites back later when things speed up. Haku goes to war to join Ukon. This is still OK. Haku sees Vurai's mass destruction and is scarred for life. That's OK. Then Tusukuru war happens, which is very sudden and unexpected. Haku then accepts the mission. That's where it all goes wrong. There's no reason for Haku to join the war. He dislikes war, he doesn't want to see innocent people die. He also, isn't attached to Yamato so there's no reason for him to serve. Also there's no reason for HIM to serve in the first place, it could have been ANYone. Then they go search for Kuon. My logical reaction would be, Kuon has gone home to her homeland to defend it. Instead they go around looking for Kuon at food stalls. Then the most surprising thing of all, Kuon decides to help Yamato. Fighting Tusukuru to her, means possibly facing Karura, Touka, Aruru, Kamyu, etc etc. People who she calls mother/sister. At war, Aruru then leads them to their generals camp. For reasons unknown ofcourse. Haku then decides to do what Hakuoro did too, recycling tactics is fine. Eventually they succeed in destroying the provisions and go home empty handed. War with Tusukuru never happened. Then plot and betrayal which is OK.
The characterization is one of the worst things of the anime.
Kuon mothers over Haku and is secretly very fond of her family. She respects them deeply. She said she wanted to explore the world, which is fine. But that also means she doesn't have a real connection to Yamato, thus no reason to help Yamato wage war. And her reason to join the war was to end it swiftly, I'm not sure how she though she was going to end it swiftly but it was never shown in any way that it would end swiftly. It feels like Kuons reason to wage war against her homeland was ungrounded and therefore a bad decision to make her do so.
Haku is lazy, not combat capable and does want to help his friends. His first "fight" would be against the giant bug. He was useless. His second fight was when he was in the capitol. If I had to make a good estimation, a couple of weeks upto a month had passed. Ukon fought him and told him he had improved. WHAT? Improved how? How did he change from 100% useless to combat capable? Surely he wasn't practising, atleast we were never shown any of it. Time passes again and he defeats guards, people trained for combat over a prlonged period of time. Later he blocks a blow from Vurai. Yeah that's pretty ok to do, Vurai isn't even strong.... Anyway for some reason he got ultra strong and combat capable without any reason.
Harem girls:
Nekone, just dislikes everything except her brother, more, we don't know of her. She is supposedly smart and educated beyond her years. Her role is nonexistent.
Rurutie, we don't know anything about her except that she likes yaoi, cooking and dislikes war. Her little act at the end pointing a dagger at Kuon is first of all out of character (as she just agreed with Atui she wanted to help them).
Atui, is easy going and combat capable. That's basicaly her whole role. It's unknown to me why any of these girls flock to Haku.
Miko girls: Fanservice/humour device/deus ex-machina magic, but usually useless because of magical barriers they then just shield.
Prequel characters:
Karura, hates to be called mother/drinks/investigates?
Touka, servant of Karura?
Aruruu/Kamyu like Kuon, want to look after Kuon. And about Aruruu, it's still a mystery why she helped Kuon/Haku to the camp.
I mean it's all great and fun if you want to add characters from the sequel, but atleast give them some character or part to play. Touka for instance made an appearance, but if she didn't NOTHING would have changed, the same goes for Kamyu. Karura and Aruruu atleast played a small role.
The characters are just poor. Atui plays a bigger role in the sequel than Touka did in the prequel. But yet I can tell you a lot more about Touka than I can tell you about Atui. Touka for instance is a Evenkurga or however you wish to spell it. She was devoted to help good defeat evil. She has high morals and would only do what she thought was right. She's combat capable because she grew up in a clan where that would be normal. She decided to serve Hakuoro because she wanted to repay her debt. She feels a strong sense of duty to bring back the body of that other king home and play as a body guard for Hakuoro leaving him pretty much guarded most of the time even to an extent that it could become seem as a burden.
Also it makes sense that people flock around Hakuoro, he helped Yamamura, solved the Mutikapa problem helped around with other stuff. Got accepted as one of their own, got appointed head of the village. Lead a rebellion, defended his people against enemies, rebuilds what's lost. Haku doesn't do anything to deserve people gathering around him. So it's not logical that they do.
Also told why Mutikapa was combat capable, and thus it's logical why Mukkuru is too. But there's not explanation or anything about the giant bird. This is just another thing that shows the prequel clearly put more effort into details.
The inconsistensies are mostly that things exist and are present in the sequel that would probably have altered the course of the prequel if they were there as well. The world was about lost when the Avu Kamu were roaming the world. But as far as I can tell, those things wouldn't have gotten very far invading Yamato. Tusukuru used to be a small country with a relative small army. A decade or 2 later they became so strong Yamato couldn't even defeat them. Oh and Tusukuru warships with magic cannon like shooting... Then there's the wildlife that I mentioned before, the technology to make cages go up and down for bug fighting with lighting that all ignite at the same time almost like lighting. The story about the mask and people being wiped out was also different. In the prequel people were living in the underground because because above they couldn't survive. In the sequel it was shown that people turned into those blobs and then some kind of ultra laser shooting down destroying everything. (including a city which seemed like the city it was taking place in). But it would make more sense to me, if something like that would happen before people would grow close to extinct rather than afterwards. The prequel clearly showed that Iceman was released, conceived a child, then imprisoned again. He then changed people into blobs. Laser beam then destroyed a lot. This suggests that Iceman and furry eared people had been roaming the earth where people cannot follow for a year or so. A huge city above ground suggests otherwise.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 20, 2015
"Girlfriend (Kari)" (GF) is a slice of life anime, it's a healing type anime. This means the goal of the anime is to make you feel good. Every episode will contain a little story which ends well. There is some mild humour/drama to keep things a bit interesting, but don't expect amazing or long stories. This is basically all it contains. So if you're looking for action, a comedy, a drama or anything romance/love related you don't have to watch it. Also practically the whole cast consists out of girls. Slice of life, friendship, cute girls doing cute things and short stories are the key
...
terms for this anime.
Story
There's no general story in the anime. Instead every episode is a short story about some event. Usually it's about something an event/situation inside the school. Since it's about events it doesn't exactly follow a specific character around. This makes it more approachable for people who don't like one character. It's possible that if you don't enjoy one episode because you don't like a specific character, you might like the next one. The series start in the fall, you get to see a couple of events till the end of the year.
A couple of examples of events/situations are, a girl trying to figure out how to get control her weight. In case you wondered why this would be interesting, it's not really. However through her actions and interactions she'll bond with people and work together with them, which is heart warming in the end. A second example is a story how 2 seemingly polar opposite girls became friends. Although they had nothing in common, they met and through the circumstances they become best friends. Ofcourse there were some set backs which makes the little story a bit more interesting than "I came, I conquered".
Characters
Almost the entire (active) cast of GF is made up out of high school girls from the same school. According to MAL there are 5 main characters. I would say that the five mentioned on MAL have more screen time than the remaining characters. But since there's no actual character followed as main character, all the girls sort of all feel equally important every time a new episode starts. The about 35 "non-main character girls" or so have less screen time and tend to move around in groups a bit more. This results in them having seemingly shallower characters. Some of them (or groups) will get a spotlight in certain episodes while others are only following a supporting role.
This results diverse episodes, which make episodes still enjoyable even if you happen to not really like certain characters. Even if you don't really like one of the five main character girls, you don't follow them every single episode. Also every girl has a different voice actress, this is pretty nice since there are lots of different girls. I personally think it makes the girls more diverse.
Art, the art is OK. It's not amazing, but typically what you expect to see in a cute girls doing cute things type of anime. With lower than average details. Basically, what you see is what you get. There's not a lot on the screen so basically if there's no reason for a prop to be on the screen, it's basically not there. There are no eye candy unused water bottles on tables for example. Counters are neat and don't have anything on them. So you shouldn't really expect exceptional art. I would say it's not above average of what you would expect in 2014. The animation is sort of not that great too. A lot is rather static. When something does move it might not move very fluently or natural. If you're not easily bothered by this, I think it wont pose a problem.
Sound
The sound is good. Voice actresses sound different, music plays at the right times so it doesn't fall silent. The music sounds how you expect it to sound and usually enforces the atmosphere, but it doesn't ever reach the level where I would say "wow this sounds amazing". But that's not needed, the music fits and does its job.
My general experience and opinions on the anime
I think that most of the little stories were really nice to watch. I did like some characters more than others, so episodes containing more girls I liked vs characters I didn't really care for would obviously be more fun for me. But every episode was fun to watch. The conclusion of each episode would always give me the feeling I wasn't wasting time. Eventhough it's predictable at times just experiencing the stories was good enough for me.
The next section will be a comparison with similar healing anime. So you can see how I think GF relates to them.
The Aria series (the Animation, Natural and Origination) and Non Non Biyori are better in my eyes. Aria follows a couple of characters going on "adventure" or experiencing something amazing every episode. Aria had a nice and consistent pacing which fit the anime perfectly. It also had music which stood out positively enforcing the mood/atmosphere a lot better than GF. Also Aria was more touching in general while like in GF not trying to go overboard with drama. Aria was a wonderful experience, whereas GF was merely very nice.
Non Non Biyori is similar to GF in cuteness in art style. It also is comedic, but Non Non Biyori does the comedy better. Non Non Biyori also has more screen time for the characters giving them a deeper character.
Both anime have a higher emphesis on art. Both of them have tried to put the scenery in detail. While Aria is older and the art I guess outdated, it was good enough for me to fill in the amazingness of the scenery with what they provided me.
But all hope isn't lost! It's still better than some in my eyes! Keep in mind that I haven't finished Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka? (Gochuumon), K-ON second season and Hanayamata. Actually all 3 of them have the same reason why I haven't been able to finish them. They all try to shove down your throat that the girls are cute and moe. This is reflected in what happens in the anime. In Hanayamata for example there's this girl that keeps tripping over and falling flat on her face. If it happens it's fine. But when it happens for no reason it annoys me. Secondly they put the emphesis on it and put it in the center of attention. While it might not be annoying to some of you, to me it seems as if they're trying to hide their lack of content with some kind of filler. Again this might not be bad if it's used in the right context or change the mood, but when it happens so something happens it annoys me. GF doesn't do this. In GF the girls all do what they normally would. Do they do it in a cute way? Well the director lets us decided wether we think it's cute or not. This makes the show a lot more enjoyable for me. So basically GF let's us decided what we think of things rather than forcing us to adopt his opinion.
K-ON! is a step up in art and story compared to Hanayamata. Gochuumon is a a couple of steps up in art compared to... well anything else mentioned but story-wise it's not that awesome. But unfortunately I couldn't deal with the "I present you lots of cuteness, accept that it's cute and deal with it" attitude. So if you're actually fine with an overdose of cuteness you might like the 3 above mentioned series (and Kiniro Mosaic) better than GF.
Reasons to watch:
Wanting to enjoy a relaxed 20 minutes and feel good afterwards.
Liking cute girls.
Reasons not to watch:
Effectively no plot.
Low progress.
Low development of characters.
No top quality art.
Sometimes not fluent animation.
Not liking some voice actresses.
Predictablity.
Kokomi's overly sized udders (I still don't understand why her breasts seem so huge).
I hope you got an idea wether you should watch it or not. In the end it really boils down to wether you only want to relax and watch that episode and feel good at the end, without any expectation of grandness.
Anyway my final verdict for GF is an 8. This means I enjoyed it quite a bit. There are definately better things out there, but I don't regret watching Girlfriend (Kari).
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 26, 2015
First of all, this show isn't for everyone. You can tell by the spread out scores people gave it. I write this review only having watched 3 episodes, because I don't intent watching any more of it. I wouldn't called the show bad, but I just don't like it.
When I read the synopsis, I expected a (romantic) story. Oh boy was I deceived.
"The story revolves around Haruka and Yuu, two girls who go to a high school that is slated to be shut down in three years. To share something special between them, they share a kiss, and their relationship deepens from that moment onward."
(spoilers
...
from episode one are present)
The first sentence is correct, but that's not the part that caught my attention/interest. It's the second sentence that's deceiving. The sentence doesn't connect to the previous except for having the same people in it. But the main offender is that there's no context. It doesn't tell you they share something special because Haruka is possessive and jealous of other girls hanging around her friend. It was to declare their FRIENDSHIP.
Then it says they share a kiss. This isn't wrong, it's actually quite correct. However it doesn't tell you why they kiss. They could have shared a diary, a cat, a bag, a secret (well it turns out this is a secret, but whatever), or any other kind of experience. But they didn't, because a kiss apperently was the best option. And that's quite fine, you know, if you're attracted to your friend and you want to deepen your friendship, I could imagine you would kiss her (I'm not against shoujo-ai so why not?). However this kiss didn't have any romantic significance. It was just a kiss because the FRIENDS couldn't find anything better.
The last part of the second sentence states that their relationship deepens from that moment on. Strange as it may be, it made me assume they were going to bond more due to the kiss. I mean it's in the same sentence right? Well since I only got to episode 3, I can't tell you their relationship didn't deepen. It also doesn't say how much/fast it deepens so they got me there!
Now as for the story after 3 episodes there's pretty much no progress. Which isn't a problem if it's something Like Yuru Yuri, because Yuru Yuri doesn't advertise a story and is supposed to be FUNNY and delivers. In Sakura Trick however their relationship deepens from friends who kissed once, to friends who kiss more frequent. I mean it's probably only been a month or 2 so why move faster right?
Art: OK, huge boobs, why? I don't know. Girls are animated really girly sometimes, I don't know if any girls would actually "run" like that. And atleast Haruka has knock-knee. But I can live with that.
Sound? Can't remember. It wasn't memorable in either a good or bad way.
Characters.... Ok so the characters are unique and there's 6 of them. And that's pretty much how far the good part of this section goes. Since I can't really say too much about the 4 supporting characters except that they weren't horrible that leaves me to the rest. Yuu's sister was also not horrible. By the way they're NOT in an all girls school, there are boys walking around. They just don't actively take a part in this anime in the first 3 episodes. And apperently 4 out of the 6 girls rather kiss females than even talk about boys. Actually the amount of focus a boy gets in Non Non Biyori is even higher (he doesn't get lines, but atleast he get's acknowledgement of being there.
So Yuu and Haruka... Yuu at first reminded me of Hotaru from Non Non Biyori, whom I like. But the thing is Hotaru is 10-11 and has genuine feelings for her "crush". Haruka just wants to kiss. Hotaru is acting more like something her age than Haruka is. Which leaves us a childish or underdeveloped Haruka. Yuu to me feels like the standard male harem MC. Little to no redeeming qualities, bad at studying good at sports.
Then I want to disect this anime a bit. It has:
1 Lesbianism
2 Kissing
3 Hiding the kissing as a secret
4 Comedy
5 Drama (I know I haven't mentioned it thus far, but it's there.)
If you would take 1 away, the series would fall apart. If you take 2 away or reduce the frequency, the series would fall apart. If you would take 4 away the series would still stand (I never really liked the comedy all that much). "We got to jump! Drag me along with you as you jump!" *shorter girl grabs taller girl's breasts instead of her waist*.
The drama I've seen wasn't bad, but it would be nicer if kissing wasn't the answer to everything.
So did I enjoy it? Not really. Is it bad? Well actually I would say yes. Does it mean you'll think it's bad? Not necessarily. If you like to see girls kissing no matter how frequent this is the show for you!
Oh final note: some people say it's a hidden gem. It's controversial, it's showing yuri or shoujo-ai still has a lot of potential. I agree, there's room for more shoujo-ai, more and better especially better.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 7, 2015
After rewatching the Aria, I've decided it's definately personally my favourite SoL series. I hope this review will help you decide wether Aria will be sometihng for you or not.
Story? Not rated, if you want to see sometihng with a deep and profound story, atleast the first two seasons are probably not what you're after. Reasons why you may be interested though are: a desire relax and lose stress. Seeing little wonders or amazing things. Aria is basically a feel good anime.
Aria is mostly about Akari, a girl from Manhome (24th century earth) going by herself to Aqua (terraformed Mars which is now mostly covered
...
by water). By the first episode she's already been there for almost a year. So there's no "settling in" and the "story" can start right away without any delay. Akari is training to become an undine (it's not important what an undine is, but it's basically someone rowing a gondola for tourism purposes). You don't see her overcoming all kinds of obstacles because that's not what the anime is about. Instead you see parts of her life and her adventures (with her friends) in the days passing by as she's trying to become a professional.
The art is pretty good. There's not much to be said about this. The scenery is gorgeous. Eventhough the anime is (currently) not available in any kind of resolution near HD what you see is still amazing. There is some chibi/exaggerated facial expersions stuff going on in the series (mostly when depicting people their quirks and traits), but if you don't mind it too much it should be fine.
The sound is absolutely amazing. I like pretty much all voice actors (I don't really like Alice's VA but other than that I have no complaints. The music fits perfectly. I personally think Aria has the best soundtrack I've ever heard. I don't like a cappella for example, but I can't help but appriciate it when it plays. Most of the songs are soothing, calming and cheery fitting the general scenery and mood of the anime.
The characters are all unique within the anime. Every person showing up has a strongly distinct personality. Though sometimes certain traits seem a bit exaggerated, their acts and decisions are all very human. Nothing seems out of place in this aspect. The diverse cast I think can make you appriciate Aria even if you don't absolutely love Akari. Characters other than Akari also get plenty of screen time.
I also like the structure of the anime. It usually starts with a short introduction of the episode, which naturally flows into the opening (the OP gets different scenery every episode which has been made to fit the mood/story of the episode). By the time the OP fades out the it has naturally flown into the main body of the episode. It's a bit hard to explain, but if you decide to watch Aria you'll know what I mean.
The first time I watched Aria, I did it within about 2 weeks. I really enjoyed it a lot. However after hearing multiple people saying that watching it slowly would be better I decided to rewatch the whole series 1 episode a day (before going to sleep). That is when I found out the soundtrack wasn't just very good, it was in fact, amazing. It also made me appriciate every episode more.
I rated everything a 9, because I do think that Aria isn't perfect. But the small imperfections don't really matter to me as it gets compensated by being amazing as a whole.
To me there's no real difference between in setup or quality within the series. So what I wrote will apply to all 3 (currently finished) seasons.
If you're reading this there's a good chance you're interested and didn't stop reading after the first few lines. I know I wrote amazing a lot. I did it because it amazes me how much I like Aria. I guess I could have written "wonderful" (suteki) instead to make it look more like Akari's point of view. You'll find out what I mean by that if you'll watch the series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 27, 2014
So... I got into D-Frag without reading the manga with basically no expectations. It started off slowly and after 3/12 episodes you wouldn't know what it was about.
It's pretty much unpredictable at times and sort of predictable at others. Quite some jokes are actually funny. The bad ones don't stick around. I was actually surprised how they "use" characters. It feels like the characters are just a tool to make the jokes work. Atleast this goes for the supporting ones.
This becomes apperent because the anime only has 12 episodes. Not all characters can develop in this amount of time. It feels like I'm watching "the
...
best of" D-Frag manga (I could be wrong since I haven't actually read it).
Although the start was messy and there was no real connections between the episodes at the start it got better after a couple of episodes, story and enjoymentwise (although it doesn't have a story so I guess connectivity/appealingwise). Due to this I changed the score from an initial 6 to a 7 while the series probably has a higher potential.
In short, if you're looking for a story this isn't something you'd watch. If you're looking for comedy, this might be worth it if it is to your taste. If you can get through the first episodes it'll likely just get better for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 16, 2014
There are quite some reviews on Clannad out there, some good reviews (9/10) and some bad (3/5ish). However, I still want to write my own, because I think Clannad and you deserve it. (But apparently this anime isn’t for everyone)
My review is based on how I experienced Clannad as a watcher WITHOUT the need to dissect it. So as a person that sat back and just took whatever came at him. So there's probably a lot of bias. :D
The theme is "family" in a loose way. For some it means issues concerning parents. For others it's siblings, or friends or even a group of
...
friends. This theme will recur in every arc in some shape or form.
I'll start with the characters, because that's what attracts my attention. I tend to drop animes whenever I dislike characters or when they're unrealistic/illogical. Some people claim they're not realistic, however I think they somewhat are. I think their personalities in general are very human and realistic (in the serious parts so when it counts). Each person has their unique mind-set. I think one of the reasons I like the characters is because they're easy to relate to.
I will not be writing about all of them but as a quick example I will review a couple which I think I can do without spoiling.
Characters
Tomoya: the main character.
He's a person that has basically given up on life. He's had a rough youth and doesn't really care much about his surroundings. He basically wants fool around/pass time because he has no real goal. He acts useless as he feels he is. During the story his character will develop in a realistic way in my eyes.
Sunohara: the comedic relieve sidekick friendish.
He's basically there for comedic relieve. His role is to provide the story with some comedy (very useful, will come to this later). His personality and such is sacrificed in most situations for this. He does have a few moments in which he's insightful/useful but he's mostly there for the comedy.
Since his character is sacrificed I tend not to like him too much.
Fuko: a heroine.
An introvert socially awkward girl that does her best to support her sister. Although she has an arc, she too provides of a lot of comedy. She does act like a little girl as some people stated. Some people think of it as her charm others hate her for it. I didn't judge on it, as I just watched for the story and comedy since it doesn't bother me. There's a little more to her that I like, but I can't go into detail without spoiling.
Tomoyo: my favourite heroine.
She's a strong and determined girl. She has a goal and will do her best to reach that goal. Yet she's not blind to her surroundings and doesn't want to reach her goal hurting people in the progress. She has some decisions to make and I am satisfied with the ones she made.
Story/flow
As I wrote before the it's about family. It starts off with the main character Tomoya. He then decides to help Nagisa (main heroine) and the story evolves from there. Even though there's no real clear story line and where it will from the start, the story as it unfolds satisfies my. The characters and comedy keep me interested.
The first few episodes are introduction to the characters and setting for the plot. The first part of an arc usually consists out of a comedic part. Then problems/obstacles appear which need to be dealt with. I like that it has comedic parts in between because that keeps the anime from being very heavy. Also I like the comedy so I don’t mind at all.
Sound
I'm very pleased with the Japanese voice acting and I don't understand Japanese and that's all that I have to say about the voice acting.
The soundtrack however, is just amazing. First of all the soundtrack is quite large. The background music is just "perfect". I don't think there's been any time where I would have like the soundtrack to be different. Well yeah except for one song that I don't like... Ana... some weird englishish song. The OP en ED songs grew on me. Usually I skip those, but they really grew on me.
Why I watch(ed) Clannad:
I like the characters, to me they're interesting unique loveable and it's easy to feel empathy for them. The story is great as it unfolds without a clear indication of any precise direction as it goes.
I like the tragic parts which emphasise the good things that can happen in life. And I like to see happiness. The tragic parts just give a good contrast I suppose.
Why I think you should watch Clannad:
I want you to experience what I have. Watching it, felt satisfying and afterwards I wanted more because I liked it. The soundtrack left their marks on me in a good way. I think you might like it too. When I listen to the soundtrack it reminds me of the feelings I had when the tracks played.
As a further pro I think the logic and rationale are quite good in Clannad, one of the most important things I want in a good show.
Possible cons:
Not liking the artworks, fantasy elements, or characters.
I think you should be able to decide whether you will like it or not after 2 episodes.
My background on Clannad. I've watched it 4 times. And played the visual novel once. I still enjoy watching Clannad. I think Clannad is a great anime and advise you to play the visual novel if you're seeking more dept.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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