Clannad After Story Review - 90/100
I’ve been thinking about this series, and how to exactly review it, since Clannad’s after story contained some of the biggest highlights but also some of the biggest lowlights of the season. In the end, though, I decided to be positive about this series. Sure, the ending was terrible, I’m not going to sugarcoat that, but the episodes prior to that were utterly incredible.
Clannad already was a very good series, and its after story pretty much starts out similar, with a number of different arcs that are meant to flesh out the different members of the Clannad cast. Since Clannad already did the main characters, the first half of the After Story focuses more on the side-characters. while nothing amazing, the stories are consistently charming and interesting.
The goodness only really starts with the arrival of the second half, though. It’s here where most of the characters graduate high school and all go their own way, and this is where this series evolves into something completely unique. It’s a bit hard to describe this without any major spoilers, but the result is absolutely heart-wrenching, and yet incredibly realistic. Nearly every side character disappears from the screen in order to follow his or her dream, and we’re just left with the main couple of the series. It’s going to be very hard to find someone who wasn’t extremely positive about the turns that the series took at that point.
But yeah, it unfortunately ends in one of the biggest and most blatant Deus ex Machina endings out there, on the same level as Mai Hime. Whie the game this series is based on contains the explanation of what went on, anyone unfamiliar with the games will feel completely cheated. The series had been quite faithful to the original Visual Novel, but it did try to add in enough extra vits in order to spice up the story and make it more realistic and believable, but those two really did clash in that final episodes. And in the end the biggest flaws of this series is that it’s a bit too keen on pleasing the fans of original visual Novel. The ending just feels out of place, and Tomoyo’s After Story and Kyou’s story (which both got only one special episode) just feel like a big waste of potential. If the creators wanted to include those stories, they should have gone with a Higurashi-styled series: have different arcs focusing on all the important characters, which reset to the beginning at the end, and having each of these arcs deal with various of the side stories seen so far.
So no, I really wasn’t happy with that ending. Still in the end, Clannad has been a fantastic series, just like its predecessor Air. Both have taken the biggest heap of clichés imaginable, and went with such a harem setting to something completely daring and original with excellent and bittersweet results. Unlike Kanon, these two really helped the harem genre evolve, and with a genre that originally lived on seeing who could make the most generic heap of stereotypes, it really needed that.
| Storytelling: | 9/10 |
| Characters: | 10/10 |
| Production-Values: | 9/10 |
| Setting: | 8/10 |
Agreed. Ending was WTF kind of thing and really felt like it cheated the viewers out. Good series overall though.
Comment by cc — March 20, 2009 @ 16:41
I agree that the ending wasn’t very well explained, but once you understand the ending, everything fits together and it makes complete sense. It’s called the true end for a good reason.
Comment by blkmage — March 20, 2009 @ 16:50
I kinda of liked the ending, sure it was a deus ex machina, but at the same time the series did hint at something like this happening with the appearance of the light orbs in certain episodes so it wasn’t too much of a WTF moment for me. Even though I haven’t played the visual novel, I think I somewhat understand what happened in the final episode, however, it does require some suspension of disbelief. Overall, great series
Comment by Zetatrain — March 20, 2009 @ 17:05
yeah, the ending just kinda left me hanging with a little mingling of shock and angriness. It did so well at times, and I simply loved how they really fleshed out the characters rather than being one page people, but they could of stretched the game ending into a slighty more anticipating and better one. otherwise, it was a great “sequel” to watch! :D
Comment by Snowolf — March 20, 2009 @ 17:19
This series has had supernatural things happen ever since the start. The ending made sense, since it’s been hinted since the first episode that there was things going around in that town that was way beyond belief. There were several stories in the series that was based pretty much solely on supernatural events.
My only complaint is that the ending felt a bit abrupt, I would have liked another episode or two to see what all the side characters were up to. Maybe a 同窓会 10 years later. Just something to give a nice conclusion to the series. But hey… that would that would rule out “Clanned - After the after story” haha… :D
Comment by aegd — March 20, 2009 @ 17:29
Eh, the ending is word for word exactly like the game, including the fuuko ninja event at the end.
Problem is they can’t really show replayability (the orbs you get from each route, needing all 13 to get the true end) like in the game so the ending is a bit wierd if you had zero knowledge of the visual novels mechanics.
It makes even less sense if you skipped the illusionary world scenes throughout both seasons.
It’s still a deus ex machina, but so is every Key game ending, it’s just something you have to accept going into watching/playing them.
Comment by man0warr — March 20, 2009 @ 17:51
The only episodes that really did much for me in the end were the arc ends in the first season and episode 13-20 or so in After Story. That’s definitely over half the season leaving me hanging though. Also the comedy didn’t do anything for me, but the drama could be pretty good at times. Overall I’d probably give it about a 73/100 or so using your scoring method.
Comment by Kaioshin Sama — March 20, 2009 @ 20:26
The ending ruined everything.
Comment by Windspirit — March 21, 2009 @ 0:37
psgels, you should watch Futakoi Alternative - the best harem anime ever (even though technically, it doesn’t qualify as a harem, but then again it does… just watch it).
Comment by da_man — March 21, 2009 @ 0:48
This ending was a rare instance where something overly happy/deus ex machina didn’t turn me off.
As you all might have noticed, even though everything was reset due to all the lights Tomoya had collected, he still didn’t forget anything that had happened post-Nagisa’s death even after he went back to the night of Ushio’s birth. It was almost as if he had been seeing a terrible nightmare of what might have been…
Comment by Houlgrave — March 21, 2009 @ 16:12
I was very pleased that poor Tomoya got a happy end, so the deus ex machina thing didn’t bother me too much. It probably fit very well in the structure of the visual novel, getting the “true” end when you complete all the paths, but it didn’t translate too well in the anime adaptation. I’ll just consider that Tomoya was dreaming, as Houlgrave said, and that way I can just not mind it.
Still, my only regret is that we didn’t get to see Tomoya, Nagisa and Ushio all happy together in an extra episode.
Comment by moonie — March 21, 2009 @ 19:16
yes, yes, the ending was a little dissappointing, but they had to do it, if you deviate from the VN then it might as well have been an original series on its own. as for the Tomoyo and Kyou arcs, you really gotta give em a break, the main conflict of those two arcs is Tomoya deciding whether to date them or not, seeing as he’s going to be hooked up with Nagisa in the anime, those two storylines just have no place in the anime yet they were still able to adapt it in albiet a bit weakly.
Comment by supereece — May 20, 2009 @ 7:03
dude are you FUCKING stupid or something with ur UNLIKE KANON.
you MUST be talking about Kanon 2002 because Kanon 2006 is even greater then Clannad and AIR.
i LOVED Clannad but i was r ealy upset with the end, it COULD have become my nr1 wich is Kanon 2006.
but the end just didnt do it for me like WHY fucking cry about all the things that happen when in the end they dont realy happen FUCK that shit, i wa planning to rewatch it soon to make myself cry again lol, BUT NOW THATS NOT EVEN POSSIBLE ANYMORE BECAUSE IT WAS SUCH A RUSHED WHY MAKE IT SO HAPPY end.
Clannad After Story was Superb drama i LOVED it, they should have kept nagisa’s sacrifice and enden with just tomoya and ushi or something realy when the light appeared and suddenly he time warped 5 years back to ushios birth like some miracle had happend i felt SO cheated damnit, it was a PERFECT show realy but the end not at all.im sad about it cause it was about to become my favorite but ah well.
Beside the end Clannad was GREAT.
But Kanon 2006 is still my nr1, not very complex and some things are not VRY original just like Clannad season 1 with some side stories but at least those side stories where deep and maked sense.
Comment by Garuda — June 11, 2009 @ 5:29
Hated everything about Clannad + the afterstory except for the gangstuh fight and tomoyo’s ova (and also the depressing 2nd half of afterstory, minus the actual ending ending).
That ova took every bad aspect of Clannad, and polished it to the point where if it were developed, could have been such a wonderful piece. No more pungent cheese, no more cliche goodie goodie mushy moshy ness. Art was incredibly improved upon, showing all their emotions and squirms and whatnot, supporting the voices of their emotions. Good stuff, the rest of Clannad wasnt.
But no, Clannad was at most, mediocre. However depressing the twist to afterstory was, it was ruined at the end when all reality mushed from a little dream.
Comment by Dante — July 30, 2009 @ 7:13
I guess if you just ignored the globes of light granting wishes and the “other world” segments completely the ending would seem a bit deus ex machina, but that would be silly. The only way to “reset” was to have everything play out like it did, ending just good or just bad would only have been half of the story. Especially with anime endings being generally unsatisfying from a western perspective, I’m surprised there’s so much hate for an amazing ending.
Well, enough ranting. Certainly there were things I would change if I could about this series, but overall I’d rate the full Clannad story 90/100.
Comment by MMania — August 5, 2009 @ 17:27
Personally, I’m glad they gave them a happy ending. It was soul-crushingly sad to see all the steps Tomoya made to find happiness, only to have it all snatched away repeatedly. Usually, I hope for a sad ending, but that was not the case this time. All the time spent having us get to know the characters, really helped strengthen my empathy for them, and as a result, I was really hoping for them to go the direction they did.
Comment by Zodiac Casino — September 23, 2009 @ 4:39