Reviews for Clannad (7.61) 3p6f5g

As visual novel adaptations go, Clannad is a good one. The integration of the various paths of the original is astonishingly well done, though helped greatly by the fact that this is not really a romance story so much as a more general character drama. The characters provide an interesting spread, although the male/female split is awkward; less female ivity would make for a better balance. In practice the series devotes "mini-arcs" of a few episodes to each, and quality varies substantially between them; some relationships, particularly that of the leads, are very well developed, but in others much has clearly been lost in the transition from first- to third-person storytelling. It is this difference which drags down the plot; a storyline which is all about emotion is hard to convey purely visually, so there are times where the drama drags.

What sustains the series through these periods is the comedy; it's not laugh-a-minute, but there is a gentle humourous undercurrent to everything, along with a number of physical gags that work surprisingly well. This makes Clannad perfect for relaxed watching at the end of the day; the slow pace gives one time to appreciate the characters rather than constantly reacting to punchlines. Likewise the animation never requires one's attention; it's consistent and solid but never spectacular, and in a show like this there is very little call for visual effects. The voice acting sadly tends too much towards the breathy end, particularly for the aforementioned ive female characters - while this may be a match for the personalities, I found it more irritating than cute. Musically the anime reuses several tracks from the game, but radically reinterprets some (most notably the ending song, which was an instrumental piece in the original), to interesting but mixed results; the opening theme is (to the best of my knowledge) a new song, and suitable but not greatly appealing. Some of the background tracks become slightly stale by the end, but by and large they're composed well enough not to grate.

All in all this is a pleasant, inoffensive show; one could certainly do a lot worse. But the drama misses as often as it hits, and while the comedy holds interest there's nothing clever or original here. At the end I got the feeling of having spent a while watching with nothing to show for it; there's no artistic cleverness, no literary dialogue, no historical importance. Clannad is quite an enjoyable waste of time, but a waste of time nonetheless.