Reviews for Clannad: After Story (8.53) 5k19p

For those of you that liked the 1st season of Clannad, you will like the 2nd season of Clannad, but probably not as much since the 2nd season is moderately slower. Clannad After Story to me is broken down into 2 phases which I will get into further along in this review.

Clannad AS is probably one of the best romance/drama series you will see. I would say out of all the people that watched this show/season, I would guess that over 85% of them cried somewhere along Clannad AS because its that powerful and influential.

DISCLAIMER: If you have not seen Clannad AS yet but are reading this review to decide whether to watch it or not, this review will have a few spoilers here and there. Though they won't be major spoilers, it's spoilers none the less and should be watched by the viewer by watching Clannad After Story, so please stop reading now for those that have not watched this anime!!

As mentioned, I thought Clannad AS was broken down into 2 phases which were 1) School Days & 2) Post School Days

Phase 1
For those that enjoyed/loved the 1st season of Clannad, then the 2nd season first half of Clannad is exactly the same. The main focus is around all the main characters Tomoya and Nagisa, but also concentrates on the sub-characters which are a lot so I won't mention by name.

This was the half of Clannad AS that I enjoyed the most, because it had all elements that I want in a romance/drama series. It had romance obviously, but comedy which I love as a genre was heavily in the first half of Clannad AS. Romance, comedy, drama, school life, and a positive atmosphere were the rest of the genres in this half of Clannad AS.

I enjoyed the fact that some of the sub-characters had flash backs on their lives of hardships which were usually sad to the point that you might cry and then brought back to the present to show how much they changed based on the experience that was learned by each individual. The 1st half of this series was sad, but not that sad because it was focused on school life and comedy. All in all, the 1st half was the best part of Clannad AS because all the characters in this series were still in school and enjoying their school days or what was left of it. A way you can look at the 1st half of Clannad AS is the calm before the storm.

Phase 2
For me, this half started right when Tomoya graduates from high school, because Tomoya and Nagisa's friends are hardly showed and the overall atmosphere gets dark, lonely, and depressing.

A good portion of the 2nd half is concentrated on Tomoya working and living together with Nagisa. The parents of Nagisa are now the sub-characters instead of her friends. The 2nd half starts off at a very slow pace since its only concentrating on Tomoya and Nagisa instead of everyone at school during the 1st half. However, Tomoya and Nagisa start living together and then eventually get married, which in my mind I'm saying "damn dude... you're like 18 and married". But in today's society would say that's way too young, but happens here.

If marriage wasn't enough to say "wow you're too young for this", then they have a kid. So just when you think nothing could go wrong, is when everything spirals down for Tomoya. I mean it goes from good to bad to worse to horrible. And each step is very emotionally moving and would make most cry. I won't say what happens, so I'll just mention situations. From the Nagisa, to the father, to the child situation, you can't get any worse then that because all those people are precious to Tomoya but has hardships (to say the least) with all of them.

The only thing that was confusing about the 2nd half of Clannad AS was the last episode, because towards the end of the last episode, its like the writers of this anime say, "just kidding, forget all the hardships you just watched and how we dragged Tomoya through the mud... but here, happy ending". Plus the ending was weak in my opinion. Out of all the options that could have been used for such a strong overall series, it seems like the weakest ending was chosen that made you say to yourself "wait... it really ends like that? For reals?"

Summary
There isn't anything flashy about this series, Clannad AS is a very linear series with no filler or episodes that make you think, "why is this here" or "this does not make sense". The storyline picks up from the last episode and progresses the further you go into Clannad AS and because of this, the viewer can enjoy a well developed plot.

I think this is a no brainer that this is a must watch if you are into romance series. I would even venture and say that if your not into romance genre anime, that you would like this series because its one of those series that make you think and appreciate how well done this anime series is. Every year there are few anime series that make you say "wow, what a great anime series" and I think for this year, Clannad AS is one of those anime series.