An Anime Review by Xbolt.
The word “Clannad” is derived from “clan,” the Irish word for family. And that’s really what is at the heart of the anime; the building of families. Not just actual relatives, but a close circle of friends who are like family.
Tomoya Okazaki is a high school delinquent, who is generally apathetic towards life. He is absolutely straightforward with his comments, and will speak his mind, even if he may come across as rude. Despite that, he is steadfastly loyal to his friends, and will not hesitate to help if he can.
At the beginning of the story, Tomoya meets Nagisa Furukawa, a very soft-spoken girl with very little self-esteem. She loves anpan, (sweet bean bread,) and the “Dango Daikazoku,” a group mascot character. Nagisa wants to re-establish the school’s drama club, which Tomoya helps with.
Kyou Fujibayashi is an aggressive girl, who will throw the book (literally!) at anyone she gets mad at. She has a pet baby boar named Botan, is the class representative for her class, and a good cook. Her sister on the other hand, Ryou Fujibayashi, is very timid, and not a good cook.
Kotomi Ichinose is highly intelligent. In every subject on standardized tests, she is among the top ten in the country. She is also very shy and quiet, and is always found sitting in the library, reading books. She also likes playing the violin, but is rather terrible at it, causing pain for everyone within earshot. After Tomoyo meets her, he tries to help her become more sociable by having her join in the drama club.
Tomoyo Sakagami is very strong. Youhei Sunohara, another friend of Tomoya’s, often challenges her, but always ends up falling victim to her Megaton Kick of Doom. She aims to become the student council’s president, in order to try and preserve a grove of cherry trees that are in danger of being cut down.
Tomoya helps her with that, because she could also help the drama club if she were president.
And now we come to my favorite character: Fuko Ibuki. Fuko is a slightly silly girl, who always refers to herself in the third person. Tomoya finds Fuko sitting all alone, making little wooden carvings of starfish to hand out to people as presents. She does this because she wants people to attend her big sister’swedding; the big problem being that nobody at the school knows her sister, since she had retired three years earlier. Despite that, Tomoya and Nagisa help Fuko with the (slightly embarrassing) task of handing out starfish to all 700 students at the school. Fuko is also highly susceptible to cute things, going into a daze when confronted with one. This leads Tomoya to play lots of pranks on her.
Clannad is my second-favorite anime after Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy.
Clannad: Complete Collection is available on DVD at Amazon.
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