well, Clannad/Clannad AS were based on the visual novel "Clannad", a videogame where you can take diferent paths to fish the story (but you must take all the possible paths, through different files, to fully complete it). It's about Tomoya helping out his friends and family to help himself understand the meaning of friendship and family (in fact "clannad" means family in irish, welsh or some language from around there). Every time he helps someone, he collects an orb (notice in the anime those bubbly things at the end of a story arch?, well that represents the orbs, although for some reason in the anime they only appear sometimes, while in the visual novel they always appear), and he must collect the orbs from all the characters to complete the game.

That's why the story is divided into archs centered around a specific person, you have to collect the orbs of Fuuko, Kotomi, etc. In the visual novel the orbs for Tomoyo and the Fujibayashi twins you can only get by not going for the Nagisa orb, so when when they adapted those archs to the anime they had to make a parallel universe, and they made it into a special episode for each orb instead of giving them a whole arch.

As for the movie, it's like Guz said, don't watch it until you've seen AS. The voice for Tomoya has changed, the animation is diferent (same as the original visual novel) and the story is rushed (basically the same as the Nagisa and Ushio archs in the anime, but with some minor changes; I heard it's closer to the visual novel's original story for these arches). It's an ok watch, but nowhere near as good as the anime series. If you want to watch it, it's best to do so around a year after you watched the anime... watching 90 minutes of something you've just seen will only be frustrating.

This post was edited by zarkadon on Mar 8 2012 05:58am

just finished watching clannad and it was awesome, confusing and weird at times. but awesome. onto AS and the movie next :3

ty guys good answers from both of you

I probly won't watch the movie if it's just a summarry of the two animes.

anyone got a recomendation of kanon? its coming up on my list to watch and i want to know how it is.

I'm actually watching it right now. I just finished episode 19/24. Ill finish it either today or tomorrow.

It is very similar to Clannad/Clannad AS. It's got less comical moments, so it's mostly drama and emotional situations, but it's not as sad as AS. The art style is the same (not only the animation itself, but the music and the way its used along with the animation), amazingly done. I'm really enjoying it so far. It doesn't reach the level of Clannad/Clannad AS imo, but it's awesome, much better than Air and Angel Beats. Although I haven't finished it yet.

Yep, when you are done with Clannad: AS you'll definitely want to check out Kanon (2006). There are so many similarities between the shows that it's impossible to list
Like with the other Key animes it didn't quite have me hooked from the very start but after a few episodes when it gets more emotional you'll be find that it executes those tearjerker moments even more flawlessly than Clannad does.
Also, the ending is slightly better than the one in Clannad: AS even though they both have a really similar feel to them.

imo
Clannad: AS > Kanon (2006) > Clannad > Angel Beats > Air

This post was edited by GuZ on Mar 8 2012 09:22am

Just finished Claymore. In the beginning I didnt like it at all.. but then I watched more and I kinda liked it. Is there a 2nd season?

There's no second season planned. Start reading from around chapter 60 in the manga if you want the continued story.
If I remember correctly, episode 23-26 (or something similar) is anime-only so scratch that from your mind first

This post was edited by GuZ on Mar 8 2012 11:38am

I'm on my 2nd watch through of Claymore. On episode 22/26 right now.

There was a petition started by the creator of Claymore awhile back and it got enough votes to make a 2nd season.. I don't know what happened to it though. :*(

Currently watching
Elfin Lied -- Episode 3/12
Heroic Age -- 2/12
Mushi Shi -- 4/26

Recently Finished FMA Brotherhood.

OK, so after watching Maria Holic last week I decided to watch something completely different: Kanon (2006 version, ofc)

It was really good, excellent work by KEY. For whoever said was about to watch Kanon after Clannad, I'd let it rest a few months and watch it later rather than watching these two shows one after another. It will probably be a better experience that way imo, after all they are VERY similar.



I personally still think Clannad is a bit above Kanon, mainly because I find it's more complete, it's not only a wonderful romance/drama but it also has great comedy (Akio-san is God ). If I were to only consider the romance/drama side though, then maybe I would rate Kanon above, but also I like the characters better in general in Clannad (although Mai from Kanon is really awesome),although that's just my opinion ofc. Other than that, I agree Angel Beats is a step below, and Air is the worst one (even though it's still worth a watch). Both of these would probably have been better if the series lasted 24 episodes instead of 12, because imo KEY's strongest weapon is character development, and it's impossible to do that in a 12 episode series if you have so many story archs.