Clannad 01
October 5th, 2007 by Shirukii
Wow. I had some pretty high expectations from Clannad, being the KeyAni work that had the task of following up Kanon, but even so, I was pleasantly surprised at how good a job the first episode did at drawing me in. It was a great mash up of character introductions which emphasized Clannad’s potential as a school harem show, but at the same time gave subtle hints that there’s something supernatural brewing under the surface, without giving too much away. I’m really anxious to see how the series plays out.
Episode Rating: 9/10
The episode starts off by introducing Sunohara Youhei and Okazaki Tomoya, third year high school students who have a reputation as delinquents who have no direction in life. They don’t do much to disprove the charge, choosing to horse around in the morning rather than going to school on time.
When Tomoya finally makes it to school he hears a bunch of his classmates making fun of Sunohara and him for being slackers. He ignores them and takes his seat, only to be approached by the class rep, Fujibayashi Ryou, who timidly asks him to get to school on time from now on. Tomoya playfully bullies her a bit, but agrees to try harder to make it on time, as a reward, Ryou offers to tell his fortune. Ironically enough, she predicts that he’ll be late again tomorrow because he’ll have a fateful encounter with a nice girl, lose track of time with her and end up being late again.
When Tomoya starts to question her prediction, Ryou’s sister Kyou rushes into the room and threatens Tomoya for bullying Ryou. When Tomoya and Ryou assure her that they were just talking and Tomoya tells her about his supposed fateful encounter fortune, she wishes him luck and walks away laughing.
At lunch time, Tomoya walks around looking for a place to eat when he spots a girl sitting all by herself. He greets her and asks her why she’s eating alone, but she timidly apologizes to him and says she’s in the middle of her lunch and can’t talk. Tomoya hangs around until she finishes eating, after which she turns to him and resumes the conversation. She tells him that she was supposed to graduate last year but missed a lot of school because her body is weak and ended up being held a year back, and now she has no one left at the school who she knows. Tomoya encourages her to be more lively and make friends.
Their conversation is interrupted by a crowd gathering at the school’s soccer field. Tomoya meets Sunohara there who tells him that a bunch of delinquents from nearby schools have started to cause trouble. Suddenly the crowd goes nuts as a girl walks onto the field, approaching the delinquents. Tomoya gets ready to help her, but some random people from the crowd tell him that the girl’s name is Sakagami Tomoyo and that she’s really strong, he’d only be in the way. She lives up to her reputation, taking the troublemakers out with a flurry of lightning fast kicks.
Afterwards, Tomoya finishes his talk with the girl he met at lunch, who introduces herself as Nagisa Furukawa, and the two return to their classes.
Later that day, Sunohara approaches Tomoyo and accuses her of faking the whole show she put on earlier, saying she probably paid those guys off to throw the fight so she could look cool. Tomoyo invites Sunohara to try his luck, and he soon finds out, just as Tomoya remembers the rumors of a strong and beautiful girl showing up in town recently, that Tomoyo wasn’t bluffing.
After school, Tomoya remembers that during their talk, he encouraged Nagisa to join the drama club, which she had wanted to join before, but thought she wouldn’t be able to because of her health. Unfortunately, the drama club was closed recently due to a lack of members, and he gets there only to see Nagisa’s disappointed face. But he continues to encourage her, saying that they could revive the club themselves, if she wanted. Nagisa thanks Tomoya for being so nice to her even though they’ve only just met and invites him to drop by her house later, which also happens to be a bread shop.
After a bit of wandering, Tomoya takes Nagisa up on her offer and visits the bread shop. There he meets Nagisa’s mother, Sanae, who invites him to try a new bread that she’s just come up with, as there were a bunch left over that they didn’t sell anyways. The bread ends up being an odd creation, a rice cracker baked into a bun. Tomoya criticizes it for being too difficult to eat, but is shocked when his review leaves Sanae in tears. As she runs away crying, Nagisa’s father, Akio, goes yakuza on Tomoya for making his wife cry, but does a complete 180 when he realizes that he’s Nagisa’s friend.
The Furukawa family ends up inviting him to eat dinner with them where they happily talk about Nagisa’s good fortune in finding a friend so early in the new semester, the possibility that the two might end up dating and try replacing Tomoya’s plain name with a more exciting one. Nagisa sees Tomoya off as he comments that it must be nice having such a loving and lively family, Nagisa thinks it’s pretty normal, but for Tomoya it’s a completely different world compared to his home, where all that waits him is a messy house and a drunken gambling father who fell apart after Tomoya’s mom died when he was a kid.
Not wanting to put up with his house, he ends up wandering back to Nagisa’s place where he sees her outside, basking in a mysterious light, she offers to take Tomoya to a place in the city where wishes come true…
First Impressions
I’m intrigued, to say the least. Clannad’s first episode was an amazing introduction that gave you a brief glimpse of all the characters and a hint at the basic plot, but left enough out in the open to make you wonder what’s going to happen and build anxiety for the next episode.
More than anything, I’m really curious about the fantasy element of Clannad. All Key works have supernatural undertones, but Clannad seems a little different in that the fantasy element is more blatant. The basic idea seems to revolve an alternate world where Tomoya meets a girl with mysterious powers who constructs a body for him and the two wander around the separate reality, the only things that can be considered alive. But that’s REALLY vague and could be interpreted in a multitude of ways. Unlike Kanon, I have no idea how Clannad’s plot is going to fold out, but by the looks of it, it’s going to be one awesome ride.
Ahahahahahahaha~
The characters are also quite interesting so far. A lot of Key girls have a bad habit as coming off as seeming like they have down syndrome, but I guess that’s part of the appeal XD From the shy and quick to startle Ryou to the strong and powerful Tomoyo, the girls all seem to have their own unique personality traits that succeed in making them the moe-est of moeblobs.
The show looks like it’ll be centered around Nagisa, seeing as she’s gotten the most screen time, become well acquainted with Tomoya despite having known him only for a day, and we’ve even met her parents! She’s a little airheaded, but she has a cheery spirit and despite having a weak body, possesses a great outlook on life, all backed up by some moe modes like her “Ehehe” laugh and her family’s “Guu~!”, she’s growing on me. So far, she seems like a melding of Kanon girls Ayu and Shiori to me, but she has an air of mystery around her, especially with that final scene with Tomoya in front of her house.
But my favourite Clannad girl has got to be Kyou. Even before the show started I saw some art of her and knew that she’d be my fav. She appeared on screen with a grand and violent entrance but ended up being a nice, warmhearted person. Her laugh and eccentric behaviour also remind me of someone…I wonder who that might be…
I don’t think I have to back up the technical aspects of Clannad, after all it’s KyoAni who’s behind the animation, of course it’s going to be amazing. Everything from character designs to backgrounds are well done, with subtle extras like dynamic background scenery and characters making for some amazing eye candy. In addition to breathtaking scenery and fluid animation, KyoAni has made it clear that they’re not afraid to boast some action sequences either, exemplified by Tomoyo’s brief fight with the bikers (I lol’d at the spectator view). Makes you wish that they’d hurry up with FMP 4 =(
However, one thing I’m confused and disappointed about, what’s with the standard def, non-widescreen broadcast format?! We’re in 2007 here, there’s no excuse not to broadcast in widescreen. I sincerely hope that there’s another station broadcasting Clannad that does it in ws, higher definition would be great too, 720p! kthx.
I don’t think there’s any question that pretty much every anime blogger/fan out there is going to be watching this one the whole way through. With potential for a deep and involved story backed up by some great, although generic moe, characters, Clannad looks like it’s going to be the mainstream hit of the season. I’m not sure if I’ll continue to blog Clannad, since every anime blogger and their grandmother seems to be covering it, but I’m leaning towards sticking with it, just because it’s fun to write about and would be great to discuss with you readers out there. Sad girls in the spring, onwards!
MUDA DA!
~ Shirukii ~
19 Responses to “Clannad 01”
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4:3…. なぜだ…..
DVD on demand right away!
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When I heard Nagisa has a sick/weak setting, I instantly thought of Shiori (Whaa..!?)
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The Fujibayashi sisters reminded me of the Hiiragi sisters >_>
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Tomoyo’s 32(?) hit combo banzai~ We need one of those in EFZ >_>
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Akio, finally we got extra male character spotlights in KEY’s work =O
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Sad Girls in the….. cherry petals?
This was so amazing.lol spectator point of view.
About the standard def 4:3 format… I believe an HD broadcast will be out in a couple days :3
14 days to be exact
i was completely caught off guard by the spectator view the first time i saw it… that was just so lol…
and i agree with you… it seems that everybody including their grandmother seems to be blogging/watching CLANNAD(including me… hehe)
Ryou is currently my favorite character… since she reminds me of tsukasa… :D
lol, now i know the reason why this word “KyoAni” is so famous.
All i can say about this ep is “Amazing”, everything was really well done not a single minute going to waste. But I still couldn’t decide which character will be my fav. Nagisa?
“Clannad looks like it’s going to be the mainstream hit of the season.” Do we still have a doubt about that?
“I’m not sure if I’ll continue to blog Clannad, since every anime blogger and their grandmother seems to be covering it,” You don’t need to be sure about that, if u write it then we read it, and if u blog it then we come and share the fun/idea with you, Is this enough for it?
@ Nightingale: >> The Fujibayashi sisters reminded me of the Hiiragi sisters
Now that you mention it, you’re right. Except I don’t see much tsundere in Kyou just yet.
lol, you counted Tomoyo’s combo? You must have been bored, well done.
Akio was awesome, but I’d run like hell at the possibility of having him as a father in law.
@ Sniper: lol indeed, she left an afterimage!
@ Zeroblade/Nightingale: Yay, HD! Whaaaaaa?! 2 week wait?
@ kaz3phyrous: It’s overblogged and oversubbed, but meh, I blogged School days and Claymore, which also had a ton of people covering it, I’ll probably continue. And yea, Ryou is quite Tsukasa like, cept she’s better at fortune telling =D
@ Siva: Yep, series like this is why KyoAni has such a good reputation. Nagisa is a great character, but too much of a doormat type for me to consider her my fav.
Thanks for the encouragement, I think I will continue blogging it, so far I’ve had the most fun watching/blogging Clannad out of all the premieres so far.
Aa~~! Where’d you get the basic idea of the fantasy element? Was it said in the episode or are you basing it on past Key works? If it was the former I completely missed it xD
Hai, it seems like everyone’s blogging it regularly, but I’ll definitely keep up with it at least ^^
I don’t know what I was expecgting from the first episode. BUt I really liked for almost all reasons the bloggers (including Shiruki) have stated.
The scene with Nagisa’s family was really nice. I like Tomoya as a main character because he’s a bit different from Yuuichi and Yukito. Also because one of the themes of CLANNAD being “Family” really makes me love this show.
Shiruki I agree with this bit:
“The characters are also quite interesting so far. A lot of Key girls have a bad habit as coming off as seeming like they have down syndrome, but I guess that’s part of the appeal XD From the shy and quick to startle Ryou to the strong and powerful Tomoyo, the girls all seem to have their own unique personality traits that succeed in making them the moe-est of moeblobs.”
One reason I didn’t Air (which I watched AFTER watching Kanon 2006) so much because I couldn’t help but notice that all the characters were a bit too similar (having one aspect of sadness perhaps the “down syndrome” you reffered to). Air is good. I just prefer it’s heroines.
I liked Tomoyo from when I first knew about her (from general info and the manga). I didn’t think I would like Nagisa. But after finding out more about her I like her character a decent amount.
Alot of people love Kyou. I see why now, though she only appeared for a minute in this episode. She’s a bit devious …I guess that’s her appeal.
I think I’ll remain a Tomoyo fan. Because I like her tough attitude. and the “beat-everyone-with-awesome-kicks-and-martial-prowess” is a good bonus (the “spectator’s view” was hilarious.
@ Shirukii
Well, i didn’t really count Tomoyo’s combo, it’s just i remember seeing/hearing somewhere with her unleashed a 32-kick combo on Sonohara with the hit count on screen. So thaz been her unofficial hit count for me XD
go spectator view
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i didn’t see the tsudere part either, its just the hair color and gesture heheh.
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hmm dont have a favorite yet, need to look at the rest b4 i take a 1 or 2 out of ? pick.
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i second Siva, u blog it, we come in and party on the thread XD
Well, I’ve been waiting for this ever since kanon ended and in all seriousness…JESUS CHRIST, HOW LONG DID SHE TAKE?!?!?!
Anyway, the first episode didn’t really reveal much, except set up the premise for the rest of the show, and I must say, it looks like Kyoani were really just cashing up funds with Lucky star to pull of the high quality animation shown in this episode. It really shows what Kyo is really capable of, especially after the slapstick comedy they pulled of for the past 6 months.
One thing does bother me though. I read through several summaries on the web and…well, unlike Air or Kanon, where each girl’s path has almost no connection with each other except during the early period, as well as having no major contradiating points, the paths in Clannad seems to have several other Heroines play major roles in almost every path. As well as that, some of the path’s endings do contradiact each other. This won’t be sorted out that easily. Hopefully, Kyo ani lives up to their reputation and manages to sort them out fine, because otherwise….well, it’ll be something to look forward to, at any rate.
So, after having “Sad girls in snow” and “sad girls in summer”, we now get 6 months worth of “Sad girls in spring.” Now all we need is a “Sad girls in autumn” senario to complete the circle. Does anyone know when little busters is set in?
Well, just a side tip, I’m leaning towards Kyou at the moment, though not having scene the entire cast yet, it proably will change in the near future.
@Shiruki: Like what Siva said, if you blog it, we come in and turn the comments section into a debating section. I’m all for it.
To tell the truth, the first time i saw the logo cover and the opening theme of Clannad(before the first ep air), I have never bring myself to like Nagisa at all, but after i saw her in action and her voice those things changed me back. The only reason i like Nagisa more than the others because of her personal attitude. Specially, at the beginning of this ep those 2 caught me off guard, lol, never though that i am going to see a really great opening like this.
@Shirukii: It should be me who need to say thx to you because you have done a lot of really great job for us. As you can see, everyone here think the same way as i do.
@Avisch: “One reason I didn’t Air (which I watched AFTER watching Kanon 2006) so much” will i repeat ur mistake?
@Alias:
“Sad girls in snow” Kanon
“Sad girls in spring” Clannad
“Sad girls in autumn” we will see about that ^_^
“sad girls in summer” ?????? what is it?
@ Siva
“Sad Girls in Summer” = AIR
and i think, if KEY ever manages to get their copyrights back for ONE, then it will be the “Sad Girls in Autumn.”
Siva: Yeah…..bad error. I meant to say “One reason I didn’t like Air”
Siva and Nightingale:
Little Busters!: Happy Genki Girls Playing Baseball :)
Or “making childhood memories”
I must admit to being somewhat underwhelmed. There’s too much that I’ve seen before. The monochromatic introduction made me think: “The Eroge of Suzumiha Haruhi”. And I’m calling her Tsukimiya Nagisa from now on. If I’ve already seen Kanon and Air, why do I need to see Clannad?
I could’ve overlooked all that if an emotional statement was made right away, but the only real feeling that was given is that Tomoya hates his dad. And all that made me think of was Axe-kun. (But this isn’t School Days, unfortunately.)
I’ll probably end up watching it out of sheer stubbornness. If I get too bored I’ll just entertain myself with the pretty colors, which it has in abundance. Not to mention the Mamiko.
And if I’m really lucky, there’ll be an episode dedicated to the Happy Family Dango.
@Telliamed: No, u dont need to see Clannad if u dont want to, right? Clannad, Kanon and Air, all of them r not the same, right?
Even though Tomoya hates is dad but that doesnt mean he has to kill his dad, right? I would think there maybe another reason he hates his dad.
Yay im so happy that this has finally come out, i was starting to get worried as to what i was going to do now that ive finished the new Kanon, which was beautiful btw, if anyone hasnt seen it yet omg omg you must watch it. But makre sure its the 2006 remake.
@Kay_Kay: lol, you got the right answer that most of us already knew it. How about the “sad girls in summer” have u watch it yet?
@Siva: No i havnt, is it just as good?..lol and sorry for staing the obvious there with kanon. I just really liked the new version of it >.