Brief Description: Tomoya Okazaki is a third year high school student resentful of his life. His mother passed away from a car accident when he was younger, causing his father to resort to alcohol and gambling. This results in fights between the two until Tomoya's shoulder is injured in a fight. Since then, Tomoya has had distant relationships with his father, causing him to become a delinquent over time. While on a walk to school, he meets a strange girl named Nagisa Furukawa who is a year older, but is repeating due to illness. Due to this, she is often alone as most of her friends have moved on. The two begin hanging out and slowly, as time goes by, Tomoya finds his life shifting in a new direction.
This is one of those animes that are very very hard to forget. A tale of high school romance that deeply explores all the details even transitions of relationships. I have not seen another anime like this one that has so much character into the characters for quite some time.
Violence: The violence is all comical, slapstick beat downs on one of the main characters, and no one is ever seriously hurt. The most "violent" thing that occurs (or, more like implied) Spoiler: is when we discover a main character's parents both died in a plane crash. This is not shown, however.
Nudity/Sexual Content: Mostly rather tame innuendoes, pranks pulled by Tomoya occasionially suggest a character is gay, but this is always proved to be false. In one episode, two characters are accedentially locked in a storage closet and while sex is implied, it never happens. However, Spoiler: In episode 23, an extra episode that isn't important to the story, there is a scene where Tomoya misinterperts a girl who's talking to him's diolague to mean she's actually in love with her brother. Again, this is proven to be false, but taking an issue like this as a joke is definitely inappropriate, hence why I gave this series a 4 in this category.
Potentially problematic theological themes: Spoiler: One character is actually an astral projection of a girl who is currently in a coma. While similar to the concept of a ghost, the girl's main purpose is to invite people to her older sister's wedding which is honestly a sweet concept. In addition, there are some usages of tarot cards, fortunes told, and once or twice spells cast, although this is not significant to the plot.
I only gave this a 4 because Spoiler: of the previously mentioned incest comment.
Other potentially problematic themes: Nagisa's father is almost constantly smoking, and Tomoya's father spends most of his life drinking and gambling. Minor swearing usually infrequent, but occasionially used more often. a**, da**, h***, pi** (and its variant), and ba***** (which is used once) all appear somewhere in the dialog.
Clannad is a story about family, caring for other individuals, friends, and classmates. It's about the uniting of an unnatural group of friends through various activities, esp. the pursuit of helping others' dreams come true and restoring hope.
For the parents information...
Important point: I watched both a fan-sub of the original and the American subbed DVD. In the latter, some of the unnecessary bad content is removed (thankfully). (Peave: they also removed my fav ending to the Tomoya bonus episode.)
Language:
D word and S words on occasion. More so if you're watching the original (or a fan-sub).
Nudity:
Athletic trunks are about the worst it can get, unless you have some objection against school girl skirts or you're watching the fan-sub.
Violence:
There is talk of more serious violence between certain characters, but none of that is shown.
Spiritual / mystical:
Peculiar: Spoiler:A metal doll and a girl in another world or dimension. Both play a role revealed in After Story.
Story:
It's a romance, yes, but it's not in your face. A bit of the story is taken up by arcs that show you character development and have the main characters become better friends. The arcs are not at all boring or a waste of time. Clannad is a complete story and satisfactory if finished by itself. However, the story gets better and more complete as it continues with Clannad After Story (but the recommended minimum age for watching goes up).
Directing:
Perfect. Captivating.
Soundtrack:
Excellent soundtrack (taken from the Visual Novel that the show is based on) presented with just the right timing.
Excellent opening as well.
The presentation (directing, sound, lighting, artwork, etc.) is what makes Clannad a classic. Would I rewatch this anime? Already have and would again.
Recommended age:
Most of the content would be suitable for 13-year-olds except what I've already listed above.
Violence: The violence is all comical, slapstick beat downs on one of the main characters, and no one is ever seriously hurt. The most "violent" thing that occurs (or, more like implied) Spoiler: is when we discover a main character's parents both died in a plane crash. This is not shown, however.
Nudity/Sexual Content: Mostly rather tame innuendoes, pranks pulled by Tomoya occasionially suggest a character is gay, but this is always proved to be false. In one episode, two characters are accedentially locked in a storage closet and while sex is implied, it never happens. However, Spoiler: In episode 23, an extra episode that isn't important to the story, there is a scene where Tomoya misinterperts a girl who's talking to him's diolague to mean she's actually in love with her brother. Again, this is proven to be false, but taking an issue like this as a joke is definitely inappropriate, hence why I gave this series a 4 in this category.
Potentially problematic theological themes: Spoiler: One character is actually an astral projection of a girl who is currently in a coma. While similar to the concept of a ghost, the girl's main purpose is to invite people to her older sister's wedding which is honestly a sweet concept. In addition, there are some usages of tarot cards, fortunes told, and once or twice spells cast, although this is not significant to the plot.
I only gave this a 4 because Spoiler: of the previously mentioned incest comment.
Other potentially problematic themes: Nagisa's father is almost constantly smoking, and Tomoya's father spends most of his life drinking and gambling. Minor swearing usually infrequent, but occasionially used more often. a**, da**, h***, pi** (and its variant), and ba***** (which is used once) all appear somewhere in the dialog.
Overall, this series is appropriate for ages 13 and up with the exception of the content listed above.
