Clannad is a Japanese visual novel developed by Key and released on April 28, 2004, for Windows. While both of Key's first two previous works, Kanon and Air, had been released first as adult games and then censored for the younger market, Clannad was specifically made for all ages. It was later ported to the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch consoles. An English version for Windows was released on Steam by Sekai Project in 2015.
The story follows the life of Tomoya Okazaki, from adolescence to adulthood. As an average high school student, he meets many people in his last year at school, including five girls, whose individual problems he helps resolve, and his life is further detailed after graduating from high school. The gameplay of Clannad follows a plot that branches into different scenarios based on various courses of interaction by the player character. The game was ranked as the best-selling PC game sold in Japan for the time of its release, and charted in the national top 50 several more times afterwards. Key went on to produce an adult spin-off titled Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life in November 2005, which expanded on the scenario of Tomoyo Sakagami, one of the five heroines from Clannad.
Clannad has made several transitions to other media. There have been four manga adaptations published by ASCII Media Works, Flex Comix, Fujimi Shobo and Jive. Comic anthologies, light novels and art books have also been published, as have audio dramas and several albums of music. An animated film adaptation by Toei Animation was released in September 2007, followed by two anime television series including two original video animation (OVA) episodes by Kyoto Animation produced between 2007 and 2009. Both anime series and their accompanying OVAs are licensed by Sentai Filmworks and were released in North America in 2009. The animated adaptations have received high sales figures in Japan as well as critical acclaim abroad.
Gameplay
Clannad is a drama and romance visual novel in which the player assumes the role of Tomoya Okazaki. Much of its gameplay is spent on reading the story's narrative and dialogue. Clannad follows a branching plot line with multiple paths and endings. There are six main plotlines that the player can experience, five which are initially available. At various points during gameplay, the player is given a dialog choice that can influence the progression of the story.
When first playing the game, the scenarios for all five heroines and additional smaller scenarios are available in what is called the School Life story arc. When the player completes a character's scenario, he or she receives an orb of light. When eight of these lights are obtained, the game's second story arc, called After Story, is made available. One of the lights disappears during School Life, but reappears in After Story. To view the true ending of Clannad, all 13 lights must be obtained. Originally, the lights were meant to be items that players could use in the game, but since this increased the game's complexity, and detracted from the storyline, the function of the lights was simplified and made less intrusive.
Premise Setting and themes Clannad takes place primarily at the fictional Hikarizaka Private High School in Japan. Outside the school, the most common locations include the bakery run by Nagisa's parents and dormitory where Youhei Sunohara lives. Throughout the series, glimpses into an Illusionary World are shown.
There are recurring themes that appear throughout the series. The main theme is the value of having a family, as the title of the series implies because the main scenario writer Jun Maeda mistakenly thought the name of the Irish band Clannad meant "clan" or "family" in Irish, which is just "clann". Of the six main characters, Tomoya, Nagisa, and Kotomi do not have siblings, but their parents are major factors in their stories. Nagisa's story was written to incorporate what Maeda described as a "perfect family" with a focus on mental consciousness. In Nagisa's story, there is a recurring appearance of (a fictional group mascot for children) that Nagisa is fond of. Tomoya and Nagisa's characters were written in a style to exemplify a "growth to adulthood" by the end of the story. Fuko and Kyou's stories have their sisters playing an integral part, while Tomoyo's is influenced by her entire family. A minor motif of Irish words continues with the opening theme of the game, "Mag Mell", which means roughly "plain of joy" and is connected with Irish mythology. The arrange album, a short music CD that contained remixed versions of songs in the game, that was bundled with the original game release was titled Mabinogi, which was a collection of prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscript.
Plot Clannad revolves Tomoya Okazaki, a third year high school student who dislikes his life. Tomoya's mother (Atsuko) died when Tomoya was young, leaving his father (Naoyuki) to raise him. After the accident, Tomoya's father turned to alcohol and gambling, with frequent fights with his son. One day, Naoyuki slammed Tomoya against the window in a family argument. dislocating Tomoya's shoulder. This injury prevents Tomoya from playing on the basketball team, and causes him to distance himself from others. Since then, the two men to be estranged with each other.
At the beginning of the school year, Tomoya meets Nagisa Furukawa, a strange girl who is one year older than he is and repeating her last year in high school due to being sick much of the previous year. She aims to join the drama club, but cannot do so due to her sickness. However, they find that the drama club was disbanded after a few remaining members graduated. Tomoya helps Nagisa to reform the drama club before meeting several other girls whom he gets to know well and help with their individual problems.
In After Story, Tomoya and Nagisa get married and start to live together. Just after Nagisa gives birth to their daughter, Ushio, she dies, which causes Tomoya to become depressed. As a result, Nagisa's parents – Akio and Sanae – take care of their granddaughter. Five years later, Tomoya meets with Shino Okazaki, his paternal grandmother. Shino tells Tomoya about his father's traumatic past, after which he resolves to raise Ushio and recognizes Naoyuki as his father. Shortly after Tomoya overcomes his depression, Ushio suffers the same disease that Nagisa had. Tomoya, Sanae, and Akio struggle to save him but all of their efforts turn out terribly. The next winter, wanting to do anything for his daughter, Tomoya takes her on a trip, but she dies shortly afterwards.
Characters Main characters
Tomoya is the main protagonist of series. He is a student at Hikarizaka High School and is referred to as a delinquent who frequently arrives to school late and skips classes, but does not generally start fights. His mother, Atsuko, died in a car crash when he was young and since then has been living with his father, Naoyuki, although they argue constantly.
Nagisa is the shy and sensitive main heroine. She shouts the names of food that she plans to eat as a way to motivate herself, such as an anpan. Nagisa admires an outdated group mascot known as the and explains that she likes the fact that they are a close family regardless of the situation.
Kyou is the older of the Fujibayashi twins who is in the same class as Tomoya. She is her class representative, but rarely considers it crucial.
Tomoya's childhood friend, Kotomi is a studious girl who is in the top ten for every subject throughout the whole country in standardized exam results. She always goes to the library to read extra materials, especially foreign books.
, Ryōko Tanaka (Tomoyo After) Tomoyo transferred to Hikarizaka High School as a second-year student during spring. She is a strong silent girl who is known to be intimidating. Although Tomoya is older than she is, she does not show him his due respect as a senior student. She has a younger brother named .
Fuko is a first-year student at Hikarizaka High School. She is a mysterious girl who is always alone, making wood carvings of starfish with a small knife to give to others as presents.
Ushio is Tomoya and Nagisa's daughter and a student at Kyou's kindergarten. She appears prominently in After Story and in the movie. Ushio resembles her mother a lot and likes the Big Dango Family as well.
Secondary characters
Youhei is Tomoya's friend and also a delinquent. He entered the school on an athletic recommendation in soccer, but was kicked out of the soccer club after being involved in a fight with other members who had a tendency of harassing the younger players. After this incident, he became lazy, becoming the only student with a higher absence rate than Tomoya.
Yukine is a second year student who hangs out in the library's reference room during lunchtime. Tomoya first meets her there while trying to find a how to book about speeches for Nagisa.
Ryou is Tomoya's classmate and class representative. She is the younger of the Fujibayashi twins. In contrast to Kyou, she is timid and does not cook well, but good at doing chores. Ryou believes fortune telling, but her predictions always become either somewhat skewed or extremely wrong. She is a major supporting character in both Kyou and Kappei's paths.
Misae Sagara is the resident manager at Tomoya and Youhei's all-boys dorm. She was Hikarizaka's first female student council president when she was in high school. Misae achieved a full week of perfect attendance for the whole student body and loved by the students. Misae is friendly with the dorm students but strict when it comes to the rules.
Yusuke is an electrician who once attended Hikarizaka High School, was a rock musician, and is engaged to Kouko.
Kouko is Fuko's older sister. She used to be an art teacher at Hikarizaka High School and treats everyone well. Kouko is a regular customer of Furukawa Bakery and Nagisa admires her very much, being her former art teacher. She is engaged to Yusuke Yoshino.
Toshio Koumura is a language teacher at Hikarizaka High School and Tomoya's home room teacher during his first year. His age conceals his once vigorous past marked by his enthusiasm in teaching.
Kappei is a mysterious young man who travels and only appears in the game. Tomoya meets Kappei if he chooses to avoid Kyou's scooter on the right side. Kyou intends to hit Tomoya as revenge for Botan coming home wet, but hits Kappei instead. While stunned, a kind girl helped him recover before leaving quickly. Unbeknownst to her, she left her handkerchief behind. Kappei aims to find a job and the kind person that he met after the crash.
Families
Naoyuki is Tomoya's father. His wife, Atsuko, died in an accident when Tomoya was young, leaving only himself to raise Tomoya. Afterwards, Naoyuki turned to alcohol and gambling and frequently fought with his son.
Shino is Tomoya's paternal grandmother who only appears in After Story. During Ushio's path, when Ushio is finding her toy robot she lost in the flower field, Tomoya meets Shino at the edge of the cape, who introduces herself to him and their meeting is planned by Sanae. Shino tells the story of Naoyuki's past and the tragedy after Atsuko's death which is similar to what Tomoya is facing after Nagisa's death, along with his sacrifices made for Tomoya just to see him grow up to be a proper man.
Akio is Nagisa's father and Sanae's husband. He looks younger than he is and is shown to be an avid smoker. Although he often talks and plays rough, in addition to having a reckless personality, he is kind and sympathetic. His childish side makes it easy for kids and adults alike to befriend him. He runs the Furukawa Bakery with his wife, Sanae.