The Clannad Movie, a drama with some comedy, romance and something else. I wasn’t originally intending on watching it, since I thought it was just a lazy cut-down recap of the anime, which I’ve only watched the original first season of. I was wrong, this movie seems to be something else entirely, built new from the ground up with a slightly different cast of characters and story. I will note that a lot of the criticism of this movie stems from the kinda unrelated (made by a different studio) main anime series. Especially as this movie has its differences and leaves certain things out. Unlike others, I will give this movie a fair review, I’ll look at it on its own as a movie, ignoring the anime series. But I might refer to small changes here and there. I’m a fan of serious to-the-heart stories and this is no different. Should you watch it? Forget this review, just watch it. Unless you’re young or cynical and don’t appreciate a serious and beautiful story. In which case, this movie doesn’t need your cold hate.
Animation
The animation quality for a 2007 movie should be good, it’s a movie for heaven’s sake. Maybe it was my burning desire not to have it in anything but dual-audio, but I only managed to get it in 480p, thus I was disappointed. But the actual animation in the movie itself seemed to scream for higher resolution, perhaps it was in HD and I just couldn’t find it. There were few glitches with the animation.
The animation style was a surprise, the Clannad series usually has the distinctive style of Key, but it was less pronounced here. Not a bad thing, it was a good compromise between that and a more generic style. It made good use of a variety of styles actually, some bits were drawn in a way that the original series never did, adding to the ambiance of the scenes. One bit that stood out was when Youhei was climbing on the fence at the school roof. There’s even adept use of atypical camera shots, there are a few scenes where the screen is split into two, each side showing a different character. This almost makes up for the disappointing lack of resolution.
Sound
In an anime movie like this, sound is important to get a point across. Being a movie, there’s no intro music, but the music during the credits just heightened the feelings from the end of the anime. The Dango song returns, but slightly different. The sound design in the anime is good, music is used well, especially during the play scene where music was a part of the scene itself. It reflected the feelings of the characters during that scene well.
This movie is available in both English and Japanese audio, I watched the English version which was fine. Especially since I recognised the voices and got a bit nostalgic about the original series and the voice actors roles in various anime. I’ve now type-casted some of these voices with serious anime like this, not a bad thing but I do know they’ve had roles in less savoury anime (which I won’t mention). Luci Christian voices Nagisa, she’s also voiced Haruko Kamio in Air, Yui Kounagi in Yumekui (Dream Eater) Merry, Miyako in Ef - a Tale of Memories, Wrath in FMA, Medusa in Soul Eater, and Elucia in The World God only Knows. David Matranga voices Tomoya Okazaki, also the voice of Takaki Tohno in 5 Centimetres per Second, Hideki Hinata in Angel Beats and Yu Himura in Ef – a Tale of Memories. I’ll keep this short since this is a movie and I don’t have too much time. Akio is voiced by Andrew Love, Greg Ayres voices Youhei, Illich Guardiola voices Yusuke Yoshino, Emily Neves voices Kotomi, Stephanie Wittels voices Kouko Ibuki, Shelley Calene-Black voices Kyou Fujibayashi, Kara Greenberg voices Sanae, Tomoyo is voiced by Kaytha Coker.
Characters
The main character Tomoya Okazaki is in his last year of highschool. He suffers from nightmares where he is all alone in a desolate place and hasn’t led a positive life. He lost his mother when he was a child, he lost his ability to play basketball (he was the ace on the team) after he permanently injured his arm. This ties in with his dislike of his father, who tries his best to be helpful and care for his son. He doesn’t care for anything, he lives on convenience store food and hangs out with his delinquent friend Youhei. Tomoya is a depressed individual, but that all changes when he meets a certain girl.
Nagisa Furukawa is a girl in the same year as Tomoya, but because she got held back, she’s a year older than him. She’s a sickly girl, which is the reason why she was unable to attend school the previous year. But despite all that, she’s a completely positive individual (something that differs from the Clannad anime series) and tries her best to smile her way through even the toughest of times. She loves the Big Dango family and wants to revive the drama club, to honour her parents who were actors, before giving up their dream and opening a family shop so they could spend time together as a family with their often sickly daughter. Akio and Sanae Furukawa get along so well together that Tomoya finds it off putting. Akio smokes and plays baseball with the local kids, but is also very protective of his daughter. He likes to joke and mess about with Tomoya.
Youhei Sunohara is Tomoya’s best friend, a hot-headed and immature delinquent with bleached hair. He was once a star player for the football (soccer) team, but he got kicked out of the team for an incident where he just flipped and went violent on everyone there. Unlike the original series, he doesn’t seem to have a sister, coming from a poor family and he’s supposed to be evicted from his room in student dorms reserved for sports scholarship recipients. Despite being very childish, annoying and a bit pervy, he’s a good friend and he turns out to actually be a pleasant individual. Once one looks past his many faults that is.
Kouko Ibuki takes on a more prominent role in this movie. Fuuko Ibuki doesn’t seem to exist here. Kouko is a teacher, but is also the supervising teacher of the drama club. She helps Nagisa out quite a lot and is very good at interpreting what’s needed for her play. She’s also capable of being tough when she needs to, she can easily handle and put down an enraged, rampaging Youhei. Later on, it’s discovered that she’s well acquainted with Yusuke Yoshino, the man who owns his own small electrician business. He’s also a big help, particularly to the guys and Tomoya.
Kyou Fujibayashi and Tomoyo Sakagami are more like acquaintances in this movie, their roles being demoted from the original series. Tomoyo is still running for student president and Kyou is backing her up as her best friend. Kyou’s twin sister seems to be non-existent and both characters appear less in general. Neither seem to have feelings for Tomoya.
Story
The story differs slightly from that of the Clannad anime series. It’s shorter, packed more tightly and devoid of any irrelevant scenes. Despite having watched the first season of the anime series, it wasn’t too predictable. All I can say about it is that Tomoya feels desolate and that all changes when he meets the girl who wants to revive the drama club: Nagisa Furukawa. The story also has a solid conclusion. Due to the short length I can’t spoil more. I realise many folks will be disappointed by how it lacks certain things is and the small changes made to fit everything in. But one must realise that this is the limitation of a movie, this form of media can’t afford to do certain things. On its own it’s still good and I thought it would be terrible due to all the negativity surrounding it (including reviews). It is not a simple contraction of the contents of the anime series by Kyoto animation, it’s just a bit different.
And what a beautiful story. I anticipated picking up my phone and messing about during it, but that never happened since I was so gripped. This anime is capable of invoking emotion in the viewer. There have been movies and anime I’ve watched before that made me want to cry, which I ended up with a lump in my throat for. So far nothing has come close until now. I felt like this was the longest time I had a lump in my throat. The ending of the second season, and this movie by extension, was inferred and thus spoiled for me over a year ago. But even so, seeing it first hand as something else.
Conclusion
Thinking about the recent reviews I’ve done and the anime I’m watching right now, I’m reminded how much I hate overall scores. They are very much subject to opinion and aren’t helpful, since there are anime of all sorts and viewers with a variety of tastes and opinions on anime. Some folks like opinion to weigh in heavily on their reviews and while opinion can’t entirely be eliminated, we should do our best to cater for others too. Thus, I will recommend this anime to fans of serious and/or romance anime. It makes you think and can invoke emotion. Yet people other than those I described might enjoy the Clannad series. If you plan on watching either this movie or the main series, I’d recommend watching this first, even though it’s a condensed, slightly changed version of the story. If you’ve watched both seasons of the anime, then don’t bother. It appears to me that most folks who watched the 2 seasons first, really disliked this movie for the departure from what they know. But me personally, despite having watched the first season of 24 episodes, I enjoyed this a lot.
Family-friendliness Rating: 2/5 Minor references (lower is better)
Overall Rating: 8.5/10 (higher is better)