Introduction – The Importance of Clannad Anime First Season
Clannad is the greatest anime ever created. I want to talk to you guys specifically about the first season of the anime as that season is the one that gets the most hate. A lot of the complaints about the first season say that it’s slow paced and that it’s boring. Well I disagree.
The first season is incredibly important to the overall story and all of the moments from after story that hit so hard wouldn’t hit anywhere near as hard if it wasn’t for the set up of the first season. Clannad’s first season has four arcs in total, the main story which is spread throughout the season and 3 other smaller arcs.
Each one of the smaller arcs introduces us to a character and allows for us to learn more about them and their importance to the overall story. They also allow for the main characters to grow as people. The arcs themselves are also not boring; each arc has an emotional high note that really gets you in the feels and makes you understand what this series is really about.
Clannad is the best season for talking about the importance of friendship. After Story focuses more on the importance of family and loss. Whereas the first season has the loss element in it but it’s more about closeness between friends and what makes them so important in your life.
The friends you make in high school or college are friends that you could know for life and the first season shows how each of the characters care for each other. There is a lot of romantic love thrown around throughout the season as well.
However when the main character gets together with Nagisa none of their friendships fall apart because each character also cares about each other in other ways that makes the whole story come together nicely in After Story.
The one thing about the first season I’m not a huge fan of is the over reliance on the comedic relief character like it’s fine but there are sometimes where it’s more cringe then funny and I wish they wouldn’t have relied on it so much. But other than that I think the original Clannad season is amazing.
I wanna talk more in depth about the characters and story throughout the rest of the article to really drive home what I’m talking about to try and convince you more that the first season of Clannad is just as amazing as After Story.
Clannad Story
So first I want to go over the story and talk about exactly what makes it so important and good. The story of the first season is mostly a lot of set up and introducing characters. However we do get the backstory of the main character tomoya and his relationships with certain characters. As well as why he is the way he is at the beginning of the series.
We get a lot of good setup for Nagisa as well. We learn about her sickness, her passions and how she became this way. The story itself has enough diverse arcs that makes it really interesting to follow with the Fuko arc starting things off.
I personally think this arc is the weakest in the season however this arc has a lot of really emotional moments and it also helps to set things up for the future in after story as Tomaya ends up being really close to the real Fuko in the future as well. Kotome’s arc is probably the best this season besides the main story stuff because we get to learn about Tomaya’s past.
As well as learn a bit about all of the weird supernatural stuff that we have seen throughout the series thus far. It is also the first time we see the theme of the importance of family on full display with the ending of the arc and how emotional it really is. Tomyo’s arc in this season is a solid arc and it sets things up for another arc that we get later in After Story.
This arc doesn’t get as emotional as the previous 2 but it has its moments. This arc is more used as a catalyst for the next major point in the story which is all about the relationship between Nagisa and Tomya. This final group of episodes the main group finally gets the drama club back together and they have a big performance during the school festival.
We get to learn a lot about Nagisa’s past. As well as her parents’ past. Throughout the series her parents were completely crazy and used for a lot of comedic moments. But in this arc we learn the reason why they act this way. It’s because they always want their daughter to be happy and smile and so they felt like if they acted like idiots it would get their daughter to smile and laugh.
As parents they sacrificed everything after Nagisa got sick. All of their dreams went out the window and were passed onto their daughter. This arc also goes into the relationship between Tomoya and his father as well; it sets things up for the future and helps to bring Nagisa and Tomoya even closer together.
Each and every section of this first season is very important and is used for a lot of really good setup for future events. It also has a lot of emotional moments that hit really hard. The first season of Clannad is an amazing experience and is one that you have to sit through to get to the god tier moments in After Story because otherwise those moment’s wouldn’t be god tier.
Clannad Characters
Alright now not just talking about the story and how it affected the characters I want to talk about the characters themselves. All of the characters are awesome. The main characters get so much development that sets up so much stuff for the future of the series and the sidecast is also great. All of the characters have awesome personalities that really help to enhance the series as a whole.
All of the characters really feel like friends and it comes together with how they treat each other. The characters all have this really immature attitude and personality which helps make their development work so well for the future of the series when they’re all adults. Most of the characters have awesome backstories that help enhance the story as well.
Even the comedic relief characters get some development and good backstories. Like Sunohara for example in the first season his development is more subtle and we only really get hints of his past and how it affects him. But what we do know sets his character up nicely and we get to see that despite all of his faults he’s a really good friend who will always come through in a pinch which I respect a lot.
It’s not only him though the other side characters like Kyou and Ryou are also really good, they don’t get much development and we don’t learn much about their past. But their personalities make up for it tremendously; they each fill an integral role in the friend group and they help to bring everyone together alongside Tomoya.
Kotome at first is a shy girl with no friends who we later find out is a genius student. But that isn’t what makes her character. Her backstory is one of the best in the entire series; it sets up the future friendship between her and Tomoya by showing that they have known eachother since childhood.
Kotome also has had a lot of tragedy in her life losing her parents and her only friend at a young age left her traumatized and unwilling to open up to people. Until she reunites with Tomya who helps her to open up more and make more friends.
Fuuko is probably the worst of the characters in this season as after her arc the only time we ever see her is for comedic purposes only so she doesn’t get too many moments to shine through. However on the opposite spectrum to that we get 2 more comedic characters that really get to shine. Nagisa’s parents.
Throughout the course of the series they are comedic characters where we only really get some subtle hints about their pasts. However in the last group of episodes we learn about their backstories and their sacrifices and it gives me so much respect for them that they would sacrifice everything for their daughter like that.
They are the shining example of the main theme of Clannad and you definitely get to see that on display in this season even if it isn’t quite as much as in After Story.
The characters in the first season are just as amazing as they are in After Story and are used to set up so many future events that will hit so hard in After Story. The characters really make this show for me and make the whole experience a million times better.
Conclusion
The first season of Clannad gets so much hate for being slow paced and boring. I hope that for everyone who says that this video can convince you guys that the first season is arguably more important then After Story. As it helps to set up so many future events and helps to make you care about the characters so much.
None of the sad and emotional moments from After Story would be anywhere near as impactful if it wasn’t for the amazing set up that the first season had on the characters and the story. If you want to rewatch this series or try to convince someone to watch this masterpiece of a series just tell them all of these points and hopefully that will ease their problems with trying to get into this series.
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