Clannad

Tomoya Okazaki is a delinquent who finds life dull and believes he'll never amount to anything. Along with his friend Youhei Sunohara, he skips school and plans to waste his high school days away.

One day while walking to school, Tomoya passes a young girl muttering quietly to herself. Without warning she exclaims "Anpan!" (a popular Japanese food) which catches Tomoya's attention. He soon discovers the girl's name is Nagisa Furukawa and that she exclaims things she likes in order to motivate herself. Nagisa claims they are now friends, but Tomoya walks away passing the encounter off as nothing.

However, Tomoya finds he is noticing Nagisa more and more around school. Eventually he concedes and befriends her. Tomoya learns Nagisa has been held back a year due to a severe illness and that her dream is to revive the school's drama club. Claiming he has nothing better to do, he decides to help her achieve this goal along with the help of four other girls.

As Tomoya spends more time with the girls, he learns more about them and their problems. As he attempts to help each girl overcome her respective obstacle, he begins to realize life isn't as dull as he once thought.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Okazaki, Tomoya Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Furukawa, Nagisa Main

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Sakagami, Tomoyo Main

Kuwashima, Houko Japanese

Fujibayashi, Kyou Main

Hirohashi, Ryou Japanese

Ibuki, Fuuko Main

Nonaka, Ai Japanese

Ichinose, Kotomi Main

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Sunohara, Youhei Main

Sakaguchi, Daisuke Japanese

Fujibayashi, Ryou Main

Kanda, Akemi Japanese

Furukawa, Akio Supporting

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Furukawa, Sanae Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Hatta, Youko Producer

Nakamura, Shinichi Producer

Tafu, Naohiro Producer

Nakayama, Yoshihisa Producer

Reviews

Feb 13, 2026

AyFew

Recommended

If I were being objective, I would say that Clannad is the best romance anime ever made. It has peak character development. Handling the stories of seven or eight characters this well is extremely difficult.

All romance anime should take inspiration from Clannad. It is rare for a romance series to begin as a school story and follow the characters all the way into adulthood. Clannad handles both teenage romance and adult romance exceptionally well, and it does an excellent job of handling the characters’ emotional development. Most romance series skip over that phase, but Clannad develops it thoroughly.

Clannad builds up its storylines and fully resolves ... them in After Story, which is the sequel. For these reasons, not a single romance anime has come even halfway close to Clannad’s level of writing and character depth.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by AyFew (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Mar 4, 2026

YungSav

Mixed Feelings

Season 1 of Clannad for me was a bit of a mixed experience. The first half of the season was honestly pretty hard to get into. A lot of the early episodes felt slow and episodic, focusing on different characters’ problems without much overall momentum. Additionally, the characters at the start are extremely unlikeable especially fuko. I felt the whole initial first 12 epi arc focusing on Fuko was dull and boring and all most made me drop the show completely (which in hindsight would of been a mistake with how good after story is). For a while it feels like the show is ... just going through typical high school anime storylines.
However, the second half of the season is where the show really starts to improve. The series starts delivering the heartfelt moments it’s known for. Fuko is finally put to the side (thank god) and we get to see some major character development for the two main characters. Still overall I prefer recent high school romance adaptations such as honey lemon soda. However I still recommend to watch this series, so you are able to watch after story.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by YungSav (2)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Mar 23, 2026

zHalalGoku

Not Recommended

I checked the box that said “I’ve only watched Clannad Season 1,” but I’ve actually watched the entire series.
Are you kidding me? Are you calling this anime a work of art? The storytelling is terrible. The characters are terrible. Their behavior, personalities, and types are terrible. In Season 2 (Clannad: After Story), it crosses moral boundaries quite a bit. Despite all this, I can’t understand how it’s so popular. Nagisa’s mom is dating Sunohara—seriously, does that even happen? Are you kidding me? Nagisa’s mom isn’t bothered at all; in fact, she’s happy about it. Plus, she acts differently around Sunohara—what kind of message does that ... send to the audience? You fill in the rest. Another controversial situation: Okazaki and Sunohara’s sister are hanging out together. But this isn’t just casual hanging out—you know what I mean. There’s a weird vibe in those scenes; it’s disgusting. The only good thing is that I didn’t laugh too much at Nagisa’s dad. The only thing they got right in the anime is Nagisa’s dad’s personality. Of course, even if he witnesses disgusting things in some scenes, he doesn’t say a word. If I act like I didn’t see what I just mentioned, he looks like a good guy.
All the female characters in the anime are unbelievably terrible. They have these ridiculous, pointless problems. My rating for Season 1 is already 0/10. There’s nothing important about it.
There’s a lot more to talk about, but I’ll stop here.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by zHalalGoku (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Comedic Start, Dramatic End

by GreatTeacherKen

43 Entries · 12 Restacks

Most Important Anime

by Nice_Bird

50 Entries · 45 Restacks

Love and Longing

by oddleigh

50 Entries · 4 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for February

Here are the North American anime, manga, and light novel releases for February. Week 1: February 7 - 13 Anime Releases Horimiya Complete Season Blu-ray & DVD Co...read more

Feb 14, 2023 4:00 PM by Aiimee | Discuss (0 comments)

Key Confirms 'Kaginado' Crossover TV Anime

Visual novel studio Key opened an official website for a crossover television anime titled Kaginado (Key, etc.) on Monday. The anime will feature chibi renditions o...read more

Apr 19, 2021 5:50 PM by ImperfectBlue | Discuss (38 comments)

	Poll: Clannad Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) cyruz - Oct 19, 2007	143 replies	by Breachnet »» Mar 26, 5:53 PM
	Poll: Clannad Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) nodoka-koi - Nov 29, 2007	465 replies	by GRRRT »» Mar 22, 7:37 PM
	Poll: Clannad Episode 23 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Awesmoe - Mar 28, 2008	366 replies	by W3TFT »» Feb 10, 7:42 PM
	Poll: Clannad Episode 22 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) KY791 - Mar 20, 2008	313 replies	by W3TFT »» Feb 10, 7:13 PM
	Poll: Clannad Episode 18 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Tenjouname - Feb 15, 2008	312 replies	by W3TFT »» Feb 9, 8:36 PM

What Kyoto Animation Means to Us

In loving memory of those who lost their lives.

by Shymander

156,410 views

Spoiler

Steam Summer Sale 2019: Top 10 Anime Visual Novel Deals

The biggest game sale of the year is now on, and you can find these visual novels that inspired many of our favorite anime at up to 80% off!

by Shymander

32,900 views