Clannad (visual novel)

 

Clannad (visual novel)

 

Clannad (クラナド, Kuranado^?) is a Japanese visual novel created by the software company Key, who also produced the successful titles Kanon and Air. Key released a limited version for the PC on April 28, 2004, and the regular version less than four months later on August 8, 2004. The visual novel was later ported to the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. The gameplay in Clannad follows a linear plot line, which offers pre-determined scenarios and courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the five female main characters.
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, Key's third work Clannad was released for all ages and does not contain risqué situations or even any fan service. On November 25, 2005, Key released an adult spin-off entitled Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life which expands 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 series: the first serialized in the Japanese magazine Comic Rush, the second serialized in Comi Digi +, the third serialized in Dengeki G's Magazine and Dengeki G's Festival! Comic, and the fourth in Dragon Age Pure. An animated film by the animation studio Toei Animation was released on September 15, 2007, followed by two anime series including two original video animationKyoto Animation, which also animated the previous Key titles Air and Kanon. Lastly, there are two sets of drama CDs, totaling nine in all. Both anime series and their accompanying OVAs are localized and distributed in English by Section23 Films. The first Clannad anime series was released in North America in two half-series box sets in March and May 2009. The Clannad After Story anime series was released in North America in two half-series box sets in October and December 2009. (OVA) episodes by
The visual novel and the animated adaptations including the two TV series and film have received high sales figures in Japan. Across the national ranking of bishōjo games in amount sold in Japan, the Clannad limited edition PC release premiered at number one twice since its release, and the third ranking brought the PC release down to forty-six out of fifty. Out of eight DVDs released for the first Clannad anime TV series, six were ranked first during their first week of sales for anime DVDs in Japan. Out of eight DVDs released for Clannad After Story, seven were ranked first during their first week of sales. The special edition film DVD first ranked at number three during its first week of sales.

Plot

 

Setting and themes

The first half of the story takes place primarily at a high school in Japan, which is the best school in the city. Outside of the school, frequented locations include the bakery run by Nagisa's parents, and the dormitory where Youhei Sunohara lives. Throughout the story, glimpses into an Illusionary World are shown. This world is devoid of all life except for a young girl, though she later makes a body out of junk pieces through which the player can interact with her. The remaining half of the story takes place in the same city, after the conclusion of the first half.^[1]
There are recurring themes that appear throughout the story. The main theme is the value of having a family, as the title of the series implies since the main scenario writer Jun MaedaClannad to mean "family" or "clan" in Irish,^[4] but is actually a blend of Clann As Dobhar created by the band Clannad, meaning "the family from Dore".^[5] Of the six main characters, Tomoya, Nagisa, and Kotomi have no siblings, though their parents factor in majorly in their stories. Nagisa's story was written to incorporate what Maeda described as a "perfect family" with a focus on mental consciousness.^[2] In Nagisa's story, there is a recurring appearance of "The Big Dango Family" (だんご大家族, Dango Daikazoku^?) (a fictional group mascot for children) that Nagisa is fond of.^[1] Tomoya's and Nagisa's characters were written in a style to exemplify a "growth to adulthood" by the end of the story.^[2] Fuko's and Kyou's stories have their sisters playing an integral part, and Tomoyo's story is influenced by her entire family.^[1] 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.^[6] 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 entitled Mabinogi,^[7] which was a collection of prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts;^[8] Welsh is a Celtic language, as is Irish. misunderstood

Main characters

Main article: List of Clannad characters

The player assumes the role of Tomoya Okazaki, the protagonist of Clannad. Tomoya has been labeled a delinquent, or a young person who defies authority due to his non-committal attitude towards school and general apathy towards living life; at the beginning of the story, he even hates the city he has lived in all his life where Clannad is set. He is very straightforward in his comments to others and will not hesitate to speak his mind, even if he comes off as rude during such times. Despite this, Tomoya is very loyal to his friends, and has been known to dedicate himself for those around him in need of help or support. He generally has a selfless personality and does not ask much from others in return for what he does for them.^[1]
Tomoya meets Nagisa Furukawa, the main heroine of Clannad, at the onset of the story. Nagisa is a soft-spoken girl who has very low self-esteem and self-confidence which causes her to rely on those around her for support; she developed the strange habit of muttering the names of favorite foods that she plans to eat as a way to motivate herself, such as anpan. Kyou Fujibayashi, another of Clannad's heroines, is a bad-mouthed and aggressive girl well known as a good cook among her friends and family. When angry she does not hesitate to throw a dictionary at people that she often carries around for such purposes. Despite this attitude, she also has a more subdued side, especially towards her younger fraternal twinRyou Fujibayashi.^[1] sister
Tomoya meets a genius girl named Kotomi Ichinose, also a heroine, one day at school. She is ranked in the top ten throughout the whole country in standardized exam results of every subject—she always goes to library to read extra materials, especially books in foreign languages. Kotomi is a very quiet girl with poor social skills and it is quite difficult to communicate with her; Kotomi can even completely ignore someone when reading, even if they make loud disturbances around her. Clannad's fourth heroine is a second-year student named Tomoyo Sakagami who transfers into Tomoya's school. Tomoyo, like Kyou, can be extremely aggressive, and Tomoyo is a very strong fighter, preferring to use kicking over punching, and is very athletic. Although Tomoya is older than her, Tomoyo does not show him his due respect as a senior student.^[1] Tomoyo appears in Key's fifth game, Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life, as the main heroine.^[10]
The last main heroine in Clannad is a first-year student named Fuko Ibuki who has a distant attitude towards others and, before she met Tomoya, was generally seen alone by herself making wood carvings of starfish with a small knife to give to others as presents. Fuko is extremely enthralled by starfish, or things that are star-shaped, and will often go into short euphoric bouts where her awareness of her surroundings is completely overtaken.^[1]

Story

Clannad's story revolves around 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, and held frequent fights with his son. One day, Naoyuki, again arguing with his son, slammed Tomoya against the wall, dislocating Tomoya's shoulder. Ever since then, his father has treated Tomoya nicely, but distantly, as if Tomoya and he were strangers rather than a family. This hurts Tomoya more than his previous relationship with his father, and the awkwardness of returning home leads Tomoya constantly to stay out all night. Additionally, the injury disables Tomoya from participating in his basketball club, and pushes him to distance himself from his school and other activities. Thus his delinquent life begins. Tomoya's good friend Youhei Sunohara, who got thrown out of the soccer club for a dispute, is also a delinquent and often hangs out in his dorm room with Tomoya doing nothing much.
The story opens on Monday April 14, 2003 at the beginning of the school year,^[1] when Tomoya meets by chance Nagisa Furukawa, a soft-spoken girl one year older than him who is repeating her last year in high school due to being sick much of the previous year. Her goal is to join the drama club which she was unable to do due to her sickness, but they find that the drama club was disbanded after the few remaining members graduated. Since Tomoya has a lot of time to kill, he starts to help Nagisa in reforming the drama club. During this period, Tomoya meets and hangs out with several other girls who he gets to know well and help with their individual problems.

After Story

In the second part of the story, which starts immediately after the end of the first part but extends into the next ten years, Tomoya and Nagisa live together as a family. Tomoya has to endure several hardships that the family has been suffering from, mainly involving Nagisa's illness. Just after Nagisa gives birth to their daughter Ushio, Nagisa dies, leaving Tomoya to fall into a state of depression. This causes Nagisa's parents, Akio and Sanae to look after Ushio. Five years later, Tomoya meets Shino Okazaki, his grandmother on his father's side. Shino explains to Tomoya about his father's past and tragedy, similar to Tomoya's current situation after Nagisa's death. After hearing that, Tomoya decides to raise Ushio and acknowledge Naoyuki as his father. Shortly after Tomoya regains his purpose for living, Ushio is struck with the same disease as Nagisa. Tomoya, Sanae and Akio struggle to save Ushio, with Tomoya retiring from his job, but all efforts are futile. In the coming winter, wanting to do anything for Ushio, Tomoya decides to take Ushio on a trip, but Ushio falls unconscious and dies shortly after.
Tomoya's psychology developed in his dreams of a bleak world where small orbs of light float around called the Illusionary World (幻想世界, Gensō Sekai^?). In the first few dreams, he sees a world devoid of all life except for one girl (and grass). Each time he dreams, he finds out more about the world. Tomoya discovers the girl has a special ability to fuse junk together to create new things, with which she creates a body for him. Thus he is reborn in this world, and fills time following the girl around. Tomoya conceives that only the two of them are "alive". To pass time, Tomoya and the girl try to build another doll with more junk they find, but as it has no soul, it fails to come to life. Remembering a distant world where he came from, Tomoya convinces the girl to build a ship so that the two can escape the approaching winter and continue a happy life. Eventually, winter sets in, and the girl becomes cold to the point where she cannot move any more. Upon meeting this tragedy, the girl tells Tomoya that he has another chance to go back and make things right. To do so, he must collect certain "lights" (symbols of happiness) similar to those floating around in the Illusionary World. If all the "lights" are collected throughout both story parts, a chance to save Nagisa from dying in childbirth will become available, and the true ending where Nagisa survives and lives with Tomoya and their daughter Ushio will also become available.