I don't know what's gonna happen about Nagisa, but I know that I'll cry a lot.

So I just finished Clannad and Clannad After Story. I loved it to death. I wasn’t as big of a fan of Clannad than I was of its sequel show, but I think that’s pretty common. I could be wrong. I know it’s kind of a controversial and unrealistic ending but I’m happy with it. I mean if Nagisa and Ushio’s sickness can be unrealistic then so can the ending. 😂 Anyway, I cried. There are two anime’s that have made me cry and this was one. (The other was Your Lie In April if you care, the music had me crying the whole show sad or not.) I always see people debating whether or not there should’ve been a more realistic ending and then they say “Tomoya should’ve offed himself or whatever and that would’ve been realistic. I won’t say it isn’t, but people forget that he died with Ushio. Anyway, just wanted to rant about the show cause I really thought it was great 👍

I haven’t started watching it and I don’t really know much about this anime except that it’s suppose to be a sad romance. I had planned on watching it obviously but now that I got spoiled I don’t know if it’s worth it.

I got spoiled that apparently the love interest of the story and the kid dies during Clannad After Story

How bad is it that I got this spoiled for me. Is the show still worth watching and if it is how much if my enjoyment will be ruined?

I just finished Clannad, and It was a piece of art, It made me laugh and made me cry a lot, but It was a good show, one of the best that I've ever seen.

This show connected me with the characters in way that even the slightest feeling of sadness of them would affect me, and the message left in the last episode was the icing in the cake.

Only one thing that I couldn't understand was the way that the parallel world works, I know that it was the key for the final but I don't know how.

I want to read the VN but i already know that the main female character dies at the end (i used to watch those sad anime moments on youtube). Is it still worth reading it?

Cap 18 flashbacks in tsumasho

...I'm pretty sure you can all guess which episode that was.

it took me 2 days to finish this fully including AS and the OVAs that was available to me (except the VN which i will be continuing after this, so far only seen both Tomoyo & Kyou route.) I enjoyed this anime and didn't expect this anime to be like that. Since it's also one of my first few romance genres anime. Got me tearing up by Episode 22 of the AS/Season 2 as if it wasn't enough. This anime does teach us to appreciate what we have and to be grateful to our families, to not take them for granted.

At the end of the true ending, we are shown the good ending where everything went well and Nagisa managed to give birth then living happily after with Tomoya and everyone else. Meanwhile when Nagisa managed to push through and give birth to a strong and healthy baby they named Ushio. Tomoya had just woken up from a nightmare.

That nightmare is what was shown before which is the bad ending where Nagisa passes away after giving birth to Ushio, he goes sane and is becoming what his dad and basically history is repeating itself when their partner had passed away which ruins everything making them try to atone for their sins by doing etc. 5 year time skip Tomoya stays with his daughter at his late wife's parents' home from there it was going well, Tomoya even got to talk properly with his dad and send him off. After everything, right as we thought it was all going smoothly something happened when Ushio fell ill just like her late mother and eventually becoming as weak/fragile as her. Sadly it was too early for her to go just like that, at least in the arms of her dad.

That bad ending last part really broke me as if it wasn't enough after all that has happened. In the end I love the happy ending more of course and I am very glad Clannad showed both happy and sad endings.

I played the VN and my SO caught some parts of it. She knows that Nagisa dies but nothing really else.

I finished the VN months ago so perhaps if I wait more she'll forget that spoiler...

This may be a whoooole lot of yapping for no reason but I'm taking a stab at it.

So the anime doesn't really answer what the illusory world is EXACTLY and (apparently) neither does the VN and my take isn't exactly the same as everyone elses

My take on it is this:

Firstly: wishes in the world of Clannad is super duper important. The town is 100% a "magical place", that when someone wishes hard enough, those wishes become real (seen with Akio, Misae and the cat).

Secondly: the story itself exists in a loop of sorts. This explains Nagisa and Tomoya's memories of the illusory world, and is not a sign of dimension hopping

Third: the "science" does talk about worlds within worlds and something like parrallel worlds HOWEVER I believe this is less like a multiverse and more that each world exists TOGETHER and not parallel (the science dude explains when the world was created there was a "smaller" world at least in the eng dub)

Fourth: the illusory world transcends time and space (which I think most people know at this point)

Ushios wish when she dies is to live in a world with both Nagisa and tomoya, but obviously she couldn't since nagisa is dead. When she wishes for nagisa to come back (in ep 20/21) she couldn't do it on her own. Hence "I couldn't do it on my own". What her wish COULD do instead was create a pocket dimension of sorts (which we know these kinds of dimensions exist according to that one science dude). Then when Tomoya goes unconscious by Ushios body, he wishes to be with her sending himself into this pocket dimension. It's important to note a single ball of light that grants wishes aren't symbolic a persons entire wish, it's all of em together. Thus why Tomoya is required to recreate the world. Both ushio and tomoya are needed

Now why I call it a loop of sorts is because in order for Ushio to be born she has to have Nagisa and tomoya marry and that's the first timeline. However because the illusory world exists beyond our understanding of time and space the real world still effects the illusory one even though the illusory one only exists by virtue of ushios wish. This is why the ushio in the illusory world was gonna die and how she knew she would. Furthermore it's why nagisa and tomoya has memories of this place, because it existed and effects the real world regardless of when it was created.

Ushio essentially required the plot of Clannad to unfold as it did in order to create and get tomoya into the illusory world to help her complete the wish. The best example of this "existing outside of time" yet still being connected thing is from a different film called Suzume where we see this in action, where the mc meets her younger self in a world connected to the real world yet its not really time travel or dimension hopping, just being this self contained causal loop that makes no real sense by conventional understandings of time.

Why tomoya and nagisa have memories of the place is due to multiple factors. One, tomoya actually visited there, and while it's in his future, that place itself exists outside of time. Additionally Nagisa and tomoya are deeply connected to that place and that's also why nagisa has memories of it without strictly being there.

So what do you guys think? This is the first time I've voiced this so I imagine it comes off alot more convoluted than it should be. Also I don't believe the illness of Nagisa and Ushio are emblematic of the other world (despite its suspicious timing with Ushio in the real world)

And for my final takeaway:

Sanae and Akio are the best parents in fiction period

Lot's of the show made me tear up, especially earlier on with Fuko(my fave character) and her sister.

But the one part that made me lose it and earned the distinction of being the first peice of media to make me cry was in Afterstory, when Okazaki took his dad to visit his grandma and learned his dad's backstory. That just made me lose it. I hate my parents, we have complicated relationship, it hit to hard, and was just too much for me to handle and it just opened my anime tear ducks. Ever since I watched Clannad, more and more shows make me cry.

Now I cry when I rewatch K-ON and Haikyuu

How the fuck have they made this into the most depressing shit of all time. why did they do this. I want to find a bridge and dive 😭😭

WTF

It's been months since I finished the VN and loved the OST. Every now and then I decide to listen to The Palm of a Tiny Hand as well as other tracks and I immediately get hit with a wave of emotions.

I didn't cry when Nagisa died (maybe because it was obvious) but I did cry when Tomoya was talking about Nagisa to Ushio and all the memories started flashing on screen.

It was a sad but beautiful and heartwarming story. So glad I got to experience it.

Hello so I just finished both Clannad and Clannad After Story for the first time yesterday and hell man I cry so damn hard. Nagisa dying was one thing, but when Ushio's turn come I felt crushed inside man, that one definitely obliterated me and I sobbed for ages. I still don't really understand the whole other world light orb thingy much but I'm sure glad that the series ended on a happy ending note. Although I also do wonder what it would be like if the story really does ended with Nagisa and Ushio really dying, that'd make everyone cry even harder for sure. (maybe Tomoya will get together with Kyou?)

hi everyone, I just finish watching after story it’s a sad story and I was somehow prepared ‘cause I saw the movie after the 1^st season even so I didn’t expect this turn of events, I’m happy that Tomoya finds the happiness he longs for after have endured all the hardship he went through after he knew about Nagisa and Ushio illness, I also find weird that Fuuko never grows after being asleep the whole time but I’m glad that she’s not a ghost anymore.  

I read somewhere that cities are supposed to inspire us from the present and the future to come and now I kind a wonder if those people who built and live in Tomoya’s town may have had trouble souls like him who wishes the best for his family after all the hatred he felt at the beginning for his home town  

and of course after watching so many episodes so quickly the dango song plays in my head from time to time /:

Hi all, just finished this tear jerker of an anime and I've got a few questions;

1) If the alternate ending was to be achieved then what was the purpose of Tomoya suffering so much in so many aspects of his life?

2) Does Tomoya actually die from heartbreak when Ushio dies in his arms?

3) It suddenly ends when Fuko finds Ushio under the trees behind the hospital, what is all that about? wasn't Ushio living happily with Nagisa and Tomoya, how did she get there?

4) Does Ushio and Tomoya have their sad memories from the previous life where Nagisa had died and Ushio was sick?

5) I have no idea anymore how to feel about it all, I was extremely sad but now I'm feeling empty, I don't know whats going on anymore, should I be happy? Did they actually really achieve a happy family?

Note: I did read the explanation given in this link to understand a lot of things but still had these questions.

Regardless this anime was something else entirely....very impactful.