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Clannad is a Japanese visual novel developed by Key and released on April 28, 2004, for Windows. While both of Key's first two previous works, Kanon and Air, had been released first as Eroge and then censored for the younger market, Clannad was specifically made for all ages. It was later Porting to the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch consoles. An English version for Windows was released on Steam by Sekai Project in 2015.
The story follows the life of Tomoya Okazaki, from adolescence to adulthood. As an average high school student, he meets many people in his last year at school, including five girls, whose individual problems he helps resolve, and his life is further detailed after graduating from high school. The gameplay of Clannad follows a plot that branches into different scenarios based on various courses of interaction by the player character. The game was ranked as the best-selling PC game sold in Japan for the time of its release, and charted in the national top 50 several more times afterwards. Key went on to produce an adult spin-off titled in November 2005, which expanded on 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 adaptations published by ASCII Media Works, Flex Comix, Fujimi Shobo and Jive. Comics anthology, and art books have also been published, as have Radio drama and several albums of music. An animated film adaptation by Toei Animation was released in September 2007, followed by two anime television series including two original video animation (OVA) episodes by Kyoto Animation produced between 2007 and 2009. Both anime series and their accompanying OVAs are licensed by Sentai Filmworks and were released in North America in 2009. The animated adaptations have received high sales figures in Japan as well as critical acclaim abroad.
When first playing the game, the scenarios for all five heroines and additional smaller scenarios are available in what is called the School Life story arc. When the player completes a character's scenario, he or she receives an orb of light. When eight of these lights are obtained, the game's second story arc, called After Story, is made available. One of the lights disappears during School Life, but reappears in After Story. To view the true ending of Clannad, all 13 lights must be obtained. Originally, the lights were meant to be items that players could use in the game, but since this increased the game's complexity, and detracted from the storyline, the function of the lights was simplified and made less intrusive.
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 because the main scenario writer Jun Maeda mistakenly thought the name of the Clannad meant "clan" or "family" in Irish language, which is just "clann". Of the six main characters, Tomoya, Nagisa, and Kotomi have no siblings, though their parents are major factors in their stories. Nagisa's story was written to incorporate what Maeda described as a "perfect family" with a focus on mental consciousness. In Nagisa's story, there is a recurring appearance of Dango Daikazoku (a fictional group mascot for children) that Nagisa is fond of. Tomoya's and Nagisa's characters were written in a style to exemplify a "growth to adulthood" by the end of the story. Fuko's and Kyou's stories have their sisters playing an integral part, and Tomoyo's story is influenced by her entire family. 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. The Arrangement album, a short music CD that contained remixed versions of songs in the game, that was bundled with the original game release was titled Mabinogion, which was a collection of prose stories from medieval Welsh language .
Tomoya meets Nagisa Furukawa, the main heroine of Clannad, at the onset of the story. Nagisa is a shy, lonely girl who has an illness which causes her to rely on those around her for support. Bullied by her schoolmates, she lacks the courage to make new friends. She has 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 heroines, is an aggressive girl well known as a good cook among her friends and family. When angered, 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 twin sister Ryou Fujibayashi.
Tomoya meets a genius girl named Kotomi Ichinose, one day in the school library. She is ranked in the top 10 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 tacit 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 fourth heroine is a second-year student named Tomoyo Sakagami who transfers into Tomoya's school. Tomoyo is known to be a strong fighter, preferring to use kicking over punching, and is athletic. Although Tomoya is older than her, Tomoyo does not show him respect as a senior student. Tomoyo appears in Key's fifth game, , as the main heroine.
The last heroine in Clannad is a first-year student named Fuko Ibuki who is hyperactive and childish, 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.
The story opens on Monday April 14, 2003, at the beginning of the school year, when Tomoya meets Nagisa Furukawa, a strange girl who is one year older than he is and 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 helps Nagisa in reforming the drama club. During this period, Tomoya meets and hangs out with several other girls whom he gets to know well and help with their individual problems.
Tomoya's psychology is developed in his dreams of a bleak world, called the Gensō Sekai, where small orbs of light float around. In the first few dreams, he sees a world devoid of all life, except for one girl. Each time he dreams, he finds out more about the world. Tomoya discovers that the girl has a special ability to fuse junk together to create new things, which she uses to create a body for him. Over time, Tomoya comes to the conclusion 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 the 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 to live a happy life. Eventually, winter sets in, and the girl becomes cold to the point where she cannot move any more. 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 will become available, as well as the true ending, where she survives and lives with Tomoya and Ushio.
For Key's second visual novel Air, Maeda admitted he felt he was able to write what he wanted to for the game's scenario, but he later discovered that Air was difficult for players to receive and experience. Due to this, Maeda felt that for Key's next work Clannad, he had a sense of duty to make the game easier to receive for as many users as possible. In any case, he wanted to make it an entertaining game, and started planning on Clannad almost immediately after Airs completion. From the start of Clannads planning, Maeda did not want to write a story like in Air, but instead wanted to focus on writing a deep connection between the 'people and the town', and 'humanity'. Maeda noted that he exceeded his writing ability when writing most of the scenarios in Clannad, and equates Clannads writing process as a "wall that I will never be able to get over again." While at the beginning Maeda felt he was prepared, the entire game's story started to increase to a level Maeda never predicted, and Suzumoto noted that it approximately doubled in size from the original projected length. Suzumoto attributed the increase due to the lengthening structure of the game's base scenario which caused the 'branch' scenarios to increase as well.
There were more concerns about Clannad being similar to Air. When Nagisa's scenario was being written, there were some disputes concerning the length of her scenario, and thus putting too much focus on the main heroine. Some were concerned that having a single prominent character with a unique storyline would be too much like how Air was structured with the overall focus on Misuzu Kamio. Takahiro Baba, the company president of VisualArt's, is even noted as suggesting to minimize the differences between the other characters' scenarios, but this was ultimately ignored since Maeda thought the game's evaluation by players would not decrease on account of the scenarios being vastly different, and thought the result was a good one. Maeda was concerned that the After Story arc, mainly a continuation of Nagisa's scenario, would eclipse the entire game's scenario, much like what happened with Air according to Maeda. In order to prevent the same thing happening in Clannad, Maeda focused on making the first half of the story, the School Life arc, just as enjoyable by making it long and heart-breaking. Clannad is Key's second longest work, as reported by Yūto Tonokawa where he stated that Clannad is about 4,000 words fewer than Key's 2008 game Little Busters! Ecstasy.
Clannad was released for Windows on Steam by Sekai Project in English on November 23, 2015. In November 2014, Sekai Project used the crowdfunding website Kickstarter to raise funds to produce the English translation of Clannad. After less than 24 hours, the project reached its goal of US$140,000. When the Kickstarter campaign reached its US$320,000 stretch goal, Sekai Project announced that they would also be translating and releasing the Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de side stories for Windows. Overall, the Kickstarter campaign raised US$541,161, exceeding all of its stretch goals. Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de was released on Steam on June 2, 2016, titled Clannad Side Stories.
The first consumer console Porting of the game was released for the PlayStation 2 (PS2) on February 23, 2006, by Interchannel. The PS2 version was re-released as a "Best" version on July 30, 2009. The PS2 version was bundled in a "Key 3-Part Work Premium Box" package together with the PS2 versions of Kanon and Air released on July 30, 2009. An Xbox 360 version was released on August 28, 2008, also by Prototype. A PlayStation 3 (PS3) version was released by Prototype on April 21, 2011. A downloadable version of the PS3 release via the PlayStation Store was released by Prototype on February 14, 2013.
A version produced by NTT DoCoMo playable on FOMA was released by Prototype through VisualArt's Motto on November 26, 2007. Prototype later released a version playable on SoftBank Mobile phones on January 16, 2008. A version playable on Android devices was released on September 18, 2012. A PlayStation Portable (PSP) version of the game was released in Japan on May 29, 2008, by Prototype, which included the additions from the Windows full voice version. The limited edition release of the PSP and Xbox 360 versions came bundled with a "digest" edition of the drama CD series released by Prototype containing five separate stories each; the CD bundled with the PSP release is different from the CD bundled with the Xbox 360 version. Prototype also released a port of the game for the PlayStation Vita on August 14, 2014, to mark the 10-year anniversary of the game. Prototype released a PlayStation 4 port on June 14, 2018, with text support for both Japanese and English. Prototype released a Nintendo Switch port on July 4, 2019, again with text support for both Japanese and English, and a digital release of the game became available on the Nintendo eShop on the same day. The Switch port received a limited physical release in a regular and collector's editions via Limited Run Games for a six-week preorder period from April 14 to May 29, 2020.
A set of 14 illustrated short stories which added to Clannad story were serialized between the September 2004 and October 2005 issues of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Magazine. Titled Official Another Story Clannad: On the Hillside Path that Light Watches Over, there were 13 regular chapters and one extra bonus chapter. The installments were written by Key's scenario staff and each story was accompanied by illustrations by Japanese artist GotoP. Two more stories were included when they were collected into a 103-page bound volume released on November 25, 2005. (2005). 9784840232500, メディアワークス. ISBN 9784840232500
Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de was later re-released via SoftBank Mobile and FOMA produced by Prototype through VisualArt's Motto starting in January 2008. One chapter was released weekly with the SoftBank 3G releases three weeks behind the version for FOMA phones. The collection was released as downloadable content via Xbox Live for the Xbox 360 version of Clannad released on August 28, 2008. Prototype again re-released the short story collection, this time on the PSP in two volumes, each containing eight chapters and including the original art by GotoP. The first volume was released on June 3, 2010, and the second followed on July 15, 2010; the re-release is described by the developers as a "visual sound novel". Prototype released the short story collection as downloadable content on July 6, 2011, for the PS3 version of Clannad. Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de was released in two volumes on Android devices: the first volume on November 30, 2011, and volume two on April 11, 2012. Prototype ported it to the Nintendo Switch on May 20, 2021, with text support for both Japanese and English.
Two Clannad anthology character novels were written by several authors and published by Jive in September and December 2004. The first volume of a short story anthology compilation series written by Hiro Akizuki and Mutsuki Misaki titled くらなど。 was released in November 2008 published by Harvest; (2008). 9784434124198, ハーヴェスト出版. ISBN 9784434124198 the third volume was released in October 2009. (2009). 9784434136115, ハーヴェスト出版. ISBN 9784434136115 Three volumes of a short story compilation series by several authors titled Clannad SSS were published by Harvest between June and August 2009. Harvest published a novel titled Clannad Mystery File in August 2010 and another novel titled Clannad: Magic Hour in December 2010. (2010). 9784434144172, ハーヴェスト出版. ISBN 9784434144172
A third Clannad manga illustrated by Shaa began serialization in the August 2007 issue of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Magazine, published on June 30, 2007. The manga ended serialization in Dengeki G's Magazine in the July 2009 issue, and was serialized in Dengeki G's Festival! Comic between October 26, 2009, and April 28, 2014. ASCII Media Works published five volumes for Shaa's Clannad manga under their Dengeki Comics imprint between February 27, 2008, and July 26, 2014. (2008). 9784840242165, アスキー・メディアワークス. ISBN 9784840242165 (2014). 9784048667135, Kadokawa. ISBN 9784048667135 A fourth manga, titled Clannad: Tomoyo Dearest and illustrated by Yukiko Sumiyoshi, was serialized between February 20 and August 20, 2008, in Fujimi Shobo's Dragon Age Pure magazine. The story centers on Tomoyo's arc from the Clannad visual novel. A single volume for Clannad: Tomoyo Dearest was released on October 9, 2008.
There have also been four sets of manga anthology produced by different companies and drawn by a multitude of different artists. The first volume of the earliest anthology series, released by Ohzora under the title Clannad, was released in June 2004 under their Twin Heart Comics imprint.9784776713074 ISBN 9784776713074 Volumes for this series continued to be released until April 2005 with the fifth volume.477671597X 477671597X The second anthology was released in a single volume by Jive on January 25, 2005, titled Clannad Comic Anthology: Another Symphony. (2025). 486176078X, ブロッコリー. 486176078X The third anthology series was released in two volumes by Ichijinsha on June 25, 2004, and July 24, 2004, under their DNA Media Comics;9784758001892 ISBN 97847580018929784758001946 ISBN 9784758001946 a third special volume was released much later on December 25, 2007. (2007). 9784758004190, 一迅社. ISBN 9784758004190 The first volume of the last anthology series, a collection of Yonkoma released by Enterbrain under the title Magi-Cu 4-koma Clannad, was released on February 25, 2008, under their MC Comics imprint; the tenth volume in the series was released on August 26, 2009. Each of the anthology series are written and drawn by an average of 20 people per volume.
After the ending of the 23rd episode of the first Clannad anime series, a 15-second teaser trailer aired promoting a second season titled Clannad After Story. The anime is again animated by Kyoto Animation, and animates the After Story arc from the visual novel, which is a continuation of Nagisa's story, into 24 episodes. The same staff and cast from the first anime were used and the series broadcast in Japan between October 3, 2008, and March 26, 2009. Of the 24 episodes, 22 are regular episodes, the 23rd is an extra episode, and the last episode is a summary episode showcasing highlights from the series. The episodes were released on eight DVD compilation volumes between December 3, 2008, and July 1, 2009. The eighth DVD volume came with an additional OVA episode set in an alternate universe from the anime series where Tomoya and Kyou are dating. The OVA episode was previewed on May 24, 2009, to a limited number of people. A BD box set of Clannad After Story was released on April 20, 2011, in Japan with English subtitles.
In 2008, Section23 Films through Sentai Filmworks licensed the Clannad anime series, and ADV Films localized and distributed the television series and the OVA starting with the first half season box set consisting of 12 episodes with English subtitles, Japanese audio, and no English language track, which was released on March 3, 2009. The second half season box set containing the remaining episodes was released on May 5, 2009. Sentai Filmworks licensed the Clannad After Story anime series; Section23 Films localized and distributed both the television series and OVA starting with the first half season box set with English subtitles released on October 20, 2009. The second half box set was released on December 8, 2009. Sentai Filmworks re-released Clannad in a complete collection set on June 15, 2010, which featured an English dub, produced at Sentai Studios. The English dub premiered on March 25, 2010, on the Anime Network. Sentai Filmworks re-released Clannad After Story with an English dub on April 19, 2011, and re-released Clannad on BD in November 2011. In the UK and Ireland, Clannad was released on DVD on August 5, 2013, and Clannad After Story was released on September 9, 2013, by Funimation UK. Funimation UK released Clannad and Clannad After Story on Blu-ray in the UK and Ireland on April 26, 2021.
For the first season, the opening theme is Mag Mell' (cuckool mix 2007)" by Eufonius and the ending theme is The Big Dango Family by Chata. For the second season, the opening theme is A Song to Pass the Time and the ending theme is "Torch"; both songs are sung by Lia.
A second Internet radio show to promote the Clannad After Story anime series called 渚と早苗と秋生のおまえにハイパーレインボー was broadcast between October 10, 2008, and April 10, 2009, containing 26 episodes. The show was also produced by Onsen and Animate TV, and was streamed online every Friday. The show had three hosts including the previous two plus Ryōtarō Okiayu who plays Akio Furukawa in the anime series. Two two-disc CD compilations were released containing the second radio shows broadcasts, the first released on February 18, 2009, followed by the second on May 29, 2009.
An image song album titled Sorarado was released in December 2003 featuring songs sung by Riya. A remix album, Mabinogi, came bundled with the original release of Clannad in April 2004. The game's original soundtrack was released in August 2004 containing three discs containing 56 tracks. A follow-up to Sorarado was released in December 2004 called Sorarado Append; the songs were again sung by Riya. A remix album titled -Memento- was also released in December 2004 and contained two discs. A piano arrangement album was released in December 2005 called Piano no Mori, which contained five tracks from Clannad and five from . Each of the albums released for the visual novel version were released on Key's record label Key Sounds Label.
A maxi single by Eufonius was released in July 2007 for the Clannad film called "Mag Mell (frequency⇒e Ver.)". The single contained a remix version of the game's opening theme, and instrumental track of that remix, and an original track. An image album titled Yakusoku was released in August 2007 featuring a song sung by Lia, an instrumental version of that song, and two background music tracks used in the film. The film's original soundtrack was released in November 2007. The albums released for the film were produced by Frontier Works. A single was released in October 2007 for the first anime series called "Dango Daikazoku" which contained the anime's opening and ending themes in original, short, and instrumental versions plus a remix version of The Girl's Fantasy, a track featured in Sorarado sung by Riya. A single for the second season anime series was released in November 2008 called "Toki o Kizamu Uta / Torch", and contains the anime's opening and ending themes sung by Lia. A remix album containing piano arrangement versions of the second anime series' opening and ending themes was released in December 2008 called "Toki o Kizamu Uta / Torch" Piano Arrange Disc. The anime series' two singles and one album are released on Key Sounds Label.
In the October 2007 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, poll results for the 50 best bishōjo games were released. Out of 249 titles, Clannad ranked first at 114 votes; in comparison, the second place title, Fate/stay night, got 78 votes. The PlayStation 2 release in 2006 was reviewed by the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu, which gave it an overall score of 26/40 (out of the four individual review scores of 7, 7, 6, and 6). In 2008, Clannad was voted No. 2 in the Dengeki poll of the most emotional games of all time. In 2011, Clannad was voted No. 4 in Famitsu poll of the most tear-inducing games of all time. In 2014, Sony Computer Entertainment conducted a poll with over 10,000 Japanese fans, where Clannad was voted No. 18 on the "Most Moving Games Over Books and Movies" list.
reviewed the Windows version and scored it 9.2 out of 10. They referred to it as "one of the best visual novels ever made", praising the "rich" dialogues and storytelling, "deep" branching narrative, and "lifelike" characterization, referring to the cast as some of the best "characters ever seen" in video games. RPGFan gave it an overall score of 83%, including 88% for story, 86% gameplay, 74% control, 72% graphics, and 82% sound. The review praised the large number of dialogue choices which "lets you feel involved in how the tale plays out", "many genuinely funny moments," and "emotionally touching" stories, particularly the After Story arc where ''Clannad'' "truly excels" with "heart-wrenching" and "emotionally-charged" storytelling, but criticized it for not having enough visuals and for having some "less interesting" side-story paths in the School Life arc which require completion to unlock the After Story arc.
The first limited edition DVD for Clannad After Story ranked second during its first week of sales selling 17,521 units. The second through fourth limited edition DVDs for Clannad After Story ranked first during their first week of sales each selling over 16,000 units each. The fifth through seventh limited edition DVDs for Clannad After Story ranked first during their first week of sales selling over 14,000 units each. The eighth limited edition DVD for Clannad After Story ranked second during its first week of sales selling over 19,800 units. The sixth limited edition DVD volume ranked again the week of May 11 and May 17, 2009, at number three for anime DVDs. The seventh limited edition DVD volume ranked again the week of June 8 and June 14, 2009, at number six for anime DVDs. The eighth limited edition DVD volume ranked again the week of July 6 and July 12, 2009, at number five for anime DVDs.
For the anime television adaptation, the first season of Clannad received reviews ranging from positive to mixed, while the second season Clannad After Story received wide critical acclaim. The THEM Anime Reviews website gave the entire series a score of 4 out of 5 stars, with reviewer Tim Jones describing the first season as "the most fleshed-out and real Key animated adaption to date," and reviewer Stig Høgset stating that the second season After Story "will play up the tragedies and the drama considerably, quite possibly tearing out your heart in the process. This is where time truly starts to fly by, lending the show some real weight in the emotional departments."
Theron Martin of Anime News Network gave the first season a 'B+' rating, criticizing its extensive use of moe elements, but considered it appealing entertainment for a "fan base who revels in this kind of thing." His review for the second season After Story was much more positive, giving it an 'A−' rating. He praised the second half of the season as "the best-written quarter of Clannad," stating that it "effectively builds up and delivers its emotional appeal, reinforces the series' central theme (i.e. the importance of family), and peaks visually," and concluding that "only the most cynical of souls will avoid shedding at least a few tears at certain points." On the DVD Talk website, the reviewer Todd Douglass Jr. gave Clannad After Story a "Highly Recommended" rating, stating that "the range of emotions Clannad takes you through is quite daunting. It's charming, cute, hilarious, mysterious, and tragic all at the same time. Few shows are as memorable, and few are this good for this long." He concludes that the storytelling is "heartfelt" and "memorable in so many ways," and that "few shows rise to the levels this one does."
ASCII Media Works and Vridge produced the PlayStation 2 visual novel lit. Haruka Nogizaka's Secret: Cosplaying Has Begun based on the light novel series Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu. Released in September 2008, the game features the series' characters in various costumes either depicting characters from five popular light novel series published by ASCII Media Works, or three Clannad heroines. Haruka Nogizaka can cosplay as Kotomi Ichinose, Mika Nogizaka can cosplay as Nagisa Furukawa (albeit with long hair), and Shiina Amamiya can cosplay as Tomoyo Sakagami. The player can also view exclusive CGs in the game if one of the girls is taken out to various places while cosplaying as one of the aforementioned five light novel series characters, or as the Clannad heroines. For example, if Mika is cosplaying as Nagisa, a CG of her eating dango can become viewable. When cosplaying as one of these tie-in characters, the voice of the girl cosplaying changes to the voice actress of the character they are cosplaying; for example, if Shiina cosplays as Tomoyo, she is voiced by Tomoyo's voice actress Houko Kuwashima.
A 3D virtual world called Ai Sp@ce was developed by the video game developer Headlock where users can interact with bishōjo game heroines from Clannad, Shuffle!, and Da Capo II. Released in October 2008, the world recreates each game franchise on its own virtual island which are linked with a central Akihabara Island where users can interact, bridging the gap between the separate franchises. Users are able to create a customizable avatar to represent themselves in the game, along with choosing one game heroine to live with, which is referred to as a character doll, or chara-doll for short. The user and chara-doll reside together on one of the three in-game "islands" depending on which franchise the heroine is from, which includes a house with furniture and clothes that can be purchased. The chara-dolls can also be customizable in that they can develop a unique personality for each user.
Characters from Clannad also appear in the Key crossover series Kaginado, which premiered in 2021.
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