It’s 2023, and Sentai Filmworks is determined to make us ring in the new year with some real FEELS courtesy of this re-issue of the Complete Season 1 & 2 of seminal slice of life romantic dramedy Clannad (now at a more affordable price point!). This includes both Clannad and it’s follow-up Clannad After Story in one six-disc package. Alright, folks. Let’s grab those tissue boxes and dive in!

Tomoya is a teen in a less-than-ideal mental state. Raised by his alcoholic and unfeeling father after his mother died when he was young, Tomoya drifts through life with a chip on his shoulder, trying to get through school with as little effort or engagement as possible. Along the way he makes friends with another social outcast, the overzealous, brash Sunohara, and for a while it’s just them against the world. That is, until the day that Tomoya meets Nagisa Furukawa, a shy but positive girl who has struggled with illness much of her life, causing her to be held back from graduating the previous year due to lack of attendance. At first Tomoya shrugs her off but finds that he can’t help but want to aid her in her dreams of starting up the school drama club. In their quest to make Nagisa’s dream come true, they meet and befriend several other girls. There’s Kyou and Ryou, twins whose personalities couldn’t be more different (Kyou is tomboyish and outgoing while Ryou is painfully shy and obsessed with fortune-telling). Then there’s Tomoyo, a new girl in school with a propensity for extreme violence (especially against Sunohara who seems to provoke her constantly) but who also harbors lofty ambitions of becoming student council president. There’s the oddball, mysterious Fuuko who spends all her time carving starfish. There’s Kotomi, the smartest girl in school who spends all her time in the school library reading books. And these just scratch the surface of the varied and colorful characters that populate this anime based on the acclaimed Key visual novel.

So first off, I just want to mention that I have previously seen the Clannad movie which basically condenses the main Nagisa storyline of the first season into 90 minutes, and it’s a solid film but definitely feels a little rushed. I’ve also played through all of the endings of the original visual novel as well as one of the spinoff games, so I was well aware what I was getting myself into. Clannad the series cleverly takes the main Nagisa story from the game and peppers it with other character arcs in ways that mostly make sense in the context of the overarching season, some more necessary than others. At the end of each season, it also includes a one-off episode with alternate endings showing if Tomoya ended up Tomoyo or Kyou. The series also structures itself in a logical way with the first season essentially covering the school year up until Nagisa’s drama club performance and the second season covering post-graduation and beyond. The first season primarily feels like a light and charming slice-of-life anime with some occasional comedic and fantastic story beats. Clannad After Story’s first ten episodes or so also continues in a similar vein, dedicating a few episodes here and there to each of the characters’ story arcs while progressively forwarding Tomoya’s and Nagisa’s relationship. But then we get to the back half of Clannad After Story, a veritable rollercoaster of beautifully observed and intense emotional experiences that will most likely not leave a dry eye in the house at some point or other. It also is full of naturalistic and mature storytelling moments that are rarely seen in anime. Some accuse the series of being tonally inconsistent, but I quite appreciated the way it maintained a lighter tone for much of it’s 49 episode runtime while planting seeds of more darkly tragic story beats to come. Some also may complain about the fantastic elements of the series which I admit do at times feel a little off but overall help to serve the ending more effectively. On that point, without getting into spoiler territory, I do think they could have done a little better job of conveying what actually happened at the end. With the original game, it was much clearer what happened and why, and while the show didn’t quite pull it off as well, I think it was still sufficiently executed. I honestly hate being this vague, particularly about why After Story is so good (and why a certain character introduced in the second season is one of the most damned adorable characters in all of anime history), but frankly any discussion of it will generate immediate spoilers, so I have to restrain myself.

For technical specs, Sentai gives us a nice, crisp 1080p transfer that really shows off all those beautiful shots of cherry blossoms in bloom. The character designs do have a somewhat dated look, reflective of the visual novel which was released much earlier, but on the whole the series looks great. We are also given a choice between DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks in either English or Japanese with English subtitles, and while this type of anime may not seem like it really needs a beefy surround mix, the importance of the music in the series can’t be overstated. Giving the music a fuller sound really immerses you in those emotional moments that tug at the heart strings, making the overall experience of watching the anime even more effective. On the extras side, Sentai has included a Summary episode at the end of After Story that, while definitely not essential, serves as a nice inclusion if you want to revisit the series later but don’t have time for nearly 50 episodes. I will say, the Summary episode does explain the ending a little more clearly for those who might still be a little confused about it. The set also includes the usual OP and END clean animations and some trailers for other Sentai stuff.

On the whole, I thought this was a great series that really speaks to the heart and is loaded with lots of charm. This is consistently one of the most acclaimed slice-of-life anime series out there, so if you even remotely care about this style, you owe it to yourself to check it out.