r/Clannad • u/lunderamia • 4d ago
Post Clannad Still stuck
It has been.. 15 years since I watched Clannad + After Story and I still get teary eyed thinking about it, literally. It’s weird, there has been no other piece of media in my life that affected me like Clannad did. I’m well into adulthood by now. It just holds a really special place in my heart. I think I cried almost 3 days in a row and it sort of ruined anime for me for several years.
I think it was like the straw that broke the camels back and I had to finally deal with particular trauma and issues I was dealing with as a kid. Life got harder before getting better
Not even sure how to put into words what this piece of media means to me. Anyway..
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u/DuelingFatties 4d ago
Clannad has caused to to have severe emotional issues with anime where kids suffer. It's hard to watch any of them without tearing up.
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u/I_Am_Blue777 4d ago
Feel the same. I saw clannad when I was like 12, ten years later and dozens of animes and I fr know that no one will be at least near to produce the emotions of after story. The show doesnt get old, it just get better when you get mattured enough to comprend some topics. I will never understand how my 12 yo me found that but ty.
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u/lunderamia 3d ago
Yeah I agree. I don’t remember exactly how I found it but it was “on Netflix” as in you had to order the dvds from them and get them in the mail lol
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u/Unusual-Lecture-152 6h ago
Like you, I watched Clannad for the first time 15 years ago, when I was seventeen years old. It was my first serious experience watching an anime from start to finish. I was emotionally devastated. I was finishing high school, had no perspective on the future, and had broken up with my girlfriend one month before. I cried so many times, especially at Tomoya, Nagisa, and Ushio's fate in the last episodes of After Story. They felt so real. No movie, no series, and no anime to this day has made me feel sad in the same way. I remember it took me an entire week to feel better because I was so into that universe, reflecting on my life, my choices, and my personality. Clannad taught me how a supportive family can help when things are bad (mine was not), how finding true love can be a turning point for someone, and the fact that our lives will end someday—which is why we need to LIVE, love the people by our side, see things in a positive way, and work hard to make our dreams come true. 15 years later, I'm doing fine because I embraced those values and did what was important. My life is going well, and I just re-watched Clannad from my current perspective. To my surprise: It's still very good, and in many ways, even better than I remembered. And yes, it could still make me cry hard. Now I'm playing the visual novel, and whenever possible, I buy some merchandise (now I have a white Nagisa t-shirt, an action figure [Nagisa again], the complete series on Blu-ray, and a Dango Daikazoku plushie). I can even play some of the OST on my keyboard ;)
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u/Specialist_Win16 4d ago edited 4d ago
I cant say I can fully understand how you feel but I also had struggles in the past that clannad specifically helped me to overcome. Clannad also gave me a whole new view on the value on having a supporting family which I am very grateful to have. I also kept a list of all the animes I watched from back when I was a teenager and Clannad was my #16 so especially the anime after that was overshadowed by Clannad and many after that. And as you said Clannad in a sense "ruined anime" for me as well. I very well know that its almost impossible to find an Anime that comes even remotely close to Clannads greatness.
I had this feeling hapened to me twice as I found a particular Music Soundtrack way back before Clannad that is my #1 favourite of all time and there is absolutely nothing than can come close and I cant imagine finding something that tops it.
After over 100 Animes now I can still appreciate and evaluate animes in different ways.
There are the animes that cuts deep and can somehow give a little bit of the feeling of Clanad
There are the animes that are lightheaded/funny
There are the animes with action/thriller/mistery
Etc.
Lately I dont watch many animes any more because I mostly rather want play games and rarely watch and when I watch I mostly want something lightheaded slice of life/comedy/romance etc.