Clannad (video game)

Clannad (video game)
File:Clannad game logo.jpg Clannad logo
Genre	Drama, Fantasy, Harem, Romance
Video game
Developer	Key
Publisher	Visual Art's (PC) Interchannel (PS2)
Genre	Visual novel
Platform	PC, PlayStation 2
Manga
Written by	Key (story), Juri Misaki (art)
Published by	Jive
Manga
Written by	Key (story), Shaa (art)
Illustrated by	Shaa
Published by	MediaWorks
Anime
Directed by	Osamu Dezaki
Studio	Toei Animation
Anime
Directed by	Tatsuya Ishihara
Studio	Kyoto Animation

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 announced in 2001 a release date of 2002 for Clannad and, after several postponements, finally 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 on February 23 2006. 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. According to Jun Maeda, the main scenario writer of Clannad, the title means "family" or "clan" in Irish.

When both of Key's previous works, Kanon and Air, had been released first as adult games and then censored for the younger market like most bishōjo games, Clannad was released for all-ages; this led to a certain amount of disappointment among fans of Key's adult works. Partly in reaction to the disappointment, an adult sequel-of-sorts, Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life, was released on November 25 2005.

Clannad has made several transitions to other media: two manga series, the first serialized in the Japanese magazine Comic Rush, and the second serialized in Dengeki G's Magazine; an animated movie by the animation studio Toei Animation scheduled to be released on September 15 2007; an anime series by Kyoto Animation, which also animated the previous Key titles Air and Kanon; and, lastly, two sets of drama CDs, totaling nine in all.

Visual novel

Development

The executive producer for Clannad is Takahiro Baba from Visual Art's, the publishing company which controls the company Key; Baba has also been the executive producer for Air. Jun Maeda, who was also one of the three main scenario writers with Kai, and Yūichi Suzumoto, led the planning for Clannad. Scenario assistance was provided by Tōya Okano. Itaru Hinoue, who also worked on the character design, headed the art direction. Miracle ☆ Mikipon, Mochisuke, Na-Ga, and Shinory supplemented the computer graphics. Torino provided the background art. The game music was composed primarily by Shinji Orito, and Magome Togoshi. Four of the Key staff — Kai, Miracle ☆ Mikipon, Tōya Okano, and Torino, left after the completion of Clannad.

Example of what average conversation looks like in Clannad. Here, Tomoya is talking with Nagisa.

Gameplay

The gameplay requires relatively little player interaction as most of the game is composed of text dialogues. The original release contained no voice acting for the characters, but full-voice acting was included for the later version for the PlayStation 2.

Original video game cover.

An important aspect of Clannad (as in every other visual novel) are the "decision points" which appear every so often. The game pauses at such moments and offers a limited number of options that develop the plot toward a specific scenario. There are five main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story, and there are a total of thirteen possible endings. Each plot line can be achieved through multiple replays.

The game is set in the year 2003, and begins on Monday, April 14. Clannad is Key's longest work, comprising 62,830 text lines — excluding those for very minor characters that were not given actual names. There are two story "arcs" in the game: the School Life arc, and the After Story arc. The School Life arc contains the main protagonist's final year of high school, in which he meets all of the characters in the game, though the focus is kept on the five heroines in the story. The After Story arc is mainly a continuation of Nagisa's story, and is set ten years after the School Life arc when Nagisa and Tomoya are now married and have a young daughter named Ushio. Characters from the School Life arc do appear, but play minor roles compared to their roles in the School Life arc.

Release history

Clannad, first released on April 28 2004 as a limited edition version, was playable only for the PC in DVD-ROM format. The game retailed for 7,500 yen (~US$62.33) without tax. The regular edition went on sale less than two months later on August 6 2004 and retailed for the same price as the limited edition. A consumer console port of the game for the PlayStation 2 was released on February 23 2006, and retailed for 7,560 yen (~US$62.83), tax included.

Plot

Themes

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 Clannad means "family" or "clan" in Irish. Of the six main characters, Tomoya, Nagisa, and Kotomi have no siblings. The minor theme 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 arrange album, a short music CD that contained remixed versions of songs in the game, that was released with the original game release was entitled Mabinogi which was a collection of prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts; Welsh is a branch of Celtic, as is Irish.

Characters

Main characters

The girls of Clannad: Tomoyo (top-left), Kotomi (top-right), Fuko (bottom-left), Nagisa (center), and Kyou (bottom-right).

Tomoya Okazaki (岡崎 朋也, Okazaki Tomoya)

Tomoya is the male protagonist of Clannad. Due to his habit of always arriving late to school, skipping classes during the day, and staying out all night, he has been labeled as a delinquent, or a young person who defies authority. Ever since his mother, Atsuko, died in a car accident when he was young, Tomoya has been living with his father, Naoyuki, with whom he argues constantly. Tomoya was injured during a fight with his father three years ago; since then, their relationship has been very distant. Voiced by: Kentaro Ito (game), Kenji Nojima (movie), Yuichi Nakamura (anime)

Nagisa Furukawa (古河 渚, Furukawa Nagisa)

Nagisa is the main heroine of Clannad. Although she is in her third year in high school, as is Tomoya, Nagisa is actually one year older since she had to repeat her third year after an illness that lasted nine months. Tomoya, returning on the first day of school, met her on a long hill path in front of the school. She has a strange habit of muttering the names of food that she plans to eat as a way to motivate herself, such as anpan. She wants to reestablish the once-disbanded theatre club. She does not have much self-confidence so she often needs help in order to motivate herself through the day. She passes away giving birth to Ushio, which deeply saddens Tomoya.Voiced by: Mai Nakahara

Kyou Fujibayashi (藤林 杏, Fujibayashi Kyō)

Kyou is a bad-mouthed and aggressive girl well known as a good cook. She was in Tomoya's class in their second year, and has maintained a steady friendship with Tomoya even though they are put in different classes on their third year. She is currently the class representative of her class. She has a pet baby warthog named Button (ボタン, Botan). Voiced by: Ryō Hirohashi

Kotomi Ichinose (一ノ瀬 ことみ, Ichinose Kotomi)

Kotomi is another schoolmate of Tomoya's in the same year, but, like Kyou, in a separate class from Tomoya. She is the number one throughout the whole country in standardized exam results — she always goes to library to read extra materials, especially books in foreign languages. Kotomi is a very quiet girl and it is quite difficult to communicate with her. In her spare time, she plays the violin. Voiced by: Mamiko Noto

Tomoyo Sakagami (坂上 智代, Sakagami Tomoyo)

Tomoyo transferred to Tomoya's school as a second year student during spring. She is rumored to be violent and to have a misconduct record for fighting. These rumors are later confirmed when she beats up several students from her previous school one day at her new school during school hours. Although Tomoya is older than her, Tomoyo does not show him his due respect as a senior student. She has a younger brother named Takafumi (鷹文). Tomoyo appears in Key's fifth game, Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life, as the main heroine. Voiced by: Houko Kuwashima

Fuko Ibuki (伊吹 風子, Ibuki Fūko)

Fuko is a first year student at Tomoya's school. She is always alone by herself, making wood carvings of starfish with a small knife to give to others as presents. This hobby drains her concentration and awareness of her surroundings wholly. Actually in a coma, with her spirit wandering the school. Voiced by: Ai Nonaka

Secondary characters

Yukine Miyazawa (宮沢 有紀寧, Miyazawa Yukine)

Yukine is a second year student who hangs around in the library's reference room during lunchtime. She takes care of many newcomers from other schools who also happen to be delinquents — in particular, people who knew her brother. She's very kind, and avails Tomoya and Youhei an instruction book for magical spells for them to try. Voiced by: Atsuko Enomoto

Ryou Fujibayashi (藤林 椋, Fujibayashi Ryō)

Ryou is Tomoya's classmate and class representative. She is the younger of the Fujibayashi twins. Unlike her older sister, she is timid and doesn’t cook well. Ryou is very keen about fortune telling, but her predictions, while incredibly specific, always manage to be either somewhat skewed or extremely wrong. Voiced by: Akemi Kanda

Misae Sagara (相楽 美佐枝, Sagara Misae)

Misae Sagara is the resident manager at Youhei's dorm. She was a student council president when she was in high school. Misae is friendly with the dorm students but strict when it comes to the dorm rules. Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino

Kouko Ibuki (伊吹 公子, Ibuki Kōko)

Kouko is Fuko's older sister. She used to be an art teacher at Tomoya's school, and she treats everyone kindly. Kouko is one of the familiar faces in the Furukawa Bakery, and Nagisa admires her very much. Currently she is engaged with Yusuke Yoshino. Voiced by: Yūko Minaguchi

Youhei Sunohara (春原 陽平, Sunohara Yōhei)

Youhei is Tomoya's friend and also a delinquent. He entered the school on an athletic recommendation in soccer, but was kicked out of the soccer club after being involved in a fight. After this incident, he became lazy, becoming the only student with a higher absence rate than Tomoya. He and Tomoya are known as the "Dirty Pair" in school. Voiced by: Daisuke Sakaguchi

Mei Sunohara (春原 芽衣, Sunohara Mei)

Mei is Youhei's younger sister who loves Youhei as a brother and lives in the countryside. Worried about her brother's situation, she comes to visit him and his town. Mei is a smart girl and likes to see new things. She is a fan of Yusuke Yoshino, an older male graduate from Tomoyo's school, who is a member of a band. Voiced by: Yukari Tamura

Akio Furukawa (古河 秋生, Furukawa Akio)

Akio is Nagisa's father. Although he often talks and plays rough, he is kind and sympathetic. His childish side makes it easy for people to befriend him. He runs the Furukawa Bakery with his wife Sanae. In his spare time, Akio plays baseball with children in the small park next to the bakery, and indulges in the Gundam fandom. Voiced by: Ryotaro Okiayu

Sanae Furukawa (古河 早苗, Furukawa Sanae)

Sanae is Nagisa's mother. Normally she's very childish and a cry-baby, but when needed she can be very strong-willed and dependable. She runs the Furukawa Bakery with her husband Akio. She often tries out strange concepts to make breads that are anything but edible and never get sold. Outside of the bakery, she tutors children. She's quite proud of the way people often mistaken her as Nagisa's older sister because of her youthful appearance. Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue

Toshio Koumura (幸村 俊夫, Kōmura Toshio)

Toshio Koumura is a language teacher at Tomoya's school. His age conceals his once vigorous past marked by his enthusiasm in teaching. He taught Kouko Ibuki many years ago. Voiced by: Takeshi Aono

Yusuke Yoshino (芳野 祐介, Yoshino Yūsuke)

Yusuke is an electrian who once attended Tomoya's high school and lived as a rock musician. He is admired by Mei for his infrequent rock play. Currently he is engaged with Kouko Ibuki. Voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa

Kappei Hiiragi (柊 勝平, Hiiragi Kappei)

Kappei is a mysterious nineteen-year-old young man who is traveling around despite suffering from cancer. According to him, his goal in life is "to live like a man". Voiced by: Ryoko Shiraishi

Naoyuki Okazaki (岡崎 直幸, Okazaki Naoyuki)

Naoyuki is Tomoya's father. After the death of Tomoya's mother, he has raised Tomoya alone, but lives with a self-defeating mindset. Voiced by: Hiroshi Naka

Atsuko Okazaki (岡崎 敦子)

Atsuko is Tomoya's mother who died in a car accident when Tomoya was young.

Shino Okazaki (岡崎 史乃, Okazaki Shino)

Shino is Tomoya's grandmother on his father's side. She only appears in the After Story portion of the plot. Voiced by: Miyoko Asō

Ushio Okazaki (岡崎 汐, Okazaki Ushio)

Ushio is Tomoya and Nagisa's daughter. She only appears in the After Story portion of the game. Dies from the same mysterious sickness that her mother was suffering from. Voiced by: Satomi Koorogi

Story

Tomoya Okazaki is a third year high school student who dislikes his life. However, Tomoya finds that his life is about to change when he meets Nagisa.

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 psychology is further developed in his dreams of a bleak world. In the first few dreams of that kind, he sees a world which is devoid of all people except for this one girl, whom is never shown cannot see but is spoken of. Each time he dreams he finds out more about the world. Later on, Tomoya finds out that the girl has a special ability to fuse junks 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. Eventually, winter sets in, and the girl becomes cold to the point where she cannot move any more. Remembering a distant world where he came from, Tomoya convinces the girl to build a ship so that the two can escape the winter and continue a happy life. However, their flight is doomed to meet tragedy.

Adaptations

File:Official Another Story Clannad cover.jpg

Official Another Story Clannad cover.

Books and publications

A magazine-sized thirty-nine-page book called pre-Clannad was published by Soft Bank Creative on April 15, 2004. pre-Clannad contained images from the visual novel, short explanations of the characters, and the production sketches and concept drawings.

A set of fourteen illustrated short stories which added to Clannad's story were serialized in the issues of the Japanese bishōjo magazine Dengeki G's Magazine published by MediaWorks, between September 2004 and October 2005. The title of the collection was Official Another Story Clannad: On the Hillside Path that Light Watches Over (Official Another Story Clannad 光見守る坂道で, Official Another Story Clannad: Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de). 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 bound volume for sale on November 25 2005, containing 103 pages.

Manga

File:Clannad manga.jpg

First Clannad manga volume 1.

The first Clannad manga originally started serialization in the Japanese magazine Comic Rush on November 7 2005. While the manga is still being serialized, the chapters already released have been collected into three separate volumes published by Jive; the third volume came out on December 7 2006. The story was adapted from the visual novel version that preceded it, and was illustrated by Japanese artist Juri Misaki. The first two volumes contain six chapters each, while the third volume contains seven chapters.

The second Clannad manga started serialization on June 30 2007 in the Japanese seinen manga magazine Dengeki G's Magazine published by MediaWorks. The story was adapted from the visual novel version that preceded it, and was illustrated by Shaa.

Drama CDs

There are two separate sets of drama CDs based on the Clannad series. The first set, produced by Frontier Works, will contain five CDs; the first was released in Japan on April 25 2007 as a limited edition with an extra track added. The second followed on May 25 2007. Each CD will focus on a different heroine in Clannad's story — volume one focuses on Nagisa Furukawa, and volume two focuses on Kotomi Ichinose. Volumes three though five will focus on Fuko Ibuki, Kyou Fujibayashi, and Tomoyo Sakagami respectively. The second set, produced by Prototype, will contain four CDs; the first was released on July 25 2007. Volumes two through four will be released in one month intervals after that, with the last being released on October 24 2007. Each CD is based on the stories from the Official Another Story Clannad: On the Hillside Path that Light Watches Over collection. The artist GotoP, who provided the illustrations for the short stories, also illustrates the drama CD covers.

Movie

Main article: Clannad (film)

A Clannad movie, animated by Toei Animation (the same team who worked on the original Kanon anime and Air movie) is scheduled for release on September 15 2007, directed by the same director of the Air movie, Osamu Dezaki. Toei Animation announced at the Tokyo Anime Fair on March 23 2006 that an animated film would be produced. The film is a reinterpretatin of the Clannad storyline which centers on the story arc of the female lead Nagisa Furukawa.

Anime

On March 15 2007, the Japanese television station BS-i announced a Clannad anime series via a short thirty-second teaser trailer that was featured at the end of the final episode of the second Kanon anime series. Clannad will be produced by Kyoto Animation and directed by Tatsuya Ishihara, who also worked on Air, Kanon, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It was announced on August 11 2007 at the TBS festival Anime Festa that the anime will begin on October 5 2007. The opening theme will be "Mag Mell" -cockool mix 2007-, a remix of a the song "Mag Mell" -cockkool mix-, featured on the third disc of the game's original soundtrack, which is itself a remix of the game's opening theme "Mag Mell" (メグメル, Megu Meru). The ending theme will be "Dango Daikazoku" (だんご大家族, lit. "A Large Family of Dango), which will carry the same tune as "A Tiny Palm" (小さなてのひら, Chiisana Tenohira), the ending theme from the After Story arc of the game.

Music

Main article: List of Clannad soundtracks

Between the time before the original game's release in 2004 and the announcement for the movie in 2007, six albums were released related to the Clannad series. The first album, an image vocal album entitled Sorarado, had six tracks and was released prior to the visual novel on December 28 2003 in order to promote the game. An arranged album entitled Mabinogi Clannad arrange album was first released with the limited edition PC version. The next album that followed was the Clannad original soundtrack released on August 13 2004. Another image vocal album went on sale on December 28 2004 called Sorarado Append. That same day, a remix album, -memento- was released. The final album, entitled Piano no Mori, featured five of the songs from the game in piano versions; the other five songs on the album were piano versions from Clannad's sequel Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life. Piano no Mori went on sale in Japan on December 29 2005.

Reception

Across the national ranking of bishōjo games in amount sold in Japan, the Clannad limited edition PC release premiered number one twice since its release, and the third ranking brought the PC release down to forty-six out of fifty. The first two weeks of June 2004 held the final ranking for the original release at fortieth place. The Clannad regular edition PC release premiered at number twenty-six in the rankings. The next, and last, two rankings for the regular edition were at thirty-seven and forty-one. Clannad was the second most widely sold game of 2004 on Getchu.com, just behind Fate/stay night. According to a sales chart for the week ending on February 26, 2006, the PlayStation 2 version was the tenth highest selling video game in Japan, with 28,987 units sold. The PlayStation 2 release in 2006 was reviewed by the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu; despite Famitsu's reputation for its tough criticism, the game had an overall score of 26/40 (out of the four individual review scores of 7, 7, 6, and 6).

External links

• Key's official Clannad website Template:Jp icon
• Interchannel's official Clannad website Template:Jp icon
• Official Clannad anime website Template:Jp icon
• Official Clannad movie website Template:Jp icon
• Clannad ({{{type}}}) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia