Clannad (visual novel)/YMMV

• Non Sequitur Scene: Tomoya's very strange Dream Sequences.
  • Fuko's random appearances later in the anime. Even more so in the game.
  • They Lampshade those most of the time.
• Cliché Storm: Yes, Clannad is about as clichéd as they come. No, that doesn't make it any less wonderful an experience.
• Crowning Moment of Funny - The Running Gag about Kotomi introducing herself, the "Starfish vs Dango" duel, Tomoya pranking Fuko into thinking Ryou is actually Tomoya turned into a girl, Sunohara thinking that he and Tomoyo fall under The Only One Allowed to Defeat You status, Nagisa getting drunk and turning into a Clingy Jealous Girl, and the whole "father and son" conversation between Tomoya and Akio.
  • And Tomoya, on separate occasions, getting both Nagisa and Sunohara Mistaken for Gay. The former case especially, where Ryou actually accepts before finding out the truth.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: The entire latter part of Fuko's storyline in the Visual Novel, particularly the end, where she's finally able to wish her elder sister congratulations and happiness in marriage before her ghost disappears completely.
  • The end of season one's last official episode, episode 22.
  • The second half of ~After Story~ Episode 18, where Tomoya, after finding out his dad's motives for winding up the way he is, realizes he became just like him. The kicker starts when he goes back to Ushio and reconciles with the estranged daughter who he never once really LOOKED at for five years after Nagisa's death, and both of them erupt into tears. He thereafter takes her in as his own.
  • In ~After Story~ episode 19, when Tomoya finally reconciles with his father.
    • The Grand Finale is a Crowning Episode/Ending/Finale of Heartwarming.
  • "Yo, long time no see."
• Crowning Music Of Awesome Heartwarming: Dango Daikazoku, the first season's ending and the song that Nagisa is obsessed with, isn't particularly "awesome", per se, but it is overwhelmingly adorable, and when it plays in the background of a touching and/or heartbreaking scene the effect is unbelievable.
  • The first intro, however, plays it straight.
    • As does the second one, as well as being a major Tear Jerker if one knows what it's actually about.
    • Literally translated, Toki wo Kizamu Uta is The Song Of Eternal Time, an allegory to Tomoya and Nagisa's love for each other. Just look at the lyrics!
    • Especially added with vocaloid and jazz as seen here
• Crowning Music Of Awesome Tear Jerker: Nagisa Farewall at the Foot of a Hill ESPECIALLY if you know which scenes it plays in
  • The ending song of the VN and the song in episode 22 of the anime Palm of a Tiny Hand literally brings tears to my eyes.
• Ear Worm:
  • Dango, dango, dango, dango...
  • Kotomi's theme
• Ensemble Darkhorse - Tomoyo. She even gets the sequel visual novel, Tomoyo After.
  • Especially when in the Anime, before the Bonus Episode, she's one of the characters who doesn't get her arc completed properly.
    • The same could be certainly said for Kyou, who now has the same status as Tomoyo in the fandom—incomplete arc becomes an OVA.
    • Not to mention that (in)famous gym locker scene. Yes, please.
  • Sunohara also qualifies as an ensemble darkhorse due to his large popularity with the fanbase.
    • He certainly qualifies, apparently the only place where he has little to no fans is among his creators themselves; even tough he has haters or people who finds him to be of little importance, you better believe that are many image boards that hate everything about Clannad, except for Sunohara.
• Fandom Nod - The Clannad After Story anime answered a much speculated question in the fandom: What happens if Sanae's Bread meets Akiko's Jam? "It's the ultimate combination!"
  • Fun thought experiment: ignore context for a moment, and read that sentence again.
  • You get knocked out members of Kazuto Miyazawa's gang. Sanae's bread and Akiko's jam is a WMD, even in the, or perhaps especially in the hands of Nagisa.
• Fridge Brilliance - The ending theme because the two dango that made the baby dango are slightly different colors than the two dango that are holding it(a pink and blue pair followed by a more reddish/orange and green pair). However this actually makes sense since Akio and Sanae end up raising Ushio instead of her real parents, Nagisa and Tomoya
  • For those who don't quite get the symbolism in the last part, the blue dango = Tomoya; the pink dango = Nagisa; the baby dango = Ushio; the orange dango = Sanae; and the green dango = Akio.
  • Sanae tells Ushio that the only places where you can cry are in the bathroom and in her father's arms. Guess when was the first time she ever cried? Seconds after she was born...being held by Tomoya, because her mother was dying.
  • Nagisa's play, based on a story she only partially remembers, obviously parallels the plot of the girl and the garbage doll in the Illusionary World. In the end, Nagisa recalls that it ends with a song, which she improvs in her performance. Tomoya chides her that the song at the end of the story probably isn't "Big Dango Family". Actually, it is! It's hummed by the girl to the garbage doll as the Illusionary World is torn apart at the end of ~After Story~.
• Funny Aneurysm Moment - On one Crowning Moment of Funny. (for those curious, the Drunk Nagisa Scene) Tomoya says something along the lines of "What did I do to deserve this?" Three episodes before the one where he should have said it. Even when you know about that episode, it feels like the line sums up the later episodes of CLANNAD in five seconds.
• Growing the Beard: There's a reason ~After Story~ gets consistently better reviews than season one—and it's not because of the first quarter of the season, which is more or less just a continuation of the first season. Then a whole series of Wham Episodes simultaneously push the time frame into fast forward while pushing the material itself into darker and darker thematic territory—without losing its sense of humor.
• Hey, It's That Voice!!- You find it much easier to believe Tomoya's assessment of his father, when you know that he was a certain officer on Senten Island.
• Ho Yay: (Visual Novel) Kappei with both Tomoya and Sunohara, having dropped Bridgets on them. Sunohara, in denial, still pursues what Tomoya calls "unrequited love."
  • Tomoya was just confused on Kappei's gender at first but he was never actually interested, Sunohara on the other hand...
    • Though if Kappei really had been a girl, he/she would had undoubtedly be part of Tomoya's romantic harem.
  • Played straight in the "Bad End" or "Sunohara route." In the end though, the "route" is just making fun of the fact that Tomoya made all the girls fall for him but rejects all of them; he just isn't interested in girls. Though his rejections were subtle, you still feel bad watching the girls' reactions.
• Les Yay - The "misunderstanding" between Ryou and Nagisa on the rooftop. In one scene Kyou also appears to like Kotomi a lot, leading to the famous Glomp.
• Mary Sue - Tomoyo, oh so very much.
• Moe: Oh, heavens. Pretty much every female character in the franchise.
• Mood Whiplash: Well, Nagisa just died and Tomoya fell into the Despair Event Horizon. Cue the happy ending theme!
• Periphery Demographic: The series was originally aimed at older men. However, it is watched by women too. Not only adults, but teenagers as well.
• Player Punch - And how! Late in Fūko's storyline of the game, Tomoya and Nagisa come up with a plan to see if Fūko, who thus far appears to be a spiritual projection from her comatose, in hospital body, can be seen by her elder sister; something she was very uncertain about and required great assurance from her friends it would work. The plan is interrupted, brutally, as when Nagisa brings Fūko out in front of the elder sister whom Tomoya is chatting with at the festival, the sister comments almost nonchalantly to Tomoya, and in front of Nagisa and looking straight through Fūko, 'That girl stopped breathing yesterday.'.
  • And how again! Nagisa's death, no matter how you look at it, was meant to be this in every aspect. After all the Character Development she went through, no doubt because of Tomoya's presence with her, we're then reawakened to the fact that, even if she's a strong person, she's still physically weak. When she insists on home delivery, the alarms were already being raised, and when we find out that a heavy snowstorm occurs on the day she gives birth, it's really no surprise that she was going to die anyway. And yet, knowing this, it's still a Player Punch.
• So Bad It's Good: The 2006 Toei Animation movie can be unintentionally hilarious to someone who's already seen the Kyoto Animation series.
• Subbing vs. Dubbing: Anime News Network recently announced that CLANNAD will be dubbed by Sentai Filmworks and Seraphim Digital Studios, the talent of the once-prosperous ADV Films. It has also been announced that there will be an "upgrade program" for fans who want the dub but already bought the subbed DVDs.
  • The first two dubbed episodes will be available online for free starting March 26, 2010.
  • Full list announced.
  • The dub can currently be found on Netflix Watch Instantly. Their copies on DVD, however, are sub-only, it seems.
    • If anything, the dub received mixed reviews so far.
• Tastes Like Diabetes - The season one ending, "Dango Daikazoku," for those who don't find it a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
• Tear Jerker - This series/game could wring tears from a stone.
  • Does it ever. But you are always given fair warning before it strikes: there's a simple 3/4 music box tune with this lullaby vibe that almost always plays underneath all the major gutwrenchers. You first hear it in the preview for the next episode at the end of episode eight of the first season, accompanying Fuko's little narration. You soon learn to reach for the Kleenex on cue.
    • Episode 18 of ~After Story~ takes this to a whole new level with a soaring version of that tune when Tomoya and Ushio reconcile. Have a box of tissues ready.
    • To all you fathers out there, imagine: your wife died of an unknown illness and your daughter is dying of the same thing in your arms—and the last thing she said was "I love you Daddy". You should be able to relate.
    • The tune in question: The Place Where Wishes Come True.
• The Woobie - EVERYONE.
  • Special mention going to Tomoya. First, he lost his mother, then pretty much lost his father too which indirectly led him to lose the ability to play Basketball, and thus probably the only dream he ever had. Later, he loses his wife, and becomes estranged with his own daughter. Five years later, they reconcile, but after a few months, the daughter falls ill and dies. Tomoya then dies from despair. He got better, thankfully.
  • Which, according to this, lets the original timeline go to pot when you consider the horrible possibility that in at least one universe, Nagisa and Ushio were able to meet in the afterlife after they died but would never see Tomoya again; he was effectively erased from that timeline due to being sent back in time to the Illusionary World after he died, a la The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time's Link, only more depressing. Considering this show's view on multiple parallel worlds, this is hardly a farfetched idea.
    • World of Woobie - Life sucks if you have a name in this series.