Clannad

## Clannad **Clannad** (クラナド) is a 2007 anime television series produced by Kyoto Animation, based on the visual novel by Key/Visual Arts. It is the first half of a story that concludes in *Clannad: After Story* (2008) — together the two series form what many consider the most emotionally affecting love story in anime history. The first season establishes the characters and relationships with warmth, humor, and gradually deepening tenderness before the sequel delivers its legendary emotional crescendo. Tomoya Okazaki is a third-year high school student who has all but given up on life. His mother died when he was young, and his relationship with his alcoholic father is nonexistent. He drifts through school in a fog, certain that his town and his future hold nothing for him. One spring morning, he encounters a girl named Nagisa Furukawa muttering to herself outside the school gate — as if summoning the courage to walk in. Nagisa has been held back a year due to illness, making her a stranger in her own grade, and she wants desperately to restart the school's drama club. Tomoya, with nothing better to do and finding himself oddly charmed by her determination, decides to help. Through this project he befriends a group of uniquely wounded classmates, and — against all his expectations — begins to believe that life can be worth living. A warm, funny, and deeply moving series.