Clannad, and its second season,Clannad: After Story, isa rare gem among slice-of-life romanceanime, in that it actually explores life post-high school. More than that, it’s so emotionally satisfying, with romance, tragedy, and a second chance at a happy ending. A happy ending that may confuse some, but at it’s core, it’s based around the idea that orbs of light with the power to grant wishes amalgamate into a power to grant one person a truly wonderful miracle. But where do these orbs of light come from? At the outset, there’s Tomoya Okazaki, who doesn’t appear to care much about anything except getting through another day.And then he meets Nagisa Furukawa, and everything changes.
At the same time, there’s this strange otherworld, completely empty save for a small girl, who builds herself a robot companion and brings it to life. Theanimewill occasionally cut back to this otherworld, following the girl and the robot trying to find an escape from it before it ends. This otherworld also just so happens to be the source of these orbs of light, and then they cross from this otherworld into the “real” or “normal” world Tomoya lives in. How? Good deeds and string theory. The first season concludes withTomoya Okazaki confessing his love for Nagisa, after they’ve spent time together up to this point helping not only each other, but others in their growing orbit of friends. These other friends are the other girls with story routes from the original visual novel, and theanimetakes the best parts from those routes and incorporates them into the main adaptation of Nagisa’s route. Every time Tomoya helps one of them, an orb of light from the otherworld appears, though it doesn’t appear that anyone can actually see them.
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After Story
Then, inClannad: After Story, shortly after, Tomoya and Nagisa bothgraduate from high school and get married. Not long after that, Nagisa’s pregnant with their first child. Despite this making her more vulnerable to her mysterious illness, they remain optimistic. During a get-together with their old high school classmates, Kitomi, talks about continuing her parents' research into string theory and alternate words, the implication being that that’s how the orbs of light from the otherworld with the girl and the robot are crossing from that world into this one. Their power to grant a wish is demonstrated earlier in the season in a side story about a boy who makes a wish to stay by the side of the girl he loves, and the orb of light allows him to reborn as a cat so that he can.
Given Nagisa’s health risks,she and Tomoya had hoped to have her give birthin a hospital, but unfortunately they’re snowed in the day she goes into labor. It takes its toll on her, and she dies shortly after giving birth to her and Tomoya’s daughter, Ushio. Five years pass, and a grieving Tomoya has completely absorbed himself in his work, falling into the habit of drinking and smoking.
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Meanwhile, he’s foisted the care of Ushio onto Nagisa’s parents. One day, Nagisa’s parents get him and Ushio to take a trip together to a place in the country near a field full of sunflowers. On the way, he hadbought Ushio a toy robotat one of the train stations, a reference to the girl and the robot in the empty world.
Unfortunately, Ushio loses the toy in the sunflower field, and at first she’s just upset that she can’t find it. But when she explains that it’s more because it’s the first time her father ever bought her a toy, she bursts into tears. Realizing that he’s done the same thing to Ushio that his alcoholic and neglectful father did to him, Tomoya is forced to confront his responsibilities as a father, and he and Ushio tearfully reconcile.
Miracle
For a while thereafter, Tomoya seems to be rebuilding his life throughcaring for his daughter. Better still, it doens’t look like Ushio has any of the health problems that her mother had. Tomoya even has a reconciliation with his own father, something Nagisa had hoped for in life. Again, another orb of light from the otherworld appears, though it seems that Ushio can actually see it.
Things continue to improve as Tomoya and Ushio finally have the chance to bond as father and daughter, until one day when Ushio suddenly falls seriously ill, and, just like her mother, doesn’t get any better. Eventually, it’s not only Ushio’s condition that’s worsening, but Tomoya’shealth seems to be deteriorating too, as he pushes himself past the point of exhaustion looking after her. He even seemingly hallucinates for a moment, catching a glimpse of the otherworld, as if he’s experiencing a convergence between that world and his world. Then his daughter pleads with him to take her on a trip, even though she still has a very high fever. He only relents when he realizes that Ushio seems to sense that she doesn’t have much longer.
After Ushio dies in his arms, he howls in despair, begging for Nagisa to help her. Then he too collapses, and it’s implied that he too has died. Parallel to this, the otherworld starts collasping into oblivion. As the robot comes apart, the girl calls him, “Daddy”, with the implication that all this time this was the alternative lives of Ushio as the girl and Tomoya as the robot.
Then the Tomoya of the “real world” experiencesa dreamlike sequence as time reverses, and then he wakes up five years in the past, back to the day Ushio was born and Nagisa died. Only this time, Nagisa survives. Tomoya has been given a second chance to raise Ushio with Nagisa alive at his side.Clannadends with the orbs of light from the otherworld, floating upward into the sky, and Tomoya living out his life thanks to the miracle that was granted to him.
