Clannad~After Story – Closing Remarks: A slice of life and everything else you can think of

Reminiscing back from the first few weeks of last year’s Fall anime season, I caught a glimpse of Clannad and decided to watch it on the pretense of watching something from the opposite end of my usually preferred genre. I was quite aware that I was tad bit (okay, maybe not tad bit) late considering how the first season was about to end but still bothered to watch it anyway. Thank goodness I did – I wouldn’t have realized what I would be missing had I not done so.

You know, for something that’s been labeled a ‘a slice of life’ series, I really did not expect much aside from shitload dosages of drama but no…I actually quite enjoyed the series right of the start. I guess you can blame it on Clannad’s unique style of comicality, that is …a perfect balance of slapstick and cutaway gags. Everybody needs some lolz, right? Well, it just so happens that I was in immediate need of one but heck…didn’t expect to find it in Clannad. And what’s that? Did I just hear my ‘Wow, I am surprised-o-meter’ go off? I guess it did.

Up to that point, I can only classify what I’ve seen of the Clannad series as (1) Slice of Life, (2) Drama, and (3) Mild Comedy. But I later realized that this list of categorization would extend by heaps (okay, maybe I exaggerated when I said heaps, but you all know what I’m talking about). And soon enough, the following categorizations started making sense: romance, family, supernatural, fantasy, etc. But how exactly did a bunch of these categories spring up from Slice of Life? How is it possible for a series to suddenly become a genre hogger? The answer lies on its colorful characters and the manner how Clannad is brought up each episode. Long story short, a series’ genre is limited by the diversity of its characters and how much the series focuses on them; Clannad stretched those limits by doing an mini arc for most (if not all) principal characters! Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

So yes…as much as I can I’m satisfied with how they wrapped things up with a recap, I am going to miss Clannad for sure. Heaven knows whether or not I will be able to find something so enjoyable as this series. Even if I did, I doubt it will be as rich in genres (or slices if Clannad were a cake) as this one.

Tagged as: Closing Remarks, T_T