Forgotten Fandom

Yesterday on my introduction post, I left out one very important fandom: Clannad!

 (SPOILERS AHEAD)

If you have never heard of this show, you need to go educate yourself. It is the best anime I have ever watched. It is the only one I have ever watched actually, but I am certain that it is the best. I actually wish I had watched other animes before I watched this one because it is so perfect I feel like no anime will ever live up to my expectations. This show has also aided in giving me unrealistic expectations in men. I am only 17, so that isn't something I need to worry about yet. I just have to trust that the Lord has someone like Tomoya Okazaki in store for me. Anyway, back to the point. Nagisa and Tomoya are unforgettable characters. At the beginning of the show, Tomoya hates the town he lives in and he only has one real friend. I am not going to attempt to spell his name at this point in time. He meets Nagisa at the bottom of a hill and she is talking to herself.

They end up walking to school together. He decides to help her bring the drama club back, and their friendship builds and deepens throughout the first season. They make more friends along the way: Fuko, Kotomi, Ryou, Kyou, Tomoyo, and many more. At the end of the first "season" (I put it in quotes because there is technically only one season, but there is another show titled Clannad Afterstory and I will refer to it as season two) Tomoya asks Nagisa to be his girlfriend. Cue the tears.

Oh, did I mention that this show will turn your face into Niagara Falls? You will cry your eyes out. One thing I love about this show is the love story itself. This anime is in the romance category, and yet they never even kiss. When their relationship begins, they are super awkward about it.

It doesn't take long for them to embrace their status as a couple though, and eventually in "season" two, they get married. The first gif on this post is from his proposal.

This is from when they are officially married.  Afterstory is so beautiful. Every other episode will make you cry. I am not kidding. Do not think from these beautiful gifs that I have posted that this is a super fun lighthearted show. It is, but it also has several sad moments. I have a guy friend who cried. This isn't always a happy ending.  Here is a sad gif to prove my point:

That is Ushio, Tomoya and Nagisa's daughter. I am not going to tell you what happens in regard to her and their family, but something incredibly tragic does happen. Now I would like to return to the happy moments since I am in tears just thinking about this.

There are some incredibly funny characters in this show, including Tomoya's bestie Sunohaura and Nagisa's dad Akio. Akio is my favorite secondary character of the whole show. He is insane. Not literally, but yeah. If you have watched the show you know what I am talking about. One of the many reasons I love Akio:

I could go on and on, but I just realized how long this is. I hope I haven't spoiled anything for anyone. I love this show because it is romantically adorable, tragic, and I can just really relate to Nagisa. In short, if you haven't watched this, please do. It is on Amazon Prime with subtitles, as well as YouTube with your choice of subtitles or dubbed over in English. I prefer subs, but you may watch what you please. The person who dubs Tomoya in the dubbed episodes make him sound cold in my opinion. Tomoya is cold at the beginning of the show, but even when he is nice in the dubbed his voice sounds cold. I plan on diving in to this show later and analyzing it in the way I analyze short stories, plays, and poetry in my Comp. 2 class. If you would like to have a deeper discussion on this show or have any questions, comment and start an open discussion in my comment section. If you have just stumbled across this blog, please read my first post which was an introductory post. Thanks for stopping by! (I leave you with a video of the best song known to man, as sung by Tomoya to Ushio)