Clannad: The Motion Picture – Review

Note: Due to the nature of this release, I highly advise familiarizing yourself with the anime series or visual novel plotline before reading this review or watching this film due to spoilers.

When I reviewed the anime series last year as it was released by Australian publisher Siren Visual, I ended up giving all two seasons and four DVD releases very high scores… to be more specific A, S, A, A. These scores indicate that in my opinion, the Clannad visual novel series by KEY and anime series developed by Kyoto Animation were near perfect releases. However… what if the storyline which was expanded over two seasons was shortened down to an hour and a half movie, developed by the studio Toei animation and was released before the anime series went to air? This is what is posed with Sentai Filmworks English dubbed release of Clannad: The Motion Picture. Does it work or did the omissions and plot changes alter the enjoyability of this release? Read on for my review!

The core storyline remains the same about developing the relationship between the male lead character Tomoya Okazaki and female lead character Nagisa Furukawa. However while the anime series tries to merge the visual novel arcs of every other character into the release, the Motion Picture sticks with just the core arc of these two main characters and despite long-winded flashbacks takes place during the events of After Story where Nagisa has since passed away and Tomoya has become a recluse and wallowing in depression. As this is a storyline about these two, Kotomi’s role has been reduced to non-speaking cameo appearances, Fuko and Ryou does not appear at all and Kyou and Tomoyo take minor and at the beginning slightly antagonistic roles. Sunohara, Akio or Sanae Furukawa retain their prominent roles alongside Kouko and Yusuke who were relatively minor characters in the anime series. While some may dislike the character role changes, given the intended setting and overall plotline I felt it helped keep this release fresh and contributed more to the storyline than if it were focused on the same group of characters.

With the time constraint in mind, the writers at Toei have managed to adapt the original work very nicely, capturing everything from the “Awww… isn’t that cute” moments to the “Aww… isn’t that sad” – and everything in between the two. The first half of the release is primarily in flashback form where they follow the storyline of how Tomoya meets Nagisa and they form the drama club, perform at the culture festival and so forth. The second half differs greatly from the anime series but provides a no less interesting conclusion which I would consider more abrupt but more realistic and didn’t rely on the whole “Balls of light/happiness” concept. I also appreciate how they took the “Big Dango Family” from being an occasionally mentioned childrens series to being one of the basis’ of this film, indicating the relationships formed between Tomoya, Nagisa and the other characters in this series and how it had changed his outlook on life / is used to describe the changes to it

Given that not every female character in this series is after Tomoya, it helped develop the characters personalities in a more mature and in my opinion interesting way. You actually get the opportunity to see Nagisa as a quiet and fragile but strong-willed girl while Tomoya is not the guy who is constantly swarmed by girls but is who he is shown to be at the beginning of the anime series, a youth with problems but is willing to go the extra mile for Nagisa with limits and still troubled by mysterious dreams which unfortunately don’t have as much value in this release as in others. When coupled with the personalities of the other major characters which were altered to a much lesser extent, I feel that correct decisions were made and character development as well as plot provided an enjoyable watching experience. My one peeve was with the inclusion of Tomoyo and Kyou, which given their minor appearance in this release made me question if it were worthwhile including them at all.

While both releases are based off the same visual novel series and therefore character artwork and designs are based on the initial source, as the Motion Picture was developed by the studio Toei Animation instead of Kyoto Animation, there are a couple of differences between animated releases that may win you over to either side. The animation in this release does not have the same cutesy factor as the anime series but in replacement are visuals that suit the more serious attitude of it, with more vibrant colours and visual effects, evidently in no small role thanks to the late Osamu Dezaki for which this was his last film. However as others may say as well, their design choice may not win over all fans of the Clannad series as the visuals do look slightly more aged than it really is. But this would be up to the individual viewer and personally I liked them as well as Kyoto Animation’s version albeit using different styles.

The Motion Picture makes use of the visual novels opening sequence Mag Mell by Riya which keeps the consistency with other KEY title based anime releases. The music in this release contains a nice assortment of instrumental tracks which helped contribute to the overall mood of the film. This release also comes with a much cuter version of the “Big Dango Family” song which is used both as a recurring remixed instrumental track and a lyrical track performed twice – the first time by Nagisa and second by all the characters, both by the Japanese and English dub cast. Sentai Filmworks chose to retain the original English voice cast and as I have said in previous reviews, they play their roles well.

In terms of extra content, unfortunately this release is lacking. Whereas I would have loved to see an audio commentary track on top of the film, the following was all that was included:

• Production Sketches
• Trailers for other Sentai Filmworks Releases – Clannad: After Story, Guin Saga, Shin Koihime Musou, Special A, Ghost Sweeper Mikami and Needless

While this release should not be considered as canon and does lack the character development of the other characters in this series, if you were to focus on the aspects surrounding the relationship of Nagisa and Tomoya which is the primary conclusion to both anime series and visual novel alike, I feel they have delivered a strong release that was well paced and provided both entertainment and emotional impact. It will not win over all fans, but in my opinion serves as a good complement to other releases in the series or if one doesn’t want to watch the 49 episode anime series… a nice short release which covers the core elements of the overall plot albeit a different conclusion.

Final Score
Storyline / Character Development: A-
Design: B+
Music/Voice Acting: A
Personal Preference: A-
Extra Content: C
Overall Score: A-