Clannad

Note: This review is based on my own personal translation. If you're a newcomer to CLANNAD, I would still recommend the anime first, although this adaptation does stand fairly well on its own. However, unlike the 8-volume manga adaptation by Misaki Juri which covers After Story, this adaptation only covers the school life portion of the story, meaning not all the plots are resolved by the end. The story primarily focuses on Nagisa's journey to re-establish the drama club and her growing relationship with Tomoya, but it also diverges to cover the Mei route and a semi-original Fujibayashi route. The majority of the series follows fairly closelywith the anime/visual novel version of events, but there are some original scenes here and there. Unfortunately Fuko and Kotomi do not make any appearances in this series. The art style is quite expressive and is fairly close to the anime, but the poses of characters can be a bit stiff sometimes, particularly during dynamic scenes. As a result of the manga's inconsistent and long release schedule (5 volumes over 7 years), the art unfortunately isn't very consistent. This isn't an issue for the most part as the different art styles are still pleasant to look at, but sometimes it felt like there was some trouble in the transition between styles, particularly in parts of volume 4 where characters start having very pointy chins. By volume 5 the art has a softer, more shoujo look. The glaring point that cannot be avoided when discussing this manga is the fan-service. Fans of CLANNAD might be turned off this manga entirely because of this element. There are a very select few moments of fan-service that do serve to move the plot forward in some way (even though they weren't needed in other versions of the story), but the majority is done for pure sex-appeal. It ranges from tame panty-shots to a full-on nipple at one point (in a bonus chapter, but still), which very much goes against the wholesome nature of the CLANNAD series as a whole. Conclusion: I wouldn't recommend it for newcomers to CLANNAD, but for existing fans, if you can get past the fan-service and the shifts in art-style, there is a familiar and enjoyable story with some moments that can't be found in the anime or visual novel.