Have you already seen the TV series? If not, please don't see this movie yet.This is the right order to see Clannad: 1. Clannad (2007–2008) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1118804/ - The TV series Season 1.2. Clannad: After Story (2008– ) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1298820/ - The TV series Season 2.3. Clannad (2007) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0997274/ - This movie.As you can see from above, this movie came before the TV series, but it is supposed to be viewed last. If you watch this movie and then the TV show it will spoil all the surprises. :-).The story - Its very simple, a high school girl and boy meet and they fall in love. I am so sorry there is nothing more to say than this, really. :-).....Because the movie and the TV series has the same story (there are small differences though), this movie may be redundant, so the question is, do you need to see it at all? I will try to answer that:Quality - The Clannad TV series I think is the best anime/movie/TV series that I have ever seen. It can only be compared to movies like Tokyo Story, Spirited Away, Life is Beautiful, Its a Wonderful Life, etc. Its just too good, unimaginably. And because of that, unfortunately, this movie comes across as mediocre.The saddest thing about this movie is that it trivializes the lead actress, Nagisa. Here she seems to be chasing after Tomoya. Pestering and pushy, silly and dumb! But the real Nagisa (from the TV series), is the most amazing character that I have ever seen. She can only be compared to people like Avatar Aang (Avatar the Last Airbender), Belldandy (Ah My Goddess), etc. And those people are like super heroes with super powers, whereas Nagisa is ridiculously frail of body and she is nowhere as beautiful as Belldandy, yet somehow she is so strong with the most beautiful heart that you are in awe of her!I also felt that most of the emotions in this movie were forced and it seemed too artificial. Here Nagisa's parents seem like they are crazy and that they are desperate to set Tomoya up with Nagisa. In reality they are very mature people and important to the overall story. And not just the parents, the many many characters that you will quickly see here, they all have important roles in what happens between Nagisa and Tomoya, yet they are all forgotten here.And the background music, is it me, or did it feel as if they were purposefully mocking the movie. It sounded like the silly sounds that we may make when we are trying to imitate a horror movie infront of our friends, like where we are purposefully trying to be silly. In the TV series, the music absolutely blows us away! It is so perfect that it seems to be flowing with our heart.Once we have seen the series, each character in it becomes our friend, and we will miss them. This movie was a way to see them all again. So yes, its still worth to see this movie.Say you are someone who hates anime, even then I can confidently recommend this series to you, you won't be disappointed.Thank you for reading this. :-). Cheers.

Clannad (along with the After Story) is my favorite anime series. This movie is a retelling of how Nagisa and Tomoya met in the beginning and that's about all I know, because I couldn't even bear to sit through more than about 20 minutes of it. I'm sorry if the end is better than the beginning, but I just hate how they completely switched way too much stuff. In the anime, Tomoya is the one who makes the initial connection with Nagisa and decides to help her because he has nothing better to do (or so he thinks), and Nagisa is very shy in the beginning towards him. In the movie, Tomoya seems like a complete jerk to me and wants nothing to do with Nagisa, while Nagisa is the one who eagerly awaits him on his way to school in order to talk to him. The only nice thing Tomoya really does is just helping her a little in order for her to get up the hill to school (as he does in the anime) and he gives her some bread from the school that Youhei buys for him (that Tomoya doesn't like, and which doesn't happen in the anime). I first tried watching this film after watching the full Clannad and After Story series the first time this summer, and couldn't get through much. One main thing that deterred me was the fact that Tomoya is the only character with a different voice than in the anime (and one that does not sound similar to the anime series' voice). After watching them a second time later this summer, I tried again. The final straw for me that makes me never want to watch this movie is the fact that they changed the Dango Daikozoku theme song. Was this necessary in my mind: No. Was this song one of the best parts about the Clannad/After Story anime: Yes, and many other people I've seen talking about it on Youtube agree. Basically, if you haven't watched the anime, I'm sure this is a fine movie, but there are just too many changes. Everything from the minor characters (Kyou is now helping Tomoyo because class President for some reason) to the fact that they changed the Hidden World with the girl and robot (I won't include spoilers there) and now made it some weird dream that Tomoya has about him not having a body and finding some creepy-ass clown costume to inhabit. Basically, I suggest watching the anime and skipping the movie (though maybe watching the movie before the anime might not ruin the anime).

I must start out by saying people put strikes against this movie because they thought they had changed things that were so good in the show, mainly the song "Dango Daikazoku". These people are mistaken, nothing was changed. The movie came BEFORE the show, so those strikes should not exist.I guess the main reason people didn't like this movie was because of the quality of the show. I watched the movie first, and with an open mind, and found it amazing. Sure, some parts got very goofy, but most of the scenes did really well in giving the characters personality. Sure, you didn't get back stories for anyone, but that would make the movie too long. This was still a very deep, emotional movie. It really makes you think.The ending was something the movie really had over the show. Don't get me wrong, I still adore the ending to the show, but the movie ending had a much better metaphor and was more believable. No matter how much I love the show, I still look at the movie as the bit of nostalgia that really hooked me on Clannad.

The animated series is one of my favorite series of all time, but I found the movie to be very weak. There was a significant change in character setting and scenarios, which was great, but this story is way too long to be compressed into a 100-minute movie. The end result was a rushed plot development, and the movie ended without the audience being able to connect with any of the characters.The animation wasn't as impressive as the TV series, and I thought there were way too many still-pictures, which seemed like laziness. Lighting seemed too bright as well, though I guess they were trying to illustrate the dreaminess of the story. Kyoto Animation (which produced the TV series) once again impresses me with the animation quality compared with Toei.Another fatal mistake was changing the "Dango Big Family" song, which was a masterpiece to anyone who has seen the TV series.For those who has seen the TV series, I'm sure this movie would feel lacking in comparison, and those who hasn't probably can't keep up with the accelerated story development. Watch the anime series.