This is a translation of the “Directors’ Dialogue” stage event held at CTFK 2013 in Kyoto, Japan. The attendees on this panel were Director Tatsuya Ishihara, (AIR, Kanon, Clannad, Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!), Director Yasuhiro Takemoto (Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, Lucky Star (episodes 5-24), Hyouka, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya), and Director Naoko Yamada (K-On! K-On! The Movie!, Tamako Market). The MC for this panel was Maiko Nishioka (Literature production and scriptwriter for Kyoto Animation). The transcript for this panel was provided by this blogger. Editing support comes from irrevilent.
Clannad
Clannad After Story Blu-Ray Box final review
Alternative title that fits my puns: A big dango family finally returns home in BD!
Immediately following the final episode of Clannad in the spring of 2008, a television commercial aired announcing that the sequel, Clannad ~After Story~, was in production. It would air in the fall of that year and spawn many fans both domestically in Japan as well as internationally. It has been hailed as one of the best anime series of all time by fans and is often cited as how dramatic shows can be. Due to the success of the format, the original series was released on Blu-Ray by Pony Canyon in April 2010. Now the sequel has finally been released to complete the KeyAni trilogy on Blu-Ray. This is the (very expensive) Clannad ~After Story~ Blu-Ray box. Warning! This review WILL contain spoilers for the show as well as a bunch of thumbnailed/small images.
Various details about After Story’s BD-Box review
Having planned a 4-day weekend away for a couple of months, the full review of the Clannad ~After Story~ Blu-Ray box will be delayed until next week when I can finish watching it. To compensate for the delay, I decided to put a short “First Look” review for those curious about the set. But then DHL decided to route my shipment to arrive today rather than yesterday.
After some discussion with my friend TMSIDR, we have come to a partnership of reviews on this set. He will be writing a First Look at the box on his Anime in Blu blog and next week I shall finish my usual lengthy review with spoilers. If things go as planned, you will be able to get a quick look at the box’s packaging and some screencaptures later today. For those wanting an in-depth review, I ask that you please wait a little bit longer. Those who have seen the show before know that it’s certainly worth the wait and to see it on a BD is going to be amazing.
Megax’s Favorite Characters #8: A bear-y good girl
Hello, it’s nice to meet you.
I’m Kotomi Ichinose from class 3-A.
I enjoy reading quite a lot.
I would like to become friends with you.
Featured as one of the five heroines in Clannad, Kotomi Ichinose is a character that had her storyline changed drastically for the anime adaptation. In the original work, Kotomi is mostly in the school library and the player has to focus only on her storyline, which does bring Nagisa, Kyou, and Ryou into the game as well. Due to this, Kyoto Animation had to make some changes to allow Kotomi to become part of Nagisa’s (and the main plot’s) storyline. Regardless of the storyline, Kotomi is my favorite heroine from Clannad and my next favorite character. I’ll also mention that this post does contain spoilers for the first Clannad series as well as for the visual novel.
Like the title, it’s in English!
Following in the success of the first adaptation Clannad ~After Story~ was aired in the fall of 2008, which was one year after the initial adaption. The highly anticipated series was greatly loved by fans; immediately finishing atop many international fansites’ rankings. Sentai Filmworks licensed the show in July 2009 and released two sub-only volumes later that fall. Immediately following announcements of a dub for the first season, fans began requesting for Sentai to dub the sequel. At Izumicon last November, Sentai announced that finally ~After Story~ would be getting an english language track in a complete collection like the first season. I’ve mentioned no spoilers throughout this review, so don’t worry about reading if you’ve not seen the show.
After Story BD-Box art revealed!
Yesterday Amazon as well as the official After Story website updated with the box art, interior folder art, and disc art for the Clannad After Story Blu-Ray box.
As expected, the production committee decided to keep the rapeseed motif from the RE DVDs as well as the LE DVD boxes for the outer box. The obi at the bottom will give an idea what the inner folder will look like. It appears to be a variation of a scene featured late in After Story so I won’t spoil what that is referring to.
As for disc art, this was the biggest image I could find thus far. The discs appear to have the following characters:
- Sanae and Mei
- Yukine and Misae
- Tomoya and Nagisa
- Ushio and Fuko
- Ryou and Kyou
While the price tag is still much higher than I’d like to admit, I am really looking forward to seeing this show in full HD glory. The textless OP is going to be amazing. One month and 5 days to go!
Expect another character post soon. I’m nearly halfway done.
The perils of movement
Breaking up the “favorites” posts to talk about something I’ve pondered lately. As the anime industry has become more reliant on production companies, more shows have been produced from other alternative works with the goal of either highlighting or heightening the work to a new audience. It’s not limited to anime as dramas and movie on both sides of the Pacific ocean have been using original works to draw in likely audiences.
The year of Clannad continues! A dream so big it had to be a movie…
In 2004 Key Visual Arts released their highly anticipated third visual novel entitled Clannad. Since Toei Animation had made a TV anime series and a movie of their prior two works (Kanon and AIR) respectively, they decided to let Toei adapt Clannad into an animated movie. Thus in September 2007 Clannad:The Motion Picture was released. In March 2008 the work was released on three DVD versions (collector’s, special, and regular editions) in Japan. The movie was licensed by Sentai Filmworks in November 2010 and set to be released March 15, 2011. (The author of this post received his copy early thanks to RightStuf)
Dubbing over the beginning of a family
From the Fall 2007-Winter 2008 anime season TBS aired the show Clannad for 23 episodes. The show was released on 8 DVDs with an additional OVA included on the final DVD volume in Japan throughout 2008. In October of that year Sentai Filmworks acquired the license to subtitle and distribute the show in North America via Section 23. Due to the unlikely probability of a television airing as well as a cost-saving measure the show would be released in two volumes that would only have the original Japanese audio with English subtitles.
The two sets sold well and since there was enough demand for an English dub, Sentai announced on March 13,2010 that a “complete collection” including the dub would be released encompassing all 24 episodes. They have since adopted a similar strategy for the sequel, but that will be reviewed in April.
The Clannad Complete Collection was released on June 15th, 2010 and I finally got around to acquiring it last December as a present. I’ve previously reviewed the Japanese Blu-Ray Box and that encompasses my thoughts on the show itself, so this will be a short review on my thoughts about the Region 1 Complete Collection. Continue reading
A high definition beginning to a family
In the fall of 2007, TBS began airing the third of the Key visual novel series that would be adapted into an animation production by Kyoto Animation: Clannad. This series would spawn the most episodes of the adaptations with 23 on-air and 1 OVA combined with a second series. This would be the second HD work by Kyoto Animation after the earlier Kanon collaboration. During 2008, the series was released on 8 DVDs and sold very well. In December 2009, a Blu-Ray Box much like the previous one for Kanon was announced and sold on April 30th, 2010.
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