Clannad's Ending
How Clannad's ending is consistent with its themes and plot
This is an old article which I wrote in January 2022
Clannad and Clannad After Story are together one of the most powerful series ever. The raw emotion it extracts out of you, especially in the second half of After Story is truly unparalleled. The ending, however, divides the fanbase. Some view it as being foreshadowed enough to be accepted as a possible scenario in the universe. Others view it as a deus ex machina. In this article, I'll be showing why the ending is appropriate.
Needless to say, but SPOILERS AHEAD. Go watch this masterpiece of an anime if you haven't yet.
To summarise Clannad's story, Tomoya, the quintissential delinquent, meets fragile Nagisa. Through Clannad and the first half of After Story, it plays out like a normal romance drama with some comedy. However, Clannad manages to break the mold of high-school romance anime by allowing the characters to grow. Tomoya and Nagisa get married. Nagisa gets pregnant.
Here's where the first gut punch comes.
Nagisa's pregnancy is difficult as she is quite weak. She dies while giving birth to Ushio in her home. Heartbroken Tomoya neglects Ushio for five years when Nagisa's parents care for her. Finally, Tomoya and Ushio are reunited. Tomoya forgives his father. Things seem to go well.
Here's where the second gut punch comes.
Ushio is just as fragile as Nagisa (probably the cause is genetic). Ushio is shown to be extremely ill. On a snowy day, Ushio wants to be taken out. After a few steps through the snow, Ushio dies in Tomoya's arms. Tomoya dies too, presumably from heartbreak and dehydration.
All through the anime, a parallel world is shown. A girl builds a robot with garbage, there are some orbs of light, and it doesn't seem to make sense. In After Story, they do manage to link it with the main story. The orbs collect in the parallel world when a person in the real world does a good deed (example: Tomoya mending his relationship with his father). The parallel world is also legitimized in an episode where they talk of a parallel world which is intrinsically connected with the real world.
In the last episode, the parallel world collapses, Tomoya is given another chance, to make a choice: to ignore Nagisa (and no one is hurt), or to talk to her, inspite of the pain he went through. Tomoya talks to Nagisa in what can be said as the most emotionally charged moment in all of anime. Nagisa survives Ushio's birth, and everyone lives happily ever after, as a family (an interesting footnote: Clannad means family in the Gaelic language).
My speculation and understanding begins here.
The girl in the parallel world is Ushio. She managed to create the world when she died. She manages to bring her father Tomoya too in this world by making the garbage robot. This is shown when in the last episode, she addresses the robot as father. She is collecting the orbs made out of Tomoya's good deeds, and uses them to fulfill her father's wish: to never have met Nagisa. The orbs are translated from the Visual Novel. The orbs are collected in the VN whenever the good ending for any of the various routes is achieved. Hence the Clannad magic, which is criticized for being unrealistic, is legitimate - it literally comes from the source material.
Having the happy ending takes nothing away from the 'realness' of the anime. The anime is focused in telling a story, a lesson, that family is the greatest good. Any sacrifice for the greater good of thefamily is valid. Tomoya lost it all for family, hence he deserves the right to a happy family. It is not a deus ex machina. Throughout the anime, the other world was significantly covered. The orbs were physically shown in the real world too. The city itself was said to be magical, so people claiming realness in the anime don't really have a reason to do so.
Clannad is a masterpiece. Some magic cannot undermine the reasons why it is so, rather it only enhances the effect.