Clannad (visual novel)



"Nagisa: "Do you like this school?" Tomoya: "..." Nagisa: "I really, really love it. But nothing can stay unchanged." A girl I've never seen before. The words weren't directed at me. She must be talking to someone in her heart. Nagisa: "Fun things... happy things... They can't all possibly stay unchanged. Even so, can you keep on loving this place?" Tomoya: "Just find them." (Nagisa, startled, turns to face Tomoya. They look at each other for the first time.) Tomoya: "Just find new fun and happy things. C'mon, let's get going." We start to walk up... the long... long... uphill climb."

Tomoya Okazaki is an ordinary high school senior who doesn't take his studies seriously. Always late for class, he's seen as a delinquent by the rest of his classmates, who are busily preparing for their college entrance examinations. He hates his life and the whole town, and the closest thing he has to a real friend is Loser Protagonist Youhei Sunohara, who just barely manages to rise to the level of Butt Monkey at the best of times. Tomoya is thoroughly miserable.

Then one day, while walking to school, he bumps into Nagisa Furukawa, a shy girl whose only friends at the school have already graduated. Whenever Tomoya sees her around school, she's alone; her classmates scarcely notice she exists, and no one has any interest in befriending her.

No one, that is, except Tomoya, who without even realizing it finds himself taking her under his wing. As he sets out to help her reestablish the school's drama club, he finds himself connecting (or, as it often turns out, reconnecting) with several other girls from the school. Although he doesn't care much about them at first -- he doesn't much care about anything at first -- he gradually opens his heart to them as they get to know each other better.

The title, according to the author, comes from the Irish word for "family", and indeed family, along with the related concept of True Companions, is a major theme of CLANNAD.

The original Visual Novel CLANNAD was made by Key Visual Arts and released in 2004. The Manga adaptation, illustrated by Juri Misaki, was published by Jive between November 2005 and March 2009; Drama CDs were released in 2007. In September 2007, Toei Animation released The Movie, directed by Osamu Dezaki. The television series, by Kyoto Animation, aired between October 2007 and March 2008. The Visual Novel and the Anime television series are each divided into two parts, the high school portion, which takes place during the first few weeks of Tomoya's senior year, and the After Story, which takes place later. Two special OVA episodes were made for this series by Kyoto Animation. The first is the bonus episode 24 in the first season, Another World: Tomoyo Arc, and the second the bonus episode on the final Clannad DVD, Another World: Kyou Arc.

(For those who care about such things: over at the Anime News Network, CLANNAD After Story (i.e. season two of the Anime series) is currently ranked #1 among all 3000+ Anime series and movies listed there -- at least if you go by Bayesian estimator. It also previously held the #1 spot in a similar listing at MyAnimeList. Not that online polls are worth the paper they're written on. Still. Interesting.)

Both seasons and the movie are licensed by Sentai Filmworks, the employees of the once-prosperous ADV Films. The first two episodes are available online for free.

CLANNAD's Character Sheet can be found here; its Wild Mass Guessing goes here; its Fanfic Recs go here.

Not to be confused with the melodious friends and family of Enya.

"Tomoya: * after hitting a home run* Did you see that, Nagisa? Nagisa: Yes, I watched you carefully! Akio: Love him all over again? Nagisa: Ye- Dad!? Akio: * cigarette falls out of his mouth*  Damn it! So she is in love with him!"
 * Absurdly Youthful Mother: Lots of examples but most apparent is Sanae. Just (majorly spoileriffic link!) compare her to midwife, who was Sanae's classmate in high school.
 * Adult Fear: This show takes a shot at fathers.
 * After the End: Tomoya envisions a future with all the trappings of such series, with Fūko as the hero's sealed superweapon ("Starfish Manipulator!").
 * In addition, the Illusionary World seems to be some sort of extreme Cosy Catastrophe version -- a world that has ended and has no sentient life except for one little girl (and her toy)
 * All There in the Manual: Fūko's reappearances in the anime are based on a mode in the Visual Novel where, if you obtain the Fūko Master and Fūko Ninja statuses, when replaying Tomoyo's route, Fūko will pop up at random times.
 * Alternate Universe: The first season's Omake episode 24, in which Tomoyo wins (and the her potential romantic rivals don't even make an appearance onscreen), and the DVD-only episode for After Story, in which Kyou wins. All the routes in the game are a bunch of Alternate Universes to each other. This actually becomes a plot point.
 * Also, within the Anime's canon storyline, an Alternate Universe is the result of the Ichinoses' research, as continued by Kotomi after she graduates. Becomes a focal plot point for the Grand Finale.
 * May be the way how the miracle at the end happens.
 * Anachronic Order: Not so much in the Visual Novel or the Anime series, but definitely in the 2006 Toei Animation movie. Generally, the action therein skips back and forth between two timelines: Tomoya's senior year in high school, when he's falling in love with Nagisa, and  So instead of season one followed by After Story -- as in the Kyoto Animation series -- in the movie we get the former and the latter half of the latter interspliced.
 * Arc Words: "Day before yesterday I saw a rabbit, and yesterday a deer, and today, you." Said several times by Kotomi to Tomoya. Also Arc Words (appearing essentially unchanged six times) in its source, Robert F. Young's Time Travel love story, The Dandelion Girl.
 * Many of Nagisa's quotes are good examples, especially "Would you like me to take you... to a place in this city where wishes come true?" as well as her very first lines, quoted at the top.
 * Nagisa is pretty much the queen of this trope as far as Clannad is concerned. Ironically, she is probably the one who would be most surprised to find out how much meaning her own quotes have.
 * Art Shift - Of a more subtle sort, at least: the "Illusionary World" scenes are animated at a sharply higher quality than the main series, with no duplicate frames and consequently very fluid movement.
 * Aside Glance: Kyou and Tomoyo each tend to give the audience an Aside Glance whenever they tease resident Butt Monkey Sunohara into another of his stupid outbursts.
 * A more poignant example, from near the end of season one: in front of the whole drama club, Tomoyo tells Nagisa, "I'm so glad he chose you." The slighted parties -- Kyou, Ryou, and Kotomi -- each give their own version of the Aside Glance. Kyou's is almost defiant, with a hint of Tomoyo-directed dagger eyes. Her twin sister Ryou's subtler Aside Glance registers shame rather than anger. Subtlest of all is Kotomi's: her head doesn't even move as she peers at the audience; evidently she's too lost in thought to fully register that Tomoyo has (inadvertently?) insulted her.
 * In After Story, aside glances are common ways to punctuate a joke, especially (but not always) at Youhei's expense.
 * Author Appeal: Everything Key Visual Arts usually likes to put in their games comes in here.
 * Not quite everything, considering Key's background
 * Awesome McCoolname: When he first meets Tomoya, Nagisa's dad decides that his name is too wimpy and proceeds to try to think of a better one. Something big and imposing, like "Galaxy Cosmos"...
 * Awesomeness By Analysis: A Subverted Trope, when Kotomi plays baseball: at the plate, she starts a thought stream about angles, velocities, and so forth, while fancy schematics and statistics flash by in the background. But when the pitcher actually pitches, Kotomi chickens out, and the ball winds up bouncing off the bat's handle simply by accident.
 * Baby Trap:
 * Badass Adorable: Tomoyo and Kyou. The adorable part is fairly obvious, and the Badass part is typically demonstrated on Butt Monkey Sunohara. (Sometimes they get a worthier target.)
 * Bait and Switch Credits: The first season opening credits prominently feature an important character who doesn't appear until After Story. Might count as a Spoiler Opening for players of the Visual Novel. Might count as a bit of a Spoiler Opening even for those who haven't, in that the scene depicted doesn't take place until more than halfway through the Grand Finale.
 * Baseball Episode
 * Beautiful Dreamer: A hint of this, in the After Story Omake episode 23, set a year before the first episode of season one. Kyou finds Tomoya sleeping in the school courtyard and is about summon her newfound Class Representative powers to scold him for being late to class. Instead she gets lost in noticing how beautiful he looks. (Unless you choose to view this episode as a prelude to the Alternate Universe OVA Another World: Kyou Arc, this scene fuses Beautiful Dreamer with Ship Tease.) Note that Youhei spoils things by not only waking Tomoya up but claiming that Kyou was about to pull a Dudette, He's Like In A Coma on him.
 * Not surprising since Kyou is the first girl besides Kotomi to fall for Tomoya.
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between Kyou and Tomoya, both in Kyou's route in the Visual Novel and in the Alternate Universe OVA Another World: Kyou Arc.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: In the Visual Novel, Ryou -- at least if Sunohara continues to pursue what Tomoya calls "unrequited love" for Kappei.
 * Big Damn Heroes:, in Episode 4 of the second season.
 * Big Sleep:.
 * Bishonen: Tomoya, Kappei, Yusuke, Akio
 * Arguably Yohei, for similar reasons as Kappei. Admit it, "baby face" Sunohara is hot, he's just the butt monkey.
 * Tomoya's dad in his younger days, before hardships took its toll on one's body. Who did you think Tomoya got his drop dead gorgeous looks from?
 * Bishoujo: Design aesthetic used for just about every female character in the cast.
 * Black Comedy Rape - In the Visual Novel, Tomoya uses an expression involving Kotomi (who has a fear of being bullied) having a tail. Kyou launches a thorough investigation and checks breast size while she's at it. Kyou later uses threats of "massages" to coerce Kotomi. This is downplayed -- somewhat -- in the Anime.
 * Blue with Shock: Kotomi and Tomoya after receiving a bad fortune. Nagisa and her mother also do this separately in dramatic fashion, with identical lightning strikes in the background.
 * Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Ah, Kotomi and your continued abuse of Japanese wordplay. Half the time she doesn't get the joke being made and the other half she's made a horribly obvious one, often leading into a...
 * Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: As part of his effort to socialize Kotomi, Tomoya tries to teach her this. It culminates in Kotomi, Ryou, and Nagisa working together to learn the tsukkomi role, with Kyou as their strict teacher.
 * Youhei, as befits the resident Butt Monkey, invariably and unwittingly winds up in no end of Boke And Tsukkomi Routines. Often with Tomoya, but with many of the other characters, too.
 * Tomoya's character revolves heavily around being a tsukkomi and he tries to be one with just about every character, whether it be verbally or just in his thoughts. It doesn't work too well on Kotomi though since she just doesn't get it.
 * According to Tomoya, he's surrounded by bokkes, namely Nagisa and Ryou. It is for this reason that he can't help but be the tsukkomi all the time.
 * Boobs of Steel: Tomoyo. Kyou. (Averted with Kotomi.)
 * Kotomi's assets are due to her being based on the Hot Librarian, a common Dating Sim character.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: At one point in the visual novel, Tomoya says that they should stop kicking Sunohara because the current screen looks wierd.
 * Break the Cutie: Tomoya is a male example.
 * Breather Episode: In After Story, episodes 19 and 20 have elements of this. Not that they're light and fluffy -- they're Tear Jerkers in their own right -- but at least in comparison with
 * The first half of After Story episode 16 serves as a breather half-episode.
 * It's odd to consider the first episode of a season as a breather episode, but episode 1 of After Story certainly qualifies. After the power of the end of the first season, and before all of the nuclear powered emotional scenes later in After Story, it starts with the cast... playing baseball?
 * Brick Joke: The stars given out to everyone by Fuko majorly are seen by the viewer. Emotional impact occurs when the viewer realizes that  but can only be remembered by the stars.
 * Broken Glass Penalty: This happens twice whilst playing baseball. It's Akio's fault both times.
 * Tomoya had one in the later part of After. Like father-in-law, like son-in-law?
 * Bromantic Foil: Sunohara.
 * Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Tomoya and Nagisa
 * Brother Chuck: Kappei, from the Visual Novel, doesn't make an appearance in any of the Anime adaptations.
 * Brother-Sister Incest: Tomoya imagines this when Mei talks to him about setting up a relationship.
 * Butt Monkey: Sunohara, who is routinely brutally beaten, thrown out windows, and skipped across concrete -- usually at the hands feet of Tomoyo. And it's nearly always his own fault. In addition, his gullibility makes him a frequent victim of Tomoya's pranks.
 * Sunohara "enjoys" an unusual niche among buttmonkies: just about everything bad that happens to him is his own fault.
 * Except when it involves Tomoya's pranks. Even though you can tell that Tomoya is true friend when push comes to shove, he's also a jerkass of a friend too. Though, I guess abuse is okay when its anyone on Sunohara.
 * By the Power of Greyskull: Parodied with Kotomi, whose naive attempt at a Magical Girl impression involves an H.P. Lovecraft incantation. Considering her surprise when nothing happens, one wonders what exactly she was expecting.
 * Call Back: The "Okazaki SAIKOU!" scene in After Story references Fuuko's dream in Ep. 6 where Okazaki says the same line and is wearing (nothing but) those same black tights.
 * Can't Hold His Liquor - Nagisa becomes fully-flushed drunk the second she downs her cup and turns into a Clingy Jealous Girl.
 * Inherited from her mother Sanae.
 * Catch Phrase: Nagisa's "Ehehe" in the game. Subtler in the series.
 * Cat Smile - Sunohara. Unexpectedly, Tomoya does one, too, at one point.
 * Character Development - Every character in the series experiences this, but more particularly with both Tomoya and Nagisa. Nagisa shown more confidence of herself at the end of Clannad while Tomoya becomes more open to his feelings. Most of Nagisa's character development is from Clannad while Tomoya's at Clannad After Story.
 * Chastity Couple: Tomoya's relationship with Nagisa is strictly hugging but no kissing.
 * The VN explores this more than the anime as Tomoya deals with his internal struggle over this. It mostly has to do with Nagisa's soft and fragile demeanor as he is MUCH more forward with Tomoyo in her route.
 * In the anime, Tomoya and Nagisa start going out, start holding hands, and then get married. As a married couple, every image of them in bed together shows both of them fully clothed and about 3 feet apart. But then, we discover that Nagisa is pregnant. (In fact she announces how it happened: "We have sex and sex makes babies!".) So they aren't actually chaste, but they certainly appear that way onscreen.
 * Chekhov's Gun - The significance of the.
 * spoiler:In the anime, Fuko after her arc would be [[Chekhov's Gunman; she makes a few random appearances for mostly as Comic Relief while her significance with regards to the dream world and role as a key catalyst to the whole story only becomes apparent in the Grand Finale.
 * Chew Toy - Sunohara. The only time his injuries are not Played for Laughs is.
 * Cherry Blossoms - CLANNAD being Key's "spring" work, cherry blossoms are blowing in the wind almost all the time. The first scene of the Anime series -- the scene in which Boy Meets Girl -- is almost clogged with them.
 * Chick Magnet - Tomoya.
 * Childhood Memory Demolition Team - Used repeatedly.
 * Class Representative - Both Ryou and Kyou (in separate classes). Shrinking Violet Ryou, however, was assigned the job via lottery. Her more outgoing sister Kyou is in at least her second year as Class Representative.
 * Closeup on Head - With Sunohara and Tomoya. First, a shot of Sunohara (including his shoulders) commenting on something happening in the baseball field. Then, a closeup of Tomoya asking what's going on. A third shot reveals that after Sunohara's closeup, Tomoya somehow ended up sitting on Sunohara's shoulders. Sunohara doesn't realize/react to this until after he answers Tomoya.
 * Cloudcuckoolander - Kotomi, when she first gets drafted by Tomoya. (She gets better though. Somewhat.) Also, Fūko. And of course Sunohara, who, unlike the others, actually is stupid.
 * At least some of the time, Nagisa. And her parents. Actually, as Tomoya observes, most of the people in the town have at least occasional aspects of Cloudcuckoolander.
 * A quote from Tomoya "These stupid girls... ARE... EVERYWHERE!"
 * He was referring to Nagisa and Fuko in this particular case but the quote can be applied to many of the characters. He even says the entire town is filled with these stupid people shortly after this quote.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience - The color of the shield of the Hikarizaka school uniform tells you what year the student is... blue for senior, red for junior and green for freshman.
 * Combos - Tomoyo has a rapid fire sequence of kicks that juggles her opponent in the air, and a combo meter actually appears on screen every time she uses it (on Sunohara). At one point, she and Tomoya do a chain combo. In the Visual Novel, she chain combos with almost everyone on the cast.
 * Coming of Age Story - It's often pointed out by many characters of the cast that Tomoya is "just a kid" and that he will need to, someday, become a man in order to support his family.
 * Completely Missing the Point - Fūko's sister suggests that she stop referring to herself in third-person, to sound more grown-up. Fūko decides to start using atai, a first-person pronoun only used by immature little girls.
 * Conspicuous CG: A lot of it, especially in the Alternate Universe with the girl and her toy robot.
 * Continuity Nod: It's quick and easy to miss, but the driver involved in the accident with the bus that causes Kotomi to have a breakdown is the same guy who blamed Yoshino for damaging his car earlier in the series.
 * Conveniently Seated - Tomoya who's beside the window.
 * Cooking Duel - Sunohara and Fūko, except with carving.
 * Cool Big Sis - Misae.
 * Cosy Catastrophe: In the Illusionary World, the toy informs us that their universe is one in which all sentient life has ended -- except for one little girl. (And his, although he doesn't make a big deal about himself.)
 * Cry Cute - Ushio, you just want to give her a big hug when she does.
 * Curtains Match the Window - Almost everyone.
 * Cute Little Fangs: Pop up now and then, when a Tsundere-type gets really angry. Also, Misae-san.
 * Dawson Casting: One of the major complaints of the dub is that some of the voices sound WAY older than they should, especially Kyou and Tomoyo.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Tomoya.
 * Death by Despair:
 * Deliberately Monochrome : In what surely must be a Shout-Out to Haruhi Suzumiya, the Anime for CLANNAD begins with Kyon Tomoya narrating, telling us how much he hates the town he lives in and his life in general. He's clearly depressed, and the world is presented almost exclusively in white, blue, drab green, and grey. Abruptly Nagisa appears, almost as if by magic. As Tomoya watches her talk to herself, the monochrome of his world begins to break down. The screen flashes with brilliant colors. A few seconds later, with some Dramatic Wind and some even more dramatic camera movement, Nagisa turns to look at Tomoya. The screen is awash with vibrant colors, and Tomoya's world has officially changed forever.
 * In addition, the Anime series occasionally employs briefer Deliberately Monochrome sequences in order to imply a sense of unreality -- for example, when Youhei is in a fog after first waking up.
 * Late in the series, a heart-breaking use of Deliberately Monochrome - episode 16 of After Story concludes with something of an Ironic Echo of the series' opening scene. Whereas the original scene gradually bursts from monochrome to full color as Tomoya and Nagisa first notice each other, here the color palette fades from almost surreal intensity (even the tree trunks are purple!) to nearly black and white,
 * Delinquents: Tomoya and Sunohara are known as this. Tomoyo used to be one but is trying to change.
 * It's revealed in the After Story Extra episode that the victim of Tomoya's and Sunohara's second major prank in their second year was, Kyou being the victim of their first prank.
 * Demoted to Extra - Let's just say that After Story is one hell of a Demotion To Extra for any heroines not named "Nagisa." Justified since After Story is the continuation of her route.
 * A better example would be Yukine, who was originally intended to be one of the "main heroines" and her route was supposed to be longer but Jun Maeda was unsatisfied with her route. She still ends up with Tomoya but her route is noticeably shorter and lacking in impact compare to the main heroines (Nagisa, Tomoyo, Kyou, Kotomi, Fuko). All of the heroines take a back seat to Nagisa but it was always intended to be that way.
 * Fuko after her arc is completed in the first season. She does make occasional reappearances, but the characters don't remember her, and she only shows up for comedic effects for the rest of Season 1. However, it's subverted late in Season 2, when the real Fuko does show up again, mostly for Ushio kidnap attempts.
 * Deus Ex Machina: The ending of the Anime series. There was a lot of foreshadowing for those who know where to look. Also, those who have played the Visual Novel all the way through will recognize it as the true ending. Reactions to this ending often lead into Fan Dumb territory.
 * Considering that alternate universes are also a very important point, a Deus Ex Machina may not have happened at all. In the universe where, they really did . The miracle is that . This is supported in that the miracle does not happen after , it happens only if you re-play , making it like you're playing another route.
 * Diabolus Ex Machina: Both.
 * Also,
 * Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: In season one, Episode 20:
 * Diabolus Ex Machina: Both.
 * Also,
 * Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: In season one, Episode 20:

"Akio: Jeez, why can't you two just go make out in the bedroom like normal teens? *Beat* What the hell am I encouraging!?"
 * Akio again, when he finds Nagisa and Tomoya digging through the shed:

"Misae: For Sunohara to have such a cute sister, and for Okazaki to have such a cute girlfriend... If it were the end of the world, it'd be bad for the sister and Furukawa-san, but... I'll say it. It's the end of the world."
 * Disney Acid Sequence : Tomoya's seriously stuffed-up dream-sequence in Episode 11 of season one.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the Alternate Universe Tomoyo Arc Omake episode. Tomoya and Tomoyo are sitting next to each other on a park bench when a distraught Tomoya spills ice cream on his knee. Tomoyo's hand reaches out of frame as she reaches down to wipe the ice cream off his knee.
 * In the same episode, the moment when the railroad crossing gate first rises has a faint hint of Something Else Also Rises.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything? combined with Dude, She's Like In A Coma: Sometimes when Fūko falls into one of her Cloudcuckoolander traces, Tomoya attempts to "help" her back to reality by sticking a drinking straw up her nose.
 * Do Not Call Me Paul - Honorific example: in the Baseball Episode, Akio calls Misae "Misae-chan" and Tomoyo "Tomo-pyon." They are not amused.
 * Doorstopper - With so many arcs, the Clannad visual novel takes a very long time to complete.
 * Especially since you HAVE to complete ALL of the routes to play and complete the After Story arc, widely considered to be by far the best part of the entire story/game.
 * Down to the Last Play:
 * Basketball match of episode 16 of season 1. Your average stuff of winning by one point included.
 * Baseball match in episode 1 of After Story, pretty much the same thing.
 * Dramatic Wind - All those Cherry Blossoms won't just move themselves. In The Movie, Dramatic Wind is nearly ubiquitous. Maybe that's why Nagisa has to wear a scarf.
 * In one episode Kotomi Invokes it by opening a window.
 * Dreadful Musician - Kotomi's violin playing practically counts as assault (though she thinks her music is lovely).
 * She may just be woefully out of practice; her violin playing is a lot less ... oppressive in the flashbacks to her childhood.
 * Dream Sequence
 * Dropped a Bridget On Him - In the Visual Novel: Hiiragi Kappei. So effeminate-looking that Tomoya is unsure of whether he is a guy or a girl even after he states his gender. Even after having the truth dropped on him, Sunohara, in a state of denial, chooses to pursue what Tomoya calls "unrequited love." The implications are not lost on us.
 * Dude, He's Like in a Coma - Kyou considers this while catching Tomoya taking a nap in the One Year Before episode. Sunohara catches her at it, and calls her out on it. Hilarity Ensues
 * Early-Bird Cameo - Ushio. In the first season's opening credits, no less.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending - Quite literally. In the game, you have to go through every character route in order to get the "true" ending of After Story. To put it in perspective this involves around 100 hours of reading, not to mention crying your eyes out on at least half a dozen occasions.
 * Also applies in-universe. Tomoya had to go through all those hardships for him to.
 * Efficient Displacement: Sunohara makes his shape in a wall that way thanks to the help of Tomoyo right near the beginning of After Story.
 * Endofthe World As We Know It - Parodied in the game with this hilarious quote from Misae:

"Nagisa (drunk): Tomoya-kun! Is Mom that interesting to you? Tomoya: What are you saying all of a sudden?"
 * Mr. Fanservice: Tomoya. Akio. To a far lesser extent, Youhei Sunohara.
 * Yoshino Yuusuke.
 * Even the Girls Want Her: Kyou has a group of fangirls in the basketball match.
 * In-universe it's "Only the Girls Want Her," much to Kyou's dismay.
 * Everyone Can See It: The viewer can tell Tomoya and Nagisa are the Official Couple by the opening credits of the first episode. Most other characters come to this conclusion quickly, too... except that Kyou and Ryou discover this the hard way. But even after a naval battle's worth of Ship Sinking, Tomoya and Nagisa just can't see themselves as a couple.
 * Evolving Credits - When Tomoya's grandmother is introduced in episode 18 of After Story, she shows up in the ending credits as well. At the end of the next episode, Tomoya's father is added to the parade as well. In the final episode, Fūko and Ushio lead the line.
 * In the game: the light orbs that the player has collected will appear under the same tree in the game's menu, glow brightly when all 13 are collected, and when you've finally reached the True End, the Girl in from the Illusionary World will be there.
 * Similarly, in the anime, the scene where they state the episode number and title changed over time, adding orbs of light after major events that roughly correspond to when they are obtained in the game. In the first season, orbs are added at the beginning of episodes  In After Story, orbs are added in episodes   After episode 22 in After Story, the Girl from the Illusionary World is now seen lying in the grass under the tree.
 * Expy - Sagara Misae is similar to Chidori Kaname from Full Metal Panic!. They are both voiced by the same voice actress, have similar hair color (blackish blue), similar personality, and Misae's last name is the same as Kaname's love interest. They both also seem to be fond of the suplex. Given that both anime were also made by Kyoto Animation, which may have something to do with both characters having the same voice actress.
 * Eyes Always Shut: Naoyuki Okazaki Aka. Tomoyas father is pretty always seen like this. He rarely opens his eyes for more than a second or two.
 * Face Fault - Repeatedly. The most amusing one is when Tomoya imagines Fūko announcing over the school intercom that the wooden stars she's been handing out are in fact starfish, with the entire class simultaneously facefaulting in response.
 * The one where Tomoya facefaults because Akio mentioned that Sanae's boobs were huge, in front of a drunk Nagisa, no less, is hilarious as well. Though it's more of a Head Desk maneuver.
 * Kyou also manages one so hard that she knocked down a door along the way.
 * Faked Rip Van Winkle: Tomoya pulls this off against a half-asleep Sunohara -- twice, in one minute. Sunohara really is that stupid.
 * Famous Last Words:
 * "But I'm a little tired now. May I rest for a while?"  While a blizzard clogs the whole city up with snow.
 * " I love you."   In the snow.
 * "Someone! Someone save  In the very same snow.
 * Fan Girl - Mei is something of a Yoshino Yuusuke fangirl.
 * Fan Service - The Ship Tease, below, or Kyou in gym clothes in general (such as her Gainaxing twice in the opening credits bouncing a basketball). A late episode features several of the girls stretching off each other's backs: chest in foreground, everything else blurred out. Goodness, were Ryou's breasts always that big? Also, the extra episode of the after story has the bath scene of the two sisters.
 * Well, she is Kyou's twin sister.
 * Interestingly, there is nothing of this sort in the Visual Novel. Not one piece of perverse imagery. The closest thing to Fanservice in the V.N. are a couple of misleading conversations that clarify themselves immediately after for comic effect - most notably, the situation Tomoya and Sunohara engineer wherein
 * Another is when Tomoya seems to be about to have  It is hinted to have actually happened in a bad end of the route, though, a few days later.
 * First Girl Wins - Depends on whether you count by order of introduction to the audience or to Tomoya.
 * In the first case played as straight as humanly possible, with Nagisa standing at the bottom of a hill, facing the sun, with Cherry Blossoms blowing through the Dramatic Wind. What Do You Mean It's Not Symbolic? In case all that wasn't clear enough, romantic music soars as the two leads first look at each other. A few seconds later, she's following him like a puppy as the scene keeps flashing to brilliant white light. At the 0:37 mark any Genre Savvy viewer not in deep denial knows she and Tomoya will become the Official Couple.
 * By contrast, Kotomi is the "First Girl", chronologically speaking, and in the Visual Novel she can surpass Nagisa to become the Victorious Childhood Friend.
 * "Surpass" is an iffy term since Nagisa was never a romantic prospect in Kotomi's route, she was just Kotomi's first female friend.
 * First-Name Basis - Tomoya calls all of the other main girls by their given name without honorific, adding "-chan" for [[media:kotomi-chan.jpg|Kotomi]] because she won't notice him otherwise, but he and Nagisa call each other by family name. At one point, Fūko, who approves of them as an Official Couple, tries to convince them to be more "adult-like" by switching to a first name basis (complete with -chan and -kun honorifics), but after a stuttering attempt both protest that it's too embarrassing (though Tomoya does manage it by leaving off the "-chan").
 * Later in the Anime, in an omake episode set during the summer of Tomoya's senior year, Mei finally succeeds in getting Nagisa to call Tomoya by his first name. Note that the two have already been going steady for several weeks by this time.
 * In the Visual Novel, Ryou and Tomoya switch to first name basis, as well, in her and Kyou's route in the game. It's the final scene in the Ryou end.
 * And in the Kyou route it turns into Ryou's desperate attempt to keep Tomoya interested in her by acting like her sister.
 * The same goes for Yukine in her route.
 * Kyou calls everyone by their first names.
 * Flash Back - We sure have a lot of them.
 * Flashback Nightmare - Tomoya starts to have these as he gets closer to Kotomi, complete with a seemingly random rabbit and deer.
 * Foreshadowing - When Sunohara asks Yukine to be his fake girlfriend, a mishap happens which foreshadows Yukine's story arc.
 * Additionally, when the topic of the possibilities of multiple worlds and timelines was mentioned in episode 16 of After Story, Tomoya suddenly remembers Nagisa's play, which is a rough description of The World that Ended
 * Ushio's love of the robot toy Tomoya gave her. Not only does she love it because Tomoya gave it to her, it also is related to how much she loves robots themselves--.
 * More so, the last thing Ushio said before  was "I tried; but I just couldn't do it by myself." It seems she's talking about , but wasn't able to.
 * Fridge Horror -
 * Imagine how Sanae and Akio must feel...
 * Forgotten Childhood Friend - Non-villainous example. Kotomi Ichinose was Tomoya's childhood friend, yet after, Tomoya stopped coming over to her house because Kotomi would not come out. The next time they would meet was when Tomoya wandered into the library in his senior year. (This happens the same way in both the Visual Novel and the Anime).
 * Gadgeteer Genius - Technically, Yoshino, and later Tomoya as well.
 * The Gadfly - Tomoya. Poor, poor Sunohara, his most frequent victim. Then again, you have to be really stupid to put any faith in what Tomoya tells you.
 * Even the trusting Nagisa catches on. Seeing her say candidly "Since occasionally you're a liar" in episode 19 is priceless.
 * Gainax Ending - Seriously, to understand the Grand Finale requires a lot of analysis of the dialogue between . Also, one has to wonder why, as well as if . (Yes.)
 * You would also have to had paid attention to both Misae's and Yukine's arcs to understand the properties of the Light Orbs.
 * Playing the Visual Novel and reading this helps.
 * It makes sense for the Visual Novel, not so much for the anime So the . It still works. Just, differently.
 * For people who confused about After Story episodes 16-23, and where episode 24 fits into the timeline, there is this.
 * Gainaxing - Kyou while bouncing a basketball in the opening credits of season 1. What a way to get a bloke-viewer's attention.
 * Gay Option - Yes, there really is a Sunohara ending (really a gag bad end), made available by dumping Tomoyo just prior to locking onto her route. In it Tomoya decides that Sunohara is the only one for him (to Sunohara's considerable alarm).
 * To get the "Sunohara" bad end, you have to push away all of the girls, Tomoyo just happens to be the last one in the sequence to be rejected. Perhaps to poke fun at the player, Tomoya says, despite meeting all these girls, he doesn't the slightest interest in any of them so he must be gay.
 * Generation Xerox - As much as Tomoya hates his father for neglecting him to dull the pain of his mother's death
 * Generic Cuteness: To such an extreme it's nearly impossible to tell just by their appearance which girls are meant to be beautiful in-universe. This leads, almost inevitably, to Informed Attractiveness. (See also.)
 * Genius Loci - The entire city, in certain characters' opinion.
 * Genre Busting - It's like a slice-of-life romance drama with a side-order of the supernatural.
 * The Glomp - The one performed by [[media:Kyou_-_get_to_know_Kotomi_better.jpg|Kyou on the visibly uneasy Kotomi]] is especially famous.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: Kyou.
 * Go Into the Light - Parodied on more than one occasion by Nagisa's very theatrical parents.
 * Go Out with a Smile - In The Movie,  Subtler in the tv series that followed.
 * Grand Finale - Doubles as a Crowning Episode of Heartwarming.
 * Gratuitous English - Sunohara tries to use some, but his English is so bad "revenge" comes out as more like "rezombie". The anime version of Kotomi's arc ends with a misspelled note in English SuitsCase]]? also spoken in a variety of languages, with varying levels of success. The English note was free of errors in the original game.
 * I am pretty dog. Thank you, my friend from New York!
 * Like the fireball!
 * Sunohara often uses English in horrible wrong ways. Tomoya often calls him out on it.
 * In Tomoyo's extra episode, she present a speech broadcast on television in very broken English, that makes little sense if you actually speak the language (Her speech in the dub is completely different, thankfully). Naturally, when watching it, Sunohara asks what language she's speaking.
 * There's a lot of Gratuitous English in the series. Also in the songs, especially "Ana", the lyrics of which are almost entirely awkwardly translated English.
 * Hair Antennae: The entire Furukawa family. Except Ushio -- but technically she's an Okazaki.
 * Hair Colors: Hair colors run the usual rainbow gambit, but it is Sunohara's blond hair that Fūko calls out as unnatural. In this instance, she's correct (albeit rude): his hair is naturally dark, like his sister Mei's, and he dyes it blond. We see his naturally hair color in some of the omakes and toward the end of After Story.
 * Happily Married: Akio and Sanae. Later, . Possibly Yuusuke and Kouko, although we don't see them together that much. And, leaving aside very minor characters and flashbacks, that's pretty much it for the requited relationships in the Anime series.
 * There is a very good reason why we don't get to see Yuusuke and Kouko together much. In the game, After Story strictly follows Nagisa's route and Nagisa's route only, meaning that there was no Fuuko story and Yuusuke and Kouko never got married. In the anime, Nagisa's route incorporated everyone's else route but since the original source material never had those two married in After Story, anything deeply related to their marriage just kinda got pushed aside.
 * Headbutt Thermometer: In the Visual Novel, Tomoyo checks Tomoya's temperature this way after he claims to have a cold, oblivious to how intimate it might look to others.
 * Head Desk: In Clannad After Story, during Nagisa's 20th birthday, is also her first time drinking sake (the legal age for drinking in Japan is 20). She gets extremely drunk off just one bowl/cup and turns into a Clingy Jealous Girl. Hilarity Ensues and when Sanae and Akio start messing with him too, Tomoya does a fast headdesk.
 * Her Heart Will Go On - The Gaiden Game eroge sequel to Tomoyo's route Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life and the manga based on that (Tomoyo After: Dear Shining Memories).
 * Heroic BSOD: Tomoya . On a far smaller scale, Kotomi's Freak-Out, when she thinks that Ryou was involved in the bus accident.
 * Nagisa suffers one after accidentally learning more about her parent's past. It nearly ruins her play as a result, until her dad snaps her out of it.
 * Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: Tomoya says he likes snow in After Story episode 21 with a long hesitation after being asked if he likes snow. He does not like snow. Which is completely justifiable in this anime.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Rie Nishina and Sugisaka (two members from the Choir Club) are implied to be this in the epilogue.
 * Hidden Eyes - Many characters have moments when they have eyes hidden, particularly Tomoya when he's not feeling well.
 * Hikaru Midorikawa - Yuusuke.
 * Homoerotic Subtext - The "misunderstanding" between Ryou and Nagisa on the rooftop. In one scene Kyou also appears to like Kotomi a lot, leading to the famous Glomp.
 * Tomoya also becomes rather uncomfortable with Kappei because of this, though it eventually dies down when he stops thinking of Kappei as being so girly.
 * Hospital Hottie - You'll literally say Hello, Nurse! in After Story.
 * Hot-Blooded: Akio. All he needs is the mecha.
 * Hot Shoujo Dad: Nagisa's father, Akio.
 * Hot Shounen Mom - Nagisa's mother, Sanae, who is frequently mistaken for her sister. In the second season, she pretends to be Sunohara's girlfriend; her disguises make Tomoya blush, which in turn makes Nagisa nervous.
 * It's implied that the one person Nagisa viewed as the greatest threat to her relationship with Tomoya is her own mother. Case in point: After Story episode 13: Nagisa gets drunk and Hilarity Ensues. Also a Crowning Moment of Funny.
 * Hot Shounen Mom - Nagisa's mother, Sanae, who is frequently mistaken for her sister. In the second season, she pretends to be Sunohara's girlfriend; her disguises make Tomoya blush, which in turn makes Nagisa nervous.
 * It's implied that the one person Nagisa viewed as the greatest threat to her relationship with Tomoya is her own mother. Case in point: After Story episode 13: Nagisa gets drunk and Hilarity Ensues. Also a Crowning Moment of Funny.
 * It's implied that the one person Nagisa viewed as the greatest threat to her relationship with Tomoya is her own mother. Case in point: After Story episode 13: Nagisa gets drunk and Hilarity Ensues. Also a Crowning Moment of Funny.

"Ushio: "Sanae-san told me...where it was okay to cry...was in the bathroom...""
 * The implications are much more dangerous in the game (fortunately not that dangerous). Tomoya states that the biggest reason for his attraction to her is that she possess many of the traits that made him fell in love with Nagisa, particularly their tendency to sacrifice their own interest and give their all for the sake of others.
 * Tomoya's mom most likely counted as well, considering that his parents got married when his father was still in school and he was born shortly after. Also, since this is a fictional bishoujo story where true love prevails, all the other heroines would have counted in their respective alternate universes.
 * Hot Teacher: Sanae used to be a teacher, but still remained hot. becomes one in After Story. Kouko also used to be a teacher.
 * How Much More Can He Take? - Tomoya, on behalf of Yukine's absent brother, battles from dawn until after dark.
 * Also applies to practically the entire After Story in regard to Tomoya.
 * Identity Amnesia: After their deaths,.
 * Ill Girl - Nagisa was held back due to illness while her friends graduated. Meanwhile,.
 * I'm Taking Her Home With Me!: The adorably innocent Ibuki Fuuko says she wants to do this to little Ushio-chan, Tomoya's daughter, to be her little sister.
 * In season one, Tomoya and Nagisa say the same thing about Mei.
 * Imagine Spot - Tomoya has quite the amusing imagination! Not so much as to call him Mr. Imagination, though.
 * Indecisive Medium: The Visual Novel-style gags in the Anime adaptation.
 * Indirect Kiss: At one point, Nagisa acts flustered when Tomoya reachers over and takes a piece of a pastry she is eating to eat himself. Nothing is said, but Nagisa's reaction makes it clear she understands the implication.
 * Not really, as he took a piece from a section she hadn't even touched. Made creepy by the fact that, dear god, he's EATING her TEARS!!!
 * In the visual novel, it is explained that Tomoya ate it because he doesn't want the 'tears to dry up'
 * Again, in the visual novel Kyou points out that Tomoya and Ryou have an indirect kiss, when the latter feeds Tomoya with her chopsticks, then using it eat.
 * You can also say Miyazawa and Ryou picking off a grain of rice from his lips and eating it counts.
 * Informed Ability - For somebody who is supposedly a 'delinquent,' Tomoya is a pretty mild guy. The only bad things he really does onscreen are coming into school late and being smart-mouthed.
 * Informed Attractiveness - Nagisa is supposedly more attractive than average, but this isn't evident by her character design. (She's drawn as being cute, of course. But so are almost all the female characters in the series, to the point where it tends to blur into Generic Cuteness.)
 * Innocent Cohabitation - Tomoya temporarily moves in with Nagisa and her family due to issues with his dad. Sunohara is shocked when he finds out and rather annoyed when Tomoya continues to insist that they aren't a couple.
 * Played with in the Visual Novel. Akio outright admits he wants Tomoya to have sex with Nagisa, and Nagisa herself wants to but isn't forward about it.
 * Instant Fanclub: Fuko's. If provoked, she can summon her admirers as an attack.
 * Intertwined Fingers - Ryou and Nagisa.
 * Ironic Hell: Discussed in parody during Kotomi's tsukkomi training, when Kyou describes the different worlds awaiting a tsukkomi, including the hell of all tsukkomis, the hell of lame jokes that cause people to Face Fault, and the one that really frightens Kyou and Tomoya, the hell with no punchlines...
 * It Got Worse: Just when you thought wasn't enough...
 * It Is Always Spring: In season one (leaving aside the OVAs), all of which takes place within a few weeks.
 * A Subverted Trope after Kotomi's arc, when the girls switch to the summer uniforms from Tomoyo After.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A variant whereby Kyou supports her sister Ryou's attempts to get with Tomoya, despite liking him herself. More thoroughly explored in the Kyou Another World OVA.
 * Jerkass / Jerk Jock: The soccer club is seriously filled with Jerkasses / Jerk Jocks. (To a much lesser extent, so is the rugby team.)
 * Kikuko Inoue - Sanae-san. Appropriately.
 * Large Ham - Yoshino Yuusuke, who after hitting a ball in a baseball match, proceeds to give out a hammy speech about "Intangible Memories"... and gets balled out. (He remembers to call for a time-out the second time he tries it.)
 * And Akio. Not surprising since
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Frequent, usually combined with with Self-Deprecation both toward the character in question and the show itself. Near the beginning of the first season, Tomoya chides Nagisa for being unable to decide if her play is intended to make viewers laugh or cry. Her flustered answers to his questions might almost be a CLANNAD fan flailing in an attempt to explain to a skeptic the appeal of the franchise. In another conversation between Tomoya and Nagisa, this time near the end of the first season, he tells her that her beloved odango song was a bathetic (if not outright pathetic) ending for the emotionally wrenching play she performed. Yes, that's the same song used as the Ending Theme throughout the first season.
 * Leitmotif:
 * One for each member of Tomoya's harem -- except poor Ryou. Yes, even Yukine. Also, the first season ED, Dango Daikazoku, functions as both the ED and Nagisa's Leitmotif.
 * The "arc-happy-ending" leitmotif in the first season is rearranged into the second season's opening theme.
 * Let Her Grow Up Dear - Upon finding out that his daughter Nagisa is pregnant, Akio is torn between denial ("A stork brought it, right?"), happiness at becoming a grandfather, and wanting to strangle Tomoya for sleeping with her. ("Congratulations ... you bastard!!") Nagisa's reaction is classic.
 * Loser Protagonist - Sunohara. Tomoya would seem much less impressive without him as a reference point.
 * Love Dodecahedron - Tomoya has quite a few admirers, but is really only interested in Nagisa.
 * Magic Realism - Though by and large it looks like the series is set in a mundane world just like ours, there are hints of the supernatural lurking just below the surface.
 * Magic Skirt - Skirts always cover everything, despite all the kicking that Kyou and Tomoyo do.
 * For the audience, that is. Sunohara gets a glance of Kyou's light-blue pantsu. Kyou is not amused.
 * Another case: Tomoya. Whenever he and Sunohara meet with Tomoyo and Tomoyo proceeds with the ass-kicking, Tomoya will be in front of Tomoyo while she's giving Sunohara air time. And her kicking leg is raised in a very meaningful angle.
 * Male Gaze: Of course. For example, in After Story 20, when Kyou greets one of her students with his mother, [[media:s_ass.jpg|the camera pans on Kyou's butt, and Tomoya's eyes are seen looking towards Kyou's ass for about two seconds]].
 * There is also the interesting camera angles used when Ryou and Kotomi are stretching together in one scene, that constantly features one of the pairs' pair.
 * Matchmaker Crush: Kyou tries to push Tomoya to be with her sister Ryou at every opportunity ... though she has a crush on him, too. Sometimes she'll make a flirtatious play for Tomoya in the middle of working out a plan to get Ryou and Tomoya together, as if she's forgetting that if Ryou is dating Tomoya, she isn't, and if she's dating Tomoya, Ryou isn't. (This sort of emotional confusion / conflation can be Truth in Television, even for adults, much less hormonal high school students.)
 * Meaningful Echo: A lot of them. On the joyous end of the emotional spectrum, near the end of season one of the Anime, an otherwise minor echo accidentally gets Nagisa to confess her love for Tomoya out loud for the first time. At the very opposite end of the emotional spectrum, in episode sixteen of Clannad After Story,, there's the Flash Back to when Tomoya and Nagisa first met. Again Nagisa says, "Everything changes, eventually. ... Fun things, happy things, they'll all ... They'll all eventually change. But can you still love this place?" -- but this time, at least for the viewer, it means something else entirely.
 * One particularly powerful one from After Story:

"Sanae: "My bread... is... trash material!?!?" * runs off crying* Akio: * stuffs said bread into his mouth and chases after her* "I LOVE IIIITTT!!!""
 * Meaningful Name: The name of the city in which the story takes place is implied to be Hikarizaka (光坂), meaning roughly "light-hill," referring to two important motifs in the story.
 * Medium Awareness: In the Visual Novel, Tomoyo, Tomoya, and Sunohara hold a brief conversation with Sunohara's upside-down sprite suspended in front of the screen (he had just been kicked in the air), ending with Tomoya telling him "Hurry up and fall, this screen looks unnatural."
 * Also in the Visual Novel, Tomoya can also somehow see how many question marks Kotomi gives him.
 * Men Can't Keep House: Mei visits Sunohara's dorm room to find it's like this. Nagisa notes that it's 'a very boyish room'.
 * Mind Screw - See Gainax Ending above.
 * Mistaken for Gay: "Fujibayashi Kyou is bi!" Just another of Tomoya's pranks -- although [[media:Kyou_-_get_to_know_Kotomi_better.jpg|Kyou certainly isn't helping things.]]
 * Tomoya also tricks Nagisa into believing that Sunohara is gay.
 * After misunderstanding something Mei says about playing Cupid, Tomoya has an Imagine Spot in which he and Youhei are lovers.
 * Montage: Usually you'll expect one when Tomoya starts narrating.
 * Good Times Montage: Sometimes things are going well and we'll get these.
 * Sad Times Montage: Sometimes things aren't going well and we'll get these.
 * Mood Dissonance: The second season Episode 16 ends with, the screen fades to white, aaaaaaaand ... cue the cheerful, bouncing ending theme !
 * Moon Rabbit - Mentioned in the first ending song.
 * Name's the Same - May not completely fit the trope, it's a bit startling that in Fall In Love Like A Comic!, male-lead Tomoya has a close friend named Sunohara.
 * Not exact, but Yukine Miyazawa is way too close to Yukino Miyazawa for comfort, even more so when you realize both are voiced by the same actress.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood - When Tomoya first meets Nagisa's parents Akio and Sanae, they keep inventing bizarre names for him (e.g., "Cosmic-san"). They're not being mean, they're just rather cloudcuckoolanderish.
 * Never Got to Say Goodbye - Kotomi..
 * Nonstandard Game Over - The so called "Ryou's ending" and the ending to Fuko's route should you had already chosen to be with Nagisa earlier in the game. They are in most ways Good Ends but are technically Bad Ends, especially the one in Fuko's route since the events of the normal end still takes place in-universe, you just don't get to see it.
 * Not So Weak - Nagisa. She even defends Sunohara but refuses to believe she could be even slightly cute or that she isn't a burden.
 * Obstructive Bureaucracy: The student council is ridiculously obstructive to Nagisa's attempts to reestablish the theater club. Until Tomoyo gets elected president, that is.
 * Oddly Visible Eyebrows
 * Official Couple - Nagisa and Tomoya. After all, Nagisa is the "First Girl," Tomoya spends the majority of the show with her, and her theme song (also the season one ending theme) refers to a "mischievous" blue dango and a "kind" pink dango as a couple. The opening scene, where Tomoya describes their long path up to school, could be considered a description of their developing relationship.
 * Older Than They Look: Sanae and Akio, who look to be in their early to mid twenties yet have a daughter (Nagisa) who is presumably eighteen or nineteen in season one. In addition, Fūko, who looks (and acts) about ten, is the same age as Tomoya, Kotomi, Ryou, and Kyou.
 * One Head Taller: Tomoya is almost exactly one head taller than Nagisa. (For that matter, most of Tomoya's potential Love Interests are within a few inches of Nagisa in height. But with Nagisa, it's most striking -- and also most relevant, since they're the central arc's Official Couple.)
 * One Steve Limit: Averted both with Ryou and Kyou (who are twins) and with Tomoya and Tomoyo.
 * A more extreme version: in the Alternate Universe depicted in Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life, Tomoya and Tomoyo move in together with Tomoyo's long-lost younger half-sister -- Tomo. Yes, really.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You - A Subverted Trope. For some reason, Sunohara adamantly believes that he and Tomoyo share this dynamic, but he's quickly proven wrong with a kick into the sky and nothing else, not even a passing glance from her. Ouch. Also a Crowning Moment of Funny.
 * He's "quickly proven wrong" to the viewer, but he clings to this notion for about a dozen more episodes and perhaps twice that many thorough and humiliating thrashings.
 * It is explained here
 * Our Hero Is Dead -
 * Paper-Thin Disguise - Akio disguises himself as a rapper at one point. His daughter won't recognize him.
 * Parental Abandonment - Tomoya's father neglects him to forget the pain of losing his wife
 * Subverted by After Story 18, where Tomoya's grandmother explains to him that his father To be fair, Naoyuki did have breakdowns in the later years, but when Tomoya realizes that he's been doing a Generation Xerox ever since, he wholeheartedly forgives his father, and reconciles with Ushio.
 * Playing Cyrano: Kyou, to Ryou. In the Visual Novel, this leads to various different results, usually via Matchmaker Crush.
 * Poor Communication Kills and its subtropes - Vital on some of Tomoya's pranks to succeed.
 * Pose of Supplication - Fūko's fan club, after she rejects them.
 * Post Episode Trailer: The next-episode trailer consists of clips of conversations from the next episode, sometimes spliced from different parts of a scene or even different scenes in order to form new, humorously incongruous dialogue. In one instance, sweethearts Nagisa and Ryou appear to be happily assuring a terrified Kotomi that they're bullies.
 * Practice Kiss: In the OVA "Another World: Kyou chapter", Kyou offers a practice kiss to Tomoya, who she is secretly in love with, but who at that time is dating her twin sister Ryou. She pulls back at the last second before they actually kiss, but not before they are seen by some of their classmates.
 * Punched Across the Room: This tends to happen to Youhei. (A lot.) Sometimes down the hall, out the window, and into the top of a nearby tree. And down a garbage chute
 * Pungeon Master - Nagisa's father Akio.
 * Put on a Bus - Fuko, with the aid of.
 * Several characters after ep 14 and ep 16  of the second season.
 * Really Dead Montage - In the anime, you could almost hope just fell asleep or something, were it not for all the flashbacks.
 * Recap Episode - In one extra episode of the anime, Tomoya talks about what happened in the events of the first season and After Story.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning - Kyou has a couple of these.
 * Relationship Upgrade: Many, between Tomoya and Nagisa. That each one is hard-earned -- Tomoya is hesitant to open up; Nagisa is a Shrinking Violet -- just makes them that much more heartwarming.
 * Relationship Voice Actor - Quite a few:
 * Mai Nakahara (Nagisa) and Yukari Tamura (Mei) in four other shows: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS as Teana Lanster and Nanoha Takamachi respectively, Rena Ryuugu and Rika Furude in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni respectively and Mai Tokiha and Midori in both Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome.
 * For Higurashi, we can add Satsuki Yukino (Misae) who voiced Shmion Sonozaki.
 * Coincidentally, Yuuichi Nakamura (Tomoya) voiced Vice in StrikerS, and there is some minor Ship Tease between Vice and Teana (at least until the Les Yay quotient was upped between Teana and Subaru).
 * Mai Nakahara and Ryoko Shiraishi (Kappei) also play roles in Saki.
 * Recently there is an upgrade, where Yuuichi Nakamura (Tomoya) and Houko Kuwashima (Tomoyo) will be voicing both the previously unvoiced Joshua Radcliff and Cliana Rimskaya in their appearance in 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generations.
 * Reset Button Ending - Inverted in this series, as compared to other Reset Button Endings. This undoes the existing Shoot the Shaggy Dog ending.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter
 * Botan, Kyou's pet piglet, who seems to be following in the spiritual footsteps of Potato and Piro.
 * Dango family
 * Right Behind Me - A Running Gag has Akio talking about Sanae's bread before learning she was behind him and heard the whole thing.
 * RPG Elements - After Tomoya successfully pulls off a prank on Fūko, the action will sometimes freeze and a congratulatory "you mastered a new skill!" message will appear to an old video game-style tune. Mastered "Shooting Juice up the Nose!" Also, when Sunohara wants to join Tomoya and Nagisa to help the theater club, Tomoya's perspective for his response changes to that of the Little Busters Visual Novel, and all of the choices are attacks...
 * Room Full of Crazy - A room covered with certain newspaper articles.
 * Running Gag - Any events where someone says Sanae's bread tastes like trash, especially if it's Akio who says it

"Tomoya: This is getting really old."
 * Also, Kotomi introducing herself by saying, without fail, "Hello, Tomoya-kun." Tomoya even lampshades the Running Gag.

"Saki: Come come now, ours have always been the lives of supporting characters. * Turns to Shima* Go give it your best Main Character!"
 * Another from Kotomi: "Ijimekko?" ("Is she a bully?")
 * Periodically after the close of her arc in the anime, Fuko will come back (with a Magical Girl-esque entrance) to help the protagonists with some dilemma. However, something always comes up to keep her from being able to actually help.
 * Save Our Club: Nagisa's efforts to rebuild the drama club.
 * Say My Name: Numerous names get dramatically shouted over the series. Especially Nagisa's name.
 * Scare Chord: Invoked hilariously here.
 * Scenery Porn: Everything looks incredible.
 * Serial Escalation: Just how much more tear-jerking can the series be?
 * Schmuck Bait:
 * In the extra episode "The Event from One Year Before", Sunohara comes up with the idea to play a prank on the incoming freshmen using a banner ball with a pull cord tag reading "Pull me. It'll be fun!" The freshmen are all too aware of the obvious trap that's in store, but
 * Discussed in episode 20 of After Story when Tomoya gets a visit. It's about pressing red button if it says "don't press".
 * Self-Deprecation: The show frequently pokes fun at itself while Leaning on the Fourth Wall (see above).
 * As for the characters, both Nagisa and Tomoya often think of themselves as undeserving to be happy due to their flaws.
 * She's All Grown Up: Mei, briefly, in the Grand Finale. Blink and you might miss it. (Trust us, you won't want to miss it.)
 * She Is Not My Girlfriend: Tomoya and Nagisa, with gradually increasing frequency, as people see them interacting and come to the natural conclusion. It becomes very evident to every single girl at the end of episode 18.
 * Played with in an episode in which Tomoya tricks Nagisa into thinking Youhei is in love with him and being a Stalker with a Crush. In an attempt to protect Tomoya, Nagisa "lies" to Youhei, claiming she and Tomoya are dating. Immediately afterward, she apologizes to Tomoya. (Of course, they kinda are dating by that point, even if they don't admit it to themselves.)
 * In the game they were actually dating, they just hadn't told anybody about it yet.
 * Ship Sinking: Four alternate romantic options (Kyou, Ryou, Tomoyo, Kotomi) are swiftly dispatched at once during a tennis match late in the first series, the girls becoming increasingly miserable as Tomoya's unconscious behavior makes it crystal-clear who the Official Couple is. Their tears were matched by tears of rage from shippers, the obviousness of said Official Couple be damned. Well, there's always the Visual Novel. And the Alternate Universe arcs for Tomoyo (season one Omake / episode 24) and Kyou (After Story Omake episode 25 / OVA).
 * Even in the visual novel, all of the other heroines still fall far behind Nagisa; at least its something though.
 * In the main Anime, few of the Tomoya X not-Nagisa shippers really had their hopes up. It was blatantly obvious from the beginning who the official main couple was. (See First Girl Wins and Deliberately Monochrome.)
 * Ship Tease: Perhaps in apology for the impending Ship Sinking, an earlier episode features Kyou getting locked in a gym storage room with Tomoya, instantly turning deredere to the max and misinterpreting her conversation with Tomoya into thinking she's about to have her first time. Hello, Fan Service. (The scene also has elements of Aren't You Going To Ravish Me?)
 * What makes this ironic is that in the visual novel there are several variation of this scene and, if anything, Nagisa's and Tomoyo's are far more suggestive. The real kicker is that they are all part of Yukine's route!
 * Even better in that it's entirely possible to get locked in the storage room with
 * Shout-Out: In addition to the standard Kyo Ani cross-referencing, Kotomi quotes a line from the short story The Dandelion Girl: "Day before yesterday I saw a rabbit, and yesterday a deer, and today, you." (See also By the Power of Greyskull, RPG Elements.)
 * The summer uniforms from Tomoyo After.
 * Episode 20 also has a brief shout-out to the famous music video for Thriller.
 * Which has since been dubbed over the scene...
 * Specific examples of the Kyo Ani crossreferencing: Mai's sword and Sayuri's magical staff, along with their ribbons make an appearance in the Drama Club's prop box, and in episode 1, the desaturated opening is similar to the first chronological episode of Suzumiya Haruhi. In episode 17 of After Story a giant stuffed anteater much like the one from Kanon is visible in the Furukawa house
 * The Visual Novel has Shout Outs to Doraemon.
 * During Kotomi's path in the Visual Novel, Kyou attempts to get a doll from a game at the arcade that is described surprisingly similar in appearance to Snoopy.
 * After Story, episode 8 has a shout out to Akiko from Kanon and her special home made jam (in a deadly combination with Sanae's bread).
 * It even has a shout out to the visual novel. Tomoya imagined that life is an RPG. Sunohara wants to join the party. They can use "smoke", "attack" or "magic on him. There is no option to let Sunohara join.
 * A shoutout to Ace Attorney appears in the visual novel when Tomoya imagines Fuko as his lawyer against the Absurdly Powerful Student Council. Fuko shouts "Igi ari!" ("I disagree!", the equivalent of the localization's "Objection!") before making a statement. She does this four times.
 * Sanae is wearing Misuzu's apron.
 * When Nagisa finds a videotape of her dad's high school acting days, he's playing the lead in Oedipus the King, another family-themed tragedy.
 * Sibling Yin-Yang: Kyou and Ryou.
 * Sibling Triangle: Kyou and Ryou, with Tomoya.
 * Sleep Cute: The end of Fūko's arc has Tomoya and Nagisa sitting on the floor of a classroom during the evening, with Fūko in-between, only to have the two end up leaning against each other sound asleep by the next morning.
 * And, in Fūko's storyline in the Visual Novel, Tomoya and Fūko wind up like this. Although come morning, it's just Tomoya
 * Yukine, in her story arc, ends up sleeping on Tomoya's lap at Nagisa's suggestion. Sunohara walks in on it, and acts predictably.
 * Sleeping Single - Tomoya and Nagisa. In 2009. However, it's due to living in a tiny apartment and poor as all hell, they're not going to spend money on a double futon that probably wont fit in the wardrobe. They probably just brought their old ones from home to save money.
 * You must also take their personalities into account. Nagisa's always been shy, and Tomoya is actually quite chaste, having shown very little interest in sex throughout the story, both in the anime and visual novel. He also doesn't want to pressure Nagisa, and it's very obvious that the prospect of sex makes him just as nervous as her, if not moreso. The two just happen to have naturally old-fashioned and ridiculously chaste personalities, and it's clear that they eventually get over it.
 * Smoking Is Cool: Akio always has a cigarette sticking out of his mouth, even when he plays baseball in heavy downpours.
 * And subverted, hard, with Tomoya who takes up smoking . Where scenes with Akio smoking help play up the fun side of his character, the scenes with Tomoya smoking, complete with close-ups of cigarette butt filled ashtrays, are meant to showcase just how far he has fallen.
 * Snow Means Love: In Tomoyo's route in the VN, Tomoya . After eight months, he walks out of the school one day and sees her standing in the snow in front of him. She tells him that, that she loves him, and that . They hug.
 * Snow Means Death: ...AND HOW!!!
 * Something Else Also Rises: See Does This Remind You of Anything?, above.
 * Spam Attack: Tomoyo's signature rapid kicks
 * Spit Take: Tomoya does that when he heard that Nagisa hasn't seen a theatre play before.
 * Spoiler Opening: See Bait and Switch Credits above.
 * Standing Between the Enemies: Yukine stopped two gangs from fighting
 * Starfish Character - Fūko, and not merely because she loves starfish.
 * Staying with Friends
 * Stock Footage - Fūko's reappearances.
 * Stocking Filler - Fūko.
 * Story Arc - Fūko (4-9) and Kotomi (10-14) get discrete arcs in the anime based on their paths from the Visual Novel, while the other characters are more mixed together.
 * Just about every character arc in the game gets put into the main anime (even the baseball arc) with the exception of Kappei (who doesn't make an appearance) and Tomoyo and Kyou (since their arc revolves heavily around their romantic relationship with Tomoya and would therefore be mutually exclusive with Nagisa's). They get the omake episodes though.
 * Strapped to An Operating Table - Tomoya finds himself strapped to an operating table (and attended by nurse Kyou) during an odd dream sequence that rapidly grows disturbing.
 * Student Council President - Tomoyo Sakagami and her spiritual predecessor, Misae Sagara.
 * Stupid Sexy Flanders - Tomoya initially goes through this with Hiiragi Kappei in his arc in the visual novel due to Kappei's androgynous appearance.
 * Supporting Harem - Even in the Visual Novel, where other girls have their own routes, it was made obvious that Nagisa is the lead girl.
 * Sure, Let's Go with That - Tomoya's modus operandi as a trickster mostly consists of simply not correcting the misunderstandings of others, but going along with their incorrect suspicions, ("Yeah, this is exactly what it looks like!"), and watching as Hilarity Ensues.
 * Team Mom: Yukine is the Team Mom for both the city's rival gangs. (This includes acting as the resident "nurse" and provider of sanctuary.)
 * Misae is a more official Team Mom to the residents of the boys' dorm over which she presides -- especially the rugby team, but also Youhei and thus by extension Tomoya (although he doesn't actually live there and is not technically under her supervision). She also has a motherly relationship both with Nagisa and with Tomoyo.
 * Tempting Fate: In the first episode of the first season, Tomoya hopes that Nagisa's father is sane.
 * The Day the Music Lied: The VN several times starts playing emotional music during scenes that are set up to be misleading either to the audience or characters. Such as Tomoya starting to tell Tomoyo that Sunohara loves her, or when Kyou pulls Tomoya aside to show him a love letter, the assumption being that it's from her to him. The music starts in both cases only to get cut short by Sunohara butting in to say he wants to fight Tomoyo or an irritated Kyou explaining it was from some boy to Ryou.
 * Theme Tune Cameo: The closing theme from the first season, "Dango Daikazoku," pops up frequently in the series, especially in After Story. It appears both as a Leitmotif (it's Nagisa's main theme) and as a song in itself, usually sung by Nagisa herself, but sometimes by other characters (usually Tomoya) when they're remembering her.
 * Theme Twin Naming: Kyou and Ryou.
 * Surname First Name Surname - Kyou does this when Tomoya introduces Kotomi to her.
 * Third Person Person - Fuko. Of the small, childish variety. It's quite endearing.
 * On of the odd things about the Sentai dub/sub is that this character trait is not only missing from the dub, but the sub of the first season as well, but it's there in Fuko's appearances in the second season sub. Necessary, since Kouko calls it out in the Grand Finale.
 * Those Two Guys - Misae's two friends Saki and Yuki. Saki even comments on their background status

"Kyou: FORGET IIIIITTTT!!! * kicks the above editor to the sky* "
 * Background characters to someone who is a background character to start with.
 * Through His Stomach: When Tomoyo, The Fujibayashi sisters and Kotomi all individually cook breakfast for Tomoya to cheer him up for getting suspended, things get tense as they show up one by one to deliver three full course meals. Then Fuko shows up too.
 * Throw the Dog a Bone - Sunohara actually manages to secure some dignity for himself in Kyou's route and also shows himself to actually be a fairly decent guy. Even though he claims in the same route he would be going for a harem end to solve Tomoya's dilemna. Then again, the fact that just having a little dignity is that rare for him sort of cancels it out.
 * Still in the ultimate canon route After Story, the later years writers have not been kind enough to him, he has no clear background, he is not even visible in here, the most you know about him is that he got a job as soon he graduated and that's it.
 * Thunder Shock - Experienced by both Nagisa and her theatrical mother, Sanae. In Nagisa's case, her antennae-hair is temporarily withered as a result.
 * Token Mini-Moe - Mei. Played with to no end (and by Mei herself, no less!) early on in the After Story.
 * Onii-chan!
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Nagisa and Tomoyo, although they don't interact much. Nagisa is timid and physically weak, while Tomoyo is confident and physically strong. In addition, Nagisa speaks politely to everyone, even Tomoya, while Tomoyo almost always speaks informally. Interestingly, both Nagisa and Tomoyo seek to invert this relationship; Nagisa wants to become stronger and more confident, while Tomoyo wants to become calmer and more feminine.
 * Too Dumb to Live - Sunohara. And too comic relief-y to die. Yeah.
 * Training Montage - Tomoya preparing for Ushio's school sports day.
 * Trickster Archetype: Tomoya.
 * Tsundere - Kyou. She wears light blue panties, by the way. This is important.


 * Twisted Knee Collapse - Kotomi reads books in this highly uncomfortable position while she sits on a pillow on the floor.
 * Unwanted Harem: Nagisa is one half of the Official Couple, but if you combine all the routes (like the anime does), Tomoya's other ardent admirers include Kyou, Ryou, Tomoyo, Yukine, Kotomi, Fuko, Misae and (depending on how you look at it) Sanae.
 * In Nagisa's route, just Kyou, Ryou, and Tomoyo and Kotomi.
 * Could also count in Nagaisa's route in the game sine Ryou and Kyou already have crushes on Tomoya to begin with, Kotomine liked him when they were kids, and it is recommended that you interact with Tomoyo to the point where she would have fallen him. This is especially apparent with Tomoyo, who expresses disappointment that Tomoya is with Nagisa.
 * Fuko may count but she doesn't show any interest in Tomoya until the very end of her route and only if Tomoya makes the first move (which is rather awkward considering all the romantic tension between Nagisa and Tomoya throughout Fuko's route) or hadn't already chosen Nagisa.
 * Utsuge: Key Visual Arts is known for heart-wrenching plots.
 * Watching the Sunset: After Nagisa and Tomoya get married, there's a scene of them meeting on a hilltop path, the sun setting behind them. Because of the angle at which we see them, and the way Nagisa's holding her bag, it looks for a moment as if Nagisa's pregnant. Borders on Against the Setting Sun, except no words are actually spoken.
 * Wham! Episode: Perhaps most notably ; the Grand Finale; the Recap Episode (for some). But in a way, each episode starting around when  is a Wham! Episode unto itself, with the whams growing more and more intense and more and more heart-wrenching.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome? - Drawing out a baseball bat is usually done in a dramatic way.
 * The Dango song gets incredibly epic at the end; very unusual for something that is supposed to be a jingle for rice-balls.
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic - Tons of it. For example, the hill Tomoya and Nagisa climb up together represents life. The fact that they climb it together means that they journey through life together.
 * What Happened to the Mouse? - It seems that KEY doesn't like best friends hanging around when the protagonist is facing huge problems in his life, Sunohara was not seen in the later years of After Story, while the other girls obviously shouldn't have much importance as Tomoya already consumated with his choice, some of them actually get expanded appearances in the anime, whereas Sunohara does not in any way, the only information about him is given when the story is next to it's closure, said information is only about what's his current job and that's it, even his sister got to appear more than him.
 * Cue to many fanfics about what he was doing during these times, Sunohara's lack of appearance only made many of his fans with willingness to write crazy to interesting stories for the fellow; only in fanon Sunohara gets to love and be loved by someone.
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue - The montage at the end of the Grand Finale (while "Chiisana Tenohira" plays).
 * White Void Room: In the end of episode 16 of After Story.
 * Wholesome Crossdresser: In a Flash Back episode of After Story, Misae's friends get Shima to don a girl's uniform in after he expresses a desire to see what Misae does as the Student Council President. Everyone (including Misae) remarks on how cute "she" is, and Hilarity Ensues.
 * Wistful Amnesia - Both subverted and played straight in the anime.
 * Woman in White
 * The Wonka - Whatever you may say about her odder traits, Kotomi is still the most successful student in the school. Why carry scissors around everywhere? To cut paper of course!
 * Wrong Genre Savvy - Sunohara, who tries raising relationship flags as much as possible and is convinced (Visual Novel) he had a Crash Into Hello with Kappei, refusing to admit that the dude just looks like a lady.
 * He also applies Dude Looks Like a Lady to Tomoyo, thinking that no girl could be so strong - she must be a guy!
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair - Kotomi, Tomoya and the Fujibayashi sisters.
 * Youkai -
 * Zettai Ryouiki - Various grades:
 * Kyou - Grade A.
 * Ryou - Grade A when not wearing the summer uniform; she's a Grade C when wearing the summer uniform.
 * The rest of the main harem are Grade C.
 * In the Flash Back to her high school days, Misae is a Grade A.
 * Shima has Grade A when he's dressed in the girl's uniform in the flashback. N-Not that anyone would keep track!