Two books in one

Clannad is two books. The first is a school-life ensemble about Tomoya learning to be in a place he thought he'd already rejected. The second is After Story — a book about adulthood, the thing the first half was preparing you for without saying so.

What After Story earns, it earns by refusing shortcuts. Nagisa's route isn't a romance. It is a long argument that the people around you are not obstacles to your life; they are your life. By the final hour the book has collected on every small scene it planted in Act One, and every one lands.