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).
