Clannad ~ After Story ~ Complete Second Season Blu-ray Review

Posted July 10th, 2012 by Brandon A. DuHamel

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
Audio Codec: Japanese & English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit)
Subtitles: English
Subtitles Color: Yellow/White
Region: A (Region-Locked)
Rating: TV-PG
Run Time: 625 Mins.
Discs: 3 (3 x Blu-ray)
Studio: Sentai Filmworks
Blu-ray Release Date: July 24, 2012
List Price: $89.98

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Overall

The Series

Video Quality

Audio Quality

Supplemental Materials

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

(All Blu-rayDefinition.com screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

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The Series

Clannad ~ After Story ~ Complete Second Season picks up from where this anime adaptation of the visual novel left off after the first season. The characters are now concerned about graduating from high school and moving on with their lives. Nagisa and Tomoya are firmly a couple and soon, as Tomoya graduates and Nagisa once again suffers from illness and must repeat her senior year, the two find themselves in the real world dealing with real life issues. Moving forward with his life together with Nagisa, Tomoya, who was so adept at helping out his friends in high school with their troubles, realizes he is not so skilled at working out his own problems.

With the same beautiful animation that defined the first season, an even more beautiful tale is woven in Clannad ~ After Story ~ one that is charming, sweet, and heartbreaking. The characters all grow tremendously and reflect the universal truths that we all know and experience – love, loss, fear, anxiety, and the pressure to succeed.

Video Quality

The gorgeous animation for Clannad ~ After Story ~ is given a strong AVC/MPEG-4 1080p encodement on Blu-ray from Sentai Filmworks. Although the purposeful, ethereal, “milky” veneer that permeates the image sometimes seems to soften the detail, it never distracts or ruins the enjoyment of the series. Lie art mostly clear, and no motion artifacts or aliasing are detectable.

Audio Quality

Like the original series, Clannad, in both its original Japanese and English dub, has a subtle and atmospheric lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) soundtrack that is nicely balanced between the front and surround channels, has clean dialogue and a good amount of dynamic range. It is open and airy with a natural midrange, but there isn’t much in the way of low frequencies. That doesn’t harm the sound, however, as the mix works very well for the material.

Supplemental Materials

There isn’t much on offer here, but the audio commentary for Episode 16 is a nice inclusion.

The supplements:

Episode 16 Commentary with David Montranga (Tomoya) and Luci Christian (Nagisa)
Clean Opening and Closing Animations
Disc Credits
Sentai Filmworks Trailers

The Definitive Word

Overall:

Clannad ~ After Story ~ is an enchanting follow up to the original season of Clannad. It is a series that will capture your heart with its wonderful characters, truthful story arcs and stunning visuals. Recommended.