Wait, what? Can someone explain the ending to me? I get it that

Nagisa dies, except she doesn't

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I haven't watched or played CLANNAD in like 8 years so bear with me here but IIRC the anime was kind of vague on this point and didn't explain this at all but the general idea is the same as the game. From what I remember from the game, Tomoya gathered these special light orbs by doing all the routes for the characters and after you gather all of them a wish is granted and I think Tomoya used his wish to create a miracle and revive Nagisa.

Take this with a grain a salt because it's been so long but this is the general idea. The anime does not make this clear at all, it's just shown with imagery from what I remember. The light orbs do appear in the anime though IIRC, they're just never elaborated on.

it's the magic you get when you save high school girls

>>154069885
You are indeed right, the light orbs are there but never explained.

In the anime they made it look like it was a dream all along

In the VN, Tomoya get dragonball everytime you finish other route. After nagisa route, you have enough dragonball to make a wish for a good end.

>>154069885
How is anyone supposed to figure this out just by watching the show?

>>154070114
The clue are shown here and there.

>>154069885
>>154069929
>>154070114
It is mentioned several times throughout the series when they talk about the urban legends. Most people gloss over it as filler dialogue, but it is foreshadowed from the very beginning.

>>154069217
Nagisa and Ushio dies, that ending with them alive is just an extra to make up for 100% completion of the VN. It's just a bonus.

>>154070114
"Ball of light that bring happiness".
I personally think it's stupid and doesn't flow well, especially in anime format.

>>154070235
can confirm, anon is right

>>154070114
KyoAni did what they could. If you rewatch the show knowing about the light orbs then it becomes a lot more clear and there is probably a build up. It's a game mechanic though and it's kind of meta because the entire premise of the game is Tomoya fails and gets the bad end so he essentially redoes everything until he gets the good end. It's kind of hard to incorporate something like that without it being like time travel shenanigans.

>>154070114
They didn't handle it all that well. I wouldn't be surprised if the ending completely flew over everyone heads when they were watching it week by week and didn't have game spoilers. They do reference the orbs a few times but it's extremely easy to forget because its like over 50 fucking episodes and this isn't really one of those stories where the dialogue is super deep so it's easily glossed over.