The protagonist of the series. Due to his habit of always arriving late to school, skipping classes during the day, and staying out all night, he has been labeled as a delinquent, or a young person who defies authority. Nevertheless, his actions end up changing everyone else's life for the better.Tropes associated with Tomoya:
Cool Loser: The anime seems conflicted as to how much it wants him to fit the trope. For whatever reason, he's an astounding Chick Magnet, and for whatever reason, he seems to have an enormously positive impact on every girl he befriends. Nevertheless, people keep calling him a loser — especially in the Tomoyo ArcAlternate Universe.** He also falls more into actual loser status after he graduates from high school; his nearly superhuman ability to fix every problem essentially evaporates, and he goes from an "Ordinary High School Student" to a genuinely ordinary person. (Not to say he becomes boring; quite the contrary, he becomes more plausible.)
This is only in the anime. In the original visual novel, Tomoya still manages to help a number of people after graduation. It's more like, while his strong point is his ability to help others get through their toughest times, at the end, the one that's left is himself. It's noted several times in the story that Tomoya is unable to do anything for himself, and is only able to be strong when it's for someone else's sake. After Nagisa dies, he falls into a slump, but he's able to come back in full force once he fixes his relationship with Ushio.
Delinquents: He periodically attempts to reform, under the influence of Nagisa (in the main series) or Tomoyo (in the Tomoyo arc).
Expy: In the manga....he looks suspiciously like Roy Mustang
Fan Nickname: Clannadman. Nagisa is his "Waifu". Together, they are known as, "Clannadman and his waifu."
Faux Yay: Okazaki's intent when he tells Nagisa that Youhei Sunohara has a crush on him, to obscure the real reason Sunohara is throwing himself into a basketball-related Xanatos Roulette.
Generation Xerox: As much as Tomoya hates his father for neglecting him to dull the pain of his mother's death, he does exactly the same to his own daughter Ushio in his attempt to forget that her birth killed Nagisa.
As a bonus, Tomoya looks almost exactly like the younger version of his father, just without the glasses.
Jossed/Subverted almost immediately after, when Tomoya takes Ushio to the countryside and meets his grandmother, who has some revelations in store for him about his father.
Heroes Want Redheads: Or whatever color Nagisa's hair is. Let's go with "red". Note that the other major character with let's-call-it-red hair is Sanae, Nagisa's mother — who just happens to be the only character in the entire series who can really bring out Nagisa's Clingy Jealous Girl side.
Heroic BSOD: After Nagisa's death, Tomoya falls into such a deep and long-lasting depression that he essentially ignores his own daughter — for five years. Fortunately, Akio and especially Samae were around to pick up the slack — and also to coax Tomoya back to life.
He is not above pulling pranks on those same people he seriously cares about. This could be his way of making them feel comfortable amidst their problems.
In the 2006 movie by Toei, Tomoya is a much bigger jerk than in the reboot by Kyoto Animation. (At least in the beginning of the movie. As the movie goes along, his personality tends to get overwhelmed as the movie struggles to cram as much plot into ninety minutes as it can.)
Jerkass: He temporarily becomes after Nagisa's death.
Kick the Dog: Although it might be closer to Values Dissonance, how he treats his father is considered extremely rude, at least in Korea. Other audiences may find it justified, however.
Men Don't Cry: Averted with Tomoya, which speaks volumes for his kindhearted character. (This doesn't prevent him from continually calling Nagisa a crybaby, though. Which she is.) See also Manly Tears.
Not So Stoic: His Heroic BSOD following Nagisa's death. In particular, the end of episode 18, the first time we see him cry for Nagisa, which is implied to be the first time he ever cries for her — some five years after her death.
Only applies to the anime. In the game he can only solve one girl's route during a single continuity and and is, for the most part, not oblivious to their affections. Most importantly though, in the game Nagisa isn't with him for just about everything.
Soap Opera Disease: In Tomoyo After. And he dies from it in the True End.
Stepford Smiler: The casual behavior might fool the watcher/reader for awhile, but it becomes clear over time that he's basically starting the story in despair.
Team Dad: Has his moments, which isn't surprising, considering his status as a sane man in a flock of CloudCuckoolanders.
The Stoic: Not always, but much of the time. For a notable exception, see Not So Stoic, above.
Tragic Dream: Was a star of the Basketball team until a shoulder injury resulted in him losing the ability to play, which is what resulted in him becoming a Delinquent.
Nagisa is the main heroine of Clannad. A shy girl lacking in confidence, she meets Tomoya when she pauses (amid a sea of Cherry Blossoms) at the bottom of the hill, struggling to bring herself to continue on her way to school. Tomoya gives her some encouragement and eventually assists her in her dream of reestablishing the Drama Club.Later becomes Tomoya's wife and mother to Ushio.Tropes associated with Nagisa:
Hot Mom: When she ends up with Tomoya and gives birth to their child, Ushio.
Ill Girl: So much that she had to repeat her senior year twice.
Love at First Sight: Judging by her dialogue in routes that aren't her own, she fell for Tomoya at their first meeting because of his pushing her forward.
The Messiah: In a series replete with them, she still manages to stand out. Once she comes out of her Shrinking Violet shell, she seems to love pretty much everyone — including her romantic rivals.
The one person she believes threatens her relationship with Tomoya is her mother.
Not So Weak: She won't let even Sunohara go undefended.
Older than They Look: Mild example... for now. Her look and childish demeanor makes her seem like the youngest of the group, when in fact she is the oldest, having had to repeat her senior year. Twice. She is one year older than Tomoya, Kyou, Ryou, Kotomi and Sunohara, two years older than Tomoyo and Yukine. Of course, considering who her parents are, there's a very good chance she'll fully belong in this trope when she gets older. Any bets on whether she gets mistaken for Ushio's older sister?
This official picture◊ of Nagisa, Sanae, and Ushio. It wouldn't be that hard for people not familiar with the series to mistake them for sisters.
Class Representative of 3-E, Kyou has known both Tomoya and Sunohara since their junior year. Known for being overprotective of both Botan and her sister Ryou, she is known for literally throwing the book at them.Tropes associated with Kyou:
Anime Hair: She has a very distinctive hairstyle (and hair color -- purple). Among the odd features she shares with her Different as Night and Day twin sister Ryou (and one they also share with Wholesome Crossdresser "Katsuki Shima" when he's in his female disguise) is a pair of what look like cat ears. It's just part of their hairstyles, but it still lends her a faint hint of Cat Girl.
Note that this Cat Girl hairstyle is commonplace among girls in the Kanon franchise.
The Image Board tag for this is "Hair Intake" (looking like hood scoops on a muscle car).
Badass Adorable: OK, she isn't quite on Tomoyo's level, but she can throw books pretty hard, got some killer kick, and can play basketball as much as Tomoya and Sunohara.
Bowdlerize: Her threats are much, MUCH more violent in the visual novel than the anime.
She also would try to run Tomoya over with her bike on purpose.
Cannot Spit It Out: Bold Action Girl-Genki Girl-Tsundere combo though she is, she loses courage when it comes to admitting her feelings for Tomoya. She does her best to hide them even from her sister Ryou, and instead channels them into Playing Cyrano.
Captain Ersatz: In character design, of Lucky Star's Kagami Hiiragi. Both are Tsunderes, both have long, purple hair, both have shy, quiet twins. The kanji for their personal names are also the same. (This was lampshaded by Konata at one point in the the Lucky Staranime, and by Tsukasa and Konata in the manga.)
Note that Lucky Starmanga began in January 2004, and the first installment of the Visual Novel was released not much later (although the full game was not released until that summer), so it's not exactly self-evident who was copying whom, or how.
While Kyou looks eerily like Kagami Hiiragi, in temperament, she's Kagami crossed with hefty doses of Haruhi Suzumiya and some of Tsuruya's less pleasant personality traits. She also has Tsuruya's boisterous laugh.
Cat Girl: Not literally — but see Anime Hair. It's also in keeping with her kittenish personality.
Class Representative: Her junior year and again her senior year. Not just a literal example, but also fits the temperament for the trope.
Covert Pervert: A couple examples, but we don't get to see what she was thinking. One where Kyou is trying to think of why Ryou is embarrassed and immediately concluding they must have done something inappropriate in public. A second example is her blush and disappointment that Tomoya didn't enter the laser tag game in Kappei's route. The winner would get to order the other to do whatever they wanted for a week.
Defrosting Ice Queen: At least in the flashback to junior year. Also, over the course of the series, she mellows out, although she's never an ice queen so much as a heavily-tsun-sided Tsundere.
Friendzone: She'd be an Unlucky Childhood Friend had she known Tomoya before their junior year. If you make one of the wrong decisions in the VN, Tomoya will express depression at how his relationship with her hadn't changed since he had known her, indicating that despite her fears of rejection he was never averse to the idea.
Genki Girl: Probably the purest example in the franchise.
Hey, It's That Voice: Her seiyuuRyo Hirohashi plays Konata in the Lucky Star drama CDs. Which is an interesting choice, given all the cross-references between the two shows — especially with Kyou and Ryou versus Kagami and Tsukasa.
Hot Teacher: In After Story, she works as a Kindergarten teacher and teaches Nagisa and Tomoya's child Ushio.
Important Hair Cut: At the end of her arc, she cuts her hair short, like Ryou's, as part of a desperate attempt to be more like Ryou.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Not nearly as much as her twin sister Ryou, or Tomoyo, or Kotomi. Nevertheless, once Kyou finally admits to herself that she and Ryou have both lost any hope of winning Tomoya's heart, after a good cry, she goes back to normal and remains friends not just with Tomoya but with Nagisa. (It's worth noting that Tomoyo has probably had a crush on Tomoya for just a few weeks, whereas Kyou and Ryou have been interested in him for probably well over a year, so it's natural that Tomoyo would recover more fully more quickly. Poor Kotomi had silently loved Tomoya for most of her life.
Her route in the Visual Novel (and the OVA that's based on the route) is an active deconstruction of this.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rather than an actual tsundere, she basically treats everyone with the same abrasive attitude.
Shipper on Deck: Though she shows interest in Tomoya herself, she spends a lot of time trying to get him together with Ryou. at least until she realizes that Tomoya has already chosen Nagisa.
Ship Tease: With plenty of characters — and a few animals — but most of all with Tomoya.
Kyou: (coyly) We're alone now. So ... what do you want to do?
Stepford Smiler: Made abundantly clear in the visual novel (less so in the anime), whenever Kyou is talking about how Tomoya needs to pay attention to Ryou more she's crying inside.
Team Mom: Sometimes, especially in episode 10 and 11.
Team Pet: No, she isn't one, but she has one: Button / Botan (ボタン), her pet baby boar, which keeps following her to school.
Throw the Book at Them: Her Weapon of Choice is a dictionary. Usually aimed at Youhei, but sometimes at Tomoya, especially when she thinks (or pretends to think) he's plotting to eat her pet baby boar Botan. (See Team Pet, above.) (She usually hits Youhei, whereas she usually misses Tomoya. Presumably this is at least in part intentional on Kyou's part.)
Triang Relations: Type 13 with Kyou at A, Ryou at B and Tomoya at C. It gets complicated from there because while the basics are simple (Kyou and Ryou like Tomoya, who is friends with one and barely knows the other and Kyou is supporting Ryou) new factors enter the equation when Tomoya begins dating Ryou on the theory that he might come to like her eventually, but ends up liking Kyou.
Zettai Ryouiki: And how! And unlike everyone else, she wears them to any time, any task, be it a birthday party, school sport or working hard in Kotomi's garden.
She stops wearing them when she becomes Ushio's teacher. However, at that time she wasn't wearing a skirt.
Kotomi is a Strange Girl: she has No Social Skills and is fearful and asocial. Generally she is silent. She squirrels herself away in the school library — she is always kneeling on the library floor, reading. Absorbingseveral pages of abstruse text per minute.When Tomoya meets her, he manages to cut through some of her protective layers and socialize with her a bit, but each time he attempts to start up a conversation with her she won't notice him and respond unless he remembers to call her 'Kotomi-chan'. She has a habit of cutting pages from books and newspapers. The polar opposite of Book Dumb, she is among the highest test scorers her year in all of Japan, and her classmates revere from afar as a genius. She has a deep-seated fear of bullies and a mysterious man in a black suit.As it turns out, Kotomi was Tomoya's childhood friend. He has forgotten her, although she has not forgotten him. Her parents, important academics, were always too busy to attend her birthday when she was a child. Before one fateful birthday, they made a promise to attend and give her a teddy bear, but they died in a plane crash before that could happen. The mysterious man in black is actually a friend of her father's, the one who informed her of her parents' death — an association that causes her fear of him years later.Kotomi was too devastated to hear of their death and the prospect of them forgetting her by dying like that without her present and eventually she burnt a catalogue that she thought to be her father's scientific paper (which turns out to be a catalogue for the teddy bear they'd bought her), which started a fire that would likely have burnt down her house, with her in it, were it not for the quick action of that man in black. (Tomoya was there, too, although he forgets about it until near the end of the first season.)After the fire, Kotomi vows to study hard and make amends for her destruction of (what she thinks was) this seminal scientific work, by becoming an important intellectual in her own right. Socializing simply isn't important to her — at least until she meets Tomoya again, when they're high school seniors.Tomoya befriends her and helps her to open up and socialize. Later she discovers that her parents never forgot about her, and the last thing they preserved before their death was Kotomi's present, a teddy bear doll. After this, in the Visual Novel, Kotomi resumes her relationship with Tomoya as his girlfriend. But in the anime, she gets Demoted to Extra.Tropes associated with Kotomi:
Brief Accent Imitation: "I can feel your boobs, your boobs?" "Stop talking like a Russian gymnast!"
Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Her pitiful attempts at tsukkomi only cause her to be labeled as exceedingly boke by Kyou.
Book Worm: All her favorite friends are books. (Well, at least until she re-meets Tomoya.)
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She constantly skips classes to read in the library, but is still the top scorer in every exam. She is also scouted for overseas study.
Cloud Cuckoolander: When we first meet her, she's so much in her own dream-world that she doesn't even notice other people trying to talk to her — unless that person is Tomoya and he remembers to address her as Kotomi-chan. She gets better — somewhat — with a lot of help from Tomoya and the gang.
Dreadful Musician: When playing her violin, she can level an entire wing of the school.
Interestingly, she's depicted as holding the violin and the bow in the manner of a skilled violinist (something that takes most violinists years and years to accomplish), and in the flashbacks to her childhood, her playing does not seem to cause any particular problems. So maybe she sounds so terrible because she's very out of practice.
Or her parents wore ear plugs.
Worth noting that in the 2006 movie, she is the perfectly competent conductor of the school choir.
Extreme Doormat: Possibly the smartest doormat you'll ever meet. But still. Doormat.
First Girl Wins: Not in the anime, but a possible ending in the Visual Novel. (Note: even in the anime, she's the First Girl if you go by in-universe chronology.)
Fragile Flower: She asks nervously if someone's a bully.
Freak Out: Experiences a serious one when she thinks Ryou was involved in a bus accident. Has a Heroic BSOD that lasts at least a week, and several episodes. It's because she's reminded of her parents' death.
Gag Boobs: Somewhat. Kotomi is not in any way oddly proportioned, but Kyou (who herself has Boobs of Steel) teases her about them.
Giftedly Bad: She actually thinks she's good at the violin.
Meaningful Name: She is named after the Japanese stringed instrument, the Koto. This is meaningful in two ways, one serious, one ironic. Serious: Her father named her that out of his belief that the world made up of millions of kotos, and when they combined their music together, do great things. Replace koto with person in that idea, and you get the main theme of Clannad, that individuals who come together to form a group; a family, a nakama or a commmunity; do things greater than the sum of their parts. And the ironic part? That a girl named after a stringed musical instrument would be so bad in playing another stringed musical instrument.
The Messiah: In almost any other series, she'd be The Messiah, hands down, no questions asked. Given this series' position on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, she's actually one of the more ambiguous examples. Still, once you put aside her (many and severe) phobias, she doesn't really seem to dislike anyone.
Room Full of Crazy: One bedroom in her house is full of newspaper stuff about her parents's deaths in a plane crash.
Running Gag: A few that are borderline catch phrases. 1) "Hello Tomoya-kun." 2) "Ijimekko?" ("(Is she a) bully?") In addition, several that are more situation-based, such as her terrible violin skills.
Victorious Childhood Friend: Not in the anime (movie, series, or any OVA so far), but one of the possible outcomes in the Visual Novel. Note that this ending also means that, by in-universe chronology, First Girl Wins.
The Wonka: Despite her eccentricities, she is by far the most intelligent person in the school. Possibly the smartest high school student in Japan.
A beautifuldelinquent who has attained legendary status as a fighter. Tomoyo at first is a rough, cold-hearted girl who delivers the frustration of her messed up family that almost considered divorcing by fighting and hurting other people. That changed when her little brother Takafumi, in a desperate attempt to fix things up, either threw himself to the river or gets himself into a car crash, ending up crippled and instantly mending the family and softens up Tomoyo. She later hears her brother's wish to see the sakura tree, and made it her mission to preserve those trees. She later attends at Tomoya's school and starts out by driving out some delinquents that threaten the school, and later spends her time not only to become the Student Council President (the only position where she can issue orders to preserve the sakura tree), also kicking Sunohara's butt whenever he pisses her off (and repeatedly). After much hardships of winning the students' hearts and cleans up her delinquent status, she is elected as the Student Council President, and continues to be friends with the ones who help her doing so: Tomoya.Tomoyo proves to be wildly popular that she later gets selected as the protagonist of a special sequel which is the continuation of her visual novel story. Her route also gets animated in an Alternate Universe episode based on her Visual Novel route, whereas she dates Tomoya (whereas other girls don't seem to exist), but both became torn between their status and decided to move on to their own path, breaking up in result. When Tomoya finally graduates, Tomoyo waits for him and they tearfully reunite as lovers.Tropes associated with Tomoyo:
Action Girl: If she had to, she'd kick Buffy's ass. She'd apologize afterward, of course. But she'd do it, and you damn well know it.
Ascended Extra: In a way, in the Alternate UniverseTomoyo Arcomake episode. She's more than an "extra" in the main anime series, but she's promoted to Official Couple status in the episode, and her potential romantic rivals don't even make it onscreen.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: When Sunohara and Tomoya fight then end up with bruises the very next. She on the other hand just curbstomps whatever comes her way while maintaining her Moe appearance.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the visual novel when she kicks Sunohara, an image of him falling will pop up on the screen, and sometimes stay there while waiting for the reader to click. In one scene, she tells him to hurry and up and fall, because he's blocking the whole screen.
Class Representative: Maybe or maybe not, in the literal sense — although she does become Student Council President, which suggests a bit of background and interest in student politics. But she definitely has the temperament.
Combos: In the Visual Novel, she combos Sunohara with nearly the entire cast during the Founder's Festival.
Covert Pervert: (Visual Novel) Indirectly, as when Tomoya turns to dirty thoughts about Tomoyo, she's glad that he's able to think of her that way. And with a little needling, she'll freak and realize that she's thinking of the same things.
Defrosting Ice Queen: By her own admission. She was a coldhearted bitch who only knew how to hurt people, until she completely defrosted with her brother's incident. Now she's one of the nicest people in the show.
Hair Decorations: Subtler than most of the other girls in the series, but she does wear a headband that earns the occasional comment (usually from Youhei).
Meganekko: By the end of the first season, and especially in the Alternate UniverseTomoyo Arcomake episode, in which she's not just the female romantic lead, but the only female character of significance.
One Steve Limit: Averted; her name is very similar to Tomoya's, and in an Alternate Universe, the two of them wind up living together, along with her half-sister Tomo.
Teen Genius: At least in her Alternate Universe arc, in which she scores fourth in her year for all of Japan on her exams. Note that this is less than a year after she decided to clean up her image, after being something of a borderline delinquent for the previous few years.
A rather strange, short girl, who never seems to take classes and is often to be found sitting somewhere quiet carving wooden star shapes. A rumor about her being a ghost is floating about the school, and she has a tendency to force her carvings on any student she meets, requesting that in return they attend her elder sister's wedding and congratulate her.In reality, Fuko is somehow projecting herself into the school from her comatose body, having been unconscious since she was hit by a car after her first day at the school. As the end of her storyline looms, everyone begins to forget about her, losing the ability to see or interact with her, until a last, massive effort allows her to reappear for a brief moment, and congratulate her elder sister herself. Not long beforehand, her sister had revealed to Tomoya that Fuko's body in the hospital had "stopped breathing".In the anime, Kouko meant that Fuko had a low chance of waking up, as her condition had deteriorated. But this has been officially Jossed as of the Grand Finale, where after Tomoya initiates the Reset Button Ending and saves the lives of both Ushio and Nagisa, a light orb is obtained by Fuko and as a result, she wakes up from her coma.Tropes associated with Fuko:
Adult Child: When she shows up in ~After Story~. An extreme example: she's Tomoya's age (twenty-five) but connects better with Ushio (who is five).
Cuteness Overload: Periodically goes into lapses of this when exposed to starfish and Ushio, prompting Tomoya to squirt fruit juice up her nose to snap her out of it...and for the lulz.
Drop-In Character: In the anime, after her arc, she magically reappears in short cameos here and there to foreshadow what will happen at the end of the series, and the main page of this show explains that it's also All There in the Manual.
Ill Girl: She's actually comatose, and the Fuko we meet is a sort-of astral projection.
I'm Taking Her Home With Me: Fuko says she wants to do this to little Ushio-chan, Tomoya's daughter, to be her little sister. (Not only says this, but keeps trying to kidnap her.)
Older than They Look: When she shows up in ~After Story~, she's as old as Tomoya (about twenty-five) but still looks like a grade schooler (and acts even younger).
Spell My Name with an S: Fuko vs. Fuuko. Although the former is used in the opening credits, some prefer to use the latter due to wanting to stick with one romanization system. *
"Kyo" and "Fuko" would be written with bars over the o and u respectively, or with no bars at all in one system. In the second system, the girls names would be spelled like "Kyou" and "Fuuko."
What Is This Thing You Call Love?: In the Visual Novel. Apparently unaware that she has a crush on Tomoya, she describes a fairly graphic scene without having any idea what it means.
The younger and more timid of the Fujibayashi twins. Is the class representative of her room, but only won it through lottery rather then through actual voting. Is known for telling fortunes of anyone who asks her. Her fortunes are always complex and usually completely off the mark, though she can be eerily accurate at times. Though she is usually wrong, she believes that it would be better for the future not to be already set. She has a crush on Tomoya in the beginning and enlists Kyou's help, or rather, Kyou insists on helping her.Tropes associated with Ryou:
Bad Liar: She tried to lie about being pregnant so to pull a variation of The Baby Trap on Kappei. Unfortunately she forgot the prerequisite hasn't been met, to the confusion of everyone in the scene.
Cannot Spit It Out: Her feelings toward Tomoya. Even with the abundant help of her twin sister Kyou, she never actually manages to make a confession in the anime. (Well, at least, not in the movie, nor in the main series, although she does manage in an Alternate Universe OVA.)
Cat Girl: Her hair has cat ear-like waves in it (as does her sister Kyou's). See also Anime Hair, above.
Class Representative: On a literal level (at least her senior year). But not in temperament, as she's a sweetShrinking Violet who only nags people because, well, she's stuck with the job of Class Representative. Evidently she was assigned the job at random.
Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: The Kyou epilogue notes that she started dating someone she met at the hospital who has a cute face, meaning that she likely hooked up with Kappei.
Cloud Cuckoolander: A mild example, especially compared with certain other characters in the series.
Demoted to Extra: She's not an official haremette, and picking her over Kyou in the Visual Novel is a Bad End, since you don't obtain a Light Orb.
That's not really a bad end, it just means it's pointless to finish her route if you're going for After Story. It could be considered a bad end if the entire thing is considered Kyou's route, but even then it's hardly bad.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: At least in the anime series. Not that she ever really seems to hold much hope for winning Tomoya's heart; she often seems to be going through the motions in order to appease her more forceful sister.
It is explained in an extra episode in After Story that Kyou insisted on Tomoya to call her by her first name when they first met.
Lethal Chef: She's just really bad at cooking. Known to cause unconsciousness in small animals.
In the anime, that was just one dish. Everyone seems to like the rest of her food — although she's not as skilled a cook as her sister Kyou. (An interesting reversal of the roles of Tsukasa and Kagami on Lucky Star.)
Ryou starts out a horrible chef but does her best to get better so that she can be more like Kyou, whom Tomoya likes more. She gets close enough to her sister in skill that Tomoya is very much reminded of Kyou — but she never quite matches her.
Stepford Smiler: Realizes perfectly well that Kyou and Tomoya have a lot more chemistry and mutual attraction, but hides it. Then she tries to act as much like Kyou as she can, but can't quite do it. As seen with the pork cutlets.
Tomoya's best buddy and fellow delinquent. Generally a dim but lovable fellow. Makes for a great punching bag. Well, it tends to be kicks, really.Tropes associated with Sunohara:
Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: This is his whole life. Or maybe it's more of a Butt Monkey-And-Tsukkomi-Routine. Either way, he continually says or does something stupid, and Tomoya, Kyou, Tomoyo, or some other character is on hand to hit him (or worse).
Iron Butt Monkey: It is quite a wonder how he could take over the top physical abuses (Mostly by Kyou, Tomoyo, Misae, and Akio) and walk away like nothing happened when you would expected him to be carried away on a stretcher. He shouldn't be alive, actually considering that the rest of the cast is much more fragile.
Casting Gag: Greg Ayres previously played Kanon's Butt Monkey, Jun Kitagawa. This makes for one hell of an amusing Brick Joke in After Story if you remember what Kitagawa said about wanting to try Akiko's jam.
Jerkass: At times. The closest thing the series has, among all the major characters.
Jerk Jock: Used to be one. Now gets beaten up by them.
His on screen beatings are only for comic relief purposes, the only serious one was during a flashback with him quitting the soccer club, aside from all that he's hardly the wimp puching bag, it's quite the contrary back when he and Tomoya weren't such good friends they were actually feared, when they became partners they also became more of a pranksters duo than real delinquents. This change of habits still didn't turn him into a target of other Jocks.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Borders on Jerkass at times in the Visual Novel, but he almost immediately pays for his actions, either by one of Tomoya's pranks, or by Tomoyo or Kyou.
Last Name Basis: With most everybody, except Kyou and Nagisa, and even then he starts calling them by their first names once he gets to know them (Kotomi, Tomoyo).
Likes Older Women: Still in love with Sanae (Nagisa's mom) even after her husband Akio chased him off with a baseball bat.
Those Two Guys: He's only one guy, and the other guy he hangs out with is The Hero, so he's really a sidekick rather than an example of this trope. Nevertheless, worth mentioning because he's such a Captain Ersatz fusion of Those Two Guys from Haruhi Suzumiya. (Note: this is true only in the tv series; in The Movie, he's more of a standard best friend/sidekick.)
Tragic Dream: Wanted to be a soccer player. Bad things happened. For the most part, played for laughs.
Wisdom from the Gutter: While it might seem insane to listen to Sunohara's relationship advice, he does, on occasion, come up with something reasonable.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Being the protagonist's best friend wasn't enough for him to play a major role or even appear more than just a few seconds in the later years of After Story, too bad for Tomoya his friend wasn't visible enough to help him face all those family problems.
His only known feature during these harsh times is him working at some kind of a driving company.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Has Hair of Gold, but it's dyed. His natural hair color, which we seldom see, is dark, and among the most realistic ones in the series. His "weird" hair is Lampshaded by Fuko, who calls him Strange Hair Guy.
Youhei Sunohara's little sister.Tropes associated with Mei:
Brother-Sister Incest: In one of Tomoya's Imagine Spots. More subtle moments pop up from time to time — not actually suggesting incest between the two, but with people (sometimes even Mei herself) tricking Youhei by saying, for example, that a cute girl has arrived to visit him. Youhei being Youhei, he always falls for it.
Nagisa's mother, an ex-teacher who runs a bakery alongside her husband, Akio. Sanae is always trying to make new bread with unique properties (i.e. bread with rice crackers inside) although almost none of them turn out to be successful. She is very sensitive and cries easily especially when she is told her bread tastes bad.Tropes associated with Sanae:
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: The series plays with this trope, in a (mostly) non-romantic way. Not all that much in season one; far more in ~After Story~. Perhaps most intensely — and most cleverly — pulled off in the first half of episode 17, when a quasi-flirtatious Sanae attempts to coax a brutally depressed Tomoya out of his five-year-long Heroic BSOD. She play-acts the Manic Pixie Dream Girl role to perfection here. But in episode 18, through Ushio's comments, we see a more damaged side to Sanae, and at the beginning of episode 19, the facade shatters as Sanae finally lets down her guard and allows herself to cry in Akio's arms and mourn for her daughter Nagisa. She's no longer any sort of Manic Pixie Dream Girl; she's just a deeply loving and truly anguished mother.
The Messiah: Even by the standards of this series, which is overflowing with messiahs, Sanae manages to stand out. This becomes more and more evident as Tomoya sinks deeper and deeper into gloom in the middle third of ~After Story~. See also Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
Older than They Look: She looks about twenty-five, but her daughter Nagisa is eighteen or nineteen. In-universe, people are far more likely to ask if she's Nagisa's sister than if she's her mother. In one episode, while in a Paper-Thin Disguise, she passes herself off as seventeen.
Paper-Thin Disguise: When she dresses up as a seventeen year old, no one recognizes her. (Well, except for her husband Akio.)
Running Gag: Someone insults her bread (usually Akio) insults her bread and she is ALWAYS right behind and she says My bread, my bread... she runs out crying and Akio runs out with the bread in his mouth screaming that he loves them.
Stepford Smiler: Generally speaking, no; so far as we can tell, she's the same cheerful, profoundly loving, and slightly ditzy person on the inside as she appears to be on the outside. Nevertheless, see The Woobie, below, and see Manic Pixie Dream Girl, above, for a Tear Jerker example of this trope played straight.
Unable To Cry: It's not that she's unable to cry after Nagisa's death, but that Ushio needs her strength after having to look after her. The scene where she finally does cry for her dead daughter, five years after the fact, is truly heartwrenching.
Nagisa's dad. Although he often talks and plays rough, he is kind and sympathetic. His childish side makes it easy for people to befriend him. He used to be an actor, now runs the Furukawa Bakery with his wife Sanae. In his spare time, Akio plays baseball with children in the small park next to the bakery, and indulges in the Gundam fandom.Tropes associated with Akio:
Adult Child: Has not quite grown out of his theatrical high-school personality.
Hot Blooded: All he needs is a mecha. (Lampshaded in ~After Story~'s "One Year Earlier" omake episode, where one of his plans for Nagisa to become popular involves mecha.
Large Ham: Well, he was an actor before becoming a baker.
My Girl Is Not a Slut: Played mostly for comedy. Just over halfway through ~After Story~, upon finding out that his daughter Nagisa is pregnant, Akio is torn between denial — "A stork brought it. Right?" — joy at becoming a grandfather, and desire to strangle Tomoya for sleeping with his innocent little girl — "You bastard! (manages to contort his grimace into a sort of smile) Congratulations!" (Worth noting: this scene represents rather extreme Selective Obliviousness, as it takes place several months after Tomoya and Nagisa have gotten married.)
Older than They Look: Shares this with his wife, Sanae. He looks like a handsome thirty — possibly even younger — but given that his daughter Nagisa is eighteen or nineteen at the beginning of the series, that's hardly likely.
Paper-Thin Disguise: Definitely. Although not quite as paper thin (nor as successful) as his wife Sanae's disguise.
Running Gag: He insults her bread, and she is always right behind him and she says My bread, my bread..., she runs out crying he runs out with the bread in his mouth screaming (to the best of his ability) he loves them.
An art teacher until Nagisa's first senior year. She retired afterwards, and got married to Yuusuke Yoshino.
Chekhov's Gunman: Her first appearance, when she walks into the bakery, has a generic character feel. It isn't until two episodes later, when Toyoma runs into her again, where we realize that brief scene introduced an important character.
Hot for Student: Yes and no. Her fiancé (and later husband) Yusuke attended her high school at the time she taught there, but evidently they didn't start dating until some time after he had graduated.
Informed Attractiveness: She's very pretty, but since she's in a series utterly flooded with exceptionally moe characters, it seems odd when Tomoya (in his guise as the show's narrator) tells us how beautiful she is.
Landlady at the school's student dorm. Has her own mini-route in the game, wherein Tomoya falls in love with her after hanging out in her room whenever he has a chance.
Action Girl: Probably. Not remotely in Tomoyo's league, though.
Cannot Spit It Out: A Subverted Trope, in that she likely would have no trouble expressing her feelings for the boy in question — except, as it turns out, the boy she likes already has a girlfriend, and he goes out of his way to cut off Misae's potential Love Confessions. The boy does this to spare Misae potential embarrassment — or at least, that's how he and his girlfriend choose to view his actions. Misae's friends have less generous opinions of his behavior.
Cats are Mean: Majorly averted with her cat. Although he's no ordinary cat, is he?
Class Representative: During the flashback to her high school days. Maybe or maybe not, in the literal sense — although she does become Student Council President, which suggests a bit of background and interest in student politics. But she definitely has the temperament.
Cool Big Sis: She's awesome, especially when dealing with the troublemakers under her supervision in the boys' dorm, including not only the Rugby Club and but also Sunohara.
Cute Little Fangs: Sometimes when she's angry, but also sometimes when playing happily with her cat.
Thought it would be worth mentioning this. In Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu, Chidori does a Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex Hold(and it's wonderful in this tropers opinion) on Sousuke in episode two. Misae does a toned-down version(I think, depends on how you look at it) in in episode 5 of Clannad After Story.
Hair Decorations: In the flashbacks to her high school days, she wears a ribbon that looks almost like Cat Ears. Which is completely appropriate, given who she winds up with at the festival. (Worth noting: that same basic ribbon, with those same implied Cat Ears, turns up on several other girls over the course of the series. But it never looks as thoroughly catlike as it does on her.)
Interspecies Romance: With her cat, which was the "Shima Katsuki" she met and fell in love with in her freshman year. It's less squicktastic than it sounds. Trust me.
Second Love: In her mini route, Shima was this for her after a crush. If you don't believe the crush was really love, which is supported by the story, then her second love is instead Tomoya after he convinces her she can't just keep waiting for someone to come back when it's clear he isn't going to.
Tsundere: Very much so, in temperament — even though for the vast majority of the series she doesn't have any potential Love Interests with whom to play this tango. Unless you count her "Shima Katsuki." Which you won't, until you reach her high school flashback.
Wrestler in All of Us: Tomoya advises her to use wrestling moves to punish the boys she oversees in the dorm, and she often demonstrates them on the unfortunate Sunohara. Eventually, a flashback reveals that she's been using these moves since her high school days.
Cool Big Sis: Okay, she more truthfully fills the Team Mom role (see below), but the gang members all refer to her, in a bit of punish nickname, as Yuki-nee, or Big Sis Yuki.
Dead Older Brother: Yukine's brother Kazuto's death was kept as a secret from the rival gang, which ultimately led to Yukine impersonating her own brother.
Idiot Hair: Quite distinctive. Which seems odd, since she's a kindly Book Worm who's also socially savvy and quite possibly the leastcloudcuckoolander-ish character we meet in the entire franchise. (That said, she does often get a slightly dopey blank look on her face when she's thinking.)
Just Friends: In the Yukine route in the VN, Tomoya worries that he might have friendzoned himself by becoming Yukine's brother surrogate.
Teen Genius: We don't know much about her academic abilities, but she's a Book Worm; she's entrusted with the maintainance of the school's second library (the main library being the provinence of indisputable Teen Genius Kotomi); she's skilled enough at healing to be to the go-to-"doctor" for both the rival gangs in town; she's able to broker truces between said groups without outside assistance (most of the time); and she's in some ways the wisest character in the whole series, especially when it comes to relationships. All at age sixteen.
What Could Have Been: She was supposed to be a main heroine in planning, but was demoted to a secondary character as her story did not match expectations. If you were wondering why she was on the early cover arts (which made it as the trope image of the main page), you know now.
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Gray-yellow, depending on the light. Presumably intended to be blonde, but it's definitely not Hair of Gold, at least not compared with Youhei. (Then again, he admits his hair is dyed.)
Senior teacher and one-time advisor of the Drama and Chorus Clubs. Booked the school for Kouko and Yuusuke's wedding. Officiated at Nagisa's "graduation" ceremony.
Badass Grandpa: Implied in the Visual Novel, when he effortlessly smacks Sunohara back into the air when Tomoyo sends him flying at him. Also responsible for introducing Sunohara and Tomoya.
Hot For Teacher: Probably, although he didn't date her until he was out of school.
Idol Singer: A male version. At least before he crashed and burned. He's still worshiped by young Mei — and also, in a more mature way, by his fiance and eventual wife Kouko Ibuki.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: His persona at work — gruff but caring. Not really a "jerk," though, except when contrasted with his off-the-job persona as The Messiah.
The Messiah: Although sometimes a cranky one. Not that he doesn't have good reason to be cranky.
Messianic Archetype: Has a lot of elements of this, especially in the eyes of (some of) the characters. (A notable exception is Misae, who dislikes him and can't stand the attention he draws.) Nearly always played for laughs rather than drama.
A young man who is traveling around. His goal in life is to "live like a man."
Brother Chuck: He doesn't appear at all in the anime, not even in ~After Story~, which spends the first third of the season to go into the side character stories.
Littlest Cancer Patient: Used to be one at an orphanage until a musician he idolized (implied to be Yuusuke) inspired him to pursue his dreams.
Salaryman: He goes about traveling to find a job — until he settles down in Hikarizaka, mainly because he meets Ryou.
Tragic Dream: Wanted to become a track athlete but has leg cancer. He refuses to let go of his dream, even when the disease becomes life-threatening and there are no options other than amputation of his leg.
Voiced by: Hiroshi Naka (JP), Chris Hutchison (EN)
Tomoya's very emotionally troubled father. They had a falling out when Tomoya was in middle school, when he dislocated Tomoya's right shoulder. To stave off depression, he turned to heavy drinking (daily) and harder drugs (less daily).
Cheerful Child: Which doesn't, of course, preclude her from being a Woobie — not in this series.
Early-Bird Cameo: She's the girl running through the field with yellow flowers in the first season's opening, and it's her legs you see skipping in the second season's ending. Also appears twice, with her face hidden, in the second season opening; once talked to by Kyou, once hugged by Fuko.
Generation Xerox: Physically, she's exactly like her mother, except she has no Furukawa-clan Hair Antennae — after all, technically she's an Okazaki. She is also unusually well-mannered, loves the Big Dango Family and also loves playing with the dango plushies. She is also an...
Ill Girl: She takes after her mother in this regard. At least in the reality where both she and Nagisa die. In the reality where everyone lives, Tomoya outright states that Ushio is quite healthy.
Mrs. Exposition: She tells Tomoya about his father's true intentions, about how he sacrificed his chances at a good life so he could properly raise Tomoya.
She is actually Ushio Okazaki after her death, having lost her memories of her brief life with her father Tomoya. She regains them as she dies in the Illusionary World and she releases the light orbs for Tomoya to use so that he could save Nagisa, herself, and himself from their cursed fate.This is Lampshaded by the first season's Spoiler Opening, with the appearance of the doll, Ushio, and Fuko standing over her which is actually shown in the Grand Finale of After Story in the ending minutes.
The doll is actually Tomoya Okazaki after his death, and after losing his memories of his life. When his daughter Ushio — his sole reason for going to the Illusionary World — dies there, he returns to the real world, having released the light orbs. The light orbs allow him to initiate a Time Skip wherein Nagisa survives giving birth to Ushio. After that, they all live happily ever after.
Also Kyou's Team Pet baby boar Botan, later known as Nabe. Kyou presumably intends the name to mean "button" — perhaps as in "cute as a button," which he is — but Tomoya jokes that the name refers to botan nabe, a Japanese pork soup.
