Quote from Vinhthehero;118049:
Yeah, Season 1 builds character development with the main characters and explored the arc of the side characters. Season 2 beginning explored more arcs and continued the story between the main characters who eventually hooked up and gets married and that's when everything falls apart and keeps you hooked on watching to see what happens next. After Story is the true reason why people liked Clannad. Season 1 was just high school comedy romance crap and I even thought about not watching it. Season 2 was very sad and dramatic and we see all the characters mature after graduating high school. It totally beats every other KEY works, even Kanon and AIR. That and it had the best OP song.
[video=youtube;-2fQGHI3TwQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2fQGHI3TwQ[/video]
This pretty much sums up my view on the series. The first series was very slow and only had a few points that were interesting. Most of the first season is just backstory to the second season with a lot of random crap thrown in. While it can be interesting to watch, it does get pretty dull at times.
The second season is when things really start to pick up and the story becomes a lot more interesting at this point onwards. I think you can watch the second season without watching the first and still understand most of what's going on, it's just that the first season sort of acts as a suppliment and you do not need to watch it if you don't want to.
If you don't wanna watch it, that ok. There are other romance series that are also entertaining. The one's I find interesting usually have some other element to compliment the romance, like action-romances (Utawarerumono ,RomeoxJuliet and Zero no Tsukai-sama) and romance-comedies (Kaichouwa Maid-Sama, Toradora! and Lovely Complex)