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I recently finished watching Clannad and the ending song is about dango and
Nagisa, the one that wanted to start the drama club up again, always seems to
be talking about or drawing dango. But, what exactly is a dango? We know it's
a food of some sort because the main male character goes and buys them from a
gas station and then Nagisa eats them, but what exactly makes a dango a dango
and why is there a "big dango family" anyway?


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2014-12-25T07:52:16.393
17057
2014-12-29T02:18:35.027
2014-12-25T08:02:22.323
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question
clannad
What exactly is a dango?


I think she mentioned it about it being a tv show she sayed it used to be
popular, it's mentioned in episode 2, it's kinda after half of the episode,
it's when they are making a poster to recruit members, and then he says the
poster is missing something and he says she can put anything on the poster and
then she asks if she could put her favorite picture and he said yes that's
when she starts singing the Dango song after that then she starts talking
about it.


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2014-12-25T09:08:58.073
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2014-12-27T00:40:20.250
2014-12-27T00:40:20.250
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A dango is "a Japanese dumpling and sweet made from _mochiko_ " according to
Shawn Balestracci's Wikipedia link. _Mochiko_ is _mochi_ flour, which is made
from pounded rice. The Wikipedia page lists several varieties; some of these
are mentioned in the song, such as the "peaceful an dango"
[source](http://clannad.wikia.com/wiki/Great_Dango_Family#).

The Clannad anime is kind of unclear about where the song and characters come
from, but within the world of Clannad, it seems to be some kind of mascot
merchandising franchise similar to Hello Kitty. Nagisa has a dango daikazoku
pillow, for instance. IIRC, Tomoya mentions early on that the dango daikazoku
is old and unfashionable, but Nagisa herself is somewhat unfashionable, so it
fits her.

Dango are somewhat commonly mentioned in anime and are even part of a saying,
_hana yori dango_ , which means "dango over flowers" (i.e., put food over
aesthetic pleasures like flowers) and was punned on as [the title of a shoujo
manga](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hana_yori_dango). (The manga title uses
different kanji to write "dango" that can also be read as "otokonoko" or
"boy"). The sense I get from other anime is that dango are a common snack
among Japanese young people, so they would be attractive as a mascot character
for children and teenagers, leading to the idea of the Dango Daikazoku.


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2014-12-27T06:55:01.743
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2014-12-29T02:18:35.027
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