[Nightengale]

Overall, I'd say it's around 6.5 or 7 out of 10 for me.

To me, I'd say the most appealing thing to me about Kanon was the story of Yuuichi's journey. It wasn't so much about the girls in particular for me, but rather how a boy's insight and personal life revolves around the things he's involved in. The ambivient theme of miracles was also semi-beautiful on several levels, but at the same time, it doesn't have the same rigidness shown by the Makoto arc and Shiori's words in the finale, about it. I would've liked it better had it not relied so much on the bottle-breaker for character developments, but whatever.

Sadly, Kanon just somehow lacks the something-in-the-anime that grabs me personally. It's a good show overall, but it doesn't have what one call the ONE reason you'd watch crap for, just like how some people watch crappy shows for their favourite seiyuu or watch crap just because there's several sakuga-animators they love in particular episodes. The closest was probably Kuze and first episode's Kaori, and his role was only being the realistic underminer of Mai, in which he technically vanishes soon after, and I didn't feel so much attached to Kaori after episode 1, for whatever reason.

To be completely honest, I'm torn on the characters of Kanon. Aside from Makoto, most of the girl's character development was heavily reliant on shock-bottle development, where revelations of issues occuring in the past and present ignites and peels off the layers of their character by the whole shell. Well, Makoto had that as well, but it was really more on Yuuichi than her, so hers was fine as the layers of how she percieved Yuuichi as an important person to her was poignantly beautiful. I'm not saying that Kanon characters are bad by any means, but their developmental triggers in my opinion wasn't as good as it could've been. The character arcs itself made it worse since some girls get shafted following their conclusion.Yuuichi on the other hand, was solidly developed. The good thing about it was that his journey through each girl's arc didn't pull any major changes, but rather a subtle execution to how he treated the girls each in particular following what transpired before him.

The plot of Kanon...frankly, was mostly predictable for me. Aside from Mai, I've pretty much guessed what each girl's particular unique traits were. However, it was the execution that made it good. The overall feel of the approach, followed by the solid visual directing with the good use of background imagery and character shots alongside good integration of the music during key moments made it feel more emotional than how it would on paper. The Makoto arc, personally was my favourite because the arc composition had the grim feeling alongside a proper flow of the mood, and a fitting finale to her story. In comparison, other girl's story arc, while good had several weak points in their overall transition and execution in my opinion. There were weak aspects I found with the overall composition, and several directional approach from a visual standpoint like Akiko's crash scene, and the pace-upped transition to the more sombre mood in the end, but they're acceptable. Though frankly, I wish Kanon did something with the ending song at times, especially when the episode ends in a semi-moody feel and came with the bright peepy feel. The Makoto arc's ending did it well with the integration, but not so much on the other parts. Frankly, some directional executions could've been more impactful music-wise had they do something like Gundam SEED's ED1, where the ED song played early, or was half-accompanied by instrumental to bridge the final scene with the ED.

The technical aspects of Kanon, on it's own sense were good. There were times I wish they could'v improved on the background for a balanced consistency, but it's not like they're bad, so it's a minor thing.

In the end, I'd say Kanon was a pretty good watch. Nothing outstanding or epic, but it's a worthy title in the libraries of drama animation.