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Gave it a very subjective 9 based on how I personally came to feel about it. If I were rating it against other shows or trying to measure its value in the pantheon of anime, the rating would be much lower--but that's not the point of this thread, is it?
My primary complaint is that it is not at all friendly to first-time viewers. I had even been spoiled for key aspects of the end story, and I still felt this way. Instead of grabbing you from the start, the show eases its way in. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it works better for those who are aware of the foreshadowing that's being laid down--those who understand the characters' roles--than people who are fresh to the series.
Initially I was resigned to accept Kanon as a string of decent to excellent character arcs. Only by the very end did the overarching themes come together in a cohesive way. Only then did I realize how much more coherent and smooth the show would seem upon a rewatch. Only then did I recognize that I had gone into it with completely the wrong expectations. "Sad girls in snow" is a misnomer; that's not what Kanon is about. I thought I was watching a tragedy like AIR when I was really watching a story about miracles. When this clicked, I was able to accept everything in the last episode, because it make perfect emotional and thematic sense.
My only complaint about art/animation is that there were some episodes in which chibi Yuuichi and Ayu's eyes were much larger than they should have been. Perhaps this will be evened out for the DVD release.
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