Finally done with episode 12 (Thanks to Mentar for telling me about Tokyotosho).
The humor:
-Nayuki never fails to deliver, with her Keropi and her face suddenly drooping onto the table. While I could not fail to laugh at this part, I have to agree in part with Ascaloth's comment about the angst meter for Nayuki. Even so, I do hope that the later episodes will show that instead.
-Mai's "bento nod". Can't help but laugh at how cute and funny Mai was in that segment. It almost seemed as though she lives for food.
-Shiori's mini-pharmacy. Although it wasn't as humorous as the first two for me, I could imagine what kind of expression Yuuichi would make had he not suffered from a brain freeze attack.
The development:
-Ayu's opinion of Nayuki. so far I don't know what it really means eventually, but I believe it can come into play for Nayuki's or Ayu's arc.
-Kaori's cold attitude when asked about her family. We already know that there's something she doesn't like about them in the previous episode, but this one was...Well, she doesn't have that regal, cold aura about her for nothing.
-Shiori's cute classmate. While she seems to be a minor character, I've got a feeling she will show up again in Shiori's arc later on and thus let us possibly know more about Shiori.
The entertainment:
-"Honey bear" and "Chubby Tanuki". I never thought Mai would actually listen to Yuuichi's strange advice and do that.
-The dance. Definitely. From here we see exactly Yuuichi can be as suave as he wants to. Move over, James Bond.
The expression on his face when he saw Mai was priceless (probably mirrored mine
) The lipstick on Mai was a nice touch too.
Aside from that, the interaction between Mai and Yuuichi proved to be quite interesting, especially about the parts where Mai gets perked by the mention of the monkey and where she refuses to leave Yuuichi, despite her getting more comfortable with interacting with Sayuri and more notably Yuuichi. I particularly think the chops on their heads were silly until I realise that it is perhaps an indication that Mai was actually reacting more to the two of them and being more open about her feelings. Put perhaps Nayuki or Ayu in her place and they will probably blush or speak out instead.
Points to Yuuichi for speaking out against Kuze. I easily foresee the latter becoming perhaps one of the most (or probably the only) hated characters in the Kanonverse. Well, I guess it's the self-righeousness that's exuding from him the moment he opened his mouth twice in the episode, especially for the last minute of it.
As for the dancing...Well, it takes the cake for this episode. Perhaps the lesser emphasis placed on the background characters was to amplify the fact that Yuuichi and Mai were really the stars of the show. Perhaps that justified Mai's name for what she can do
and increase Yuuichi's 'Man-o-meter'.
The preview seems very interesting too. Seems like Yuuichi's taken to try to help Mai by doing the thing he thinks best:
Throw Ayu into the mix, and Sayuri's 'sweet-nothings' with Yuuichi (just j/king...probably some more important information we get to know about Mai), and we have plenty of viewers ravenous for the next episode of Kanon 2006...including me.
Need them tako-weiners soon too.
10/10 for this episode, hands down.