Have just finished the series...if not scool and stuff, you could say I had finished it in one blow.
I give series 9. Though about 8 first but since I kept wanting to see more, I gave it higher.
Why 9? Well there are sevreal reasons... I kinda expected series to be a bit more dramatic... duno, but Clannad and Air had gotten into me a bit more... at least it got me teary from time to time. Here the most saddest part for me was Makoto's arc... seeing how she slowly was dying and forgetting was really painful... though by showing that she is alive right at the end of the same episode kinda killed the moment... you actually started to feel stupid for worrying 0_0
Then there was a lack of Shiori/Kaori relationship... I actually hoped to see more of them and how did they start to communicate again...
Then there goes the whole Yuuichi/Ayu relationship... duno, but for it felt really forced when all of a sudden they became together like couple. Kiss just came out of nowhere! Yuuichi had interected with others far more. He mught have had deeper past with Ayu but he still didn't remember half of it... so yeh, for me it felt like out of blue. Ithink it would be better if they stayed friends or if the relationship came a bit later after slightly bigger development...
Now about good parts!^^
Though I liked Clannad(Spoilers here) more, I still prefer this ending more over Clannad After Story... in Clannad After Story we had to go through hell, have actual deaths and then... bam, everyone are fine and alive! That was way TOO cliche! While here even though everyone are safe and sound it didn't happen all of a sudden. It took time before everything calmed down and no one had actually died what added to realism. Like for example Shiori's healing, cases like this do happen. (Clannad spoiler end)
Kanon also has a very good animation and all the characters are unique and well developed what makes them interesting. Even though Makoto's arc was the most depressing, Kanon still managed to make you feel sorry for each character even if on different levels.
I gave it a 7/10. I felt like there were a lot of unnecessary episodes thrown in there :/
But I really didnt like the lack of shiori/Kaori relationship. I wished there was a lot more it.
Yea, I'd say the first half dozen episodes are not very good and seemed to have wasted a bit of time, and that hurt the rest of the anime a bit.
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I don't think I've ever formally reviewed this series, so here goes.
Spoiler for Everything:
Kanon was the second Key/KyoAni series I watched, after AIR.
I've never seen Toei's 2002 adaptation of Kanon, but after seeing the 2006 version and subsequently playing the VN, I'm glad I never did. 12 episodes would have never done Kanon justice. Kanon in 12 episodes would have been worse than Angel Beats! in 13. Pacing-wise, I think Kanon was spot-on.
I loved the overall tone of the story: plenty of comedy, with dive into the serious at the climax of each arc. While the style of comedy is sure to turn some people off, I love weird, quirky Japanese humor (may have something to do with the fact that I'm Korean).
Specific character thoughts:
Spoiler for Makoto:
This was originally my favorite arc in the series, back when I saw it first a few years ago. Later, when I rewatched the series, I realized the story was a little too supernatural to carry across its full impact, but I still really liked the central idea. The thought of someone close to me deteriorating over time like that, becoming increasingly unable to support themselves, honestly scares me a bit. Makoto was never my favorite character in terms of her personality (too much attention-whoring and immaturity), but near the end of her life, where she's become completely incoherent and clings to Yuuichi like he's an oxygen tank at the bottom of the ocean, was heartbreaking. Makoto's personality did offer for some of the best comedy in the show, however, so it's all good.
Spoiler for Mai:
Ah, Mai. The whole sword-wielding demon hunter thing never really stuck with me, and I still feel it's a little too wacky. What I really liked about Mai's arc was her friendship with Sayuri, and the lengths they would go to for each other was touching. Sayuri gave up her reputation to protect Mai, and Mai knows it - in return, Mai is fiercely protective of Sayuri, and would sacrifice anything she has to protect her. The scene where Mai basically threatens the Student Council President with a horrible demise should he do anything at all to Sayuri still makes me smile. As for the ending to her arc...I originally thought it was too convenient and pointless, but after playing the VN, I believe it may just be adaptation issues:
Spoiler for VN - Mai:
In the VN, Mai's "power" is never explained in detail; it's implied that she has general ESP-related powers, but they are not necessarily related to healing. If I interpreted events correctly, Mai's suicide at the end of her arc follows through, and rather than auto-rez her, Mai's power rewinds time 10 years and allows Yuuichi to replay events. Yuuichi stays in town, and Mai never goes off the deep-end. He, Mai, and Sayuri end up becoming inseparable friends and they see their graduation through. Of course, in the anime, this kind of sequence of events would undermine the rest of the arcs, so KyoAni had to think of something else.
Mai, as a character, was great. The lunch-conversations, her little head-chops, and her spectacular failures at Shiratori never failed to amuse me. When I watched the show first, I didn't have a lot of experience with anime in general, and so Mai was one of the first "emotionless girls" I'd seen (the only other one was Rei). Combined with her playfulness, I fell in love with her character pretty quickly.
Spoiler for Shiori:
Shiori is tied for first in terms of my favorite character in Kanon. This is partially because Shiori reminds me of a girl I knew a couple of years back. She was, and perhaps still is, one of the happiest, most bubbliest people I'd ever met. We attended a summer camp together, and while I never really got to know her personally, it was impossible not to know her. All of her luggage on the way there had gotten lost - clothes, supplies, expenses - and was never heard from again. It didn't seem to drag her down one bit though, and she made do borrowing clothes from others. She made it a point to meet as many people as she could, learning names and hometowns and favorite foods. She didn't need coffee; I think her body produced it naturally as a substitute for blood. Remember Tomo from Azumanga Daioh? Yeah, that's her, minus the jerkass. It wasn't until later that I learned, through a camp-alumni email, that she had passed away to cancer. When she attended the camp, she had been given about six months left to live. No one knew, because she had never told anyone. She knew that she was going to die, and so instead of moping about, she made it her mission to cram 60 years of living into her last six months. I'd say she succeeded.
What haunts me about both this girl and Shiori is their complete acceptance of death. It's like their impending doom isn't even a factor anymore, not even something worth wasting breath on. Where Shiori says "They're called miracles because they don't happen" in Episode 17, in a tone and expression that would match a cheerful greeting, sent chills down my spine. There is no time for sympathy, no time for sulking, no time for anger. Shiori could mark the day she dies on her calendar. After a week of living life as it should be lived, there is no tearful good bye with Yuuichi. With such little time, she can't afford to spend any of it on sad memories.
The only thing I didn't really like about Shiori's arc was Kaori. I can understand denial, but denial of Shiori's existence altogether? Shiori's only regret was that she couldn't spend more time her. Ignoring your dying sister's wishes to be with you is pretty cruel. Thankfully, they made up at the end.
In terms of her character, Shiori is the only girl in Kanon that can speak to Yuuichi on equal footing, and that gets her massive brownie points in my book. Every time she forced Yuuichi to admit verbal defeat was glorious. She never gets flustered, or speechless, or incoherent. She subtly reflects Yuuichi's shit right back into his face every time. I love that part of her.
Spoiler for Nayuki + Ayu:
I'll group these two together, since they share an arc. But first, individually:
Nayuki is tied with Shiori for my favorite character. Out of all of the characters in Kanon, I think she and Yuuichi have the best chemistry, and the best realistic shot at a romantic relationship (never mind the first-cousin thing). That, and her morning antics are so goddamn adorable. I'm a non-morning person myself, and as someone forced to get up early every day anyway for school/work, my friends often tease me for my utter unresponsiveness, general incoherency, and random bouts of narcolepsy before 9 AM. Seeing Nayuki in the morning was like looking in a mirror. Also, in the VN, her pouty expression was was similarly adorable. I don't often respond to moe, and I rarely call any character "adorable," so Nayuki is an interesting exception. I do think she overreacted to Akiko's hospitalization, though. While that would certainly be a traumatic experience (made worse by the fact that she's the only parent Nayuki has left), the way Nayuki completely lost it was a bit eyebrow-raising, considering that Akiko wasn't even dead/dying at the time (just critical condition). Still, it gave rise to my favorite scene from the VN, the alarm clock scene:
Spoiler for VN - Nayuki:
In the anime, Nayuki and Yuuichi make up when he sits on the bench alone after Ayu's disappearance, and Nayuki finds him. In the original VN, after repeated failed attempts at getting Nayuki out of her room, Yuuichi eventually takes the alarm clock Nayuki gave him and puts it in front of her door, stating that he will be waiting at the bench at the station they first met for as long as it takes. Yuuichi ends up staying there the whole day and the whole night, despite heavy snow. In the morning, the alarm clock goes off in front of Nayuki's door, but instead of hearing her own recording Yuuichi had been getting up to every day, Nayuki hears a new recording by Yuuichi:
Spoiler for Brevity. Don't you love spoilers in spoilers in spoilers in spoilers?:
Nayuki, I can't make a miracle happen.
But I can be by your side.
I promise to comfort you in times of despair.
I'll laugh with you when you're happy.
Even in winter, filled with snow;
Even in spring, when the sakura bloom;
Even in the quiet summer;
Even in fall, when the leaves change color;
And when the snow beings to fall again.
I will stay here. I will not go anywhere.
Because...I love you.
It also offers a funny scene in the epilogue, where Yuuichi remarks on Nayuki's sudden ability to wake up in the morning, and Nayuki replies that it's because she's been waking up to Yuuichi's message every morning. Embarassed, Yuuichi tells her to delete it, and Nayuki says she'll stop using it only if Yuuichi personally wakes her up instead.
Ayu...is a dubious character in my eyes. She's immature and childish, on the level of Makoto, and while that's understandable given that she's in a coma and is physically seven years older than her mind, that kind of character still doesn't appeal to me. On top of that, I don't see any real chemistry between her and Yuuichi, which bugs me since they're the official couple. Thematically, I can see why it is so, but the subjective side of me disagrees. I don't dislike her, but she's definitely not my favorite character. Still, there are a few great scenes with her, like the movie theater scene, "Boku Ayu," her parting scene at the tree stump. Not to mention that the arrangement of "Last Regrets" that plays during her montage is my favorite track from Kanon.
As for the arc in general...yes, it came off as a bit rushed, but in truth, given KyoAni's situation, I thought it was a very good adaptation. The problem KyoAni faced was that Nayuki's and Ayu's original routes both focused on a romantic relationship. Of course, they could hardly get away with a double-timing Yuuichi, and so we see the compromise we get. KyoAni managed to pull off the complete Ayu ending while still believably fitting in Nayuki's good end. By definition, Nayuki got the shaft, which made me a little sad, but it was understandable. I think introducing the real Sawatari Makoto was a stroke of brilliance on KyoAni's part (this was entirely KyoAni; the real Makoto made no appearance in the original VN), and made a good missing link to connect Nayuki's route and Ayu's route together. KyoAni managed to satisfy VN players with their adaptation, and that's quite an achievement.
The last episode, the ending, was my biggest gripe about the show. As in Clannad, I can see why Key did what they did. The theme of Kanon is "miracles," and what bigger miracle can you get then every girl recovering and living a happy life? Unfortunately, that was just it; it felt too convenient. In general, I'm opposed to the purely happy ending, because I feel it undermines a lot of the series. As DasDingus said, if the miracle had cost Ayu's life, the resolution would have been much more believable with more impact. I suppose, however, that such an ending would have defeated the purpose of a "good" Ayu end, so I'll begrudgingly accept the ending we got.
The music in Kanon wasn't spectacular, but it was still well done. The only track I really enjoyed (and subsequently have on my computer) was the acoustic version of "Last Regrets" (as I mentioned above). "Two Steps Toward," Nayuki's theme, was also pretty catchy. Other than that, the rest was, as Archon_Wing put it, elevator music. Artistically, Kanon was top notch (as expected from a KyoAni production). Kanon's technical aspects were all handled quite professionally.
Overall, I'd say that Kanon was the most melodramatic of the three Key/KyoAni productions. If there's a show that is designed to wring you like a towel of your tears, it's this one. Sometimes, it got it right, and sometimes, it felt like too much. Overall, however, an excellent show.
Rating wise I decided to do weirdly cause I feel like it :
Spoiler for Animation:
9.5, the animation is excellent, but I don't think it's quite worth being called perfect in this regard.
Spoiler for Voice Acting:
10, Honestly all the characters did the roles amazing well, especially Matako, Yuuichi, Mai, Sayuri, and Ayu's VA.
Spoiler for Music:
9, I bias/spoiled by other key series, while all the music was pretty good to amazing, it wasn't quite as good as Angel Beats, or Clannad was here, though I love the OP theme, and ED wasn't bad; though was little jarring in some episodes, not as bad as torch was at though >.>.
Script/Story: Giving separate rating below.
Editing: 10, I can't say I ever noticed anything wrong with it editing wise, so nothing off here.
Enjoyment: 10, I really enjoyed the series for the most part.
Spoiler for Emotional Involvement:
14, Mai, Sayuri, and Shiori's parts were excellently done in emotional level, and Makoto was pretty good too, so it's only second to Clannad, and tied with Angel Beats in Emotional level I've felt in a series.
Normal total: 62.5/60
Now for the weird part rating each portion of story separately:
Spoiler for Begining:
3/5, the start while had some humor in with introduction of most of the character, it wasn't really outstanding, and was by far the weakest part of the series.
Spoiler for Makoto:
4/5, A very good part of the story, it was here where I really started to enjoy Kanon in the same way that I had for Clannad, and Angel Beats.
Spoiler for Mai/Sayuri:
5/5, I feel the middle is definitely the strongest part of Kanon and started with this portion of the story; both Sayuri and Mai's past were excellently done, and touching, not to mention the amazing quote by Sayuri that has been mentioned here before, or the demon fighting that was done in dramatic way that I didn't expect before starting the series it was nice surprise, and ended in a way I never would have guessed.
Spoiler for Shiori:
5/5, Shiori's portion was probably the most moving thing I've watched since Angel Beats[you know which part ], and I felt was comparable in how it made me feel to some of the moments in Clannad, I really loved her arc, and spirit to live despite having Key-itis, she was a bit inspiring with it really. Plus it was very heartwarming to see when Kaori had made up with her.
Spoiler for Ayu/Nayuki:
3.5/5, I really felt this was bit rushed with a bit too much drama going on at once during this point, especially Akiko being ran over out of no where like that ; Honestly Yuuichi making up some with Nayuki, end of episode 23, and the real Makato's appearance only reasons my rating for this part isn't lower , as I thought Ayu romance might happen after the talk with Nayuki, it still seemed well bit forced, and weird to me, though her school being nothing didn't surprise me really , and her disappearance was far too sudden for me to really feel much from it unlike Makato's.
Spoiler for Ending:
4/5, the final episode was pretty good, though I was honestly shocked that Shiori lived I thought key-itis spared no1 under any condition xD, so which is a good thing, or was it bad? xD Her last talk and moments with Yuuichi in this were great. Also dear god Sayuri and Mai looked soo dam cute in the outfit that they had on for their graduation . Scenes of them all taking care of Ayu were well done too. I think would have given this a 5/5 as well if they had just somehow the awaken scene between Ayu and Yuuichi even with the bit of extreme miracles in this part.
Arcs Total: 31.5/35
Attack Chance: +4/5 , generated from the laughs had in the series xD.
Overall: 98/100, so I'll round a 9.8 to a 10 for Kanon 2006 as it sits as my 9th ranked series atm.
Also I can't help but compare to other key series I've seen, so on that I still feel Clannad is a much better series in personally preference, since I felt it did a better job in terms of making a choice romance wise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Archon_Wing
Yea, I'd say the first half dozen episodes are not very good and seemed to have wasted a bit of time, and that hurt the rest of the anime a bit.
Ya, I agree with is in part why I also felt Angel Beats[7th to me] was only little bit better than it cause I felt it used most of it's time better comparatively, and it had a baseball episode, I mean what kind of key series doesn't have a random baseball episode?
Edit: Also I should mention I felt the middle of the series Mai/Sayuri/Shiori portion was better than good deal of Angel Beats, but a whole level I felt Angel Beats did better to make that clearer.
Spoiler for Slightly off topic comment to Triple_R/Archon Wing:
If Clannad was to make up/alternative for Shiori and Yuichi's romantic ending not being address, then does that mean Angel Beats was to make up for Mai and Yuuichi's, I mean Kanade was an odd quiet girl with a blade, has a bizzare power, is very mysterious, and has a vague relationship with a girl with 'yuri' in her name .
Edit Here too: She also waited a really long time for Otanashi, and Otanashi had even lost his memory like Yuuichi.
Man, it's been a while since I wrote a post this long, hopefully I didn't make any silly mistake and cause some ridiculous pairing to be thought of like I did with Clannad .
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Last edited by Konakaga; 2010-07-15 at 02:02.
Reason: Various reasons :3
That is a lot of text! And now that I think about it, where the hell did Mai get her sword from, and where does she keep it during the day?
Also, they (Key) sure have an obsession with food and wings. Oh, and snow.
Quote:
Originally Posted by XGeneral2000
I don't think I've ever formally reviewed this series, so here goes.
Spoiler for Shiori:
In terms of her character, Shiori is the only girl in Kanon that can speak to Yuuichi on equal footing, and that gets her massive brownie points in my book. Every time she forced Yuuichi to admit verbal defeat was glorious. She never gets flustered, or speechless, or incoherent. She subtly reflects Yuuichi's shit right back into his face every time. I love that part of her.
Yea, I was like "wow, nice counter trolling" :P Shiori has a great philosophy on how to experience life, and I'm sure out of the cast, she'll be the one that parties the best.
Quote:
Overall, I'd say that Kanon was the most melodramatic of the three Key/KyoAni productions. If there's a show that is designed to wring you like a towel of your tears, it's this one. Sometimes, it got it right, and sometimes, it felt like too much. Overall, however, an excellent show.
Kanon, to me, is also the hardest one to watch for these reasons. It's the epitome of Key's excesses, and one's mileage will vary.
That's exactly what I thought--- santa outfits, lol.
That being said, you brought up one major edge Kanon has over the other key animes. Did they forget how to animate kisses or what?
That's also a nice big Mikuru parallel you drew; the more mature and attractive version of Makoto!
And yea, the anime's indecisiveness in having Yuuichi get close to everyone did hurt the final conclusion a lot. It almost yearns for a Kanon After, but that's just me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Konakaga
Ya, I agree with is in part why I also felt Angel Beats[7th to me] was only little bit better than it cause I felt it used most of it's time better comparatively, and it had a baseball episode, I mean what kind of key series doesn't have a random baseball episode?
Edit: Also I should mention I felt the middle of the series Mai/Sayuri/Shiori portion was better than good deal of Angel Beats, but a whole level I felt Angel Beats did better to make that clearer.
I felt that Kanon used its time better when it mattered the most, though. -That being said, all 4 Key anime suffer from pretty awful pacing issues at one point or another. Clannad S1 actually had the best, but that really depends if you like Fuko or not.
Quote:
Spoiler for Slightly off topic comment to Triple_R/Archon Wing:
If Clannad was to make up/alternative for Shiori and Yuichi's romantic ending not being address, then does that mean Angel Beats was to make up for Mai and Yuuichi's, I mean Kanade was an odd quiet girl with a blade, has a bizzare power, is very mysterious, and has a vague relationship with a girl with 'yuri' in her name .
Edit Here too: She also waited a really long time for Otanashi, and Otanashi had even lost his memory like Yuuichi.
Spoiler for Angel Beats!:
Yea, I kinda pointed that out in my own Angel Beats review. You can view Kanade as a spiritual successor to Mai, being misunderstood and all. But much like the Makoto/Yui comparison, the version over in Angel Beats is a bit more open and had more clearer thoughts on both sides.
Now according to wiki, Jun Maeda wasn't in charge of Kanon, but contributed a bit to the Mai/Makoto's storyline. It all makes sense then. He just loves those silent gamebreaking characters. If Mai wasn't bad enough when it came to being ridiculously overpowered, Kanade is even worse.
That being said, it also leads to the same problem... The story tries to consistently hammer in the fact that:
1.) d00d She's totally awesome! And it can get a bit overboard. Particularly in Kanade's case. Hey Mai's blade was cool, so let's have a character with dual blades!!!111111 And then more random abilities (plot devices) get invented, lol.
2.) The other issue is that they also must insist that both are pure and innocent, and really the victim that can do no wrong. That's not really a bad thing, but it screams "HEY feel sorry for her!!"
In other words, sometimes I feel like they are getting way too excited over these characters. In Angel Beats, I think someone went way overboard and skewed the focus a bit. Now this is actually a strength and a weakness. Most of the goodness of Mai's arc comes from this, but it can backfire in a few cases, like the auto-revive hax in the end.
Then again, being subtle is just not a feature of Key stories it seems.
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That is a lot of text! And now that I think about it, where the hell did Mai get her sword from, and where does she keep it during the day?
Also, they (Key) sure have an obsession with food and wings. Oh, and snow.
That's exactly what I thought--- santa outfits, lol.
That being said, you brought up one major edge Kanon has over the other key animes. Did they forget how to animate kisses or what?
Good question about her sword, and I'd say they're bit more obsessive on food, and food as a lethal weapon than wings . Though Key sure does like snow too. And I didn't relate their cute uniform to santa thing until now, it's obvious though I did I miss it? D:
Ya the lack of Kiss thing in other Key series is kinda of lame .
Quote:
And yea, the anime's indecisiveness in having Yuuichi get close to everyone did hurt the final conclusion a lot. It almost yearns for a Kanon After, but that's just me.
Yea that, and the never going to visit Sayuri/Mai/Shiori at the hospital even once kind of hurt the series, and the end of the series in my opinion. Kanon After my opinion on that would be heavily dependent on how they took things from there.
Quote:
I felt that Kanon used its time better when it mattered the most, though. -That being said, all 4 Key anime suffer from pretty awful pacing issues at one point or another. Clannad S1 actually had the best, but that really depends if you like Fuko or not.
I'll give you the all of the key series[well 3 I've seen anyways], and since I liked Fuko somewhat I'll agree on last part too.
Quote:
Spoiler for Angel Beats!:
Yea, I kinda pointed that out in my own Angel Beats review. You can view Kanade as a spiritual successor to Mai, being misunderstood and all. But much like the Makoto/Yui comparison, the version over in Angel Beats is a bit more open and had more clearer thoughts on both sides.
Now according to wiki, Jun Maeda wasn't in charge of Kanon, but contributed a bit to the Mai/Makoto's storyline. It all makes sense then. He just loves those silent gamebreaking characters. If Mai wasn't bad enough when it came to being ridiculously overpowered, Kanade is even worse.
That being said, it also leads to the same problem... The story tries to consistently hammer in the fact that:
1.) d00d She's totally awesome! And it can get a bit overboard. Particularly in Kanade's case. Hey Mai's blade was cool, so let's have a character with dual blades!!!111111 And then more random abilities (plot devices) get invented, lol.
2.) The other issue is that they also must insist that both are pure and innocent, and really the victim that can do no wrong. That's not really a bad thing, but it screams "HEY feel sorry for her!!"
In other words, sometimes I feel like they are getting way too excited over these characters. In Angel Beats, I think someone went way overboard and skewed the focus a bit. Now this is actually a strength and a weakness. Most of the goodness of Mai's arc comes from this, but it can backfire in a few cases, like the auto-revive hax in the end.
Then again, being subtle is just not a feature of Key stories it seems.
Ya Kanade did go a bit overboard on that stuff, probably why I prefer Mai , also that reminds I still want to finish reading the Angel Beats LN before I posted a review on it, which I haven't .
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Just finished watching it last night, forced myself to watch last 4-5 eps after each other because of all the suspense in the un-answered questions!
First off, this anime is extraordinary different from Clannad which I had watched prior. Clannad is currently the best anime I've watched thus far (out of like 15 animes =p )
My point in comparing is because the only reason I watched Kanon is because people said it has that same emotional PULL as Clannad, therefore in liking Clannad I should like Kanon.
All in all i think I was dissapointed because my extremely high thoughts on Clannad were difficult to maintain after watching a "good" Kanon. That is, if I watched it the other way around it would have been better.
I have not watched Kanon 2002, thats next on my list, i think its great how they made a 24 episode adaption because in 2006 I still felt it was rushed at the important parts, and slow during the un-important bits (pacing was bad imo) so i cannot think to imagine how the 2002 one is =/
I think KyoAni are superb in their skills of still making you SAD even though none of the characters died! (except sayuri's brother). What I think did this to me was saying Ayu in a wheelchair =(
Such a funny, energetic character in the whole anime is reduced to being restricted by a wheelchair... "do you think I will ever be able to run again Yuichii" ....
*compose myself emotionally*
I was rather surprised at the ignorance by the producers of Nayuki. Let me explain, I have read all the threads on every episode of this series and as a first time viewer my brain automatically told me "Nayuki is the 2nd main character after Yuichii" my reason for this? Look at the opening theme song, Nayuki is presented first....Yuichii lives with her....meets her first and so on.
In Clannad for example Okozaki meets Nagissa first and the rest is general knowledge.
Obviously as I kept watching the series the other characters were broguht in, but still....there was a potential to be a whole series based on "does he choose Ayu or Nayuki" especially after the issues of the other characters were resolved.
Thats not to say I liked Nayuki (sorry!) she was too weird/childish/ yawn yawn yawn.....so was Ayu in a way, but I had a liking to her character more haha. BUT in the last 3-4 eps I had a much greater respect for Nayuki than in the whole series! She matured and developed more.
Point of ^^^, well I think the producers should have had a whole episode and a bit dedicated to Nayuki as they did for Mai, Shiori, Makoto etc.
I gave Kanon a 7/10 overall because of potential. I think considering the game from what people have said explores each of the characters deeply, they did a good job in squeezing this into a 24 ep anime =)
But in the last 2 episodes it felt "empty" everything was so fast paced its like they did this
Scene 1- take a look at Akiko....secret revealed in regards to Ayu
Scene 2- we learn the fate of Sayuri
Scene 3- we learn the fate of Shiori
Scene 4- Makoto
Scene 5-everything is tied up (Ayu).
And note, each of the above events happen in rapid progression. I wonder whether it may have been wiser to have 2 episodes to explain each of the above rather than karate chop your way as they did... (note: I wonder....not "i think they should have")
Nayuki was Yuiichi's cousin, how exavtly do you want to pair them, people?
It seriously wouldn't work for me and I have never viewed them as an item. It would lower series for me...
Marriage between cousins isn't illegal, or even frowned upon, everywhere. It might turn some people off, but realize that it's not taboo in a lot of cultures.
Ah, Mai. The whole sword-wielding demon hunter thing never really stuck with me, and I still feel it's a little too wacky. What I really liked about Mai's arc was her friendship with Sayuri, and the lengths they would go to for each other was touching. Sayuri gave up her reputation to protect Mai, and Mai knows it - in return, Mai is fiercely protective of Sayuri, and would sacrifice anything she has to protect her. The scene where Mai basically threatens the Student Council President with a horrible demise should he do anything at all to Sayuri still makes me smile. As for the ending to her arc...I originally thought it was too convenient and pointless, but after playing the VN, I believe it may just be adaptation issues:
Spoiler for VN - Mai:
In the VN, Mai's "power" is never explained in detail; it's implied that she has general ESP-related powers, but they are not necessarily related to healing. If I interpreted events correctly, Mai's suicide at the end of her arc follows through, and rather than auto-rez her, Mai's power rewinds time 10 years and allows Yuuichi to replay events. Yuuichi stays in town, and Mai never goes off the deep-end. He, Mai, and Sayuri end up becoming inseparable friends and they see their graduation through. Of course, in the anime, this kind of sequence of events would undermine the rest of the arcs, so KyoAni had to think of something else.
Mai, as a character, was great. The lunch-conversations, her little head-chops, and her spectacular failures at Shiratori never failed to amuse me. When I watched the show first, I didn't have a lot of experience with anime in general, and so Mai was one of the first "emotionless girls" I'd seen (the only other one was Rei). Combined with her playfulness, I fell in love with her character pretty quickly.
Ah, I'm not sure which idea is worse. ;heh: I guess the VN one is the more meaningful path by a little bit. But now Mai can reverse time too?
Ironically, I felt that it was one of the few edges the 2002 version had. In that version...
Spoiler:
Sayuri comes out to stop her. Though, of course it comes with its own problems like where the hell did she come from all of a sudden, but the overall impression seems better. Mai only attempts suicide once here, at the equivalent of episode 15 here. But you know, the conclusion does at least make sense. She finds that losing everyone is too much and still live on, and still manages to hold on to that will.
In the end, all of these conclusions have their own problems for my own suspension of disbelief. The best would probably have been an combination of the 2002 and 2006 ones-- don't nullify the effect of that amazing scene from the end of episode 14. If we didn't have Mai come back, it'd be a borderline Shaggy Dog Story where all the attempts to reach to her just failed.
2006 Mai is just too much of matyr The best things about Mai's story are also the worst things.
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Remember to hold people to impossible and ideally contradictory standards. That way they'll always be wrong and you can spew your vindictive bullshit while nobody notices Fate Testarossa. Stealing Screentime since 2004 Avatar and Sig courtesy of TheEroKing
Guild Wars 2 SN: ArchonWing.9480 (Stormbluff Isle) MyAnimeList || Reviews
I have a feeling I made a post here somewhere before about finishing the VN first...
In which case, this is long overdue.
Well I've finished both, and the VN is much stronger than the anime. That being said...
By itself, the anime isn't 'bad'. However I felt they spent too much time introducing every character. Something about that kind of bugged me since the anime spent 4 episodes doing what I had done in the VN in around an hour. Even not knowing that, some of the episodes' pacing seemed a little off.
Because of that, I got kind of confused in the ending on my first watch through - it took a while for it to sink in, since it was like a giant uphill (almost vertical) to happiness from the sadness of the previous episode.
Nonetheless, the characterisation was still awesome, although I would have preferred if not as many characters were 'killed off', as it were. Yes I know it was to focus more on Ayu/Yuuichi, but it just peeved me that they couldn't think of anything better to do with the others than essentially fade them into the background unsubtly (CLANNAD suffered from this a bit as well, although it was much more subtle about it.)
In any case, it's a good KEY adaptation, just that I think the VN captured it better (almost always the case, but CLANNAD was on par as an anime. )
So, I hand down a 9. It's awesome, but it just doesn't seem to flow as well as CLANNAD did.
If you think the characters in Kanon faded into the background, wait until you watch Air now THAT'S what I call fading into the background. If you have watched Air I refer to
(importance of Piko Piko?, Kano? , Minagi?)
Anyway, I laughed when you wrote "took a while to sink in" i know exactly what you mean!
When I watched the last 2 episodes and it just ended, I wasn't sure if I was meant to be sad or happy! I was just the whole time.
Until I thought about it more, and read some online summaries/explanations.
Author
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; Honestly Yuuichi making up some with Nayuki, end of episode 23, and the real Makato's appearance only reasons my rating for this part isn't lower 
, as I thought Ayu romance might happen after the talk with Nayuki, it still seemed well bit forced, and weird to me, though her school being nothing didn't surprise me really 
, and her disappearance was far too sudden for me to really feel much from it unlike Makato's.
. Scenes of them all taking care of Ayu were well done too. I think would have given this a 5/5 as well if they had just somehow the awaken scene between Ayu and Yuuichi even with the bit of extreme miracles in this part.
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Oh, and snow. 
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now THAT'S what I call fading into the background. If you have watched Air I refer to
