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View Poll Results: Kanon 2006 Total Series Rating
Perfect 10 235 52.34%
9 out of 10 : Excellent 135 30.07%
8 out of 10 : Very Good 38 8.46%
7 out of 10 : Good 25 5.57%
6 out of 10 : Average 9 2.00%
5 out of 10 : Below Average 4 0.89%
4 out of 10 : Poor 1 0.22%
3 out of 10 : Bad 0 0%
2 out of 10 : Very Bad 0 0%
1 out of 10 : Painful 2 0.45%
Voters: 449. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 2008-11-14, 06:57   Link #261
Littm
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Suzumiya. I like her more then Hayase.
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Old 2008-12-14, 09:10   Link #262
hero147
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Originally Posted by Orophin View Post
Let me guess, Ayu's bath scene? I didn't see anything wrong with it.
You can see her nips if I remember correctly.
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Old 2008-12-14, 13:03   Link #263
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Originally Posted by hero147 View Post
You can see her nips if I remember correctly.
You remember incorrectly.
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Old 2008-12-14, 13:24   Link #264
hero147
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Originally Posted by Sute443 View Post
You remember incorrectly.
It wasn't as vivid as I made it seemed, but you can clearly see it underwater during Ayu's bath scene. I double checked on Random Curiosity Funny thing is, even the blog says it was unnecessary.
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Old 2008-12-14, 13:54   Link #265
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hero147 View Post
It wasn't as vivid as I made it seemed, but you can clearly see it underwater during Ayu's bath scene. I double checked on Random Curiosity Funny thing is, even the blog says it was unnecessary.
Yes, that was my problem as well. Totally unnecessary fanservice in a show that was otherwise almost completely free from it. But like I said, that 10-second scene couldn't possibly change the fact that I absolutely love this series to death, and I really wish ADV hadn't lost the license, so that I could get the entire series right now. But I suppose I can wait for the box... Not like I have a choice in the matter, anyway.
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Old 2008-12-14, 16:35   Link #266
Sute443
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hero147 View Post
It wasn't as vivid as I made it seemed, but you can clearly see it underwater during Ayu's bath scene. I double checked on Random Curiosity Funny thing is, even the blog says it was unnecessary.
After reexamining that scene for the 16th or 17th time, I have to say that I stand corrected; they are visible. However, I do have to wonder just how closely people were looking in order to see them without them being pointed out. I had to really look carefully in order to see them.
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Old 2008-12-18, 18:41   Link #267
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sute443 View Post
After reexamining that scene for the 16th or 17th time, I have to say that I stand corrected; they are visible. However, I do have to wonder just how closely people were looking in order to see them without them being pointed out. I had to really look carefully in order to see them.
I got to agree, the fact that they are people that were offended bye it just means how damn perverted they were bye freaking pauzing and examening it so freaking hard. This is making an elephant out of a mosquito, though I do agree that I prefered they didn't give such an unnecessary (unnoticable) fanservice shot.
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Old 2009-01-07, 05:42   Link #268
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Just joined Anime-suki after much lurking and I've decided to give my two cents on Kanon.

Overall I gave Kanon a solid 9/10.
If I had compared Kanon to other animes I've seen, I would have given it a lower score, but this is not a comparison thread but a view on Kanon itself.

It's animation is crisp and beautiful, its voice actors fitted the characters they were represented and overall, the theme of 'miracles' was symbolised at Kanon's climatic ending.

All of the girl's arcs were touching in one aspect or another, and each could have stood strongly as an individual story. However, the only reason why I gave Kanon a lowered score of 9 is due to the fact, some scenes, particularly in the earlier episodes, I felt the show was unwatchable and lacked drive. The kissing scene was somewhat out of the blue for me.

As a result of these points, I enjoyed Kanon but I could have easily slept through some of the episodes. Hence, Kanon has earnt a well-deserved score of 9.
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Old 2009-01-10, 19:44   Link #269
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Well, there is nothing more to add, Domo.

I agree in most points.

In my eyes, Kanon is a masterpiece.
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Old 2009-03-10, 10:44   Link #270
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Not a huge fan of the super-chin style (see AIR as well), but the story is nonetheless heartwarming and the lead character is actually quite bearable
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Old 2009-03-17, 15:48   Link #271
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9/10 - KyoAni version (the Toei version doesn't even seem worth rating, to me)

For a eroge made anime, this was quite amazing, IMHO. It would have been so easy to make this into a standard male-fantasy harem anime, with LOTS of fanservice and drooling fanboys and little in the way of story, but KyoAni stayed true to their vision of Key's original story and made basically a series of very touching stories woven together with real meaning. The little fanservice that was present was interleaved into the story well enough to seem natural in context (I mean, imagine seeing a girl naked in a bath, <gasp>! ).

Many stories go for the cheap win by dragging out a pretty girl and putting her through hell without letting us start to care about the actual character. But Kanon avoids the narm by allowing us time to get to know the characters first, so each individual arc's conclusion comes with a lot of emotional investment. Then, at the last, the whole series comes together with a surprising heartwarming ending in a series so replete with sadness and tragedy.

Ultimately it was the constant intersection between heartbreaking and heartwarming that made this series for me. The end of Episode 10 can get me fighting back the tears every time I watch it, no contest.

BTW - Apparently, almost every one of my favorite series has Maaya Sakomoto's voice in it at one point or another.

Ciao!
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Old 2009-06-19, 03:01   Link #272
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A Complete 10 for this without question..

It dragged me into sadness regardless the fact that I've played the game and watched the 2002 version..
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Old 2009-06-28, 06:03   Link #273
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I gave the anime a 9 out of 10, I really loved the animations, and the characters were very much likable. I don't really have much against it, but I didn't feel it completely deserved a 10 out of 10. The beginning dragged on just a little more then it should have. Besides that I loved it and recommend it. It's quite original. Not going to see anything else like it!
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Old 2009-10-30, 06:39   Link #274
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I started this series after watching KyoAni's other work, Clannad, and I've heard of clannad being constantly compared to kanon, I must say that although this indeed an excellent series but it somehow fell short of my expectations.

Let's talk about how to story progresses, sure it follows the tried and true multiple character arcs and finally a happy ending, but I felt that the story doesn't flow that smooth. Like after makoto's arc, it ended with such a heartwarming/saddening scene and in the next episode, you see him acting too normal, even when he looks as things that reminds him of makoto, or reminisce about her, there is no change in expression in how he may still feel a little sad, this part is slightly unrealistic for me.

same thing happened for shiori's arc, after shiori left yuuichi, the next episode immediately starts off on a different day, a totally different scene without any hint of how it changes from the previous episode to the current scene. You could say that if you take each arc and make it in a separate series you will not find that ther might be possibility for continuation or something has happened before.

I can't help but compare it with clannad, both stories touched on miracles, in clannad being the gathering of light orbs and turning back time to live in a different time dimension towards the true happy ending. It was one of the most touching scene I've seen in the animes I've watched. However, in kanon, the miracle that everyone is all healthy and alive and a happily ever after ending did not have the same heartwarming effect as clannad, the ending of makoto's arc was way better than the ending of kanon.

Excellent character design when compared to toei's version, but if you take the time it's created into consideration, toei's art is probably normal during that time. Still other than character design, Scenery Porn is another plus point for the series, the marble, the water fountain, the tears, the ball room are all too realistic and made the series much more enjoyable. also there are also details such as ayu always gets her mouth dirty when she eats taiyaki, the strawberries from the cake stained the snow red, stuff like that shows how much effort the staff put into to create the series.

so my rating for the series is
animation quality: 9.5
when wiping the snow off the head, the snow just vanish and didn't seem that realistic(yes, i am picky)
Voice Actors: 9
the voices really fit the characters well and don't sound forced
Script: 8
sometimes the jumping into the past, into dreams illusion makes the story a bit hard to follow.
Soundtrack: 3
i really really disliked the soundtrack, the op and ed don fit the story in my opinion, series like toradora, and princess lover's soundtracks do much better. wanted to give it a 1 but given the Canon BGM upped the score a bit
Enjoyment: 9.5
the first few arcs can make up for the ending (:
Emotional Involvement: 9
tears well up in my eyes even i'm reading the episode summary ><

Overall: 8

i also loved how the comedy makes it easier to get sucked into series and makes you want to keep watching(the cliffhangers are part of the reason as well)
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Old 2010-02-04, 19:31   Link #275
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Well, it's been 6 months since I've started watching this anime, and I'm finally done. It's been both frustrating and rewarding to watch this show.

If the 3 KyoAni-Key adaptations were desserts, Kanon is the super-rich and sweet cake. Too much can make one sick, but it doesn't really stop me from trying. Kanon 2006, despite being the second adaptation is actually the first of the three to be written. I've only seen the 2006 version, so I have no idea what the Toei 2002 version is like. In any case, the standard tendencies of a Key story are out in full force and Kanon embraces them to excess for better or for worse.

My first impression of the show wasn't a very good one. When it first aired, I was expecting some epic tragedy like Air, but the harem-like atmosphere quickly turned me off. The first few episodes are still pretty boring to me, as it consists mainly of Yuuichi walking around and randomly bumping into each of the girls. It was very routine, no doubt to get across the point of daily life is indeed very boring. But there was really just too much to be going on, and I was wondering what the point of anything was.

I'm pretty mixed on the character designs. Ayu and Shiori seem way too short (Or Yuuichi is a giant) Yes, there are reasons why they are short, but it just looks kinda funny. Mai and Nayuki look the best. However, Ayu does look better when not wearing that big fluffy jacket. *cough* (Did I really just say that?)

The show gradually got better as it progressed. Most of the Makoto and Nayuki moments are funny, and we have a nice scene between Yuuichi and Ayu in the movie theater which is very cute. I'm not too into this "moe" thing, but I would admit it was very effective. Unfortunately, they don't really do too much with Ayu at this point and she gets extremely sidetracked for someone so important in the story. I do understand that merging mutually exclusive paths is going to be very difficult, but I think they could have done more.

The other problem is that I found it extremely hard to believe that so many people are suicidal or dying. They seem to be everywhere and it makes Yuuichi come off more of an asshole. Though, he was only a little boy when all the trouble started, so it's not right to blame him. The universe sure hates him! But this is of course another result of the many paths that had to be fit in the story. And Key needed to have more variation in writing.

The stories themselves are predictable, but effective nonetheless. Makoto's story is simplistic which is both a strength and a weakness. It's effective in the way it manages to create a pure tragedy. It is indeed very sad and heartbreaking, with no chance of deus ex machina.
At the same time, we really don't get much from Makoto's character besides what's given to us on the surface. And Yuuichi's kinda just there. But that doesn't really matter. The story of a spirit that gave up its own life to temporarily take the form of someone the target loves is something that never really gets old. Makoto's gradual loss of motor skills is extremely hard to watch as we are left helpless and must accept her fate. Props to the exceptional directing in the final scenes of episode 10.

I would be lying if I said I didn't watch the show because of Mai, as I have an extreme bias towards that type of character; she almost feels like a combination of several of my favorite ones. She's also voiced by the talented Yukari Tamura, and the extreme emotional outburts she makes in episodes 14-15 are reminiscent of her performance in Higurashi. Mai's character development is slightl and subtle, but definitely makes enough of an impact to encourage Yuuichi and the audience. The utterly random sentences she utters and that ridiculous chops she gives Sayuri and Yuuichi are scenes that I'll never get tired of.

Mai is constantly in conflict, fighting an unknown enemy that she can't understand. She must also deal with everyone hating her for what she does and has become extremely apathetic. She's also actively fighting herself, making this a great struggle both externally and internally. But it is through Sayuri's and Yuuichi's attempts to get to her that she can finally break out of her isolation and continue on. Sayuri's own flashback was extremely sad, but also extremely beautiful in that it captured every emotion very well, resulting in this quote:

"The same melody repeats itself as the song grows richer and more beautiful. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could live seemingly constant lives while experiencing little changes bit by bit?"

Never before have I seen an anime drop its name and use it to convey such a deep meaning. I would go ahead and say that episode 14 is not only my favorite episode of Kanon, but one of my favorite anime episodes. The whole thing is just an emotional rollercoaster from the backstories to Mai seeing Sayuri getting attacked again and Yuuichi trying to stop Mai from taking her own life, making it an extremely captivating 20 minutes.

I can't say the conclusion to Mai's arc was that great considering the buildup before. Mai killing herself for sure this time just makes me feel that all they have been through was just completely nullified. Then about 5 seconds later, Yuuichi pulls the sword out of her (So easily?) and Mai gets resurrected. Not that I have a problem with a miracle, but it did make me go WTF? and felt like a cheap shot. Still, I liked the closing moments of that part enough to feel happy that Mai has eventually found peace with herself. Well, that and Mai is easily the most overpowered character of the story. Reviving the dead and also herself?

"But I'd rather be known as hope" [/tear] The BGM (I think it's called Afterglow) is pretty awesome. Speaking of the music for the series; it's adequate for the most part. "Last Regrets" is an ok calm song, but I like Kaze no Tadori Tsuku Basho better. Well, except after certain episodes. Wtf KyoAni, please learn to not do that! The rest of the BGM reminds me of elevator music.

Shiori's arc was another excellent follow up. I would say that she is indeed the most moe of them all. Cute, but not enough to be obnoxious. Her odd mannerism and randomly carrying a med kit was pretty funny, but I was always wondering what the point of her was. Well, unfortunately for her, she suffers from Key-itis, meaning she has a vaguely defined disease and will die very soon. She shows a very strong sense of self-determination; just happening to run into Yuuichi and Ayu was enough to have her keep going. That doesn't seem like much until you realize that she's about to die and seemingly nobody cares about her. This probably makes Kanon being the only show where the wrist slitter is probably the most strong willed. (Down with stereotypes!) Or it just makes the whole thing more depressing.

Anyhow, Kaori decides that being a bitch won't solve issues and finally accepts her sister. Indeed, I would understand that having a dying sister would cause some denial, but Kaori's denial runs into borderline hilarity. The birthday party scene was great, with everyone but Kaori going all out to give Shiori a good time. And finally Kaori does a gruff acknowledgment which makes for another heartwarming scene. Kinda weird how something so trivial and simple like a birthday party could mean so much. But then again, if something simple can make someone happy for once, then why not try to do more good? This kind of pure idealism seems rare these days in contrast to the rampant cynicism that runs around, making Kanon hit 3 for 3 when it started getting serious.

The water fountain scene was great, as it seems after Kanon, KyoAni forgot how to animate kisses. It's not til now that I bring up the visuals, but it should be pretty obvious. It's rather sad how Shiori just ran off. Unfortunately, she drops off the face of the earth for the next few episodes which seriously annoys me. But at least we get one more scene at the end.

The last arc, the Ayu/Nayuki/OMG WE RAN OUT OF EPISODES arc, doesn't really have that much impact on me. It's not bad, though I found myself taking a long time to finish these last episodes. Besides the sudden increase in pacing and the extremely jarring episode 19 kiss which really does not go well after episode 18, I felt that combining both threads just ended up diluting both. They did drop hints about Ayu's character around the series, so none of this is coming out of nowhere, but it just feels utterly disjointed. The result is having events such as Akiko being hit by a car (OMGWTF), Ayu disappearing, and Nayuki becoming basically catatonic still being potent but having a much weaker impact than they should have. It does have a "shit hits the fan" feel to it, but there's just way too much going on. The main thing that dampened the emotional impact of these tragic events is that the resolution is so rushed that I was wondering WTFFFFFF. I don't really think deus ex machina is a bad thing, but maybe they could have used 2 extra episodes to explore the concept of miracles-- it'd help more.

Ayu herself isn't too bad. I actually wished she would have done more earlier. Episode 20 to me is the standout episode for her; especially when Yuuichi taunts her about not being able to do math problems and reveals he can't either. Also, Yuuichi finally gets a personality and distinguishes himself from Kyon here.

Which kind of brings up a problem about Yuuichi. I really haven't much to write about him specifically, except that he's kinda funny sometimes, occasionally a jackass and helpful other times. Not too bad, but nothing to write home about. Sometimes he feels too much like a player that gets dragged along by the story (sometimes literally) So seeing him change a bit more when he's with Ayu is a good thing.

Though it seems at face value that all this crap happening just because young Yuuichi didn't give/accept some seemingly random items seems a bit silly, they are effective symbols of a greater problem. Every character in this story has been carrying a great burden of pain for a long time, and every time they tried to hide it, it wouldn't go away and triggers just make it worse. Denying yourself and others is only a temporary measure.

As for the ending itself, despite it being so fluffy, it did have everyone get together which I really can't say about the other 2 KyoAni-Key adaptations. That's always great and helps end the series more smoothly. So in that case, the series ends on a high note despite all the craziness.

Rating: 8.5/10 (I rarely use decimals but I think 8 is a bit too low) Kanon is a flawed but beautiful show; it feels more like a collection of heartwarming stories rather than a long epic one. That doesn't change the fact that many of the scenes are masterfully done or that it's put forth some of the best of anime that I've ever seen.

Uguu~ I want to see mature Ayu.
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Last edited by Archon_Wing; 2010-07-09 at 20:32.
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Old 2010-02-27, 16:24   Link #276
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Animation Quality: 9
Voice Actors: 8
Script: 7
Adaptation from Game: 9
Editing: 8
Average = 8
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Old 2010-03-05, 08:09   Link #277
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If I can, I'll try to get the VN and play that before I give my opinion...but that's quite the essay.
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Old 2010-03-06, 05:02   Link #278
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Khu View Post
If I can, I'll try to get the VN and play that before I give my opinion...but that's quite the essay.
Have you seen the whole series?

As for my "essay", I just feel that if you can't really express why you feel that way about something, it doesn't feel as strong.

You can also consider it my apology. I had avoided this show like the plague at the start because I thought it was just some harem h-game adaptation. My very first post at this site was questioning how anyone could enjoy shows like these. TBH, there's still parts of the show that annoy me, but it's the overall impression that matters.


So for TL;DR: I finally get it.

It's pretty funny, since the only KyoAni show I've ever followed live was Haruhi. So I'm usually late to the party. But it leads to interesting things as I read old discussions, including the really amusing one in the middle of this very thread.
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Old 2010-03-11, 16:28   Link #279
DasDingus
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Looks like I've got quite the show to follow here after reading Archon_Wing's review. Let's see what I can do.

Background:
This series will inevitably be compared to Clannad (or I guess the other way around given Kanon came out first) and for me it's no different. This was the second of the KEY/KyoAni collaborations I watched, the first being Clannad so my views on it are coming from that perspective. Just to get that out of the way.

Characters:

Yuuichi: It seems that a problem that I see in anime that are adaptations of visual novels is that the protagonist tends to be fairly two-dimensional as the story in the VN version centers on the girls to the point of the protagonist often having no face or voice. The result here is Yuuichi is a fairly bland nice guy who does the right thing and helps out all the people he meets. That said, he does seem to have a playful side and I'd say KyoAni did the best they could with what they had to work with. (I can't be sure since I didn't play the VN so a lot of that is educated guessing)

Ayu: I've never been a fan of childish characters who act much younger than their age. Ayu isn't much of an exception. Starting with her refusal to take responsibility for her actions she annoyed me early on. Despite this, I found the scene with her and Yuuichi in the movie theater to be very cute and one of the better scenes in the show. Throughout the show Ayu grew on me and even though I don't think she'll be on my list of favorite characters any time soon you can do much worse for the main heroine of a romance/drama show.

Nayuki: Oh what could have been. I really liked Nayuki and felt that it was disappointing that she seemed to be the one to get the shaft in terms of screen time compared to the VN. I thought her reaction to animals was adorable and I'd rank Nyuu #1 in “official Kanon verbal tic rankings.” (#1 Nyuu #2 Uguu #3 Auu in case you were wondering) Also, her habit of eating breakfast half-asleep was always good for a laugh. I was kind of dissatisfied, however, with her reaction to her Mother's injury since she had seemed so well adjusted compared to some of the other girls. Seeing her spiral into depression over a single, yet admittedly traumatic, event was disheartening to me.

Makoto: What a fox (rim shot). Following my theme of low opinions of comparatively immature girls Makoto never really grew on me. I think part of this is that her lack of maturity results in me seeing her as somebody that Yuuichi had to care for rather than somebody he could be involved with romantically. More on this later.

Shiori: Shiori's ability to stay positive despite having to deal with her illness made her one of my favorite characters. Despite being given a death sentence (due to Key-itis.... can I steal that?) she still has hopes and dreams she's willing to share with Yuuichi. I was kind of sad to see her written out after her arc ended but they were running out of episodes at that point so it's excusable.

Mai: Easily my favorite heroine Mai's character intrigued me from the very start. Maybe I just like independent soft-spoken characters that just seem a little different. Probably why I liked Kotomi so much but I'm getting sidetracked. I thought her relationship with Sayuri was fun to watch and her little karate chops to Sayuri's head were always good for a laugh. Not sure where I stand on the sword-wielding-demon-fighter aspect of her character though. I'd probably give that a neutral grade since I don't tend to like stories like that but it was done well.

Other characters: Overall a good group. Sayuri worked well as a talkative antidote to Mai's stoic nature and I felt Kaori was one of the more interesting characters in the whole show. Also it would seem that the lethal chef character is one of Key's favorites.

Overall character score: 7.5/10

I have a hard time going higher because I didn't like two of the five main heroines that much.

Story:

Like any visual novel adaptation the beginning of Kanon's storyline starts out hectic. In the VN the player is expected to play through the early stages several times picking and choosing which scenes they want to go through in order to determine which girl's story they read. The result in the anime is that the starts to 5 different stories are thrown in together all at once. You basically have Yuuichi bouncing around running into each girl in quick succession. It's a tricky opening to follow at times but is forgivable given the source material.

The first major event in the show is Yuuichi being attacked by a mysterious girl who apparently hates him for some reason. So of course Yuuichi does what anyone would do when a strange girl attacked them, he brings her home with him. The mystery girl gets to say in the extra room (there's always an extra room) while she figures out who she is.

This is probably a good time to point out that I've never been a big fan of the supernatural. Being an engineer I prefer when there are rules for how things work. Therefore when I hear that in order for a miracle to occur a memory and a life must be sacrificed I get excited. “Good! We have some ground rules to work from for the supernatural in this show! I like where this is headed!” I thought.

Our first test case is the mystery girl who now goes by the name of Makoto. Apparently she used to be a fox but through a miracle was able to become a human girl in order to be with her beloved Yuuichi. Based on the rules for miracles laid down before we know why she has no memory. This also strongly indicates that somebody's life will be given up before this arc is done. Alright, so far so good.

I never liked Makoto's immaturity as I mentioned in her character section. It seemed like Yuuichi had to constantly keep track of her to make sure she wasn't screwing up whether it be taking care of a cat, or finding a job, or running errands Yuuichi was always busy keeping Makoto on the right path. Now I don't have a problem with that relationship in and of itself, what bothers me is that you have this girl who is basically a younger sister to Yuuichi at best, a daughter at worst and they're somehow in a romantic relationship? The whole idea of a YuuichixMakoto pairing just never worked for me.

The result of this is that while I found the scene of the four housemates using the picture machine to have a group photo very touching in terms of a family theme, I found the impromptu “wedding ceremony” for Makoto and Yuuichi to be like an older brother/father doing a favor for his sister/daughter to help her fulfill a fantasy of hers. What was a touching romantic scene for some ended up as a thrown together example of last-minute wish fulfillment for me.

Next up was Mai's arc, my favorite arc in the show. I mean who doesn't like sneaking around the school at night with a mysterious beautiful girl? I was skeptical of the demon hunter idea at first but as I mentioned in Mai's character section it grew on me. I don't have a ton to say about the first few episodes of this arc other than I really loved the dance sequence. Episodes 14 and 15 were probably my favorite episodes in the series as I literally gasped out loud when they found Sayuri in the bathroom and then again when Mai turned her sword on herself.

However, I was ultimately somewhat underwhelmed with the eventual outcome of this arc as I felt that things were wrapped up a bit too tidily. Mai just comes back to life after killing herself by healing herself? I felt that the arc could have ended with Mai as a casualty or at least in serious condition in the hospital and the overall story would be no worse for the wear. The only advantage I could find from immediate curing of Mai's condition was that she could explain why she tried to kill herself but that was never explored.

Shiori's arc was the most well done writing and production-wise in my opinion. I just enjoyed Mai's character more which is why this wasn't my favorite arc in the show. Shiori and Kaori were probably two of the strongest characters and this combined with the beautiful animation in the fountain scenes made for a very fun and moving series of episodes. I was upset with Yuuichi at the end however because as soon as he let Shiori out of his sight during the night they spent at the fountain I knew he wasn't going to see her again. I can't really complain about it in terms of writing as Yuuichi really had no way to know what she was going to do and it was in Shiori's character to leave early instead of waiting for a tearful goodbye since she seemed to always want to make life easier for those around her. That said, if it was me there's no way I let Shiori walk away. It is a minor complaint about a very good section of the show though.

At this point the show got very convoluted as they tried to get as much Nayuki and Ayu as possible into the too few episodes they had left. I had a feeling something was odd about Ayu when she described her school (but who didn't think she was weird really?) so the lack of a school in the woods didn't particularly surprise me. Two vanishing girls in the same show seemed borderline trite to me but since it seemed this town specializes in weirdness like that so I'll give Key a pass.

I felt the show sort of stumbled toward the finish line in general though as the storyline got very convoluted with Yuuichi dealing with flashbacks about both Ayu and Nayuki at the same time (how many times do they have to replay him slapping the snow bunny? It was like Kanon's version of DENTAL PLAN) and this combined with a surprise appearance from the real Makoto made it feel like they were trying to put too much into too few episodes.

And then we run into my biggest complaint about the series, that being the ending. If you recall what I said before about rules for how the supernatural worked, we had established that a miracle requires the sacrifice of a life and a memory. Makoto's story followed this rule well enough, in Mai's arc her survival wasn't a miracle because her ability to heal saved her (although I wasn't completely satisfied with that result.) However Ayu appears to perform the miracle to end all miracles making no fewer than 4 people healthy again with no apparent sacrifice. If the sleeping Ayu had ended up dying and her death was the life needed to cause those miracles I felt the concept of miracles in the show would have held together much better than the way it ended up.

Overall I thought Kanon was good but not great. If we're comparing to Clannad, the issues I would have are that in Kanon people who I felt should have been dead or at least in serious condition were healed without a second thought whereas in Clannad the characters had the courtesy to stay dead for at least a few episodes. Also the miracle concept didn't seem to hold up well throughout the show. In Clannad the idea of the supernatural seemed to be “you make the people around you happy then you will be happy in return.” which went along with the whole theme of family/community. Kanon's theme of miracles didn't seem as internally consistent to me with it seeming that miracles require some sort of quasi-heroic sacrifice to occur at first but by the end it seems like miracles can get thrown around like it's nothing. Overall an unsatisfying ending in my opinion.

Overall Story Score: 7/10

Music:

The music was largely unremarkable to me It was very good at times but never transcendent. The OP and ED weren't something that I wanted to listen to over and over but they weren't bad or out of place like some. I would describe it as very solid but not particularly memorable.

Overall Music Score: 7/10

Animation etc:

Being a KyoAni series the animation was very good. In particular I found the fountain scenes especially beautiful. The one thing that got to me was the red marble that seemed out of place because you had animated characters that looked like animated characters and then a marble that looked like... well.... a marble. It just seemed too realistic for its surroundings and was a little jarring.

Overall Animation Score: 9/10

Conclusion:

I found Kanon to be a very good but flawed series. I haven't played the VN but the impression I got was that it suffered more from the transition from VN to anime than Clannad did. It seemed like it was a series of 5 different stories that were sort of forced into a single overarching story in the anime. What more can I really say other than I liked it but I didn't love it.

Overall Score: 7/10

Just to be clear, the fact that I'm scoring it lower than most other people seem to score Kanon doesn't mean I think it was bad, just that there were some serious flaws that I can't completely ignore.
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Old 2010-03-15, 17:00   Link #280
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DasDingus View Post

Mai: Easily my favorite heroine Mai's character intrigued me from the very start. Maybe I just like independent soft-spoken characters that just seem a little different. Probably why I liked Kotomi so much but I'm getting sidetracked. I thought her relationship with Sayuri was fun to watch and her little karate chops to Sayuri's head were always good for a laugh. Not sure where I stand on the sword-wielding-demon-fighter aspect of her character though. I'd probably give that a neutral grade since I don't tend to like stories like that but it was done well.
Hah, I don't think it's very surprising you'd prefer Mai if you liked Kotomi as well. If Mai had a Clannad counterpart, it'd be Kotomi. The characters are quite similar in a number of ways (Mostly silent, talented, nonsensical, capable of mass destruction) Kotomi's kinda like Mai except much more mellow and chilled out (must be what she puts in her pies)


Quote:
The first major event in the show is Yuuichi being attacked by a mysterious girl who apparently hates him for some reason. So of course Yuuichi does what anyone would do when a strange girl attacked them, he brings her home with him. The mystery girl gets to say in the extra room (there's always an extra room) while she figures out who she is.
LOL. That's pretty much the first few episodes for you.


Quote:
However, I was ultimately somewhat underwhelmed with the eventual outcome of this arc as I felt that things were wrapped up a bit too tidily. Mai just comes back to life after killing herself by healing herself? I felt that the arc could have ended with Mai as a casualty or at least in serious condition in the hospital and the overall story would be no worse for the wear. The only advantage I could find from immediate curing of Mai's condition was that she could explain why she tried to kill herself but that was never explored.
Yea I felt her committing suicide made the thing unnecessarily depressing, and it just dragged the story along. It gave the feeling of a Shaggy Dog Story I suppose it's one thing I don't like about Jun Maeda's writing. (Clannad and Air aren't exempt from this) He sometimes has a tendency of creating the shock tragedy train that doesn't really contribute anything to the story. This is a pretty extreme case since it gets undone in 15 seconds anyways.

I mean, this really means they did this for nothing, and Mai could never get over it, and Yuuichi's actions didn't really help at all had it not been for the miracle. The other thing is that overplaying the tragedy card ended up hurting the series. This is all of course an issue with the source and merging threads, but still a weakness and strains my belief that EVERYONE AROUND ME IS DYING OR SUICIDAL.

The Mai arc is still my favorite, but it's this small detail that makes the build up superior to the conclusion. 14 > 15 imo.

Quote:
I felt the show sort of stumbled toward the finish line in general though as the storyline got very convoluted with Yuuichi dealing with flashbacks about both Ayu and Nayuki at the same time (how many times do they have to replay him slapping the snow bunny? It was like Kanon's version of DENTAL PLAN) and this combined with a surprise appearance from the real Makoto made it feel like they were trying to put too much into too few episodes.

And then we run into my biggest complaint about the series, that being the ending. If you recall what I said before about rules for how the supernatural worked, we had established that a miracle requires the sacrifice of a life and a memory. Makoto's story followed this rule well enough, in Mai's arc her survival wasn't a miracle because her ability to heal saved her (although I wasn't completely satisfied with that result.) However Ayu appears to perform the miracle to end all miracles making no fewer than 4 people healthy again with no apparent sacrifice. If the sleeping Ayu had ended up dying and her death was the life needed to cause those miracles I felt the concept of miracles in the show would have held together much better than the way it ended up.
Haha, Man, is a KyoAni adaptation of a Key game ever gonna have a comprehensible ending? I feel it was a time pressure thing. If Kanon was 26 episodes, it might have been a more satisfying conclusion. I think it falls an inch short of a masterpiece because it didn't come together as well as it should have though the individual stories are very good. But much like Clannad and Air, I sorta just gave them a pass.
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