Curious episode, but I must say this is a much more appealing side of Makoto than all the previous episodes I've seen. Her overall nature hasn't changed much, but she's becoming a little more receptive, and even Yuuichi agrees. Interactions with Ayu and Shiori are not present, which is a good thing since it devotes more time to the subjects at hand. Production-wise, it is a well managed episode and I like it. Story-wise, some of the conclusions made here were a little confusing but I understood it after I had watched specific scenes the second time around, so it's all good. Especially so since there is a much more established tension and heightened drama now than before. In lame man's terms, Kanon has shifted gears from funny to serious, and personally, it's about time.
Continuity gripe!
Long shot of the school from above the 2nd floor. In the distance is Yuuichi on the first floor. Take note of the male student on the 2nd floor.
Medium shot of Yuuichi from the same angle as previous.
Reverse to over the shoulder shot of Yuuichi, seeing Mai in front of her. Notice the continutity issue? The guy on the second floor from the first image is not present! Heck, for that matter, Mai is not present in the first image yet she's clearly two columns before the 2nd floor walkway in image three! lol
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To be honest, Makoto is still annoying but now she's understandably so. My feelings for her are now mixed, but then her personality is mixing as well between complete immaturity to moments of shocking sensibility. Examples include how she learned to knock on Yuuichi's door before coming in and asking about keeping the cat despite Nayuki's allergies. Her evolution (and to ppl who have viewed this episode already, de-evolution) is making her more likeable and sympathetic.
As I write this, I'm thinking back to the first episode of Kanon, where Nayuki runs into a fox and begins to explain something about a legend she heard about foxes but forgets. I'm beginning to theorize that foxes play an essential role in Kanon. Yuuichi is definately no stranger to foxes, as this episode indicates. The confusing part for me this episode was the link between the present Makoto and the Makoto Yuuichi idolized as a young boy. I kept wondering if we ever got to see the latter. But really, as the story unfolded, watching the episode a second time, you begin to see that everything is falling into place. Very 6th Sense-ish, to play with the audience like that. So this is a much higher rated episode in my books than before in terms of outright seriousness.
Spoiler for theorizing; could be too revealing for ppl who haven't seen the episode yet:
The fact that foxes can turn into humans surprised me, but then this is anime and I have recently watched a movie called The Lake House starring Keanu Reaves, which dealt with very anomalous things in real life. Even the TV show Heroes has a number of anomalies happening, and Kanon is the same kind of story put into anime form. I suppose the general entertainment trend nowadays is to put wierd things in down-to-earth scenarios and see how people react to all the happenings around them. But then if that is true, I would have to start gripping about Yuuichi's performance, if not response, as a character to these strange "miracles" as the redhead Amano Mishio puts it. Would a real person be very confused about it or would s/he be more eager to see to what extent are these strange anomalies protruding into society? This is a difficult question to answer, thus judging Yuuichi is equally as difficult to do (objectively). He certainly doesn't sound like he is eager to know more about these odds things, and yet at the same time, he doesn't seem to be a stranger to it either. "Makoto isn't human," he says. He took that pretty well - better than I or the average Joe Shmoe would in my opinion.
Curious how:
- Both Makoto hair and the foxes fur in Kanon have the same color
- Makoto definately does not understand the rules of society. And neither would a fox
But there is one remaining oddity - Makoto seems different in episode 4 when she interacted with Ayu. Considering that and the fact that Ayu has the same hair color as Makoto and foxes (slightly darker, but can be approximated as the same color tone), I'm theorizing there are more supernatural people in Kanon than we initially thought.
Demons, amnesia, and foxes. Interesting series so far...
"It's a wild fox. It won't approach humans so easily."
"That's not true. The foxes on this hill are special. There's even an old legend about them."
- Yuuichi and Nayuki, Episode I
Something to think about.
Spoiler for Sweet Jesus, people, use the spoiler tags!:
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielSong39
I'll save my cheering until the end of episode 24... if Ayu dies, that is.
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I wish I didn't have to see that. But now that I know, I guess a lot of people in Kanon are going to kick the bucket.
Unless we're
supposed to know about this prior to viewing Kanon...