At the rate things are going, I don’t think I can have pretenses any more.

Maybe you’ve read my previous post trying to hype Shiori Misaka of Kanon for ISML 2009. I’ve decided to do all I can to help her for one round, and anything I do, I want to do with my whole heart.

And my heart isn’t satisfied yet with the response I’ve gotten, so if you’re tired of my fanboy posts yet, please just bear with me for another 8 hours.

But yeah, if you’re here, you like Kanon. And if you like Kanon, you probably don’t hate Shiori. And if you don’t hate Shiori, you can probably click that link at the top of the page to the International Saimoe League voting arena to help give Shiori a little boost in her chances to meet up with all the other Key characters you probably know and love (if you’re here).

It’s a piece of cake, really. Click the button next to Shiori, pick three other characters, and then you can move on with your day. And you’ll have helped someone who’s gone a bit too crazy for the last 16 hours.

Here’s that imagedump from yesterday, in case you forgot:

Thanks again,
CCY

(P.S. Don’t vote again if you’ve already voted. :P)

Moe: is it in your anime, killing your enjoyment?

Recently I’ve been in a bit of despair over Clannad, the third installment in Key’s sad-girls-in-noun series that has been animated by high-quality animation studio Kyoto Animation. By all means, I like to consider myself a Key fanboy (I believe the official term for this is “kagikko”) like the best of them; look up at my banner (might need a couple refreshes, admittedly) or down at my posts, and you’ll see a whole lot of raving, ranting, and allusions to vanilla ice cream, among other catchfoods.

But with the advent of decidedly more real, down-to-earth visual-novel type stories in anime, for example, the highly lauded KimiKiss, it seems that some of Key’s works could almost be growing stagnant. Even other shows with what could be considered mildly moe characters, take a more realistic, balanced view, as the infamous quote in ef – a tale of memories goes: “If the girl is thought to be cute, it means she isn’t being described properly.”

There are a lot of instances of concentrated moe in anime nowadays, but Key works are generally among the genre-leaders in this regard. Just look at Kanon, and Yuuichi’s four childhood friends. Clannad is a bit more even-keeled in terms of characters, but Kotomi’s recent arc is what really tipped the scale for me, and led me to this post.

It made me wonder – is there a sort of divide between moe characters and strong characters? Is a moe character, by definition, one that has to be shallow? Or is this just a false dichotomy?

Now, as you may surmise, I’m going to be one to stand by the Kanon characters until the end of time. Whether it’s the persistent, fight-o attitude of Nayuki, Mai’s deceptively kind demeanor lying behind her silent personality, or Shiori’s strange, worldly poetic monologues, they all strike a chord somewhere deep inside.

But one has to wonder whether this emotion results from a liking of a strong characteristic or personality they have, or just what many people label as “moe”, what has been described as a sort of ‘protective urge’, a sort of “wanting to be there for them” of like.

I say this because if you think about it, what exactly would happen if you removed the main character (and projection of many a viewer), Yuuichi, from the puzzle. Would they all come crashing down? Would Shiori ever have been happy? Would Mai ever have stopped fighting those demons, internal and external? Would Makoto and Ayu even exist?

It’s a sort of grown-up fantasy for people to idolize guys like Yuuichi and situations like his, more than just a simple lust that people feel towards swimsuit models and front-page pin-ups, more of a wanting to “be the only one that can help them”, an ironically selfish motive.

And in order for this situation to exist, the girls’ characters have to be intentionally flawed, they have to be incomplete, one might say ‘broken’. Of course, that’s not to say that any flawed character is bad – a character in fiction shouldn’t be perfect by any means, and entire Shakespearean works have been built around characters – and stories – gone horribly wrong.

But I think the key to a character is to make them functional enough so that they can live on their own. Kaiji, from his self-titled series, I think, is an example of one such character; he lives a rather poverished, lacking life, but there’s no question that he could survive in his tiny apartment on his gas station pay. He may not be happy with his current life, but he is capable in every way, and so when he gets offered these deceptive opportunities by the yakuza to step up into a greater life, the audience can really feel for the torture, the human emotion that he has to go through.

However, the case really does seem different in many a visual novel, and Kotomi’s one such unfortunate example. As blog feedback has been indicating, Kotomi’s a sort of mixed bag: she’s one of the most adorable characters since the history of ever, but her story just doesn’t click as Jeff Lawson in one of the above posts puts it:

“I also have this gnawing feeling her story will turn out to be the weakest of the entire show. She’s hot moe infused with essence of sweet moe with a side helping of refined moe served on a dish made of moe mined in the moe mines of ancient Moetopia.”

And somehow, I can’t help but think that these two facts were linked.

For example, if you walk down to your local Moe dealership to purchase one of the latest 2008 models, you’ll be greeted with a customization list that reads off like a list of some of the biggest cliches in anime. Childhood friend? Traumatic childhood incident that caused mental impairment? Unable to make friends with anyone but one person? Check those boxes.

It’s sort of a left-brain, right-brain thing. The subjective right half eats it all up, loves the characters and their emotional ploys and the world be damned if anything come between them. But the logical left half notes that they’ve seen it all before, notes that it’s all been done to death, hates it and wishes there was something more creative.

Are these ‘moe triggers’ always cliched? Maybe that’s part of what it is – you really can’t get that sense of comfort with a character without really knowing who they are, and the easiest way to do that is to pigeonhole them into at least a partially stereotyped character. If you have a character that breaks bounds, that isn’t cut and dry, it’s admittedly harder for them to be moe. Why? Because they’re new, because they’re different, and for a lot of situations, different is scary.

This is where ef goes, in taking a different path – the characters can’t wholly be sympathized with, and they can’t wholly be hated either. Miyako’s 99 Missed Calls is a perfect example of this; you really feel sorry for the girl, for trying so hard and getting shut down, but on the other hand, you get really creeped out by her persistence and desperation.

And while this sounds like a bad thing, I enjoy this style a lot, because it really invokes a lot of thinking, really makes you consider the character more than a simple black and white portrayal.

Once again I want to hark back to Stripey’s post on fanservice in anime, and argue that moe is largely the same way. Logically, you could probably argue that moe is essentially a subset of fanservice, for a more ‘pure’ type of fan.

And it functions the same way, on a character-by-character basis. If you take a blank character as a plain ice cream sundae, and lather it in moe syrup and dip it in moe chocolate and sprinkle moe candy all over it and put sliced moe on it with a moe cherry on top, it may look tasty to the eye but the fact of the matter is you’ll probably be gagging by the second bite.

Moe functions well as a garnish, a way to accentuate an otherwise strong character. It shouldn’t replace a character’s true personality and strengths but rather add to them, show a kind of contrast.

To speak in character terms, it’s similar to the theory of why tsunderes are so widely loved by many anime viewers. If a character was only tsuntsun (cold, mean, etc) or only deredere (loving, affectionate, etc), it wouldn’t be half as effective, because the viewer would not get that feeling of ’seeing the side of a character that not everyone sees’.

Similarly, in visual-novel-type shows, having a character that’s all moe, or conversely, not moe at all, doesn’t work quite as well. If a character looks weak on the outside, but really has a strong inner drive (Nagisa), or if a character looks mean on the outside but has a soft spot inside (Tomoyo), it really works better, provided that one doesn’t overpower the other. And as you may have guessed by the parentheses there, that’s why I’m still liking Clannad, why I look forward to the arcs of the other characters. (Aside from the comedy, of course.)

And that’s probably why I still continue to idolize Kanon; even though the character structure is very weak in spots, the characters, at least some of them, do fit this concept quite well. I know I described Mai to a T last paragraph. Other characters, like Ayu, may not work quite the same, as her clumsiness, loli-ness, and uguu~power generally overwhelm her serious aspects, but deep down, they are there somewhere, so I can’t say that I could truly hate on any of the Key games. Such is the tint of the rose-colored glasses.

Kotomi, I should hope is just a holdback of the older days of visual novels, when characters were perhaps a bit weaker, a bit more stereotypical. Since a lot of her story is so cliched, so moe-engined, she lacks that ‘other side’ to her, that something that makes her more than an cute 2D (in both senses) character. Certainly I see potential in a lot of other Clannad characters to break the mold and balance the opposite scales of rational appeal and emotional appeal, so don’t count me disenchanted yet.

Sometimes, there just needs to be a bit of stepping back for a minute and seeing how this new trend for moe is and isn’t changing things…

-CCY

(Hopefully not in this direction, for one…I apologize.)

(This post should rank pretty high on the incoherency scale, the analytical articles are always tough to write. Especially when you’re arguing against every anime you’ve ever watched. I still have no regrets in liking moe characters, I’m just surprised at how much of my viewing lineup is tilting away from stereotypical moe offerings – the ef rewatch (in case you were wondering what was holding the review), Kaiji, ARIA, SZS Zoku, even KimiKiss is on the lighter side of moe)

One can write off the harem genre, upon hearing of it, as something that’s light, fluffy, and quite cliched.

While a lot of the time that is true, I’ve found that a specific subset of harem has proven time and time again to be the most interesting and surprising genre in anime – the visual novel adaptation.

Maybe my tastes are biased. But rather it seems that the visual novel anime can combine the best of the two worlds that quite a lot of males can enjoy.

One, there’s a lot of girls, ranging from the buxom for those who prefer physical appeal to the moe for those with a more emotional, personality-based taste.

And two, the plots in said stories quite often are quite gripping – with no evil villain overlord for everyone to join forces against, the main storylines are often character-based, whether it be pitting two people against each other or revealing the story of a mysterious character.

Some may condemn such stories for being overly dramatic and “forced emotion” if not a little repetitive at times, but as one who enjoys heartwarmingly cute characters and touching stories, there really is no better genre than the visual novel.

And there is no more show I can say more superlatives about than Kanon, no arc more than Mai’s.

(Credit to AutumnDark for this awesome wallpaper.)

12 Moments of Anime 2007
#4 Kanon (2006) – 15
“My My Mai”

Kanon is like an expensive sports car.

Some people won’t understand the point of it. Some might think that it lacks in usability in the everyday world, that it’s overpriced, overblown, and unnecessary.

Likewise, Kanon and the harem genre as a whole are rather ignored by a large amount of people. These types of shows are inherently unrealistic in a fetishizing, escapist way, saturated with moe, and liked by enough people that it becomes cool to hate it. Why watch something like Kanon when you could be seeing something that’s less ridiculous and more practical, a simple slice-of-life or a comedy?

And yeah, I don’t mind having something like Minami-ke as a daily driver. But to me, all it takes is one turn of the key to convince me that it’s worth mortgaging the house, selling my soul for a sleek machine like Kanon. That roar of the engine, the engine that screams “Uguu~”, is enough to make me and many guys weak in the knees, make the heart race with a sort of moe adrenaline.

There will be people who don’t understand. Those who can’t see the merit in having a machine that runs off of tears. Maybe they are the ones who are right. But as a visual-novel / harem fan, I live for this, and I can’t imagine seeing otherwise.

So, now you’ve herd I liek kanons. Now it’s time for a justification.

As much as I melt like vanilla ice cream over Shiori Misaka, Mai’s arc is arguably one of the strongest of Kanon, and goes far towards showing just why I love this genre.

Mai Kawasumi is your average strong and silent girl – although I could never call that just average – who sits around with her typically polar-opposite friend Sayuri Kurata. We find their interests are head-chopping, laughing, and eating lunch, in no order.

Naturally, however, since this is a visual novel adaptation and something interesting has to happen, our protagonist Yuuichi stumbles upon Mai standing around school at night with a sword, which she uses to slice random almost-invisible demons that appear from nowhere to haunt the school.

It’s a strange thing for a somewhat strange girl to do, and we get to know Mai a little bit better over the course of the next few episodes so that when Makoto finally gets up and offs herself, we can move on to the intriguing story of the silent girl in snow.

It turns out that Mai has had a feud of undefinable length with the school and the demons that haunt it – a struggle that she has always battled solo, until Yuuichi comes along. Then all the demons turn on him, or so it’s said.

Mai is also revealed to be less of a ‘unfeeling’ person and more of a ‘reserved’ one, made cold by the passage of time and her stigmatized reputation. Once Sayuri gets beaten over the head one too many times, we see the side of Mai she’s been struggling to ignore for years, the side that feels and cries and wants to love and be loved.

It’s the part of Mai that has been driving her to be the protector-type she is, trying to help the people she cares about the most (all one, maybe twoof them) through her unique way of acting, which often involves her taking too much blame on herself for the common good.

And so you would imagine a lot of Mai’s arc involves some sword-swinging and some opening up of Mai to becoming a warm, feeling person. You’d be kind of right, but on the whole mostly wrong, because the 15th episode of Kanon comes along and flips things on its head a few times before all is said and done.

The long night starts with Yuuichi and Mai fighting the demons in school at night. It’s been already stated to be The Night, where the threat is eliminated once and for all.

And for the first ten-odd minutes it’s pretty much that, as we get some sword-slashing, some smashing through windows, and general action stuff. And then the final blurry CG demon is vanquished. Rejoice, all is well!

Wait, no it isn’t.

Actually, it turns out there were more demons, and one of them sends Yuuichi into the way-back machine where he learns that Mai’s mother is dying.

Wait, no she isn’t.

Actually, it turns out that Mai’s magical power is to heal things with her tears, a power that sounds great but gets her ostracized by the typically conservative community. She lives a sad life until some random kid named U1 or something comes along and makes everything great until he has to leave to go be pimp with some taiyaki-eating girl.

Yuuichi figures out eventually that that person is him, and takes it upon himself to connect the dots for Mai, so that they can live peacefully and happily again. Mai, in fact, is so joyful that she stabs herself to death.

Wait, no she doesn’t.

It turns out her inner character, Hope, was living inside her all along, trapped inside her stone-cold attitude. Deep down she was still a real, feeling girl who wished for things, that hoped for things, that wanted to have fun, that wanted to laugh, that wanted to smile.

This girl, is what stops me from throwing my computer out the window Kanon from becoming a tragedy, and instead paints it as an extremely emotional, intense story.

Maybe it’s something that can’t be conveyed in a half-humorous, five paragraph summary, but this episode and Mai’s arc are really something to me.

It has all the little elements in it, all the little touches of steady foreshadowing and character development. The lines like Mai’s “stay close to me…you’ll work as bait” that serve as humor but also get played off of as signs of how much Mai has grown as a person who can trust others, the hints of the underlying ability of Mai (with the sword, the demons, and finally, the graying skin), and above all, that sense that you have all the pieces of the puzzle, you just can’t put it together.

I mean, it’s a testament to the dramatic power of a show that Kanon can convince me that Mai’s mom was going to die, despite the fact that Sayuri mentioned that “Mai lives with her mom” just two episodes back. The small details like that that make it sound so obvious, make second rewatches that much more enjoyable.

This episode was wall-to-wall edge-of-your-seat watching in one way or another, from the high-energy action sequences, to the intriguing reveal of Mai’s hidden power, to the absolute double-stunner at the end. I don’t think I breathed more than twice.

And Kanon opens itself up to questions, discussions too. It’s not the kind of glaring omissions that break a show but rather smaller details, that could be debated on endlessly, that give a testament to the underlying depth of the show, the motivations of a character.

Does Mai remember Yuuichi? Is she secretly hiding a grudge against the man who doesn’t seem to remember the past, or is she honestly experiencing being cared about for the second time (Sayuri aside)?

How long have the demons been around? Has Mai really been fighting all these years? Or is it something that’s resurfaced with the reappearance of Yuuichi?

What ‘control’ does Mai have over her demons? Why do they attack Yuuichi – or do they? Is it intentional? Could Mai just want to be the hero that protects Yuuichi, protects Sayuri, that saves the day?

Don’t feel forced to answer these; a large amount are hypothetical. After all, a lot of these questions can never be truly answered outside of community agreement. But the fact that a somewhat simple storyline, with a few twists, can spark such almost high-level discussion – especially if you start talking about Mai’s actions and her reasoning behind them – is something that really endears me to these kinds of shows.

These character-driven shows, with personalities that are part dynamic and part adorable, offer a feast for the inner analyst, the romantic, and the viewer who just wants a enrapturing story, all in one.

And Kanon, one of the original character-driven (rather than hormone-driven) visual novels, is brought to new heights in its 2006 adaptation. I can not really say enough about it other than “watch it” if you like sweet and emotional romance / drama anime.

If I had one show to unabashedly rave about for the rest of my life, it would be Kanon, the first love that encompassed me.

-CCY
(Wait, a reference to THAT show again? You bet.)
(Also, 2 fanboy rants in 3 posts. I’m enjoying this a lot, and it only gets better~)

The wonders of being American and, as such, Japanese-illiterate, is that new content manages to come out for old, popular shows seemingly endlessly.

When in reality perhaps all the rampant merchandising of a show ended a few years ago – in this case, the last drama CD was released in 2003 – the slow trickle of the content through the fansub community (understandable, non-anime content is usually a bit slower to translate) allows for a steady supply of material on the English side of things

As such, the continuing translation of the Kanon drama CDs (supposedly 5 in all; or at least, the third ‘Akiko’ set) is something that really sends rabid fanboys like me over the moon.

The drama CDs are, admittedly, less than canon (insert pun) content, in that many characters’ personalities are different than what’s seen of them in the anime. This is mainly true for the side characters, who didn’t get much exposition anyway, though; as such, it’s entertaining enough to see a side to the secondary characters that time didn’t allow.

So Mishio – and, dare I say it, Kuze – fans will really find a lot to like with the drama CDs.

And pardon the fanwankery, but I think a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised with the animation of the drama CD as well.

OTL really went above and beyond the call of duty with their release of the drama CD. Presented in visual novel format, the backgrounds and characters on-screen change in true VN fashion; starting with the second CD, the mouths even move – in sync – with the voices!

Not to mention, some of the extra work in creating backgrounds – such as this manga Yuuichi was reading – or entire characters, in the case of Kuze, who had no sprite in the original VN! It really does a lot towards extending the entertainment value of the drama CD, and I have to hand it to OTL for all their extra work.

Not to say that the drama CD is any less subpar. Check out this previous post for the first ten stories of the first CD.

Continuing off, the 11th story of CD 1, Kuze’s Struggle, deals with the everpresent enemy of arcadegoers everywhere, the crane game. As most should be familiar with by now, Mai is a stuffed animal fan, and so when Mai sees a cute one (or what passes for it) trapped in a UFO catcher (hint: a way to not say ‘crane game’ twice) she is instantly drawn to it.

It’s revealed that she actually wants to get it for Sayuri, in that pseudo-quasi-yuri form of friendship that the two have, and so, ‘Crane Crasher’ Yuuichi, being the manly man he is, vows to get that animal for her.

Like most manly men, Yuuichi fails miserably. Kuze, ever the cocky bastard, comes into the scene to taunt him, when it’s revealed to him that the doll is for Sayuri. Then it’s his turn to try to win one for her. Being an even manlier man, and with some sort of soft spot for Sayuri (there’s a shipping doomed to fail), Kuze fails even harder, and makes some great baseball references in the product.

Flash forward to the Minase household, where Sayuri recieves a bunch of stuffed animals from Yuuichi and Mai…but mostly Mai. ‘Crane Crasher’ Mai. Kuze drops in, now playing the stalker role, and proudly gives Sayuri one as well…that’s revealed to have been purchased from a convenience store. Amusement ensues.

Nayuki’s Bathhouse Laws, the 12th story, deals with the travel of the Minases and one very lucky Yuuichi to a public bath, after the latter utterly destroyed their private bath (without even resorting to miso soup like a certain Makoto).

It’s more of a light track than a humorous one, as Nayuki recounts all the fun things they used to do in the bathhouse together (…whaaaaat?), which mainly involves Yuuichi pulling a lot of jokes on naive Nayuki. Certainly shows that the two go way back and have a good relationship…although maybe too good; Nayuki references how back then she and Nayuki used to go into the same side (i.e. gender-wise) of the bathhouse. Scary.

The 13th story is actually the bonus track of the CD, and deals with all the Kanon characters drumming up attention for the other drama CDs, although there is some funny fourth-wall-age when each character shows up in turn to advertise their section…even crazy-laugh Kuze. It gets to be a big crowd.

Moving on to the second CD, as usual, the first story, Nayuki’s Errand, is a slow kind of intro piece, with more of a relaxed feel than a funny one. Nayuki asks Akiko via phone if she needs any errands run for her on Nayuki’s way back from school.

Now, as much of a kind-hearted person she is, Nayuki mainly asks because she spies her slave carrying buddy Yuuichi across the street. And so, Akiko asks Nayuki to purchase the usual truckload of stuff.

Yuuichi is the first to get home, by himself, and it’s not until later that Nayuki manages to flop through the door, pushing the bell with her face (Incidentally, there is a mark on her sprite just as descripted. Props.) while carrying multiple bags of rice.

By then, it’s revealed that Yuuichi suddenly got dragged into another taiyaki thievery situation by everyone’s favorite uguu~machine, and as such didn’t notice Nayuki. Poor girl had to carry home all the food by herself instead of turning down her mom. At least now she’ll be strong and fast. And sleepy. And ever-adorable.

The ominously titled second story, What’ll Happen to Yuuichi Tommorow?!, occurs around New Year’s, and begins with Makoto begging Yuuichi for New Year’s money, having spent all the cash from Akiko. Yuuichi, a beggar himself, flat out refuses, saying that you only recieve money from old people like Akiko.

Catch the fatal mistake.

Yuuichi goes off to spend his own money, and eventually runs into Akiko and Makoto exploring the shopping district. Confused as to why Makoto gets more attention (and money), Yuuichi inquires, and suddenly his critical error becomes clear.

Never call Akiko old.

As such, Akiko goes on the offensive with that famous brand of very subtle threatening (suggesting that the family needs three bags of rice today, paid and carried by Yuuichi), showing that it’s not just her jam that you need to worry about. I can’t decide whether it’d be scarier to have Subtle Mafia Agent Akiko or Yandere Akiko, but either way, this is an amusing scene.

The last story released so far, Makoto Wants to Write a Diary, is a long one and a golden one. It begins with Yuuichi recounting some of his relatively ordinary days in his diary, the recurring theme being him buying his harem food to raise their spirits.

Eventually, we get to Yuuichi writing about himself at the bookstore. Having previously bought Makoto the shoujo title Love Love My Darling, Yuuichi notes that it’s up to volume eleven, and, being the macho man he is, decides to read it for himself.

Naturally, he’s hooked, and begins to read one of the scenes (the confession, naturally) out loud. After a good read, he looks up to find everyone’s favorite ice-queen-turned-fangirl, Mishio, reading along with him. He flips out at her scarily obsessive antics – especially since it’s unknown whether she actually read the confession part with him or not.

At this point he escapes from the flashback into reality, where he finds out that his diary entry for the next day has already been written for him by Makoto. Tommorow, he is fated to lend money to her for nikuman and manga.

Unsurprisingly, he raises a fuss, and so Makoto recieves her own diary compliments of Akiko. Within a day, however, Makoto writes an entire half-year’s worth of entries…all reading the same thing about getting money from Yuuichi. It takes a bit to iron out the misunderstanding.

Although, to Yuuichi, nothing is scarier than the final line in his entry for the last day, written in pink marker and voiced by Mishio in the CD: “Aizawa-san and I confessed to each other…”

Gold, gold I tell you! I don’t care if Mishio wasn’t a tenth this energetic and love-love (not even like shy, but more Lisianthus-style “I’m gonna get you to love me, damn it” stuff) in the original work, this kind of personality flip for her is hilarious and completely awesome and I’m finding myself liking her as a character even more.

Kuze doesn’t fail to dissapoint in his moment in the spotlight as well, even if the thought of him chasing after Sayuri sets off the gag reflex. The usual formula of ‘cocky attitude + complete failing’ works well, and his analogies are very funny.

The other characters don’t dissapoint as well, although they do fit their defined role more with Nayuki being the childhood friend, Makoto being dense/naive, and Akiko being very ‘friendly’. If there was one issue, it’d be that there wasn’t enough Shiori Yuuichi didn’t have as much of his usual sharp wit, instead being more on the recieving ends of situations; but this is a change from the norm and allows the side characters to shine.

Otherwise, I would give the drama CDs a hearty recommendation for anyone who needs more Kanon, as it’s an amusing take on the normally dramatic life of the sad girls in snow.

-CCY

As is common, or so it seems, for most anime (and by most I’m using two or three popular anime as a benchmark) Kanon has a series of drama CDs out in Japan. Drama CDs, as you would expect, are audio-only stories, typically side stories (i.e. not relevant to the plot) which are more for light entertainment than anything else – I bring this up considering the often heavy plot matters of Kanon.

Recently, the Kanon audio CDs have been getting fansubbed by OTL, which I think is a first for this sort of stuff. They’ve done a good job of it as well, presenting it in the visual novel format, with character portraits and backgrounds to match up the text. It might be a simple task, but it really adds a lot to the experience.

But what of the stories themselves? The question one really has to ask when going into this is,

Can you get too much Kanon?

Do the drama CDs fall into the cash-in category or are they worth your time? There are 10 stories and they run about 40 minutes in total. The download size for all of them is roughly equivalent to that of a normal episode of anime (170 MB) and since, well, it’s Kanon, the seed speed shouldn’t be too bad.

And with that, I can give it a solid recommendation, although it does get a bit awkward at times. Hit the jump for full details.

The good thing about this drama is that the side characters really get a lot of airtime compared to their normal plots. People like Kaori and Mishio in Kanon 2006, and especially 2002, really didn’t have a whole lot of purpose other than plot devices. But now, in the drama, we get to see their lighter side, as they spend some friendly time with Yuuichi.

What bugs me a bit about it is Yuuichi’s extension of his harem, as such, to these characters as well as Kaori and Mishio exhibit some…questionable…behavior around him, which is a bit disturbing even if it is refreshing to see them break their ‘look at me, I’m Yuki’ quiet exterior.

Incidentally I have no idea as to the exact release date of this, but I’d imagine between the 2002 and 2006 versions of Kanon as Yuuichi sounds a lot like his 2002 counterpart.

Morning at the Minase’s is the first short segment to open up the drama, and clocking in at less than a minute it’s not too much to watch. To be honest I don’t think it was intended to be, given that it’s lacking on the ‘funny’ per se, as it’s just a snapshot of the morning life at…uh…the Minase’s. Shocking, isn’t it.

Akiko’s Shopping List deals with Akiko’s scary prowess with food, whether it be having Yuuichi buy another couple hundred bags of rice, or Akiko’s ability to cook about everything…especially some things she shouldn’t be cooking *cough*jam*hack*.

Shiori’s Portrait deals with pretty much exactly what you’d imagine, Shiori and her spectacularly bad art skills. Amusingly enough though Akiko and Ayu both manage to correctly identify Shiori’s drawing of Yuuichi – even though he himself cannot do so. The question is, does Shiori really draw that bad or is Yuuichi just a jerk? Perhaps Akiko and Ayu are in on the joke?

Kaori’s Crisis is the first of the better ones on the CD, so to speak, and deals with Yuuichi getting into his usual awkwardly haremtastic situations. Nayuki, Yuuichi, and Kaori were all supposed to meet up at the Hyakka cafe as always to study together for a test or something, but when Nayuki gets sidetracked without being able to contact the others, it turns into a surprise ‘date’ between Kaori and Yuuichi…or so she believes. I can’t tell if she’s really that dense (and/or into Yuuichi) or just messing with him, but either way, hilarity ensues.

Makoto’s Revenge deals, like Shiori’s story, with her incredible lack of talent, this time in physical strength – remember the punching scene at the end of 2006 episode 2? Yeah, like that. And so, Yuuichi brings Makoto up through an epic training sequence to help her defeat him. Such training involves, cleaning the bathtub, and buying Yuuichi stuff. See, Yuuichi’s clever! And also a jerk, but that’s irrelevant, because this is a good skit.

Mai’s Valentine deals with pretty much exactly what you think it is, and in exactly the manner you think it is, in that your first guess is wrong but your second is probably right. Sayuri and Yuuichi catch Mai taking cooking lessons from Akiko (I think this might be the only time ever in vaguely canon storyline that the two cross paths) in order to help her learn how to cook chocolates. So of course they put two and two together and come up with five in predicting that Mai’s making chocolates for Yuuichi. That’d be meltingly adorable…but no. Sayuri, on the other hand…you see it coming, but it’s still entertaining to watch, for sure. Not Mai bias at all here. Nope. Nuh-uh.

Mishio and Fate approximately doubles the amount of time she’s existed in the Kanon universe (hello, short end of stick). Yuuichi is out to go buy Makoto stuff, as always, and he runs into Mishio in the manga section of a bookstore. Of course, Makoto’s into girly stuff and so it’s a bit awkward what Yuuichi’s looking at (incidentally, those with sharp eyes can spot a volume of Lucky Star). As such, Yuuichi the still-sort-of-jerkish-guy commandeers Mishio to make the purchases for him, in return for, uh, taking her out to eat. Harem plus plus? Harem++. He also manages to pull the same move he did with Kaori in doing something innocuous looking that completely flusters the girl. Come on. I would put money that either Kaori or Mishio would be the obligatory one person (and only one, somehow) that wasn’t completely head over heels for Yuuichi.

Kaori’s White Day as typical proves me wrong, as this short-ish piece deals with Yuuichi’s lack of care for his new harem member, in that he manages to dish out at least 8 or 9 boxes of giri (i.e. gift, non-romantic, whatever) chocolate for White Day (heh, there’s a problem for having a large harem) but happens to convienently forget Kaori, despite all the false starts that make her think he actually does have something left for her (he doesn’t). Right, and Kaori only claims she wants her giri chocolate back. Mmhmm, sure.

Ayu’s Wish Upon a Star completes the ‘every girl appears’ checklist (although Nayuki and Sayuri don’t get solo stories), in the episode where Ayu deals with typically Ayu stuff: 1) uguu~ and 2) taiyaki. The two of them walk together and exchange uguu~’s as usual when they spot a shooting star. Yuuichi tells Ayu of the whole ‘repeat wish 3 times before star dissapears’ thing, which causes Ayu to repeat her wish about a million times, spamming it in hope that a star appears. Cute, but annoying. Very. Ayu’s wish, since this isn’t the main storyline, deals with her and getting taiyaki. A lot of it. Ironically enough it comes true as Akiko pulls out another deux ex machina in having recieved about a couple hundred taiyaki from a co-worker (where does she work?).

Mishio and Fate II – yeah, she’s back! Didn’t see that coming, eh? Funnily enough I didn’t mind it too much as I really do think Mishio deserved more screentime – if not only because of the rapid development she got in 2006 that showed some promise. Mishio and Yuuichi happen to run into each other at Hyakka again, and this time Mishio shows some interest in fortune telling. She discovers that, typically enough, the personality of her and Yuuichi both match up with the ones predicted in the book – what are the odds of that? (Very high) Mishio shows a bit of her scary obsessive side though, in discovering that her and Yuuichi apparently have very high compatibility together, under certain situations. She gets worked up to the point where the waitress calls for Aizawa and both of them respond – remember, women adopt the man’s name when they get married.

See, Yuuichi? To hell with Ayu, Nayu, and the rest. You’ve got Amano. Mmhmm.

-CCY

Well, get a load of this; the Kanon artbook thingy was released recently, and guess what they had as an extra: a CD full of uguu~

No, not like, music and uguu~, or like, nyuu~ and uguu~. Just 10 straight minutes of uguu~. Ten minutes! Incidentally, there are 86 variations of uguu~ on the CD.

Even if you can’t stand Ayu, it’s still worth a listen just because it’s so hilarious, to me, the thought of releasing a ’soundtrack’, as it is, of straight uguu~ness. Well done, well done. Here’s the link.

Loop it. I dare you.

-CCY
(thanks to Moe Moe Rabu for the links, and Random Curiosity for the below picture)

Also, while searching the web for suitable Ayuguu~ pictures, here’s an interesting comparo I dug up…

And you always wondered what Mikuru’s real identity was…

That’s another interesting thing about this arc as Kanon takes a turn for the action-y side during Mai’s arc, showing that yes, KyoAni can do fast-paced motion in addition to snow, sunsets, and slow-motion taiyaki eating.

It’s really surprising how many good shots you can find when you pause the action, to be honest.

Anyways, it’s time to get this episode underway, as although there’s not a large amount of spoilers per se, there is a large amount of Very Important Stuff – in addition to the occasional moe meltdown – in this episode that needs to be covered. (spoiler-safe through Kanon 15)

So, for now, one more time: WAI FOR MAI~~~

This episode starts off where so many others have ended (including the previous one), and that is at school, at night. Mai and Yuuichi are still fending off demon invasions, and if you’ve been keeping track, they slay the 3rd and 4th ones in quick, well-rendered fashion.

This, if you’ve been counting like Yuuichi, leaves one demon. Right?

Meanwhile, vaguely bad stuff happens to Mai as her skin begins to go all grey and stuff; this is a Bad Thing but it’s not expanded on very much. Yuuichi guesses, and hits rather close to the mark in assuming that’s it’s a curse of the demons – but what he doesn’t know is that she’s hurting herself, because, since the demons are part of her, when she kills the demons, she is killing herself. Deep.

Early break as Mai and Yuuichi take a rest from chasing after demons (since Mai’s weakened), and we get both an amusing Mai line: “If you stay close to me…you’ll work as bait.” which leads into the real adorable moment of the episode. Alright, moment(s). Excuse me while I go mop myself up.

We also get more vague plot foreshadowing (to be revealed in circa 10 minutes), as Yuuichi mentions hide-and-seek, what the two of them used to do in their loli days (although I don’t know which one of them, if any, remembers it), and we get another shot of the rice field. By now most viewers should be able to figure out that Mai’s the girl in the rice field in the intro, not Nayuki. Right?

Mai remembers, somewhat, I believe, when she talks cryptically about having a friend a long time ago, who, somehow, against all odds (not), was Yuuichi. Of course, he still doesn’t remember it even though Mai is dropping hints the size of very large trucks.

Anyway, the demon breaks the silence, as it attacks the two, returning us to our usual action sequences. It gets a bit out of hand for the two, as they fall off of increasingly implausible heights, with Mai hurling herself off the staircase at the demon (she misses).

Yuuichi getting the floor taken out from under him (seems reminiscent of the Roa fight in Tsukihime) smashed out of a second-story window in glorious slow-motion (like a bad movie…)

And yes, Mai, jumping, off the roof, with vaguely damaged legs, arms, and perhaps mind at this point. She seems to be a secret swimming diver by moonlight, as she does a bunch of twist and turns in the air and almost seems to invoke an image of Sailor Moon.

Oh yeah, why is she jumping off the roof? To stab the demon to death. It’s a bit of a precision maneuver as the demon is currently straddling Yuuichi in the same way Haruhi costume-rapes Mikuru (is that a law? to have a Haruhi reference in every post?), but somehow Mai gets the job done in an effective and not highly convenient way at all.

Why look! All the demons are gone and we’re not even halfway through the episode yet! Mai’s arc sure was easy. Time for celebrating!

Step 1: headbonk. That’s a relatively new one for anime (when done on purpose anyway). Strange choice of affection relief, but I know couples at school who greet each other like this (and you thought that was only on The Simpsons) so it’s cute.

Step 2: Uh, cleaning the dirt (from, y’know, throwing yourself off roofs and staircases) from Mai’s face. It’s a shame that in any other anime, the two of them would be turning about the color of Mars right now. I think that’d be adorable to at least have a slight blush as in Kanon 12’s ball scene.

Step 3: Yoshinoya in the past tense! Wait, past tense? Oshi~

Arc’s still going kids, Mai’s gone somewhere off to go, uh, defeat more demons, that’s right. Someone forgot the rule of respawning…nice try Yuuichi, but you never get out of the woods that easily.

Yuuichi runs into a proverbial brick wall as one of the demons confronts him directly, hurling him into a strange, closed-space like environment. If you think about it, it’s the same principle for Mai as it is for, em, that other girl (c’mon, I shouldn’t need to not-spoil it), as one would be led to believe that Mai creates the demons largely out of her own unrest.

Oh yeah, and the demon looks like Loli Mai, because it is Loli Mai. Plot? Plot! Yuuichi finds himself in the rice field that’s been shown quite a few times now, as Seven Years Yuuichi and Mai Mai (loli Mai, whatever) run around in the background.

First off we get the plot of Mai, her mother, and her power. We get treated to an extended flashback sequence where Mai’s mom sits around and tries to pretend she’s not dying, for the sake of her daughter. Now, if you’ll remember the rule of anime, it’s that sick people always die, unless it’s a One Episode Fever. The other rule, is that people in flashbacks that you don’t see in the present usually die. So, there’s no way Mai’s mom would live?

She does.

There was a hint at it, where Sayuri talks about Mai living with her mom a few episodes ago, but I’m sure you weren’t paying attention then. So you, like me, were set up for a predictably sad ending and then – Mai’s power kicks in. Bang. That’s hardcore stuff, healing powers like that.

Also, a subtle hint of snowbunnies is introduced, as snowbunnies will be more important later on as well, although they won’t have anywhere near the same meaning. Secondly, Mai isn’t too bad with long hair, eh? Don’t tell me you like ponytails too, Yuuichi. Gah.

Strangely enough though, the conformist people of Japan dislike people with special powers, even those with the ability to save lives, and thus they cast Mai out, which is incredibly uncool.

And so Yuuichi the loli savior comes into play, as he’s mysteriously more accepting and friendly than every other person on the planet – perhaps because he’s already been in contact with the mysterious (Fox Makoto), even if he doesn’t know it yet. (note that they’re play sword-fighting in the pic; some things never change…)

See, even Yuuichi likes the power, even when Mai doesn’t, comforting her and saying it’ll come in handy. Strangely enough, it does, to the relief of viewers everywhere – you should know what I’m talking about.

Except of course, Yuuichi leaves everybody, because he’s a jerk, and so Mai cries (she’s been behind on the tear quota, so she makes hard work to catch up) and begins to unwittingly create demons. From the pictures, it seems that the symbolic demons are the bulldozers which destroy the rice fields in favor of a school, but due to Mai’s power the demons become real. I do wonder, how long they’ve been around, for Mai would have destroyed herself long ago at the rate which she was slaying demons on-camera.

Unless, here’s an interesting thought, it was only that she willed herself to get hurt, in order to have an excuse to lean on Yuuichi’s shoulder or something, which would also explain why she seemed invulnerable later on when she jumped off the, y’know, roof. But that’s just wishful thinking and really doesn’t go with Mai’s character at all.

Yuuichi “gets it” now, understanding who Mai is and what he did to her in the past. Loli Mai shows up too, in a bit of a time paradox, or perhaps symbolism. Yuuichi has the Very Important Bunny Ears to give to Mai, to complete the circle (remember, he gave bunny ears to her seven years ago as well).

Mai seems happy-ish, tearing up and thanking Yuuichi. And so, after some heavy plot, everything’s happy and it’s time to move on to the next arc! For real this time.

You’ve watched the episode.

You know what happens next.

So why is it, even the third time through, watching this end scene gives me chills and shakes? Is it just as worse to know what happens next as it is to not know at all? (I know that sounds really depressing and all, but I am curious which one would have more of an impact.)

!

!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s beyond words to describe it, really, after all that, to see it “end” like that. Maybe because it’s Kanon, and that since Makoto already bit it, it’s very plausible to see Mai meet a Bad End as well. And if KyoAni really hated us, they would end the episode here, and not have the complete conclusion until next week.

Luckily, they don’t, and neither did Key:

Mai saves herself, so to speak, as her Healing Touch (pardon the reference) closes her wound and keeps watchers from hurling their computers out our windows (I was ready to; even though I live on the first floor).

For, if you look at Kanon closely, Makoto dying wasn’t really a sad end, and as such it wasn’t Mai’s fate to die; rather, the theme in Kanon is more of conclusion, of having everything accomplished, of completing the puzzle. Makoto died, sure, but Makoto died happy, her time spent well. As such, it would be against the theme for Mai to kill herself; we’re not in the realm of a true happy end for her yet – not when we just have everything figured out.

Unfortunately, a lot of the remaining time for Mai, in regaining herself and returning to a normal life, is spent off screen as we turn to the next arc in episode 16; but Shiori herself isn’t too bad of a character to follow up with, if I say so myself.

-CCY for Mai?

This episode actually is suprisingly, at this point, more of a Sayuri-driven episode than any other, so, yay for side character development! After this episode it’s easy to see why Sayuri is such a popular and well-fleshed-out (as some might say, unfortunately only in story) ’side’ character, coming in probably tied with Akiko and years ahead of Kaori and Amano (who doesn’t even get to be called by her first name) in the Completely Unofficial Fanbase-o-meter, based on whatever I last read on the forums.

So, this episode is plot and awesome, as is standard for Kanon. Those of you who also know the other standard for Kanon should be investing in Kleenex stock about now.

As standard for us (and by us I mean me and that one other guy from The Otaku Spot who reads my posts. lol advertising, fail), this episode does contain spoilers for Mai’s arc, through Kanon 15. This is 14, in case you can’t count. Luckily we’ve gotten to the point in the arc where everybody else dissapears, so there’s no all encompassing huge ground-breaking spoilers here. You want those? Go check out some of the streets ’round your neighborhood at night.

And this episode starts with…breakfast. What!? No dream sequence? In my Kanon? It’s more likely than you think. But it starts with something more deadly than a dream sequence…a jam sequence! Drama! Ayu becomes the fourth casualty of the jam so far this series (Nayuki and Kaori are implies either later or earlier in the timeline), in entertaining fashion, but fails to break the uguu~ sound barrier like Makoto did with auu~.

Instead we get some amusingly ominous moments from Yuuichi and Nayuki, who stand up and leave the table in synchronized style like perhaps a team of secret agents or security guards. They also leave some final remarks with Ayu under their breath, with Yuuichi finally crossing off Ayu from the harem list in favor of Nayuki.. (If only.)

Next up is an increasingly rare Nayuki and Yuuichi trip to school, in which Yuuichi recieves the bunny ears designed to pretty up Mai. Unfortunately, the rest of the outfit is missing – the shipment was intercepted by a Ms. Suzumiya along the way? More seriously, note that the pink bunny ears are of course incredibly important to Mai’s arc, as they are coincidentally similar to the ones Yuuichi gave to Loli Mai in his pimpin’ 10-year-old days. Makes you wonder just who Nayuki’s contact in the drama club is.

In incredible off-topicness, my first thought out of nowhere was Mio Kouzuki, a character from a past Key-ish work ONE who is in the drama (similar to theater?) club. I’d like to view that series one of these days. Has anyone seen it, and do they have thoughts about it? Much thanks.

Here’s the cap of the flashback to Conveniently Obscured Loli Mai, who is only shown for about a second in the episode – it’s still easier to catch her in the intro sequence. This gets filed along with some more spoileriffic flashbacks in the early episodes with ‘blink and you miss it, so just nod and smile’.

Eventually Yuuichi gets to school and goes straight for the lunch scene with Mai and Sayuri. They talk about random Vaguely Important stuff, like the fact that Sayuri’s a rich girl with a huge…house…and stuff about hide and seek. Hide and seek is a somewhat important factor in Mai’s arc that will be referenced later both in the demon-hunting and the flashbacks to 7 years ago or whenever.

Yuuichi also goes out for sword training and gets his ass beat, literally. I wonder how much Mai enjoyed doing that. At least Yuuichi didn’t go for the Casino Royale option and cry out for more – although, since he sucks at attacking Mai, he got more anyway.

Spiffy action shots of Mai ensue. They look just as good still, since usually with these types of shots, they are over before you have time to really appreciate them. Also, with the above screenshot of Mai using Yuuichi’s semi-catchphrase ‘yo’, it seems that, to me, for some reason, Mai’s eyes have gotten bigger or something, or maybe she doesn’t have that ‘I am strong and silent and do not talk to noobs like you’ stare anymore. Hmm.

Sayuri also comes out for a shot at getting beaten up in a heterosexual manner by Mai, which proves even more futile than Yuuichi – although perhaps ten times as cute thanks to the typical clumsy moe stereotype. Although, it never does get old… (does Sayuri falling technically count as an action shot? ehehe)

Mai continues to be all cold and distant as she is 90% of the time, even pushing away her closest friends’ (that’s all two of them right there) attempts to train in swordfighting in order to help her with her battles at night (or, at least that’s Yuuichi’s plan).

Although, as proven, Mai probably just doesn’t want either of them to get hurt, although there are better ways of expressing it so that 1) Sayuri feels better and 2) Doujin artists don’t get ideas. Once again I’m getting reminders of competely different scenes, this time of Yuki’s equally melting line from Lone Island Syndrome (Haruhi). Although neither is particularly useful in the long run, and both can be misconstrued in entertaining ways.

Yuuichi heads to the shopping district for an Ayu scene and is INTERCEPTED! (picture the football announcer voice) by Sayuri. That’s the sign of an arc really kicking in, when the typical harem members fail to get scenes. No Shiori today, unfortunately, and very little Ayu and Nayu.

The other sign, of course, is a bunch of obscure talking and flashback sequences. Sayuri does a bit of the first, but gets bonus points for explaining the title – a musical reference that only reminds me that everybody else I know but me is in band, although it’d be good to really analyze just how much Kanon is like…uh…Canon? (in D) Although, perhaps, the first instance of repetition would be how Yuuichi is tied to everybody 7 years ago (although, thinks didn’t always get better peacefully, eh?).

Eyecatch: Sayuri headknuckle. For some reason I’ve begun to screencap those now, as they’re rare enough to be something interesting, and plus since Mikuru’s pioneering of it it’s actually pretty adorable, especially if I didn’t do it too.

And here’s the second part of plot: a Sayuri flashback to her youthful years (y’know, more so than usual). She talks about her brother Kazuya, who, as viewers will notice, is conspicuously absent from the present day anime. It’s quite obvious why. Sayuri killed him to death. Although perhaps Sayuri’s behavior towards Kazuya, being very strict and giving him a ‘proper’ upbringing, was a sad coincidence. Of course, she only started to really care for him when it was already too close to the end…

Did you wonder why that line sounded similar? Now you know. Similarities between Sayuri/Kazuya and Sayuri/Mai? Maybe, but not really. There are more similarities between Sayuri’s backstory, the reference to Canon, and other backstories as well.

Sayuri and Mai both had something in common, an ailing family member, but since you’ve finished Mai’s arc (right?), you already know that Mai’s mother lived while Sayuri’s brother is decidedly rotting right now. Also, the way Sayuri started out all ‘mean’ to her brother and only started changing her behavior at the end is very similar to another family dynamic that you just might have figured out by now…

Also, very similarly and our third or fourth breakout from Kanon discussion, doesn’t Sayuri look a lot like Minagi and the scene look a lot like AIR in the flashback picture where she’s walking with Kazuya underneath the blue sky? Their stories can’t be considered entirely different as well…

Sayuri, her plot exhausted, now serves as a time bomb. What did that giant anteater look like to you? Seriously, I say time bomb because she’s left for the school – where Yuuichi is also headed, and where Mai is every night – to meet up for Mai’s birthday party. She has no contact with the outside world in this land without cell phones – Yuuichi has to use a phone booth, allowing for a very ominous scratchy Akiko voice – and so it’s up to Yuuichi to find her and defuse the situation before things go to all hell at school.

That top screencapture is what the title is referring to by the way, the lines that make you groan/cringe when you hear them, since you know what happens next and it’s either stupid or extremely bad. If you want a list, I’ll throw out some more right now.
- “Hey, look, the door to the mansion is unlocked!”
- “Let’s split up and search the house separately.”
- “How could this get any worse?”
- “Well, now that that’s over, it’s time to relax…”
- “Come on, ghosts? Who believes in ghosts, anyway?” (replace ghosts with object of choice)
- Action: Women running away, usually in high heels. Tripping invariably follows.
- “They couldn’t possibly be behind/under/on top of/next to/inside/etc this door/bed/closet/grave/cliff/roof/etc …”
- In anime: Any verb in the past tense; “I had a brother…” (this one isn’t so much bad as “Oh no, don’t tell me…”)
- “Ponytails turn me on.” (ehehehe, I’m evil for putting this one in the list.)

You may have remembered how that situation turned out. That blur, of course, is one of the invisible demons. In case you were wondering what the awesomely ominous music playing during this scene was, as I was, it’s a little track called ‘kizashi’, which loosely translates to “Oh Dear God Haruhi Running Gag No, Why Sayuri!? Why Not Somebody Else Useless!?”

(actually, it means ‘omen’)

Meanwhile, Nayuki seems to be a bit sad that Yuuichi’s going out to play with all the other harem members except her. Isn’t it sad, Nayuki? Perhaps, however, I am just interpreting things too closely on my 3rd pass through Kanon. Why do I say this? Ehehehe…

Anyway, Sayuri. In a bit of trouble. I think this is the only time blood is technically shown in Kanon; although there should have been some bleeding when Mai stabs herself in an episode (you did watch the arc? Right? Right!?), or perhaps during some of the more dramatic events when the series pulls to a close.

Also, Mai dies. Or at least a bit inside, in seeing someone so close to her hurt – and, if you know Mai’s backstory, hurt by herself (Mai) as well.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, Kyoto Animation is generous and doesn’t end many episodes on cliffhangers, so 15 seconds later we cut to Sayuri, decidedly more alive and cute, in a hospital modeling a suprisingly good-looking head cast. Her prognosis is that she’s OK and will survive, but she needs to be removed from the plot for a few episodes. How lame.

The final scene on the episode occurs in closed space consists of more Mai cracking, as finally she shows a bit of real emotion, although this just may not be the ones we were looking for. I have a limit for sad girls in snow here, especially those who try to run themselves through with a sword. (She might have gotten Yuuichi at that angle too, unless we’ve got Kaede Physics running. That’d be a Happy End, eh?)

See? Sad. Very sad. Mai’s very sad that “she’s the only one that was unhurt again,” with ‘again being the operative word as always. It’s hard to tell just what this was referring to, perhaps 2-ish days ago when Sayuri got pwned at the ball, something about her mother being terminally ill (even though she lived through it), something about Yuuichi leaving her due to unexpected circumstances, or perhaps another hidden event mostly irrelevant to the plot.

It’s also interesting to speculate about how exactly Mai’s power works. When is she able to heal people? Certainly she would had have a chance with Sayuri, considering that all it seems to take a considerable display of emotion (although she might have been too paralyzed to act). Or perhaps, it did take effect subconsciously, with it being the reason Sayuri lived – after all, it was a lot of blood for sure. Or, did Mai already reject her powers from 7 years ago when her old town drove her out or when Lolichi (new name for pimp Yuuichi? yup) left her? They’re all interesting theories, something that Kanon seems to be full of.

But is it good or bad that we’ll never know the real (one might say canon) answer?
-CCY

But seriously, have a list instead. Ideas rejected for intro to Kanon 13…
1) Talking about how I’m not blogging Shuffle! because 18 is EPIC (win? fail?), again
2) Rabid Mai fanboying
3) SaYURI (x Mai) joke, followed by getting self shot
4) Random pictures with amusing captions.
5) Rampant Mai fanboying
6) None at all because I’m a lazyass who wants to go watch Lucky Star 9
7) Ridiculous Mai fanboying
8) A list. OSHI~

What’s that? Get on with the episode recap. Alright. Spoilers through the end of Kanon’s 24 episodes as always, since there is a good job done at mixing the character’s stories and developing them all a bit at a time.

So, technically, Kitagawa kicks off the foreshadowing list with a bit of Two Minute Foreshadowing, when he talks about going to a student council meeting to discuss some crazy girl with a sword who messed up last night’s dance. Gee, I wonder who that would be (Shiori, of course). Jun was there last night – he should have noticed that Yuuichi was with Mai though, considering how much they stood out during the dance scene.

Dramatic door! But more interesting here is Mai’s conversion to a trap, as I’m pretty sure that there’s no form of conversation that allows a girl to be called -kun. Script error or translation error, it’s uncertain, as it is hard to tell if Annoying Student President is using the right honorific or not.

And for some reason this Sayuri reminds me of James Bond, maybe the Casino Royale opening or something. The whole person-in-a-circle thing. On topic, note how much Sayuri reflects her emotions on her face, when a girl in the student council starts defending Mai. After all, it is just mildly implausible that a girl would be able to break all the windows in the gym, including those out of reach, within seconds. Maybe Kuzo’s just bitter because a human that was actually a fox died on him recently, so he knows anything is possible.

Interesting enough is that Sayuri sports no sign of the injuries she probably sustained during last’s nights demon rampage. Don’t worry though, Sayuri, you’ll get more. What, don’t look at me like that, I like Sayuri as a character. She even manages to make a head cast look good. Also note that Mai shows emotion, caring about Sayuri’s injury. Amazing, isn’t it.

Sayuri is candid with her emotions again, and Jun’s all ‘OMFG a girl touched me’ (again? this may be the first time). I don’t think he’ll ever wash those hands again.

Ordinary life, Yuuichi? You’re in bloody Kanon for crying out loud. You are in normal life, being surrounded by 5 troubled girls. What do you want? Someone “normal”? Hmph.

Well, there’s Sleeping Beauty in the picture above, and now it’s time for Snow White. You know what you have to do, Kyon Yuuichi.

Yup, Shiori scene! With Makoto out of the picture by about a mile, Ayu…uh…somewhere else, eating taiyaki and waiting for her arc, and Nayuki getting 5 second scenes whenever convenient, Shiori’s the only other one who seems to feature prominently in these episodes. Or maybe it’s because she actually has some decent plot developing, even during Mai’s arc.

The issue of the Misaka sisters is readdressed, this time with Shiori fielding the question. She seems first to respond affirmatively, being really excited that Yuuichi’s in the same class as Kaori.

However, when Yuuichi mentions how Kaori ignores her (or, at least, says that there is no sister), Shiori quickly backpedals, making very implausible excuses that there are two Kaori Misakas in the world. Sure there are, Shiori.

Meanwhile, Kaori is being subtle again about the true existence (or not) of her sister, as she once again is caught (by the viewer) staring out the window at Shiori and Yuuichi talking happily. In random notes, Shiori pulls another Ayu with the iconic line, “Yakusoku dayo.” It’s a promise. Although, somehow I suppose that that phrase gets common use outside of Kanon as well.

Mai continues to show vague affection towards Sayuri (because they’re friends and whatnot), going all scary-looking on Annoying President Kuzo’s ass. What’s surprising is that he backs off rather quickly – it seems Mai’s gained a reputation around the school, but not a good one.

She still, however, continues to push away her friends, which is strange for someone who has as few precious people as her. Mai’s always been a bit of a loner in life, with her power and all, and it probably wasn’t helping that she was abandoned by the one person who was really close to her in her youth… (Sayuri comes later, y’know)

Oh, it seems Ayu gets some plot development after all. It’s funny that I forget about it, probably because it’s been here since the start of Kanon. Once again hints are dropped about the true nature of Ayu’s school, which is located towards the forest. A school? By the forest? Where would they put it?

If at all, of course.

Not to mention the typical “Ayu searches for her lost thing” scene, which, as neither Yuuichi nor Ayu knows, is very closely connected to her school in the forest. I wonder if that’s the same bench that Ayu always sits on.

And once again we find ourself at school in night. Ayu’s here this time, as Yuuichi consults Dr. Kawasumi for relationship advice. It seems that since Mai knew so much about Makoto that Yuuichi is now tempted to drag every girl to Mai now for supernatural advice.

It’s too bad Nayuki, Shiori, and Mai never really interact with each other, though.

Mai waits for Ayu to leave but eventually in the end dishes out the plot foreshadowing Yuuichi was hoping for, although in typically ambigious terms.

Yuuichi, as always, is a bit slow on the uptake though, and doesn’t understand the true depth of Ayu. She may not be strong physically, or even strong mentally now, but perhaps that’s because he is not seeing the real Ayu… in more ways than one.

There’s your answer to why Ayu is strong, albeit still, in very ambiguous terms. What is nice is that both Mai and Ayu’s connections to Yuuichi are foreshadowed. But what I don’t understand, however, is why sometimes Mai seems to remember her past with Yuuichi, and sometimes she doesn’t. This is the former. Maybe she’s trying to pull a Nayuki and trying to coax the information out of him, trying to get him to remember instead of beating him over the head with “WTF you abandoned me seven years ago for some other woman, you two-timing pimp”.

Mai also mentions a Vaguely Important Plot point, in saying that there are five demons left. It seems she can sense them rather well. I wonder how many demons there were total, although she probably ended up regenerating them at will. But then, she would’ve been totally destroyed long before Yuuichi came, no? Did this act just start recently?

Pause for Nayuki scene again. Yuuichi denies himself some free fanservice. How strange. I wonder if Nayuki was always that sleeps, even in her loli days.

Yay, plot flashbacks! Sayuri recounts her first meeting with Mai, and also hints at Mai’s love of animals (irrelevant but still characterization).

And we also get a possible reason as to why Mai likes the simple gyuudon so much; it was the meal that her and Sayuri shared. Since they became close friends, the meal became something important to them, or at least to Mai. Aww, how sweet and sentimental Mai can be, when you least expect it. Although, I suppose, Shiori’s tale of coming to like ice cream was much the same way, as perhaps Ayu’s taiyaki craving as well.

Welcome to McInnuendo, how would you like your lines interpreted today? Mai suddenly gives off a Yuki vibe of paying subtly more attention, in the ‘what are you two talking about’ way.

And so Sayuri and Yuuichi go on a date-o shopping trip for Mai’s birthday, which is conveniently coming up in the next day or two. It turns out the plush toy vender is an excellent used car salesmen as well, as he uses the pity trick to great effect to give Sayuri a reason to buy Mr. Anteater, along with the fact that…

Mai and Sayuri met three years ago. Coincidentally, this is when the universe, as they knew it, was created, with a data explosion centered around the Minase household. Did you ever wonder why Ayu kept saying she was in a dream? Perhaps she is in a dream, perhaps this world is a dream, under the control of one girl, who can create and alter reality as she saw fit.

Minase Nayuki no Yuutsu? I’d buy that.

This statement is quite possibly the most innocent-sounding important line in quite a while. In two episodes we’ll delve into Mai’s backstory, and talk about how her mother is dying and all. Now, since this is anime, it’s 99% certain that, when a character is dying, especially a parent in a child’s youth, they’re going to die permanently. But, if you listen closely to Sayuri, you’ll note that she talks in the present about Mai’s mother, noting that she will be very happy that Mai got something for her birthday.

Implying that she’s not dead. Not. Dead. If I only caught this the first run-through that would have been a lot of anguish saved.

Back to the school at night to cap off the episode again, and Yuuichi prods Mai for some more plot again, asking about her friends – and oddly enough, asking him not to include himself. So Mai talks about a male friend he had a long time ago, that left her. Definitely not Yuuichi, right? Of course not. It seems Mai definitely is erring on the side of ’still remembers’, although she’s being very subtle about it, something that she rarely is.

But yet we get a bit of inconsistency, with Mai’s plot revelation of how the demons are after Yuuichi, not Mai. First off, it’s a bit strange that she knows and understands this, although since she knows how many they are she probably can discern more information. Plus, since the demons are her, she should understand them – even if she doesn’t really understand herself. But the confusing thing is that Mai asks Yuuichi who he is, like she doesn’t know. But she DOES know. She’s proven it.

Or is she just dropping hints very subtly again, waiting for him to remember? But then again, Mai said that she could not wait for Yuuichi. Why is she waiting now?

-CCY

Yes, that cheesy title, as always, is in both senses of the word. First of all we get chronological time warp, as in Double Ayu Ayu Flashback Bonus. Secondly, the pop-culture Time Warp, as in 007 agent Yuuichi and Mai dance. And it’s damn awesome.

You want me to say it? I’ll say it.

Wai for Mai~

Carrying on, the halfway mark for Kanon contains a lot of important plot points, plot hints, or plot omissions, not just for Mai’s arc, but for many others as well. The storytelling’s picking up a bit with the intertwining of many character’s stories; or at least the parallel exposition of them.

Uh, you know the drill, spoilers through Kanon 24 (end of series) after the jump, so, uh, be forewarned or something. Also, lots of Mai after the jump. Be forewarned for cute^infinity.

The episode starts with a deceiving amount of Ayu-ness.

The dream sequence kicks off the episode as always, with Ayu^2 talking about being ignored and all, not being noticed, etc etc. This time I believe is the first time we really see the character in the dream sequence, which, as most can figure out, is Ayu Ayu. It’s beginning to be apparent that something happened to Ayu – but what? Keep waiting…

We then cut straight into the flashback sequence with Lolichi and Ayu^2. She’s fixated on the Plot Device angel doll, which is important beyond belief to Ayu’s arc. Yuuichi promises to get it, bragging about how he can pick up two or three dolls like nothing. I think he was talking about dolls. With his pimping skills, he could be talking about haremettes. Let’s count them from the loli era: Ayu, Nayuki, Mai, Fox Makoto…yup, two or three.

The dream/flashback ends, and Yuuichi wakes up and finds Ayu in the hallway at the same time. This is a subtle hint to the fact (which I believe is shown more obviously later) that they both are experiencing the dreams at the same time, waking up at the same time.

We get some fluff as Ayu, to me at least, channels some brilliant Sakura Kinomoto and her fear of ghosts. Note that she’s talking about ghosts when mentioning how talking about ghosts causes ghosts to appear.

…Well, I’ll sleep with the lights on tonight.

During the same scene, Ayu also worries about waking Nayuki up, to which Yuuichi has only one thing to say: A sleeping Nayuki is fine too. (I think I stole that from AoMM or somewhere. Copyright, props, whatever) Why is she blushing though? Somehow I imagine that’s not Keropi in the dream.

Yuuichi and Ayu go out to the balcony to stare at the disturbingly accurate skyline, and they begin conversing about random stuff. In the midst of it we learn that both of them dislike heights, which quite likely stems from the fact that one of them fell off a tree and into a coma with the other person watching. Hint: the person who fell wasn’t Yuuichi; although that would be strangely interesting…

Ayu also, for all the fanboys out there, does some Nayuki shipping, since Yuuichi is too dense to pay attention to his cousin. She also talks about ‘when she grows up’ (hint: never) and ‘being like Nayuki’, which implies an age difference. Yuuichi corrects her, saying that they are all the same age. Technically.

This was one of the funnier Sleepy Nayuki scene. I’m spinning~ woahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhCLUNK.

When Yuuichi and Nayuki leave for school, Ayu talks trash about her awesome school, which allows for much circumventing of the rules. Of course, if this school sounds implausible, it’s because it’s not really a school. But even if it doesn’t exist, it is important!

Shiori MISAKA’s next in line for the token scene. We get more ice-creaming and Yuuichi gets a head freeze, which prompts Shiori MISAKA’s summoning of a gigantic pile of medicine from her hammerspace (or something). Is all that medicine for her ‘cold’? You bet. Also, is there really medicine for a head freeze?

Shiori MISAKA also talks more poetry about the ball and everything, relating herself to Cinderella, which is true in more than one way. The prohibitive sister (Kaori MISAKA, although she doesn’t mean it), and the significance of midnight…

I’m pretty sure Cinderella didn’t die at midnight, though.

Why am I screaming MISAKA at every opportunity now? Because so is the anime. This is the first time Shiori MISAKA’s last name is really revealed from its veil of secrecy (thanks to Generic But Also Very Cute Underclassman. Love the flower in the hair). Now, they could just leave it as that, and let the viewers make the connection, but Yuuichi has to 1) spend a few minutes going “Holy shit, MISAKA?” -

And then 2) Asking Kaori MISAKA about her sister, Shiori MISAKA. She says she doesn’t have one, but, come on, this is an anime. You know better by now. The hell she doesn’t.

Commercial break: now for obligatory screenshot entendre interpreted for yuri. Nayuki x Kaori? Nayuki would never sign off on anyone but Yuuichi anyway, if she’s waited for seven years already. And no, Jun has no guts to ask about threesomes.

Oh yeah, and Jun also notices that Kaori’s being very emo lately, due to all this talk about MISAKA. Keep ignoring us, sure…

Yuuichi falls asleep while waiting for the dance to arrive, and we get launched into a rare second flashback in the episode. Does this mean Ayu is taking a nap somewhere as well? This time, we get the Very Very Very Very Important transfer of the angel doll, pictured almost exactly the same as in the intro. The part about the wishes isn’t mentioned yet.

Ayu Ayu also talks very strangely about the ‘rest of her life’, which, technically speaking, is pretty short; or at least, I wouldn’t really call ‘being in a coma’ that much of alive.

Nayu Nayu with pigtails. Fine too? Whatever, lolicons. By the way, Yuuichi can so have everything. First Ayu, then Nayu, then Mai and ZE WORLD! (is that stolen from AoMM too? or is it a more widespread meme? I need more internet culture.)

Finally, dance scene! Aizawa, Yuuichi Aizawa in his James Bond tux meets Mai in her dress and a full body pan and is completely floored. I’m inclined to agree. Wai for Mai~

In response to Yuuichi’s witty remarks about her being a princess, Mai blushes extremely subtly (yet, of course, cutely), and then begins the cute head-chopping scene. Violence? Cute? It’s more likely than you think.

In other news, an American male was arrested today at school for violently and abusively head-chopping students in a move authorities believe was inspired by a popular television show in Japan. Jack Thompson was quoted as blaming Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar, Sony, America, the Northern Hemisphere, and your mom.

It comes for the people at the dance to do what people do at dances, make love dance. Jun gets his status as Harem Runner-Up confirmed as the world shuns him. Yuuichi gets some negative harem points with his suggestion of Mai dancing with Jun (and, uh, not himself).

He also mentions the monkey dance, which causes Mai to brighten up with the mention of the word monkey. This is probably a jab at Mai’s fascination with animals – remember, she’s the one that wants to be a Yuki clone veterinarian.

Great line out of context? Great line of context. Now if you excuse me I’ll be mopping myself up off the floor, that line simply melted me.

And they dance in the biggest, most actiony scene Kanon has had yet! If it weren’t for the rest of Mai’s arc it probably would be the iconic “action” scene of Kanon.

They say they can’t dance, but who believes that? Suspension of disbelief a bit with the whole “they’re the only ones dancing” thing, but it’s sort of cute with the way they stand out from everyone else (whether they’re looking like a couple or a pair of fools is omitted). Also note that I’ve described pretty much this whole episode as ‘cute’. Pardon my fanboyism.

Gah, I’m going to need the mop again. Mai’s happy! (as goes for Mai standards)

And Sayuri’s dead! Oshi~

OK, she’s not dead, but her circumstances aren’t exactly the best, especially given this is only the first concussion Sayuri’s going to get…

Mai goes crazy, beating the crap out of the already crap-beaten (by demons. they’re real, duh) room. There’s a surprising lack of collateral damage, with Sayuri being the only person injured really. Perhaps this is due to Mai’s power; the demons that she creates (but not controls) goes for the people close to her – the same reason the demons are after Yuuichi.

Battle-torn Mai in dress. Still awesomely cute? Your call. Was the cross always that big?

And, uh, yeah, end episode. Fun stuff and, yes, action scenes await Mai, Yuuichi, and co. in the next Kanon. Halfway to home, Ayu fans!

-CCY