Ranked #1984

Kannagi Special

The "Kannagi DVD Special" is basically the 14th episode to the Kannagi series, despite it only being one episode in length, it still captures the charm and humor of the series.

Story: 7/10
Taking into account that a majority of viewers will be watching this after finishing the actual TV version, I will touch base on one thing first: "it doesn’t pick up directly where the series left off", at least not in the way you would think. Most fans will remember that the actual anime ended on somewhat of a cliffhanger, with a few plot points never being answered (for the sake of spoilers, I won’t mention them). However, I will say that this particular episode pretty much goes back to its "slice of life" roots, you could easily place this any time after "Nagi, Zange, Tsugumi and Jin" all became acquaintances, and it wouldn’t make much difference at all. Now that’s not to say just because this episode doesn’t follow the last events from the series that it’s bad...because it’s not. In fact for only being around 23 minutes long, there is quite a bit going on. The episode starts out with the gang making a film of sorts (if you have ever seen "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya epsiode 0", then this will look pretty familiar, they even have Tsugumi pay tribute to the "Mikuru beam".) After that the gang spends some time indoors, then take on an adventure style mission while trying to return a borrowed DVD disk. I was honestly never bored once with this episode, what with so much going on during it. Now of course not all viewers will like this fact, some might even find its constantly changing direction in storyline to be a bit inconsistent and annoying. Still, all the humor and character interactions remain staple here, my favorite scene is where Jin and the others are playing an old Nintendo Famicom system from the 80’s.

Art: 8/10
Not really much I can say about the art style, other than it remains exactly the same as before. Character design is pretty distinct, with colorful environments and landscapes. Even if it is pretty appealing to the eyes, it's not really anything technically superb either, backgrounds range from detailed, to average. But overall, it is still pretty darn good.

Characters: 8/10
What made me love the Kannagi series in the first place, was with it’s cast of characters. I wouldn’t go as far to say that they were very deep, but they interacted with each other quite well, and were funny to watch. All of them keep their distinct personalities, from Daitetsu’s quiet demeanor, to Zange’s flirty ways. They mange to keep their persona’s down to earth, yet never feel like a cliche’. And speaking of characters, yes there is some "fan service" in this, which is all done in the usually Kannagi manner, but of course never over the top. Some may even find it a bit tame from the norm.

Sound: 8/10
I was really glad to see that they kept the same opening and closing scenes from the TV series, which made it feel like no time had past since we last left the gang. All the voice cast members have once again returned to fill their roles. Though I still find the background music to be pretty lackluster and boring.

Overall: 8/10
Well there isn’t really much more I can say regarding this. If you loved the TV series, then you will most likely love this. Some may still find it disappointing that this episode doesn’t shed any light on the events from the end of the series. Never the less I still found it to be just as good as the episodes from the actual anime, and I think many will feel the same way after viewing it. read more