Kanon (2006)

A boy named Yuuichi is moving to a town he lived in seven years ago. However, he doesn't remember anything. When living in this town, he meets a lot of girls, all with tragic stories, and he helps them.

Sure, the concept sounds like just about any other anime based on a visual novel would be. However, despite several other shows of that type, this actually does remarkably well.

STORY

Well, to be honest, this show has got to be one of the greater shows I've ever watched, no doubt! The story is just so good it leaves me astonished at times. It starts out as a ... pretty normal show of its genre. You're also introduced to several of the girls, but it doesn't touch upon all their stories at once. There's some comedic moments every now and then.

At first it might seem like it's just some slice of life series, but the story progresses a lot from its initial stages, and as you're taken through the individual girls' story arcs, you'll be taken away. It has good a lot of good moments, some romantic, some dramatic. However, just about everything that happens in the story later on will base itself on supernatural elements (mostly miracles), which makes a contrast to the earlier parts of it. That's not really a bad thing though; I at least found it most enjoyable.

ART

The animation in the series is really awesome too; the character designs, details in environments and everything just looks awesome. The lighting which you find in many of the afternoon scenes is pure awesomeness too; it really makes the scenes moody; and very dramatic if that's what the scene is about.

CHARACTER

The characters of Kanon is really awesome. The girls' stories are just awesome to behold, and Yuuichi's own background with them is very intriguing, and it ends up making you wanting to know more about it. The main hero, Yuuichi, is also a very interesting character in his own right. To be short about it; they are awesome and you'll love them (at least one or two of them).

SOUND

The music in this anime is really great as well. There's a lot of nice piano themes, so if you enjoy good piano themes you'll definitely enjoy the music in this series. The show's got some good music aside that too, and the OP and ED themes are magnificent.

There's nothing to say on the sounds aside the music, and the seiyuu do a great job on their roles; the characters' voices are very good.

All in all, this is a lovely anime, a true masterpiece. If you like anime series based on visual novels, you'll enjoy this. If you haven't watched any anime series of that kind, watch it anyway, because you'll love it.

To 'Not Helpful' voters (and you 'Helpful' voters too): Feedback greatly appreciated =)

A slice of life anime done differently? Naturally, that is what Tatsuya Ishihara is known for.

This anime wins on bringing in hidden points in every arc it throws at you. It will give you a little story and, subliminally, throw a curveball at you; but the ball will fly past your head if you were not paying attention and this anime is all about remembering what you saw before as they do a lot of déjà vu in it. That is, unless you were, again, not paying attention.

Each arc you will see starts off with a pattern: you will see what will be a new ... main character, be thrown into their world and pretty much know this character inside out. It seems like each new addition to the cast is a fruitful one and different from the rest.

CAUTION: Next portion of the review contains a possible spoiler. Read at your own potential risk.

Then a sad tale or dilemma will unfold at the ending after their story is finished. For whatever reason, I had no idea why this happened as I do not recall, but it always did. Whether it be a character leaving the town, being injured or another thing, this would ultimately bring them to their demise; to appear in the next section of the anime, anyway.

This anime stands out a bit for throwing new main characters as you go, intrinsic to most anime, but this one always takes out the newly introduced character before the next arc begins. Rarely in a death scene, only in one I believe, the rest just temporarily phase out the character.

This makes for interesting story development as the main protagonist is always one-on-one with the next character. Only in rare instances did a new one make a return in the next arc or another one later. It made you ponder where they went off to.

One, in particular, shrouds herself from serving as the main new character until the ending, though she appears right off the bat and serves as a humorous recurring character; despite being the titular character. She makes use of this though as she has the most meaningful back-story.

Outside the character-in-character-out routine, there are a couple more main characters that eventually stand out in the story as it progresses, but start off as pretty generic and stale at first glance. Then again, what anime doesn't do character development that way?

This was not exactly the most helpful review as I have not seen this anime in a while, but I remembered just enough to maybe give you some useful information concerning your choice on watching it.

I just recall that each arc had a subliminal meaning that you had to pay attention to from the start to comprehend. That, every character held a significant meaning and that you should never shrug off a certain one; even for a second. And lastly, that the buildup to the ending is one of the better ones you will see.

If you have seen Clannad, Kanon will feel very welcoming to you as well. Featuring resplendent visuals, very detailed characters among other things, this anime will easily satisfy you. And, as someone whom appreciates the best that anime has to offer, Kanon will provide you with a story that you would not remember too fondly, but would not completely forget, either.

Kanon is the the last of the Kyoto Animation animated Key visual novels that I had to see. Somehow I'd managed to watch all of Clannad, Clannad After Story and Air. While writing staff and directing staff differ slightly with each iteration, there's an incredibly clear singular style between each anime. It's a style that with each series of theirs I watch, and those inspired by its nakige formula such as Ano Hana, I can increasingly see the strings for. Strings that are made from the bloodied remains of mentally deficient little girls killed mercilessly and dangled limply from the fingers of Key writer Jun ... Maeda as he coos "who's now the perfect image of a woman, yes you are, yes you are".

Here is the general outline for a Key story arc. First you introduce a little girl. She is supposedly a teenager the same age as our asshole lead male character. However at every single turn we are establishing how childlike they are. They look 6 years old, they act like they’re 6 years old, the male lead constantly treats them like they’re 6 years old and outright tells them they might as well be 6 years old. Each girl has their own little quip that in one girl’s case might as well be her saying “goo goo”.

They are also depicted as fragile and weak and needing your attention. A bunch of them are in the slow process of dying, either through poorly explained illnesses or magical illnesses. They’re emotionally fragile and with each arc fall apart in their own ways. One girl in particular has her own rotary functions and general maturity, what little of it there was, stripped away from her. The reasons for this shift usually comes straight out of the writer’s backsides, such as a character’s mum getting randomly hit by a car because we needed little girls to be more emotionally unstable.

Their emotional instability and life view all appears to come from when the girls were 6 years old (as in actually on this planet for 6 years, not just emotionally 6 years old). The childhood promise is the most powerful force in the world of Kanon, capable of raising the dead and conjuring ghosts. According to the world of Kanon, all relationships are born from before the age of 6 and everyone you meet since then might as well not exist. Nearly all the girls in Kanon are desperately trying to get back to the relationship they had with the male character from when they were 6.

You get the uncomfortable feeling that the writers believe that the 6 year old mindframe for women is the ideal. Not just so you can comfort them as they slowly die, but from a romantic standpoint too, and whenever you try to strip them off this childlike state the show punishes them for it. Kanon operates on horror movie logic where as soon as a girl displays anything resembling romantic feelings it gets stripped from them. Even if their romantic feelings come from a desire to just be together with someone because they’re lonely, as soon as anything resembling romance happens is when the show starts killing them.

That is this nakige formula. Key aren't the only people who do it, but they’re certainly the most famous. Bring in a female character. Make the male lead belittle her in s’life segments for her immaturity so he can establish his place as above her. Reveal that she may have romantic feelings for her. Then strip the girl of any independence either physically or emotionally and then usually kill her.

Normally a reviewer will say that the worst thing a piece of entertainment’s can do is be boring, but that’s not Kanon’s problem. Certainly it is mind-blowingly boring since practically all the humour and conversations consist of a girl with no mental capacity being told by the main character how stupid she is. But the real reason I hate Kanon so much is the bits after that. The rinse and repeat of taking a little girl, stripping her of all agency and then killing her in order to draw tears from the audience, who invariably fall for it each and every time.

Not that I blame you. The same way I don’t blame people for clicking on buzzfeed clickbait articles on web advertising. They are designed in that insidious way to get you to click on them, and its only once you realise that do you stop supporting this “You Won’t Believe These 8 Ways Miley Cyrus Hates Minecraft Pokemon” headlines by not clicking on them. I know you think Kanon, Clannad and Air are emotional because they made you cry, but punching you in the face and breaking your nose would probably make you cry too. That doesn’t make the punch a 10/10 emotional piece of high entertainment. All they are doing are taking weak creatures and killing them to draw a reaction from you. Stop falling for it. Please.