Kanon Kazahana

Kanon Kazahana, or the 'aftermath episode' is just that. It is a simple conclusion to the great story told in Kanon; Though not entirely necessary, it is not a bad watch. It offers a more 'happy' ending to Kanon, and though I was satisfied with the treatment of some of the characters, I was at times questioning this episode's intent. It almost weakened the emotional punch of the series. The art quality and music have not changed, and the characters have changed little since the first time we meet them.

Kanon Kazahana ... is simply enjoyably, nothing spectacular, but worth cheeking out if you throughly enjoyed Kanon. If you found the series too bleak and melancholic, this special may give you a deeper sense of hope. Or you may feel it tries to 'soften' up Kanon too much. Either way, I doubt you will hate this quirky little aftermath.

It's a better ending to Kanon 2002 than the last episode. Rewatch value increases when one has rewatched Kanon 2002.

I'm a huge fan of Kanon. I started with the 2006 version of the anime, fell in love with it, then went and read its source material just to experience the magic one more time. In my quest to devour everything Kanon, I even went back and watched the original version of the anime. I wasn't too thrilled with it, but it was an enjoyable experience nonetheless. Finally I went and watched Kanon Kazahana. Going into it, I was pretty excited. It was new content for my beloved Kanon that didn't appear in the VN or the 2006 version of the anime. What could possibly ... go wrong? Well, nothing apparently. But the opposite issue arose. Nothing really went right either.

The problem with Kanon Kazahana is that it comes across as very uneventful. The whole thing is supposed to be a look into the lives of the characters after the events of the main story, but it really doesn't go anywhere with that. Just about everyone is doing exactly what you'd expect them to be doing. The entire thing left me wondering "So what?" The end of the anime basically implied that all of this stuff was going to be happening, so why did we need to see it all? All of the events of Kanon Kazahana feel like they could be condensed into a 3-5 minute montage and they'd have the same impact. What baffles me is that they actually went and did that too. In a 20 minute episode, they decided it'd be a good idea to spend the last 2-3 minutes of it on a credits sequence with a montage of the episode playing. So... why? What was the point of it all? I felt more or less the same impact from watching the credits than I did from watching the actual episode. Did this special really need to happen?

To be fair, one notable event does happen, but when it's juxtaposed against a bunch of pretty pointless stuff and not given nearly enough attention, it doesn't really do anything for you. There's no build to it. It just kinda happens and you're left there saying, "Uhmm... okay."

I give Kanon Kazahana a 5. Like I said earlier, nothing really went wrong with this episode, but it came across as so pointless and unnoteworthy that I can't really say anything went right either. It's not bad, but it's certainly not good. If you're a huge fan of the 2006 remake and decided that this special would be the reason to go back and watch the original adaptation, don't bother. You're wouldn't be missing much if that's the case.

If for some reason you found yourself asking questions about what all the other girls were up to after the main story had concluded, here you go. It's a relatively short OVA that just covers the after stories of all the girls who's routes weren't chosen. A pretty boring ending to a pretty boring anime. It doesn't really offer anything that couldn't be inferred from just the main show's ending, and honestly I can't imagine anyone really caring about any of the other girls unless they had played the original Visual Novel. You can probably skip watching this and move on to watching the 2006 ... adaptation of Kanon instead. It might do a better job capturing the personalities of the girls from the original story and be a more entertaining watch.

6/10