A quick review of my favourite anime of all time (so far). My first written review!!! AHHHH!!!
Story:
The story is not your typical harem as people might make it about to be whenever they see the word 'harem'. It plays out like a slice-of-life comedy in the beginning which may seem like a harem to most people, but the jokes are not as O.T.T as other harems in the past. Though with that, people might be incredibly bored throughout because all they are seeing is a slice-of-life comedy, nothing is progessively changing with the exception of the character interactions, which are very entertaining. Then it takes
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a cleverly thought out tonal and atmosphere change around the near halfway point and transforms into a deep and emotional journey and experience. This helps it's once bored audience to be one the edge of their seats and to be invested in what is happening to our beloved characters. But the story is just a catalyst to the real heart of the anime, but I'll get to that later. It's also worth noting that the story is very well written. Easily one of the best anime screenplays I've seen. As the dialogue is witty and natural. There is also a lot of subtext and undertones.
Art:
Kanon is one of Kyoto Animations finest works. It is simply wonderful. The character designs are moe granted, but the character animation is very fluent and the designs are at least consistent. The backgrounds are one of the best I've ever seen on how it's so detailed on how they draw snow. The lighting successfully compliments the atmosphere of the show, exposing us to daytime to afternoon to moonlight. In short, the art is phenomenal.
Sound:
I watched this series in dub rather than in sub because watching animes in English is just how I prefer it. Anyway, the dub is one of the more bearable dubs I've watched despite having our characters looking so adorable. Many people have been complaining that the dub doesn't even try to attempt at being cute and incorperating moe, but I don't think that they were intending to have moe into the dub and that for me works better because you don't want to have cute girls to hinder your enjoyment of the show or overshadow the characters personalities and traits. The performances in the dub are well acomplished beacuse they actually have the emotions right off the bat. And they overall fit the characters, yes that goes for Ayu as well!
The soundtrack is not only my favourite anime soundtracks, but one of my favourite soundtracks, period. I just adore it. While the kind of tracks they have might not be the most original thing out there, they are well worth remembering after a YEAR first watching it. The tracks consist of a full orchestra. It mainly consist of canons which are pieces of music are on loop, but have a definitive ending and leaves you with a different feeling each time. The happier music has the piano,drum beats, wind and if you listen closely you can hear a synthesizer. But for the emotional scenes you have full on strings and a piano, they are just a beautiful sound and are they ones I remember the most, but I do appreciate the happier tunes too. It is a very clever score and unmistakeably beautiful.
Characters:
But the real heart of the show lies in the characters. The cast is literally what made the show for me. They have so many varying personalty traits that it feels like that you're not seeing the same character twice. Another thing that is so great about them is that they have so much mystery to their character, going back to the story serving as a catalyst and having all this mystery pile up on each other makes up for some of the best moments of the series as you're constantly figuring out to find out the secrets of the girls. Speaking of which, while the girls maybe cute, they are constantly being put in situations that real life people unfortunately face, which on paper may sound very much melodramatic as it can possibly can be, but these characters are so distinctivly human that it pays off. It also shows that Yuichi shares genuine chemistry with the girls, well that is mainly due to the fact that he met most of the girls seven years prior.
Enjoyment:
This series was enjoyable from beginning to end always successfully getting a reaction out of me. This may seem like a cute show at first but it evolves into something unimaginable, like a dream, which is coincidentally one of things the series talks about! While a happy and inspirational show, it was also a tragically sad and realistic story with supernatural elements involved. And some of the moments are so depressing, it's easily one of the saddest piece of media I've ever seen and one of the few to actually make me cry to something that isn't animal related. I would love to talk about these moments, what effect they had on me and the ending, but it would just ruin it for you. Kanon is something that should be seen to believe, because not only is it my favourite anime of all time, it's the anime that actually change my life, make new friends, made me a better person and was the anime to make me an otaku and to believe that without anime I would've been lost in this world, but I still but family, friends and school first!
Overall:
Kanon (2006) is not only a brilliant anime, but brilliant television. It's just wonderful. The story and its characters are well written and deeply developed, the animation is brillant and the music is beautiful. It is definitely a 'diamond-in-the-rough' in the harem genre, but also an experience. I would definitely recommend it to anyone because I believe it is the most realistic drama I've ever seen. It's my favourite of the three Key visual novels to anime adaptations and would be my favourite anime for quite a long time. Just go watch it now while you still can!
To see more reviews from me, check out IrishAnimefan on YouTube. Slán.
Jun 16, 2012
Kanon (2006)
(Anime)
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A quick review of my favourite anime of all time (so far). My first written review!!! AHHHH!!!
Story: The story is not your typical harem as people might make it about to be whenever they see the word 'harem'. It plays out like a slice-of-life comedy in the beginning which may seem like a harem to most people, but the jokes are not as O.T.T as other harems in the past. Though with that, people might be incredibly bored throughout because all they are seeing is a slice-of-life comedy, nothing is progessively changing with the exception of the character interactions, which are very entertaining. Then it takes ... |
