The term to "see" something, while most commonly referred to that of merely using your eyes to view an image, akin to that of a camera capturing stills of the world around you can also be meant in a different- albeit similar sense; in that of truly understanding something, to perceive it in it's entirety, and ultimately acquire a greater insight, thus one comes to truly see. This concept is woven tightly into the identity of Canaan, whether it be in the more thematic sense on its notes about Human nature and our choices to ignore cruelty of the realities around us, or in a more direct sense in that of the Synesthesia. While a real life neurological and sensational phenom in which, to paraphrase its definition, when one sense of perception or cognition is stimulated causes other aforementioned pathways to be involuntarily activated; in a sense it unconsciously activates multiple aspects of cognition or "sense" to a near overwhelming degree in the same instance. In reality it's effects are that of projective, seeing abstractions like colors, shapes, or symbols in response to simulation, and that of associative, when the the sense has an overpowering relation to the stimuli that triggers it; and in relation to Canaan, while loosely adapting this concept by way of seeing it as an extreme sense of advanced perception allowing for a perfected subject of Synesthesia to have an extremely enhanced senses and perception, does display the opposite end, in which one suffering from Synesthesia has such an overpowering reaction to the stimuli that their body is simply incapable of parsing the stimuli overload and causes the individuals body to cease functioning in an excruciating manner. Conceptually and execution wise, while obviously requiring a necessary degree of suspension of disbelief, was done in a fascinating way. It lifts a real world neurological phenomenon and adapts into its own fiction, weaving an interesting story with it. While it can easily be seen in an ableist manner, I don't think that was the intent and merely looked at this divergence in the brain and thought of a means of crafting a narrative around how its being weaponized to create some sort of super-soldier type of weapon.
Canaan in the Judeo-Christian faith is that of the proverbial land of "milk and honey", as in it's the promised land that the Israelites would chart across the desert for forty years in desperate search of finding, and was the first thing I came to notice about this story, and before watching had been the most alluring aspect of this show, barring the character designs from the prolific Takashi Takeuchi, most well known for being the original character designer for the Fate series, Kara-no-Kyoukai, and Tsukihime (ie, one of my favorite illustrators and character designers!). It was this combination of concept and design that drew me in with a fervent desire to see exactly what this show is about. As a symbol in the show the name Canaan was a little bit forced, as she is meant to represent Siams' hope, then Alphards despair, and ultimately the hope of the people she cares about (thus reclaiming her name), it was ever so slightly corny and in the not great way. It played less with the mythology and symbols it was drawing upon and instead tried to implement them in a means that left a hollowed feeling where something far more interesting could have been.
Overall I really liked the narrative being woven in Canaan, the intrigue that grows with each passing episode builds further and further. What is the Synesthesia? How deep has Snake burrowed its way into global politics and control? What exactly is "the factory" and what happened to that village? However the answers to many of these questions are unsatisfying or outright uninteresting. For a show that wants to ask questions about human connections, and the emotions that we build with one another the characters that are meant to explore those ideas fall really flat for me. Lang-Qi was just annoying, being driven to obsession of killing Canaan- to the point that she perceives herself as Canaan was, while kind of cute in a dramatic irony sense, had no pay off for what it was trying to do for the audience. This juxtaposed with Alphard also having a similar obsession with Canaan, and the past they both shared with Siam resulted in a sub-par conclusion; with it being alluded that Alphard will never be freed from his ghost and being locked in a sort of eternal struggle with one another, as Canaan freed herself from the cycle of vengeance and Alphard being bound to it. On paper it sounds great, but the way it was handled in the show was unsatisfactory. It's the same thing with Marias character, although I feel like she was done the dirtiest of everyone. She has this bizarre crisis of faith of her relationship with Canaan, desiring to walk alongside her despite having no capability to defend herself from the world around her, and having to rely on Canaan to protect her. So instead of trying to cope with the relationship they CAN have with one another, being able to support and care for Canaan in a way that nobody else could suffice- she choses to blow herself up, a choice that would utterly break Canaan and send her down an emotional spiral she would never recover from. I understand that she was alluded to being a selfish and deceptive character throughout the show, but her choice in that moment felt more like her trying to harm Canaan more than it was to help her. It was just bizarre. I did enjoy nearly every other character though, even in those flawed moments I mentioned I still find much of the buildup to those events, and the way the story would progress via them to still maintain a grip on me and cause me to watch another episode. The side characters ranged from good, either comedically or just well written (Santana, Minoru, Cummings, and Yun-Yun) or bland and incomplete (Hakko is really the only one, I just couldn't bring myself to care for her in the slightest)
Canaan plays into my sense of humor in anime to a fairly ridiculous sense, it feels like it draws influence from Hong Kong/Mainland Chinese action flicks from the likes of John Wu and Johnnie To- backed up by some truly stellar action directing; lead by the brilliant and skilled Kanami Sekiguchi. But this portion isn't about the animation and is meant to be more focused on the comedy, which I think was blended really well into the actual writing. it was never forced, and never caused the viewer (me) to be taken out of the scene, and when it did (like in episode 2 with the taxi driver who was cranking idol music during a high-octane car chase through the streets of shang-hai) it wasn't distracting and instead just made me adore this show. It never stops taking itself seriously, but knows to not take it so seriously that I can't relax and have fun. Its my favorite style of writing, blending humor and intensity into its core without the humor becoming a frustrating and overbearing aspect; as it understands that it's telling a fairly absurd story, and to be honest any good story has a fair splash of humor in it to add some degree of levity, and humanize the characters, at least in my opinion.
The animation quality was honestly quite good, and I think the action, gunfights and more tender moments between characters were all handled with a degree of serious passion and skill. All of Canaans sequences display a bombasticity of someone who has near total control of the battlefield, and when her senses are stripped from her (only to be returned frustratingly soon after) they reflect that feeling of fighting in the dark. I don't really remember much of the music as I right this review but I do know I enjoyed it a lot.
My ultimate feelings and tldc for Canaan is it's good, honestly really good. The first 3/4s are incredibly solid in all regards, with the final three or four episodes hitting some really frustrating pacing, a lack of cohesion and direction, alluding to far more going on, and a conclusion that we just aren't allowed to see. We've taken a singular look into the stories of these characters, during what may be the most important segment of their stories, but not the one that would leave us with any real conclusions. It's definitely a recommendation from me if you want an interesting action adventure, with some depth to its characters, but just know that it comes up short and by the end it leaves a somewhat bitter, incomplete taste.
