Kanon (2006)

Information of Anime

After seven years, Yuuichi Aizawa returns to the city that he use to go to a lot during his childhood years.  However, he doesn't recall much of his memories from his childhood years in the city.  After moving in to his mother's sister's home, Akiko Minase, & his daughter Nayuki Minase, he slowly recalls some of his memories.  When he bumps into a girl with a winged backpack named Ayu Tsukimiya, Yuuichi's memories start to come back to him more naturally.

This Kanon is a remake of the original TV series that was aired in 2002.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

When Yuuichi starts his school life, he meets some girls.  Nayuki who has a hard time waking up in the morning, Ayu who is searching for something that she doesn't know, Mai Kawasumi who hunts demons in the school at night, Shiori Misaka who walks around the school when she's sick, & Makoto Sawatari who has no memories except hating Yuuichi for some reason.  Through each of these girls, Yuuichi slowly regains some of his memories of the city & his past relationships with them.  Yuuichi interacts with them at certain time & places, such as meeting Ayu in the shopping district & seeing Shiori in the school yard.  Once we get to know about the girls background , the show starts to go into arcs starting with Makoto.  From there, it's heavily focused on each certain girl's storyline.  The show ends nicely with Ayu's arc; the main storyline of Kanon.

My Personal Review

Although I don't remember much the first Kanon show, I found this remake to be entertaining.  I think this one to be more story driven than the other as it was dry.  If you have seen the first one or not, I would recommend watching this remake show.

Animation

If you have seen the original TV show, it's pretty much the same designs but a bit more cleaner.  The girls have big clear eyes that covers about 3/4 of their faces.  The guys are like that too.  The only one different is Yuuichi who has a longer face & small to medium eyes that aren't round.  At times, there are some unbalanced proportions.  For example, sometimes Aya's legs get too thin when you view her from a distance.

The backgrounds are pretty detailed in terms of the use of colours.  The toning & shading is very well done.  The sunlight, snow, & night scenes are breathtaking.  Also, the colours balances out very well between the background & the characters.  There are times though where the darkness is a bit too dark to see on my LCD monitor.

In terms of the animation movement, it's quite flowing & natural.  There are quite a lot of those those silly & unreal movements.  Although some of them are quite fast, they are pretty smooth & don't have any signs of the choppiness.  Most of the time though, you see silly movements more than unreal ones.  Also, some of the animation don't make sense.  In one scene, you would find one character lying down.  Then suddenly, that character would be sitting instead.  It's like a lot of frames are missing in-between.

Sound       

The sound effects have a mixture of realistic & silly.  I'm pretty surprised that the amount of silly sounds outweigh the realistic ones.  It's not a bad thing though since it matches the mood quite well.  They are timed on cue & are crisp.

The seiyuus here are the same ones from the original TV show with the exception of Yuuichi as he's voiced by someone different.  I'm a bit iffy on the voices as some of them I don't like much like Nayuki.  She's almost lifeless & dead.  I liked Yuuichi's as he's full of life & energy.  Some people may not like some of the sounds that some of the characters make like "uguu" & "auu".  Some may find it cute & some may find it annoying.

The music is the same as the game's soundtrack.  This is something Kanon fans will like & not be disappointed.  For me, it's the first time to listen to the original soundtrack & I found that some of the songs are just remixes to one of the songs.  Also, I found the opening & ending theme songs to be out of place a bit.  The opening song feels incomplete due to the slow melody & the ending theme is  quite upbeat & ruins the show's episode ending where it leaves you wanting more on an intense moment.  I do like them, but they feel out of place.

Story

The story is broken down into arcs for each of the main heroines like the game.  Each of them slowly reveals Yuuchi's past relationship with them.  Although the show follows the game's storyline for each of the girls from what I heard, it tries a bit too hard in including all the girls into one episode.  You do get to know the girls a bit more, but it felt unnecessary as it focus on another girl's arc.  It's like the show is giving some fanservice airtime for the girls.  Plus, the way Yuuchi encounters them is like a set schedule & feels a bit sudden at times.  One scene shows him in the school yard, then sudden he's on the top floor eating lunch as if three hours passed in one second.  The time flow & pace is quick as the show puts Yuuchi & all of the girls in each episode.  It's not until the show gets deeper into the arcs of a certain heroine.  Once one arc is heavily focused in the middle of the subplot, the other girls don't appear.  Also, I found the stories to be quite touching & emotional.  Touched my tender side with some of its dramatic moments.  Truly something that KEY would do.

One problem about the show is how its paced.  With so many girls, it can be hard to get a lot of their storylines into one season.  When the Makoto arc ended, it was already pasted the halfway point of the show & that arc seem to have taken a lot of episodes.  Thus, it can leave out some of the interesting stuff for the other girls as the show quickens its pace to fit all the girls into the show.  There were times that I felt I was missing something as time sped up quickly from one scene to another.

The ending is very good as it reflected the actual game ending.  Very touching & fulfilling.

Overall Conclusion

Kanon is a great remake from the 2002 original.  It's funny & dramatic.  If you are a KEY or Kanon fan, you should watch this.  If you are looking for something with a plot, I recommend this show.

Kanon gets an eight out of ten.   It's got a great cast & nice storylines in terms of the relationship of the girls & Yuuichi.  However, the way the show tries to squeeze all the girls in each episode is weird & probably done to keep the fans happy to see some of their favourite girls get some air time when it's actually not needed for some arcs.