blog好き

Jan 20 2007

Categories: anime, episodic review, kanon, spoilers
Tagged: kanon

22 Comments »

How to enjoy ice cream in the snow with a sickly girl who is underdressed for winter. Kanon 16.

I can’t shake the feeling that Yuuichi’s been severely neglecting Nayuki. She developed “the look” again as she takes her tea while hearing that Yuuichi’s gone off again. With another friend. I shouldn’t egg on her jealously, but, what the hell: “How come Yuuichi took Ayu to meet his friend but couldn’t wait fifteen minutes for you, Nayuki?”

The aftermath from episode 15? The school is still party trashed, but the blame it on wild kids. A whole frickin’ portion of the floor collapsed! Isn’t that a bit more, uh, suspicious than just some kids high on meth doing some petty vandalism?!? I’d blame the Canadians. Those wacky, hockey-luvin’ hosers. As for Sayuri’s injury, she claims that she was mauled by a bear. I can only imagine, “Grizzly Man 2: Wife Material Girl Goes to Alaska.” And as for Mai’s injury, I don’t recall an explanation.

I’m convinced that Sayuri could make anything look cute and adorable. Head Trauma Injury Sayuri is still acceptable. Hell, Wal-Mart Greeter Sayuri would still be acceptable.

Both of the girls have to be in the hospital for the rest of the series, I guess. Neither seem that injured, but I guess the girls of Kanon are not the quickly regenerative types. Having Mai/Sayuri-less remaining episodes is sad. Kanon is quickly turning from h-game into Survivor. Yuuichi doesn’t have to make a choice at the end– all the other girls would either disappear, get injured, or get run over by a nekobus (my dream Ayu scenario).

Mai thanks Yuuichi but advises him that someone else, closer to him, needs his help more. Since he just helped Mai and Sayuri, that can only leave Ms. Uguu~. Maybe this is related or not, but in Ghost Whisperer, Jennifer Love Hewitt goes around helping spirits move on from this mortal coil with her ability to see dead people. In The Sixth Sense, the little kiddie has a similar ability. Maybe related. Maybe not.

(A more blatant hint: the people at the hospital look at Ayu and get the “I just saw a ghost!” look on their faces, like Akiko many episodes before.)

The two of them run into Shiori in the hospital, which makes sense since she is “sick.” Shiori and Ayu seem to go well together– they both are very easy targets for Yuuichi to tease on. “Uguu~ never gets sick!” Though Ayu’s uguu~ face is starting to remind me of Rena from Higurashi. Good times… I think.

Those bangs on her hair stay like that even after waking up? She must use the same kind of styling gel that Pat Riley uses.

Oh no! Ayu actually looks 15% cute. But, question is, did the fire alarm wake Yuuichi up, or was Ayu smart enough to take the batteries out of the alarm before starting her cooking?

Yuuichi is even floored. Apron Ayu is roughly 0.001% wife materialish as Sayuri, which is a vast improvement for Ayu. (Are we sure Ayu isn’t a ten year old boy? Ayu is a lot more masculine than Mizuho-oneesama.)

Though I loved Yuuichi’s “must-get-the-hell-out-of-here” face with Ayu threatening him with a spatula in the background.

…

She burnt the coffee?! Or was that orange juice originally?

Ahahaha~ a poor man’s Sayuri. With Kanon, it seems like the girls are either very capable of cooking (Nayuki, Akiko, Sayuri) or very apocalyptic (Ayu, Mai, Makoto)… this ratio seems very skewed… I’m not sure what is going on with modern society, but I’m a much better cook than most girls I know, and I’m not a very good cook. My guess is that back fifty years ago, life was so boring, the only entertainment available to young girls was to watch her mom cook (since woman in the workplace wasn’t common). Nowadays, young girls would rather watch TV, IM, or MySpace rather than cook. Also cooking is not very hip and is quite time consuming. My advice for any young boys? Learn to cook. It’ll make you popular with the ladies. Maybe not Ginko or Yuuichi-class, but much better than Jun.

Akiko-san is sick? Nayuki’s arc probably involves Akiko getting sick and/or run over by the nekobus. With Mai’s arc about her mom getting sick, Sayuri’s arc about her brother getting sick, Makoto’s and Shiori’s arcs are about them getting sick, and the pattern continues. Drilling the point home, I don’t care anymore. Just shoot me. No way there’s a penis on this. None. I won’t accept it. Oh wait, I mean, Kanon is all about sad girls and how their stories are all similar and how they repeat and overlap in their themes. As Sayuri pointed out, the musical work of the same name is a repetitious composition that repeats the same beautiful melodies. So of course, you can probably extrapolate that the penultimate story would be a combination: Ayu’s going to have to eventually deal with her mom’s sickness… and her own.

“Akiko-san! Akiko-san! Like my mother!”

Exactly. Now stand over there and get ready to be run over by the nekobus.

Ayu doting on Akiko? Ayu means well, but I’m guessing she’ll cause more issues than solve.

We get a Solemn Nayuki instead of Zombie Nayuki as Nayuki worries about her mother. Akiko is really loved.

I still can’t believe that they don’t have a cell phone. The Minase clan must be the only family in Japan without a cell phone. In any case, we’re treated to a nice series event (Ayu running out of medicine) where Yuuichi tries to help overcome a challenge but fails…

… leading to Crisis Resolution Nayuki expertly navigating the gang out of the challenge. After seeing Sleepy and Zombie Nayuki, did you ever get the feeling that she would be composed, cool, calm, and collected during crisis situations?

(And, of course, no surprise that Ayu and Yuuichi are useless.)

Then in the next event in this series, Ayu bought food that needs to be taken with food, and she’s not exactly an Iron Chef. Not even a Paper Chef.

Leading to Nayuki… err, I’m sorry, Crisis Resolution Nayuki to step in and deliver instructions for cooking to Ayu with quiet confidence in her calming voice. Honestly, I’m disappointed that Yuuichi didn’t say something like, “I’ve never been so turned on in my life” right now. But that’s just me.

And, of course, I think Nayuki would be the perfect candidate for a supporting female lead for season seven of 24. She’d be sleeping and dozing off in the official Toyota Sequioa CTU SUV one moment and deliciously interrogating terrorists the next and then barking orders to her tactical team about how to storm a warehouse. I think I’d place her higher than Ryoko Asakara right now for the role.

Though Kyoto does cheap out of the series event and not show a third one (possible because, well, they have a lot of other stuff to cram in this episode) and just allude to it. In any case, Yuuichi ditches Nayuki to handle Ayu/Akiko/terrorists by herself while he goes out hunting for little Mexican girls.

I’m telling you– keep your daughters away from Yuuichi. With Makoto gone, Mai and Sayuri locked up in the hospital, Yuuichi sets his sights on Shiori in this dating by attrition model. By my loose timeline, he went to the dance with Mai five days ago, had tea with Sayuri three days ago, and fought off an epic demon army with Mai two days ago. Now he’s going on a day-to with Shiori on Sunday? This guy is a monster.

Very sweet scene. If I didn’t know any better, it looks like a caring mother with her concerned son.

Day-to montage with Shiori. I like her dress– kinda cute. I can tease on Shiori, but why? Yuuichi is doing a good job of teasing her already, and I’m lazy after plowing through four Kanon posts this week.

“I want to go to an arcade!”

Man, this is a cheap day-to. Honestly, I have never, ever been requested to take a girl to an arcade before. Talk about delusional Japanese fantasies. Though I can’t wait for Shiori to ask Yuuichi to play some nakkid mah jong with her. (Yes, the last time I was in a Japanese arcade, the most popular machines were the nakkid mah jong machine. No one wanted to play Guilty Gear against me. I’m too much Sol for them. That must be why.)

Shiori seems completely overwhelmed with whack-a-mole. If I have Nayuki penciled in as the next star of 24, I think I have Shiori dead last. (Though reminds me of ああっ女神さまっ where Peorth beats Belldandy at whack-a-mole because Bell didn’t want to hurt something so cute. Shiori’s problem is a bit more fundamental than that.)

After Shiori’s epic zero score even after using her Unlimited Hammer Works, Yuuichi asks, “Now can we go play some strip mah jong?”

Their day-to continues as they go to a secluded park where the two enjoy a snowball fight and other fun wintertime activities while a sped up version of Last Regrets plays in the background. Is it really a good idea for a sickly girl to play in the snow without a winter jacket? Or even gloves? Next stop, Frostbite City! Bad times… bad times.

I think it would have been hilarious if Shiori is sketching a nakkid Yuuichi, who is only wearing a single necklace a la Kate Winslet in Titanic.

(After seeing the preview for Epic Movie, I think someone should work on an aptly named Epic Anime where scenes like my proposed Titanic/Shiori parody could be explored. Maybe I should make a post someday about my other Epic Anime ideas… then I realized I should see if I could sell the ideas before giving them out free on my blog.)

The most disappointing thing about Yuuichi’s day-tos? They never seem to end anywhere good. They seem to be ending in the hospital, and, now, the school?

Shiori somewhat starts opening up to Yuuichi. She tells him that she is very sick and reveals that it’s more than just a common cold (throat cancer like our favorite blonde singer with shinigami in the form of stuffed animals following her around?) and that her dream is to be able to come to school and live a normal life with her sister.

Even if it is a small dream, it’s all that she has. People need hope and dreams to go on with their lives or else the burdens of existence would be too great. Shiori is by no means my favorite character, but she’s made herself a lot more likable when she is sincere and resolute, like how she is in this scene, especially to the Ondore Shiori that always lies.

(My current Kanon haremette chart? In order: CTU Agent Nayuki, Mai, Sayuri, Kaori, Akiko, Shiori, Ayu, Amano, Shiori’s Classmate, Makoto, Jun.)

I’m guessing that possibly because Shiori went home happy after spending time with Yuuichi that Kaori calls him out. Two sisters in one day? Good job Yuuichi! Actually, I want to point out something else– the use of lighting in this scene.

I like how Kaori’s darkness is juxtaposed with…

… Yuuichi’s light. Looking for deeper meaning, it’s obvious that the two have different approaches for Shiori. On one hand, Yuuichi embraces Shiori’s existence and indulges her. He spends time with her, keeps her company, and brings her ice cream. Kaori, though, chose a different path, shunning Shiori like if she were Nicole Richie.

The two methods come to a head here. I think that Kaori is being torn up inside much like Sayuri with her younger brother, and by ignoring Shiori to avoid the hurt that it would cause after Shiori dies may make the pain worse. One thing that is abundantly clear from Makoto’s and Sayuri’s arc is that the author or creator of Kanon seems to believe that in this sort of situation the correct methodology is to celebrate life with the person who has limited time. The overriding theme would be, “If they don’t have much time life, make the most out of it. You’ll regret it otherwise.”

But there’s also a corollary that I expect to be explored very soon. “Even if you think you have all the time in the world together, it may not be that way tomorrow. So still, make sure you enjoy and make most out of the time that you spend with those you love.” I think Nayuki’s story would start to bring this theme out… and Ayu’s will hammer it out of the ballpark.

In the meanwhile, I think after seeing Yuuichi with Shiori, Kaori realizes what she did may not have been right. She wants to embrace her sister, and she breaks down. Thus keeping Kanon‘s four episode streak of featuring a crying girl alive. Both Kaori and Mai were two of the more, uh, confident girls, and they both end up breaking down crying in Yuuichi’s arms. He’s got the touch.

(And so does Kyoto with their Oharuhi-sama like animation prowess this scene. Kudos.)

And, yes, I’m wondering, “Didn’t I see something familiar in REC 1?” after Aka’s house burns down and Matsumaru comforts her with some, uh, lovin’?