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| Character names from left to right: Makoto Sawatari, Ayu Tsukimiya, Nayuki Minase |
-Dee Remy
Hello everyone, and welcome to my first anime review. I must say, I’ve never been extremely fond of the whole slice of life/drama series in anime. From where I stand they seem like boring, by-the-book series that never go anywhere, do anything, and have a main character that is as interesting as a window curtain. This in mind, when I go into such series, there’s a certain bit of apprehension, or dread if you will, cause I know that it will be about 50% walking around at school and 45% drama that has no substance.
This doesn’t mean I’ve never enjoyed a slice-of-life(Clannad, SNAFU, School Days(joking)) but when I first looked at Kanon, I just felt the urge to laugh. A series based of a Key Visual Novel adapted by Kyoto Animation, that has 5 equally adorable girls on the cover? Right, think I got this. There’s going to be some boring bloke who has some reason to be new to the setting, there’s going to be one girl who has the personality and emotional capacity of a certain Evangelion character, there’s going to be another girl who looks and acts about 5, and the entire cast has some kind of dark past or trauma that will rear its ugly head by the end of the series. Granted, I did get that, but it’s not as straight forward as it seems.
Lets begin with our protagonist: Yuichi Aizawa, the teenager who has just moved back to a city where he spent like two weeks staying with his aunt and cousin, in order to go to school there. He actually pretty normal, but the one thing he has going for him is massive snark. He reminds me vividly of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’s Kyon, only without the ability to occasionally keep his mouth shut. He always seems to have something to say about everyone and everything, and this wit is what drives the shows comedy. It’s actually pretty funny too, and that’s good, cause bland comedy and repetition get along like a toe and hangnail. Despite this, Yuichi proves multiple times that he actually cares a lot for other people, and will do anything for anybody who thinks needs his help. I really like his character, and he makes a great protagonist for the show.
Next up is our “main girl” Ayu Tsukimiya, the aforementioned 5yr old looking girl(something Yuichi never lets her forgot). She tends to be in the center of whatever is happening, acting like a sidekick for Yuichi and helping him with his problems, armed with her trademark catchphrase "Ugu", which she apparently needs to say every 5 freakin' seconds. Since the show follows an ark format, this allows her to be always in the background while we concentrate on a certain girl, but always in the show. This builds a lot to her, and is crucial for the show’s final ark, which just so happens to be about her. She’s an eccentric and overly optimistic girl, but of course she has a dark past that shapes why she acts the way she does. Actually she’s not quite as well rounded as some of the other characters on the show, but she’s clearly the one the show wants to focus on. It’s like being told to watch grass grow while a giant panda is floating in the sky behind you, firing gamma rays from its mouth. Yes I cared what happened to her by the end, but I can’t help but feel that might be due more of the time I spent watching her than actually character likability and complexity.
The rest of the supporting cast is ridiculously strong, each with their own back-story and screen time. While I can’t talk about them all, keep watch for the Misaki sisters, who probably had the best developed ark in the show, Makato Sawatari, an unassumingly complex girl whose arc came the closest to making me shed a tear, and Minase Nayuki, Yuichi’s cousin, who is really hard to wake up in the morning. I’m glad the show was able to build such strong characters, since the plot certainly isn’t going to get of its ass and help forward the narrative is it? Character driven is something you could use to describe Kanon, and in my book, that’s a good thing.
Now the biggest problem I have with these kind of shows usually is the way they handle drama. What I hate, and what these shows usually do, is put drama in there for the sake of it. For example, I’ll cry because a puppy died, yes, but it actually takes a good show for me to cry because I liked that puppy. I knew its motivations and personality; its fears and dreams, and I can see how it all built up to the event. See what I mean? It’s easy to have a tragic backstory, but it’s harder to make the viewer truly care. Luckily, with Kanon they avoid this problem, and whatever empathy or sadness I felt for the characters, it was because they were well built, not for the sake of it. While some characters lack true depth, I really don’t have a problem with any of them.
If there’s one thing I didn't like how the show handled, it was the supernatural part of it. It just seemed like something thrown in there to increase the drama; because apart from when it was important to the plot, everything is typical slice-of-life. Now, the supernatural elements were OK in a anime like Clannad because they were used sparingly, just enough to give the show a sense of wonder(besides from that bullsh*t ending) but in Kanon they don’t seem to really have a reason for it. OK Kanon, the fox girl I can buy, but by the time demons and ghosts are showing up, my tolerance is waning. If they wanted a supernatural theme, just make it an integral part of the show, not a catalyst for drama escalation! But I digress.
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Mai standing ready to fight some "demons" with her bad-ass sword, Yuichi trying to tell her that she should eat something first.
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The music for Kanon is really quite average. While it provides really nice ambience for the series, especially during the emotional bits, nothing here really is worth listening to on your own. As for animation, Kyoto Animation did a fantastic job. While character design in nothing of the beaten track(though that is probably more the visual novels fault more than Kyoto Ani’s) the animation is lovely and high quality, as expected from this certain production studio.
While not great, Kanon is still well worth your time if you’re looking for a character driven drama. It’s emotional, funny, and if you’re suffering from a void from finishing your new favorite slice-of-life, probably one of the first things you should pick up. I didn’t cover everything, like the lack of cohesion between the story arcs, or the amount of convenience that Yuichi would meet all these girls and make such a big impact that they would remember him like a decade later all in the span of this one visit to his aunt, but I’m not going to fixate on it too much. It’s good, you should watch it, and if you don’t have a soul as black and dead as I do, you might just shed a tear or two. Till next time.
Final Verdict: 7/10
P.S: So wait, she just recovered from that illness at the end without any explanation? Oh, nevermind.
Alternate Anime:
Clannad
The aforementioned Clannad, which shares many many simalirties with Kanon. Just be sure to watch the two seasons. Not that the first season is bad...but yeah...both seasons. Also you might like...
Nisekoi
Much, much more light-hearted than Kanon ever was, but definitely worth a try if you're looking for a slice-of-life show, with its extremely addicting pacing and wacky characters.
Goodbye for now guys.
Click here for my review on My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU.
What will I be watching in the 2014 Summer season? Click here.
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