badger11’s take on anime

She’s also hurting.

I suppose this wasn’t really the right episode to introduce Kanon to someone who isn’t familiar with it. The outcome was that I’m mean and heartless. Oh well :). More on that later. There’s nothing really new in terms of the story since we’re in Shiori’s arc, but its still a great show. However, I’ve come to like her more than I did in her earlier appearances. That’s not really surprising since we didn’t see much of Shiori. Read more

I love it when I get completely engrossed in this show. Its always a surprise when the closing song starts. Its nice that KyoAni took the time to do a nice wrap-up with the visit to Mai and Sayuri in the hospital. I suppose this will be the last that we see of them until the end of the series (look how fast they dropped Amano at the end of the Makoto’s story). It also provided a nice segway into Shirori’s story. In a way, her can be seen as a continuation of Sayuri’s story about her younger brother. Where Shirori grew, he died. If he had lived, would Sayuri by the person she is in the show? Or would Sayuri be like Kaori, trying to protect herself from the pain when he finally died? However, Sayuri did spend time with her sickly younger brother, but that was as a child. Would she have that delightful laugh that we (ok, ok, I) love?

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This show still surprises me, giving Sayuri a background story when in reality, she’s a secondary character. But given this story arc, I suppose its safe to call her a main character. And given the major event is this episode, even though I knew what was coming, it sure took me by surprise. At least the length to which they went. That was brutal. First they take Makoto away and now they put Sayrui through all kinds of grief (Who do they think she is? Sato from the NHK?)

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What is it about Kanon that causes me to absolutely need to watch it? This has been something I’ve wanted write/rant about for a few weeks now. Granted its visually stunning. Story-wise, its interesting. In terms of characters, from main characters like zombie Nayuki and her sleepiness to secondary characters like Jun and his Elvis impersonations, the quirks of the characters are endearing. But I still can’t explain why I want to watch this show. So consider this my rant about a Kanon addiction. Jeez, this turned out to be a long one.

When, just when did Kanon become a need-it-now addiction and a cannot-miss-all-social-interactions-be-damned* “event” that I have to see as soon as it becomes viewable? Why is that this is the only show that I’ll watch the opening and closing credits, humming along with the music? Where or at what point in time did my mind say, “Okay, I need more. Please man, just…just one more hit. That’s all I need until the next episode”. Of course that one more hit becomes one more re-watch the episode which can easily lead to the dreaded “marathon**.”

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Better bring out the tissues.

This was a pretty fast paced episode and I think we’re at the start of resolving at least one character’s storyline (based on some of the blogs that I’ve read). By the end of the show, we’ve seen that Yuuichi is one mean smartass and a smooth character. Picking up the last episode, Yuuichi is at the school at night. He’s trying to get some answers from a sword-wielding Mai. When he hears a sound and suddenly gets knocked into a wall, Mai (who speaks even less than Yuki did in the Melancholy of Haruhi) jumps by and starts swinging her sword around. Mai tells him that she’s a demon-slayer. From here we jump to Yuuichi at home, handing Nayuki her notebook from the school. Heading into the bath room in order to take a hot bath, Yuuichi finds Makoto already in there. Yuuichi makes a joke about joining her in the tub. Makoto reacts by throwing things at him and storms out, wet and only wearing a towel. When he’s done, he finds her outside the bathroom with a cold. Yuuichi challenges Makoto by getting her to say “Demon Slayer” for ten times, as fast as she can. As she does it, she winds up biting her tongue much to Yuuichi’s delight. Later, in bed, he’s thinking about Mai and what she said when he ears Makoto sneezing as she walks up the hall. He hides behind the door. Makoto sneaks into his room, intent on getting revenge, Yuuichi steps behind her, picks her up and carries her back to her room. He tells her to stay in bed until she’s over her cold.

The next morning, he walks into the kitchen for breakfast. After finding out that Nayuki is still sleeping and Makoto is in bed sick, he suddenly realizes that Ayu is there eating breakfast with them. Akiko tells him that she invited Ayu after she passed by the house. After school, Yuuichi is walking around when he runs into Mai. He still can’t get her to talk. As he’s trying to carry on a conversation with her a friend of Mai’s, Sayuri, shows up. Yuuichi jokingly tells her that the ever silent Mai just told him she loves her. He’s doing this to get a response out of Mai, who still stays quiet. Yuuichi is surprised when sayuri invites him to eat with her and Mai. As they eat, Yuuichi asks Sayuri if she like, he then makes a joke that based on the meal, Sayuri is the perfect woman for him. Yuuichi discovers that he can get more than just a yes or no answer from Mai if he serves her food. After the meal, Sayuri invites him to eat with them again. As he starts to leave the school, he finds Shiori, the mysterious sick girl. As they walk around the school grounds, he tries to find out her last name, but she won’t ell him, saying that mysterious girls are supposed to be more interesting. As they talk, he finds out that she came to the school, hoping to see him because he’s an interesting person. She asks him to help her make a snowman. Yuuichi promises to help her, but only when she gets better.

On his way home, Yuuichi runs in to a recovered Makoto. Makoto is on an errand for Akiko. Yuuichi teases her about being too young to run an errand. Makoto claims to mature enough. Yuuichi decides to torment her further by asking her to by a porno mag for him. He’s surprised to learn that Makoto doesn’t know what a porn mag is. So Yuuichi tells her to ask the store clerk to help her buy one. Predictable, Makoto is angry at Yuuichi when she gets home. As she’s shouting at Makoto, she notices he’s eating a pork bun. Yuuichi tells her that he bought it in town along with the comic book that he’s reading. Makoto runs off to get buy the same things for herself. Later that night, Yuuichi goes back to the school to find Mai. He’s brought some food for her. As he unsuccessfully tries to get her to talk, something is creeping up behind him. Mai reacts, swinging her sword which pulls off a curtain. They discover that Makoto was under the curtain. She was followed Yuuichi on order to scare him but was scared by Mai instead. As he leaves, Mai cryptically tells him to be nice to her.

This was a surprisingly fast and humorous episode. And from some of the other blogs that I’ve read, we should be coming up on a climax and resolution to someone’s storyline. So the big questions are why is Mai at school at night? What are the demons she says she’s fighting? What does Shiori find so interesting about Yuuichi? Poor Makoto gets to be the butt-end of Yuuichi’s jokes and pranks though setting her up to buy a porno mag was funny. There was barely any Ayu and Nayuki to be satisfied with, but understandable since it focused on Mai, Shiori and Makoto.