badger11’s take on anime

As the show opens, Alice is chewing Oland out for sneaking out of the hospital to find the cats from the bridge where he normally sleeps. Because he snuck out of the hospital, his wounds became infected so he has to stay in longer. Alice is so furious that she swears never to come back and see him. After she leaves, Oreld tells Oland that she was pretty concerned for him. A nurse, Rosetta, storms in and also reprimands Oland. She asks Oland’s roommate to ring a bell if he tried to sneak out again. When she finds out that Oreld and Machs are Oland’s friends, she asks them to take a urine sample from him. Embarrassed, they make up an excuse and leave. The nurse then attempts to take one herself and here we come to the running joke throughout the episode. Since Oland is so big, everything is proportionally big also. Eeevvvverything. Oland starts talking to his roommate, Wantz, who’s envious that Oland has friends to visit him. Wantz works in a briefcase factory and has been in the hospital for a week due to stomach problems. None of his coworkers have visited him. Seeing that Rosetta is having trouble taking a sample herself, Oland takes the sample bottle and leaves the room to do it himself. As he leaves, he sees someone enter the room. Hearing the stranger talk to Wantz, Oland realizes that it’s somebody who works with Wantz. Despite his wounds, Oland limps off to the bathroom.

Back at the headquarters of Oland’s unit, Machs and Oreld are in the library. Machs is trying to find evidence about Oland’s old anti-tank unit, ATT-901, and the “Invisible 9″ that Captain Hunks told him about. Oreld is trying to find out why Machs is doing all this research on Oland and his old unit. Machs explains that he believes that Oland’s presence in the unit could threaten the unit’s work and existence. Oreld tries to get more information from Machs, but Machs refuses. Until Oreld starts to embarrass Machs based on a childhood incident (both have been friends since childhood). Oreld makes the point that just as Mach’s past isn’t of any concern to people in the library; Machs shouldn’t be concerned with Oland’s past. Machs fills Oreld in on the information that Captain Hunks told him about the Invisible 9. As they’re talking, a woman, named Mirelle, passes by them. Oreld had taken her out on a date. Oreld and Mirelle flirt with one another. AS she walks away, Oreld tells Machs that she works in the Personnel department. He gets the idea to pay Mirelle a visit and see if he can get gat access to Oland’s personnel files. Even if there isn’t any record of the 901 Anti-Tank Unit, there has to be records of Oland’s military service.

Oreld finds out that Oland’s assignment was strongly supported by the Imperial Science Laboratory, also known as the Kauplan Institute. Machs decides that he wants to talk to Oland about his past. Oreld agrees and as the two start to head towards the hospital they run into Alice. She’s still adamant about not visiting Oland. At the hospital, Oland’s gets calls the Rosetta because Wantz hasn’t been seen since earlier in the day. She notices a briefcase in the trash next to Wantz’s bed. Oreld and Machs run into the room, telling the Rosetta that someone’s on the roof. All four of them head to roof where they find Wantz preparing to jump. He tells them that the visitor he had was his boss who fired him from the factory. He has no where else to go. The briefcase was his severance package for working for 20 years at the factory. Oland manages to convince him not to jump by promising to make the country a better place for people like Wantz. Wantz starts to step away from the ledge when a strong wind starts to blow him over. Oland dives and manages to push him back from the edge only to go over it himself. He’s caught by Machs and Oreld but because his size and weight, he starts to pull them over. Wantz and Rosetta try to pull them back. Suddenly Alice appears next to Rosetta, helping her and Wantz pull everyone back from the edge. As they lay there, Rosetta starts to look around for Alice who has disappeared behind the door to the roof.

This wasn’t a bad episode except for the ending. I thought it was a weak story device. A strong wind. That’s what that they come up with?! Hell, in Welcome to the NHK, Satou damn near fell of a cliff edge when it collapsed on him, but a strong wind? I know, I know, they needed a convenient plot device to bring a climax to the show. And since there aren’t any tanks or boulders for Oland to shoot, they give us this. I can’t really fault them on it, but it’s just so…predictable. I would’ve been satisfied with Oreld and Machs smuggling in some beers into Oland’s room with Alice spying on them from outside the room. One saving grace was the orchestral background music. It worked with the intensity of the roof seen and reminded me a lot of some classical music I’ve heard before. I want to say it reminded me of Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from “Peer Gynt” but it’s been awhile since I heard it. It was nice to see and ending that didn’t rely on Oland’s tank killing mode and to see Alice’s buried concern for him (even though it’s obvious to the viewers that she is concerned about him.)

Another enjoyable episode, heavy on the internal monologues. With that out of the way, on to the laughable thing I call a blog post. Well, She’s at it again. Hirokko (Hiro) Matsukata, our workaholic lead, has spent another night at the office. where everyone is talking about two photographers who were on a stakeout. They had their cover blown as they were trying to photograph an Olympic athlete and her coach who are rumored to be having an affair. One of the photographers is Fumiya Sagawara who seems to be on the burn-out arc of his career. He and the other photographer are talking with the chief editor about the blown stakeout. The chief editor suggests taking one of the female reporters. After running through the list, Hiro comes out as the nominee. Fumiya rejects the idea of having a Hiro, let alone a woman come with him on the stakeout. Hiro also rejects the idea since she’s got a date with her workaholic boyfriend. right on cue, her boyfriend calls and has to cancel their date tonight because of work. Hiro gets asked by Fumiya and the other reporter to go with Fumiya on a stakeout. As the other reporter is talking to Hiro, Fumiya doesn’t like women like Hiro. He hates strong-willed women. He thinks of them as selfish and doesn’t like their intense expressions. He thinks that women use their sex or some lame reason such as going on a date as a reason to slack off. He’s surprised when she agrees. As Fumiya walks away, Hiro starts to wonder why she doens’t like women or herself.

On the drive over, Hiro tries to find out why Fumiya doesn’t liker her. she mentions that when she started at the company, she worked in the gossip/tabloid division where Fumiya is assigned. She didn’t like it so she managed to transfer over to the political division. That’s part of the reason why Fumiya hates her, he was there when she transferred out.They park and wait outside of get to the athlete’s apartment building. As they wait, Hiro spots someone sneaking up on them. Fumiya realizes that its the same woman who blew his cover the night before. Hiro suddenly hugs Fumiya, telling him to act like they’re lovers. The woman walks up to the car and stares in, watching Hiro and Fumiya. After a few minutes, she leaves and Hiro realizes that she stained Fumiya’s shirt with her natto maki. She heads to a nearby water fountain to clean the shirt. As she’s cleaning it, she sees a taxi carrying the the athelete and the coach drive by. Fumiya also sees the taxi and starts taking pictures of the two as they get out. He realizes that they aren’t giving him the shots that he needs. All it looks like is that the coach is walking the athlete to the door.

As the sun rises in the morning, Fumiya stops the car near a bridge. As Hiro is sleeping, he gets out and walks to the edge of the river and starts taking pictures of the sky. Even though he’s burnt-out, he likes his job and the pictures of the infinite sky is a reminder to him about how insignificant everyone and their problems are. Hiro walks up and asks him why he takes pictures of the sky. He asks her why she’s always eating natto maki. Hiro refuses to tell him why.

This was a pretty good episode. One thing that I liked about it is that not everyone likes Hiro. If this was a average TV show, Hiro would’ve overcome Fumiya’s dislike of her and there’d be a greater understanding and appreciation between the two. Leaving things the way they are seems more realistic and will probably come into play for at least a few episodes down the line. Even with the tension between Hiro and Fumiyua, this was a humorous episode. And here’s another show with an opening them music that I’ve come to like. And hum at different times (damn it).

Since its Halloween and I’m behind on watching this show, I thought that I’d post about the scary show called Welcome to the NHK! episodes 15 and 16. When we last saw Sato, he was talking to his mother on the phone. She was giving him some bad news. We find out what the bad news is, he’s getting his allowance cut because his father lost his job. She tells him that he’s going to have to get a job. After they hang up, Sato is depressed about the idea of having to go outside. He then remembers the MMORPG coupon given to him by the suicide club teenager. He signs up for the game and starts to play as a fighter. He starts to play the game by himself. Because of this, his low-level character keeps getting killed by creatures. He’s interrupted by Yamazaki who reminds him about the game they’re working on. Yamazaki finds out about Sato’s game playing and explains that he needs to be in a group to avoid being killed all of the time. Even in the online world, his hikikomori habits stop him from talking to other players.

When he goes to his hikikomori meeting with Misaki, she reads something from her notebook. She tells him that success is achieved with small steps. Sato realizes that he can start out fighting smaller creatures in his online game. He leaves their session before Misaki can finish. Misaki thinks that he’s improving because of his positive attitude. Back in the online world, he starts to raise his character level by going after weaker creatures. He gets so involved in the game that he stops going to Misaki’s counselling sessions. While in the game he meets another player named Mia. Her character is a healer. They start to play together as a team and are able to raise their character levels. In the offline world, Misaki shows up at his apartment wondering why stopped coming to their meetings. She keeps knocking on the door, but Sato is deep into the game, ignoring her. She opens his door and sees him playing the game. She’s surprised by the discarded beverage bottles and other garbage covering his floor.

Episode 16 picks up with Misaki in Sato’s apartment, freaked out by what she’s seeing. The apartment is covered in garbage and he hasn’t shaved in days. She tries to pull him outside but he shakes her off. Misaki notices that he’s playing Mia and starts to think that Sato might started a relationship with Mia. Insied the game, Mia and Satou are making plans to go after dragons in order to start earning enough treasure to sell and make money in the real world. Sato wants to do this so he can avoid having to leave his apartment and still earn money. As they talk, Sato starts to having romantic feelings for Mia. Misaki comes back to his apartment wearing cat ears and a tail. She starts making “meow” noises. Sato throws her out and asks her why she’s dressed like a cat. She tells him that she saw he was obsessed by the Mia’s cat character. When he gets back to the game, Mia introduced him to some of her friends that she recruited to go dragon hunting with them. The group sets of in search of a dragon to fight. Back in her bedroom, Misaki is reading some “moe” magazines in order to find something to distract Sato from the game. Inside the game, Sato and the group find and kill a dragon. One of the group members talks to Sato about selling game items for money. He wishes Sato good luck and quits the game. The show cuts to this characters room where he’s laughing at Sato. He thinks that Sato will fail at trading items for money and can’t believe that Sato’s character name is his real name. Outside his room, his sister tells him that his lunch is outside the door. She overhear’s his remarks about Sato’s character name. She remembers going to high school with a guy names Sato.

Sato and Mia are still playing the game, defeating more evil critters. Sato has fallen in love with Mia. He tells her that he doesn’t like the real world because of all of the people lying and talking about love. He asks her to always play with him. She agrees on the condition that they meet in the real world. Sato is stunned. He’s afraid of what she’ll think when she sees the mess in his apartment. She tells him that she’s already walking up the stairs to his apartment. he hears someone outside his door and starts to become nervous. She tells him that she’s opening the door. Sato sees the door open. Standing in the door is Mia, a character played by Yamazaki. sato is stunned. Yamazaki tells him that he wanted to teach Sato the truth about characters in MMORPGs. That people can pretend to be someone else. Any sense of love or friendship is just an illusion. Sato lies and tells Yamzaki that he knew Mia wasn’t real and that the only reason he’s playing is to earn money selling game items. Yamazaki doesn’t believe and tells Sato that he won’t make money that way.

Yamazaki tells Sato that the only people who make money from games are the game makers, a subtle way of reminding Sato that the two of them are supposed to finish making their game. Sato loses control and throws a chair at Yamazaki. Yamazaki escapes and goes back to his apartment. He starts to think that playing as Mia might have been the wrong decision. Sato is in shock at discovering that Mia is Yamazaki and that he won’t make any money selling game items. The phone rings. Its the girl from earlier in the show. Her brother was one of Sato’s teammates that killed the dragon. She introduces herself as Kobayashi, the class president from Sato’s high school. We see Misaki outside, dressed in her high school uniform and carrying a bag of groceries. She intends to cook him a meal in order to get him away from Mia and the game. After knocking on the door and getting no response, she opens the door and sees that Sato isn’t there.

Finally got a chance to sit down and actually watch the whole episode in one sitting. More of normal, day-to-day type episode, but it starts putting things in place. The show opens with the normal dream-scape voice over. We then get treated to a flashback scene where Yuuichi and Ayu first meet, seven years ago. She’s crying and he’s trying to cheer her up. This is also where he gets her hooked on taiyaki. And just like the older Yuuichi, he realizes that he was supposed to meet Nayuki. When he catches up with her, she calls him a liar as she does when they’re both older. The scene cuts to the older Yuuichi, who is awake in bed. He hears his door open and someone sneaking in. It’s Makoto. Yuuichi pretends to be asleep as Makoto stands over him, getting ready to drop some konnyaku onto his face. As she she’s about to drop it, he surprises her and she falls to the floor. He asks what she was going to do with the konnyaku. He tricks her into saying that it was her midnight snack. Akiko comes in and sees that Makoto is so hungry that she’ll eat konnyaku.

In the morning, Makoto is complaining about heartburn because she ate so late last night. Yuuichi almost gets her to admit that she was going to drop the konnyaku on his face. After she runs up to her room, Yuuichi takes Nayuki her lunch. She went to the school on the weekend because her track team is practicing. After watch her train for a while, he leaves and runs into Kaori who’s also at school because of her club. She hints that things aren’t gong well at home so she’d rather come to school. Yuuichi believes that she had a fight with her parents. She tells Yuuichi not to cause any trouble for Nayuki and to watch out for Nayuki as she has a tendency to overexert herself. Yuucihi jokes with Kaori about this being the cause of her being sleepy all of the time.

After leaving Kaori, he heads downtown to help Akiko shop. Ayu makes runs up to them and trips. Yuuichi introduces Akiko to Ayu as his landlord. After explaining what a landlord is, he introduces Ayu to Akiko who seems to recognize Ayu’s name, but isn’t sure. Ayu joins them in order to help Yuuichi unpack his boxes. She says she wants to thank him for helping her look for the item that she lost the other day. When they get home, Yuuichi notices Makoto watching them from the top of the stares. She hides behind a corner until Yuuichi calls her down to meet Ayu. Yuuichi and the two girls start to carry up his boxes. As Yuuichi carries the rest of the boxes up, Ayu breaks the ice with the unexpectedly shy Makoto by offering her a taiyaki she bought earlier. As Ayu leaves the house, she notices Makoto watching from a window. She waves to Makoto who shyly waves back. Later that night, Nayuki, back from training, asks Yuuichi for her notebook. He forgot it at school and decides to go and get it, even though the school is closed. He’s walking down the hall when he notices a figure. As he gets closer, we see that it’s so Mai carrying a sword. And the show closes there.

So far, this is the only episode where the music got my attention. The music playing during the flashback scene was nice and enjoyable. I really enjoyed the music that played during the Mai scene and hoped for more of the same in the next episode. Another thing that I noticed, and I’ll have to find the previous episodes, but it seems like every time we see Ayu leave, it seems that she’s heading off into light. In this episode, as she left Yuuichi’s home, Ayu ran into the sunset. During the flashback, when she left Yuuichi, she ran down a sun-lit street. I’ve mentioned before that, as I understand it, the show is supposed to have a supernatural aspect to it and having Ayu continuingly running into the light is very suggestive of a plot development along those lines. And then there is Mai and her imitation of Buffy the Slayer. That should be a very intetersting plot development. Even though the show had a “normal, every day” feel to it (for most of the show that is), this was another enjoyable show.

In the last episode, we learned a little about Alice and that despite being a noble, she’s interested in social justice and breaking down class distinctions. We finally get some more background on Randell Oland in episode 4. Granted, most of it is speculation. There are obvious opposite qualities in these two. Alice is rich and sleeps in a fine bed while Oland is poor and sleeps under a bridge. Alice is forward and enthusiastic where Oland is reserved to the point of being shy. But there are similarities, too. Both are interested in repairing the damage done by the war. Alice has spoken about helping people in pretty much every episode. Its how she got Oland to help fight the tank in the first episode of the show. And Oland was an ex-solider who rejoined the military specifically to join the Pumpkin Scissors unit. And both have their own switches to get them going. Alice basically has a short fuse, not even a tank firing its main cannon in front of her phased her. Out numbered, she wanted to take on experienced ex-soldiers with only a three man team not equipped for fighting. Oland literally flicks a lantern switch to take him from a meek shambling giant to a zombified one-man tank buster.

Oland is dreaming of tanks and a group of blue-lanterned soldiers, including himself, marching steadily towards the oncoming tanks with the words “Toten Sie” (roughly “Kill” in German) being shouted in the background and appearing on the screen. Just as he’s about to fire his gun, Alice appears in his dream, that its time to go and offer war relief. Oland wakes up under the bridge surrounded by hungry cats. After feeding them, Oland passes by a couple of other homeless men who ask him if he had another bad dream. He pauses and the image of Alice flashes by and answers that it was a good dream. The real-life Alice is sarcastically asking Oreld if he can only remember the names of women that he’s dating. Oreld is having trouble remembering the bad guy of episode two, Viscount Wolkins, who hunted them with his tank. An Army tank expert, Lt. Webner, is paying the team a visit. She tells them that the tank is an experimental one and that no one like Wolkins should have one. In fact, its still in development. She asks the unit to investigate. Orled suggests asking Wolkins himself. Captain Hunks tells them that Wolkins is in a sanatorium and incapable of telling them where he got it.

To find out where the tank came from, the team head out to visit the foremost tank expert, Doctor Colt, in the empire. On the way over, Machs is preoccupied with a conversation he had with Lt. Webner concerning Orland. She’s curious about how he’s been able to take on tanks in a fight and survive. Machs describes him as a nice guy.Nice guy or not, she wants to know how he could ten tons of or and know where to fire his gun and have the shell penetrate a tanks’ armor at blank range. The team meet with Dr. Colt and give him their information concerning the tank for his review. After reviewing it, he tells that there is the tank doesn’t exist. There’s an organization called the “Alliance of Western Nations Technological Conference” were such technological advancements are made and this tank hasn’t been mentioned in it either. Dr. Colt goes on to say that this tank is far more advanced than any tank currently in production in any country. He asks if the military has started to analyze the tank. Alice tells him that they’re about to start. She suddenly gets a feeling on the back of her neck and decides to leave. As Machs is gathering up the papers, he notices a gun mounted on a wall that looks like the one that Oland uses. He asks the doctor about it, Dr. Colt tells him that its a mock-up of a 13mm anti-tank gun. It was designed to give a foot solider a better weapon to fight tanks with. The only effecitve way to use the tank is to fire at at point-blank range. After Alice and her team leave his office, Dr. Colt makes a phone call concerning “that tank”. As the unit drives off, they’re followed back to a laboratory were the tank is being dismantled.

At the lab, Oreld notices a new armored car. Lt. Webner explains that it’ll be used by another military unit. Inside the armored car, the men who were following the team have snuck in. They start it up, and fire the main cannon, hitting the experimental tank. As the team try to recover, the armored car starts to move. The drivers intend to ram the tank with a front mounted spike. As the car speeds towards the tank, Alice notices that Machs is trapped it by fallen debris. As Machs is about to be run over, he’s picked up by Oland. Oland had turned on his blue lantern and is in the hypnotic like state that goes into when he is fighting a tank. The spikes of the armored car pierce Oland’s leg. He fires his gun, the same model as the one that Machs saw on Dr. Colt’s wall, at the same time that the main cannon fires, Injuring Orland on the side of the head. Back the head office of the team, Machs is reporting to Capt. Hunks, he tells him that all three of the masked men are dead and the tank is completely destroyed. He goes on report that Oland will be out of the hospital in a month. Machs asks the Captain about Oland’s old unit, the 901st Anti-tank unit. There is no such unit listed and by convention, no military unit has a numerical designation with the number nine in at as the previous emperor was killed on the battlefield on September 9th. Captain Hunks tells Machs that there are unlisted military units. And together they form a group of units called the “Invisible 9″. Stekkin suddenly runs in and tells them that Viscount Wolkins committed suicide. Captain Hunks states that Wolkins was killed in order to keep the secret about the tank. He goes on to say that there’s an organization out there that will kill to keep its secret. He asks if Machs is willing to risk his life in order to investigate the “Invisible 9″. Machs states that he is willing.

There’s been a lot of humor in the previous episodes of Kanon and episode three is no different. Yuucihi brings home the girl who attacked him the last episode. Since she’s passed out, he has to carry her. When he gets in, both Nayuki and Akiko make the same joke (at different times) about the girl being a big ingredient for the oden. They manage to awake her by shouting that dinner’s ready. When they’re eating dinner, the girl is obviously hungry since she’s eating fast. Yuuichi asks who she is but the girl claims amnesia which Yuuichi doesn’t believe since she remembers him. The girl explains that the only thing she knows is that she holds a grudge against him. After dinner Yuuichi, Nayuki and the girl are going through her purse for clues. Yuuichi points that everything she has seems to have just been picked up from the ground. Its clear that the girl is trying to build a history for herself since she doesn’t remember who she is. They also find some pictures taken from a photo booth of the girl by herself. She explains that she saw other girls her age using the photo booth to take pictures. Yuuichi wants to call the police and turn the girl over to them so that they can take care of her. The girl is frightened by this and thinks the police are scary. Nayuki suggests letting Akiko decide. Yuuichi protests because he know that Akiko will let the girl stay.

Sure enough, Akiko lets the girl stay, claiming that being around Yuuichi might help her remember. She later tells Yuuichi that she will talk to the police if there are any reports of missing girls.Since the girl can’t remember her name, Yuuichi comes up with an insulting name. The girl smacks Yuuichi in the face, knocking him over. After everyone has gone to sleep, Yuuichi hears the girl sneaking downstairs. He follows her and finds her looking through the refrigerator, looking for more to eat. He sneaks up behind her and drops some sort of gelatinous looking thing (konnyaku?) down the back of her shirt. The girl shouts and thrashes around the kitchen, waking up Akiko and Nayuki. She tells them that she was still hungry.

I don’t remember a smack like this since Aka double-palmed Matsumaru in REC

At school the next morning, Kitagawa suggests that Yuuichi had some sort of love affair with the girl. Yuuichi points out that he was 10 at the time. Kitagawa mentions that a girl is outside in the yard next to the school. Yuuichi recognizes her as the girl that he and Ayu knocked over the day before. Telling Nayuki that he’ll be back, he goes outside to talk to her. He finds out that she’s a student at the school, but has been home sick. But she’s feeling stronger despite being sick for so long. He asks her why she’s at school and she mentions that she us waiting to meet someone, but she doens’t know a name or what grade this person is, even though we presume that its Yuuichi. As she leaves, Yuuichi tells her his name, but she only tells him her first name, Shiori. In spending time with Shiori during lunch, Yuuichi forgot about his promise to Nayuki to have lunch with her. He offers to buy her sushi as an apology.

After school Yuuichi is walking through downtown when Ayu runs up and jumps on his back. In another humorous scene, Yuuichi makes Ayu angry by mocking her with her catchphrase “Uguu”. To apologize to her, he buys her taiyaki. In all three episodes, Ayu has rarely been seen without a taiyaki bag. In the first episode, Yuuichi had a memory from when was 10. A girl around the same age bumped into him, crying because she was lost. To calm her down, he bought her some taiyaki. In the second episode, we find out that the little girl was Ayu. So it seems that Ayu has a strong unconscious bond with Yuuichi through taiyaki. In a poignant scene, Ayu explains that she was out looking for something that she lost. When Yuuichi asks her what it was, Ayu can’t remember and becomes distressed by not remembering what it was. After searching around places that Ayu could’ve lost it (and they all deal with food), They walk to a bakery that Ayu remembers visiting, but turns out that a bookstore is now located there. Standing front of the bookstore, Yuuichi asks if she has a cell phone. Ayu doesn’t know what a cell phone is until Yuuichi explains that its a mobile phone.

As he heads home, Yuuichi wonders if the city casts an amnesia spell over people. Ayu can’t remember what she lost or where, he can’t remember his life in the city 7 years earlier and the girl at home can’t remember who she is. When he gets home, the girl comes running at him, slips and lands on top of him. Nayuki and Akiko come into the hallway and tell Yuuichi that the girl remembers her name. The girl calls herself “Makoto”. Yuuichi thinks her name sounds like a guy’s name. She defends herself by sayingf her name is cute and his is weird. Yuuichi calls her a freeloader. Makoto points out that Yuuichi is one too, despite being family.

So this episode solves half of a mystery and introduces Makoto whom I liked from the original Kanon. I haven’t seen all of the original series so I don’t know her her story other than what’s been shown here. So know we have to wait to find out who she is and what happened to her memories and her connection to Yuuichi. Then there’s the mystery of Shiori. Why is she sneaking out to meet Yuuichi when she’s sick? Who is she? And if she’s recovering, why is she wearing a shawl instead of a coat in the snow? I thought the camera work during their meeting was great. It followed Shiori as she walked around Yuuichi when they were talking.

I know that Kanon is supposed to have a hint or two of the supernatural to it. That lead me to believe that Ayu is a ghost or spirit of some sort, but  we see her reflection in the window of the bookstore. I don’t think that we would have seen her reflection if she was a ghost. As I mentioned earlier, I found the scene when Ayu couldn’t remember what she had lost to be very poignant (and the fact that I was able to spell that word correctly the first time…even though I am using it incorrectly here). The unknown urgent need that she had to find it as soon as possible and her reaction to not being able to remember it came acrossas very painful.