Kanon

Kanon is an anime based off of a visual novel of the same name, developed by Key. The anime is of typical length, being 24 episodes, and unlike the original release of the game, it is meant for all ages. There are two versions of the anime; this article covers the second, and more widely-known version.

The story focuses on the main male character, Aizawa Yuichi. He moves to the town where his aunt and cousin live so he can go to school there. He last visited seven years prior to when the story begins, which that previous visit (and ones before it) is the central theme to almost every story conveyed in this anime.

The main girls of the story: Kawasumi Mai (top left), Misaka Shiori (top middle), Sawatari Makoto (middle), Minase Nayuki (right), Tsukimiya Ayu (bottom left).

Each of the five girls has a well thought-out story. The anime covers most very deeply. Regrettably, Nayuki's story is barely covered, and is tied in to Ayu's story and adds only to serve a point to it. Additionally, each girl's story involves Yuichi's past, with the exception of Shiori, who only met him for the first time on his first couple of days back in town, while wandering with Ayu.

Characteristics of characters is very unique and they all blend near-perfectly. Their personalities remain consistent throughout, and deviate only within reasonable means; for example, Yuichi is "friendly and outgoing... [and] constantly teases the main cast of girls throughout the story which varies in severity depending on the girl" (via Wikipedia). He consistently helps out the girls when they are in need, however, and this is shown throughout, side-by-side with the teasing, and is even shown very prominently in the clips of Yuichi's past.

A particular characteristic of a character, Ayu, who is the central female character, is shown at almost every scene she is in. Whenever she is sad, scared, mad, depressed, and other emotions along the lines of those, she says "Uguu". The word is the common catch-phrase of the anime, and is even used on the box set as a selling point (though only known to those who have actually seen the anime to catch why it would be a selling point).

Ayu saying her catch phrase "Uguu~" after being teased by Yuichi.

The transition between stories is very smooth. All the characters are introduced within the first two episodes, and the only time most do not show up in any episode is when a story involving a particular girl reaches its climax. Additionally, when the story resolves, it is not entirely forgotten; references are made periodically to each of the preceding stories.

The stories all have sad or disconsolate undertones. Each girl, though little known or not known at all at the beginning, has something that they are going through that is affecting them, regardless of whether they show it or not. The characters, however - unlike many, many other animes that share similar tones - do not show it until their story reaches its highpoint. They act happy and actually seem happy because they all feel there are more things worth living for that outweigh the sad things that are in their lives.

The story of Kanon revolves around several themes. First and formost, which is prominent for more than half of the anime, is varying forms of magic. Makoto, for example, is actually a fox that Yuichi had come to know and befriend when he visited seven years prior who magically turned human to see and be with him again when she saw he had returned.

In contrast to the sad undertones, a main theme is that of miracles. One character points out that "miracles are called so because they don't happen", but all of them believe that they exist on some level or another.

Memory is another central theme. Yuichi remembers nothing of his prior visits to the city at first. The girls who have a history with him have varying levels of memory of the events themselves, but they all remember that he was there and all want him to remember each of them as well. Most of the entire anime and the stories revolve around not being able to progress until certain things are remembered by Yuichi.

Yuichi and Ayu seven years prior.

Another main theme, though not fully portrayed until the latter half of the anime, is as stated in the earlier post about Key, in which one of the characters in this story is in a state of autoscopy. Ayu, due to an event in the past, has a projection of her concience in the present, with her body elsewhere. Her concience is looking for a particular object, and right from the beginning of the anime itself to the end (as that her story is the last one to be told) she is looking for the item in question. She doesn't know at first that the her that everyone sees is not really her entire self. She doesn't find the item on her own, as that due to the parts of her story unfolding slowly reveal to her the dire condition her actual self is in. as her story reaches the pinnacle and plateaus off, she realizes enough and vanishes.

Kanon may not be all that known, and even less actually seen, but it is a very interesting anime nonetheless. It is a adeptly handled story, with ties between main stories and transitions between everything that can be rivaled by only a few other stories in the genre. It may not contain action, but it will still keep you on your seat, making you want to see how each story ends.

~Koubo