Anime Review: Kanon

[Gigaguy64]

I would like to descend into the realm of tackiness for one moment and <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.163769-Neutral-Drow-reviews-Kanon>plug my own review of the game.

And considering what else I've heard of the anime, I suspect I'll have quite a few disagreements when I eventually watch it.

For me, it left the realm of cuteness and became annoying when one of the lead characters lost the ability to speak, allowing them only to unintelligibly whimper for what felt an excessively long period of time.

...I know what you're talking about. I'm just not sure how, considering that's part of the most heartbreaking twist in the entire show.

I'll admit that, having not seen the anime, I don't know how long they took to set this up. But still, if <url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA3AJkjeRpA>this (spoilerific) shot is any indication, they weren't far off from the result (other than being slightly friendlier about it, since unlike the game, she disappears into thin air).

Sob....sob.....
That was....so SAAAAAAAAADDDDDDD.
WAHHHHH.
sniff sniff.
I am going to look this up(sniff)

 

[Alora]

I for one enjoyed this series a lot. I have seen all three by Key (Air, Kanon [the new one] and Clannad), I saw them in reverse order (Clannad, then Kanon, then Air) but still found all to be enjoyable. I do however believe people are open to their own opinion. Sure, this series may not be for everyone, however I felt it was beautifully done. I also believe that many anime series have their own extremely unique way of drawing faces (above comments about squashed faces and eyes) and I happened to, personally, find this style quite entrancing.

That said... 5th paragraph, first line... there's a grammar error. Original line: As incredibly contrived as they may be, the initial episodes are also prove the most entertaining.

"the initial episodes are also prove the most entertaining"? should it maybe be... "the initial episodes prove to be the most entertainin"? or just chop out the 'are'?

 

[mindlesspuppet]

"the initial episodes are also prove the most entertaining"? should it maybe be... "the initial episodes prove to be the most entertainin"? or just chop out the 'are'?

Good catch. Unfortunately I'm not able to edit articles... I'll let the editor know though.

I suppose while I'm giving a reply I should address some of these responses. Also, I fully expected a fair bit of backlash on this one.

I also believe that many anime series have their own extremely unique way of drawing faces (above comments about squashed faces and eyes) and I happened to, personally, find this style quite entrancing.

I didn't mention the character designs primarily because they seem to match the art style of the game. In that regard, I can't really fault the series for staying close to the source material.

Are you kidding? Kanon has many, many problems, faults, flaws, and generally crappy aspects, but you barely brought any of them up.

Hell, I remembered it as being good, but that was a few years ago - maybe I had poorer taste. Not the first time nostalgia has clouded my judgement. So I spent the last ten minutes raking through Google for reviews of Kanon '06, professional and amateur, and sure enough, none of them were this thoroughly negative. And, yeah, Higurashi was good, but a masterpiece? Yeah, if you get more reviews published, I'll be skipping them, thanks.

You acknownledge the series has a myriad of problems, it doesn't seem like your opinion coincides with those reviews you googled either.

As for Higurashi, that's an entirely different discussion.

Laughable review at best. And if he is reviewing the recent version and thought it was too jumbled and short im curious what he would think about the original SHORTER series would have been like. "it's about adorable girls" ROFL cant believe this guy gets free anime for doing this job even when he has no idea what he is talking about. XD man would have been funny had he just come out and said this was a harem show. XD

Good job though trying to objectify something meant to be an emotional drama.

P.s. if you didn't shed a tear or two watching this series, you are a heartless monster! >.<
or don't watch anime and you just look at it.

I found Kanon to be laughable at best. In the same way a horror movie where you expect someone to die every 10 minutes is more amusing than frightening; a series where you expect tragedy around every turn is, quite frankly, hilariously melodramatic.

I didn't objectify the series, it does that well enough on its own with its plethora of moe ticks.

Kanon comes off as artificially sad, not genuinely emotional. Consider children's books/movies, they often use animals as characters to build instantaneous report with their target audience. This report allows them to easily manipulate the viewer based on predisposition. No one wants to see an adorable puppy hanging on to a log helplessly being swept down river; the storytelling and how the puppy actually got there is more than often inconsequential, it will have some degree of emotional affect regardless.

Kanon follows the same strategy, it runs the gamut of cute anime girls; the fiery red head, the stoic swordswoman, the sickly child, the list goes on. You'll find a similar cast in most harems. Each character is given a quirk to more quickly endear them to the viewer. Employing recognizable stereotypes that can immediately be identified with allows them to all but entirely forgo actual character development, thus the resulting bond is due more to an inclination towards a certain stereotype than to the character.

OH NO YOU DIDN'T!


Seriously though, I haven't actually seen it. However, Key's three major works are typically considered to set the standard for anime dramas.

Set the standard for moe drama? Perhaps. Drama in general? No. Drama takes many forms, it's more of a descriptive term for genres and not so much a genre in itself. Point being, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for any piece of work to set a standard for dramas as a whole.

I must be incredibly blind, because I didn't see any of the "blatant foreshadowing while introducing the cast". And perhaps I have incredibly bad taste in music because I found the soundtrack to be above average at the very least.

Lost memories, full out amnesia, the winter season, and the overall somber tone all weren't dead giveaways for tragic events? Hmph...

Does enjoying moe take one "beyond reason"? That seems very close to saying "if you don't agree with my opinion, there's no point arguing, because I'm right and therefore your arguments are invalid"

Moe is a strong attraction or fixation, sometimes delving into the realm of obsession. Like any fetishist you're better off throwing ice cubes at the sun than trying to convince them (for example) that feet are gross.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Having to defend yourself AFTER a review isn't indicative of a good review eh. Perhaps if you made your case while bashing one of Key's earlier works you might have actually got the "i see your point" nod. I didn't find your claim that "it's about adorable girls" to be a valid argument. K-ON is about 'adorable girls.' When you chose to watch this anime with the same eyes as say something like K-ON is the exact point where you lost your credibility with me in this review. Tell me what would have made the show genuinely sad? If not the short stories told in this series.

You didn't mention anything in your review that gave this show any merit, like the brisk pacing of each story arc gave the engaged viewer some time to breathe before they hit you again with another sob story.

Any good argument must acknowledge the counter-argument. you sir did not bother and when your surmised that the show was all about "adorable girls" this review became laughable. If you went into it with your mind already made up there is nothing more the anime can offer you.

Sorry i like a bit of subjective quirkiness at the end of the review not for the entire breath of the prose.

Kudos however on attempting to go against the grain tho. I'm pretty sure you knew you would get some flak for this.

"blatant foreshadowing" that still cracks me up. predictable as it maybe, still didn't stop me from shedding a tear when it did happen

 

[Break]

I didn't mention the character designs primarily because they seem to match the art style of the game. In that regard, I can't really fault the series for staying close to the source material.

Why not, exactly? It's an adaptation of a game. You're trashing the characters and stories, all of which were based on the game. What makes the art different?

You acknownledge the series has a myriad of problems, it doesn't seem like your opinion coincides with those reviews you googled either.

Right, because enjoying a series means loving it's every aspect unconditionally, and somebody who finds fault with it must be dead-set against it. I disagree with a few of them, sure - but that's just me. My point was that when the public, professional critics, casual fans and people who watch way too much anime generally agree that, on the whole, a series doesn't completely suck, then forgive me for not accepting you at your word that it's objectively awful.

Kanon follows the same strategy, it runs the gamut of cute anime girls; the fiery red head, the stoic swordswoman, the sickly child, the list goes on. You'll find a similar cast in most harems. Each character is given a quirk to more quickly endear them to the viewer. Employing recognizable stereotypes that can immediately be identified with allows them to all but entirely forgo actual character development, thus the resulting bond is due more to an inclination towards a certain stereotype than to the character.

Except... No? This is actually one of the perks of being based on a game. Time is taken to get to know each character aside from the "shocking tragedy plot twist". Sure, they could've just used the quirks as a shortcut to making viewers care, but considering the length of screentime given to the characters before and after the plot twists, I kind of think it unlikely that they did.

I mean, Makoto, for example, the "fiery redhead". She's the first, and her arc climaxes around the... Tenth episode? Something like that. She's introduced in episode one, gets a fair amount of screentime for the first few episodes, and then her arc begins in earnest and then the episodes basically revolve around her for a while. Not that I'm saying that just having a lot of screentime equals character development and emotional investment for the viewer, but the fact is, they simply don't just throw these character at you, and say "listen to her vocal tic! LOVE HER NOW!"

And then we have your description of Makoto, her archetype, the summation of her character: "fiery redhead". I... Honestly don't think I need to say anything about this part. Anyone who's familiar with Makoto, I'm sure, finds "fiery redhead" hilarious, because that's... It's simply not what she's about. Not even slightly. Same goes for your other two-word summaries - sure, Mai is a stoic, and uses a sword, but where does that leave her magic, and plot-twist past, which form a fairly important part of her character? Shiori's a pretty straightforward sickly girl, but there's as much focus on her sister in her arc as there is on her.

And even then, what's your point? You present the idea that each character can be easily boiled down to simple archetypes (which is the word you're looking for, by the way - "stereotype" is inapplicable) and then just leave it at that. As if a character merely being likened to an archetype is inherently a bad thing. Now, I'm not so disingenuous that I'll assume that you actually believe that, so this is more a complaint at what I can only assume to be The Escapist's stringent word count or overzealous editing procedure. Taking out the part where you explain what you disliked about the characters in a character-driven show was a pretty bad idea.

Set the standard for moe drama? Perhaps. Drama in general? No. Drama takes many forms, it's more of a descriptive term for genres and not so much a genre in itself. Point being, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for any piece of work to set a standard for dramas as a whole.

Both seasons of Clannad are significantly better, with less reliance on tragedy, better characters (even the male protagonist is more than a blank canvas for viewers to self-insert on) and more interesting stories. It fixes a lot of the things I disliked about Kanon - you may have better luck with it.

Lost memories, full out amnesia, the winter season, and the overall somber tone all weren't dead giveaways for tragic events? Hmph...

That's what you're going with. You're going to say that with a straight face. Really. You came oh so close to having a point with the whole "tragedy around every corner" thing, but that's just bullshit. You may as well call it predictable and unsubtle because somebody told you it was "heartrending and/or sad".

Does enjoying moe take one "beyond reason"? That seems very close to saying "if you don't agree with my opinion, there's no point arguing, because I'm right and therefore your arguments are invalid"

Moe is a strong attraction or fixation, sometimes delving into the realm of obsession. Like any fetishist you're better off throwing ice cubes at the sun than trying to convince them (for example) that feet are gross.

Yeah, thanks for proving his point. You're throwing ad-hominems at people before they've even disagreed with you. Insulting your audience because you think they might think differently is a poor practise in any medium.

 

[mindlesspuppet]

Why not, exactly? It's an adaptation of a game. You're trashing the characters and stories, all of which were based on the game. What makes the art different?

Actually I didn't trash the source material, nor could I, never having played it. Rather I trashed the handling of the source material.

I did state that I thought each story arc would hold up better on their own, didn't I? Clearly I didn't feel they were that terrible.

Perhaps I'd find the visual novel was presented just as poorly, but it's more likely multiple arcs, a large cast, and a slew of other issues present unique difficulties for adapting into an anime.

I mean, Makoto, for example, the "fiery redhead". She's the first, and her arc climaxes around the... Tenth episode? Something like that. She's introduced in episode one, gets a fair amount of screentime for the first few episodes, and then her arc begins in earnest and then the episodes basically revolve around her for a while. Not that I'm saying that just having a lot of screentime equals character development and emotional investment for the viewer, but the fact is, they simply don't just throw these character at you, and say "listen to her vocal tic! LOVE HER NOW!"

While Matoko's arc concluded in the 10th episode, also take in account every other major character was introduced in this time. Matoko doesn't take focus until episode six. I will admit Matoko's arc was probably the best handled; as the series progressed I found that the arcs weren't dealt with as well and/or their effectiveness just plain diminished. By the time the story involving Nayuki and her mother came it seemed like a bad joke.

Oddly enough I felt exactly like they were throwing the characters at me shouting "LOVE HER NOW!". Sure the characters had a fair amount of screentime, but maybe I don't find ranting about taiyaki and pork buns to be effective character development.

And even then, what's your point? You present the idea that each character can be easily boiled down to simple archetypes (which is the word you're looking for, by the way - "stereotype" is inapplicable) and then just leave it at that. As if a character merely being likened to an archetype is inherently a bad thing. Now, I'm not so disingenuous that I'll assume that you actually believe that, so this is more a complaint at what I can only assume to be The Escapist's stringent word count or overzealous editing procedure. Taking out the part where you explain what you disliked about the characters in a character-driven show was a pretty bad idea.

My point is, it tossed all these predefined characters at the viewer hoping one would stick -- chances are one will. While it works to some degree, still a shortcut that some people are bound to see right through.

The word count thing can be pretty rough, but I was the one that left my take on the characters on the chopping block. I could very easily go into detail for each character and arc, but then it becomes more of an analysis for people who have seen the series than a review for people who might not have watched it. Moreover, it'd be difficult to do without spoiling the twists.

Personally I found the show to be more driven by it's story than characters, though that obviously depends on how strongly one feels about the cast.

Both seasons of Clannad are significantly better, with less reliance on tragedy, better characters (even the male protagonist is more than a blank canvas for viewers to self-insert on) and more interesting stories. It fixes a lot of the things I disliked about Kanon - you may have better luck with it.

Air left a bad taste in my mouth, so I avoided Clannad, perhaps I'll give it a chance.

Yeah, thanks for proving his point. You're throwing ad-hominems at people before they've even disagreed with you. Insulting your audience because you think they might think differently is a poor practise in any medium.

Hmmm, you could be right... but it's not really uncommon for moe fans to be the butt of a joke in any anime community. It doesn't exactly mean I'm wrong either.

 

[Break]

I did state that I thought each story arc would hold up better on their own, didn't I? Clearly I didn't feel they were that terrible.

Perhaps I'd find the visual novel was presented just as poorly, but it's more likely multiple arcs, a large cast, and a slew of other issues present unique difficulties for adapting into an anime.

Your words were that "with a little more focus, each arc could be emotional". Not exactly high praise, less so in context. You spent significantly longer talking about how the twists were predictable, the characters irritating, and so on. I hadn't intended to start this as a criticism, or even related to the review - I just didn't understand your logic. What's the difference between the character's personalities, taken from the visual novel, and the character's art, based on the visual novel?

While Matoko's arc concluded in the 10th episode, also take in account every other major character was introduced in this time. Matoko doesn't take focus until episode six. I will admit Matoko's arc was probably the best handled; as the series progressed I found that the arcs weren't dealt with as well and/or their effectiveness just plain diminished. By the time the story involving Nayuki and her mother came it seemed like a bad joke.

Yeah, the character arcs are handled pretty badly. It's one of the worst points about the series - old characters are swept under the rug after they've told their story, characters suddenly hog the limelight when it's their turn - hell, as you say, Nayuki's arc was burned through in a few scenes in the middle of Ayu's. Even Yuuichi was too preoccupied to care that much. The emotional climax there basically amounted to "Nayuki... Give me a hug. Now, stop being a crazy ***** and we can go home, it's really goddamn cold out here."

Shame you didn't have time to mention such a crippling flaw in the review, beyond a sentence in the summary.

Oddly enough I felt exactly like they were throwing the characters at me shouting "LOVE HER NOW!". Sure the characters had a fair amount of screentime, but maybe I don't find ranting about taiyaki and pork buns to be effective character development.

Sure, but why, exactly? This is the same problem I had with your review - you state things, but you don't get around to explaining why you felt this way, or offering some kind of example. Again, not something you could've helped, word limits and all, but when you're responding to people in the comments, you can afford to be a little more verbose, surely?

My point is, it tossed all these predefined characters at the viewer hoping one would stick -- chances are one will. While it works to some degree, still a shortcut that some people are bound to see right through.

It's pretty easy to figure out why they have such straightforward, easily understood personalities - in order to ensure that players have enough time during their first playthrough to at least reach an ending with a heroine, developers often make it so the player can quickly grasp which character they'd like to see more of. The meat of the writing is in the stories that revolve around these characters. Not that it excuses the anime for having so many girls with such flimsy personalities, but the emphasis is on how the characters are used.

Which wouldn't change your view much, considering everything else you've said. Frankly, I don't think the pacing was quite bad enough to drown out the actual plot, and that your biggest problem with the show was watching all the episodes in three days so you could meet the deadline. But then, I don't actually know how much time you had, so maybe the pacing is actually worse than I remember. Or maybe it's as simple as you having caring very little for emotional drama, who knows.

Personally I found the show to be more driven by it's story than characters, though that obviously depends on how strongly one feels about the cast.

It relies entirely on the viewer caring about the characters enough to be moved when their stories play out, which was the basis of my "character-driven" comment - although, seems kind of weak reasoning, now I think about it. You're probably right in saying it's plot-driven.

Air left a bad taste in my mouth, so I avoided Clannad, perhaps I'll give it a chance.

Sounds unlikely, now that I think about it. I'm getting the feeling like this kind of show just isn't your kind of thing - you'll probably find some reason to dislike Clannad as well.

Hmmm, you could be right... but it's not really uncommon for moe fans to be the butt of a joke in any anime community. It doesn't exactly mean I'm wrong either.

You're defending saying things that basically amount to "if you don't share my opinion, then you're a weirdo that won't listen to reason so it doesn't matter", without sarcasm, in a published review. It doesn't matter if you're right or wrong. You've rendered yourself invalid in the eyes of anyone with a passing interest in professional writing, and insulted everyone who might feel like debating with you on whatever merits the show may or may not have. Good work.

 

[suubersnake]

I'm just confused, how could someone give such a poor review about an anime that has a good story line, interesting characters (albeit a little too cutesy at times), good dialog, and at the very least a main character who doesn't make you want to choke him to death with his intestines until he shuts up about being a hero of justice that manages to do more property damage than the earthquake in Haiti being repeated about forty-five times in the same day who also has the intelligence of a six year old, when you say Line Barrels of Iron is a good anime.

Maybe I missed something, but apparently bad story, uninteresting and unlikeable characters, really terribly written cliche dialog is good when included with fan-service and giant robots beating the crap out of one another.

This I just don't understand, perhaps I'm a dim slightly retarded chimpanzee, but I feel that your representation of Kanon is wrong. Had you been reviewing the original Kanon anime I would agree with the feelings because that wasn't particularly great. However, Kanon (2006 edition) is actually really good, not without flaws (like everything), but still really good. It's probably not good for the attention deficit crowd who need explosions every five millisecond or their brain will shut down.

Now that I browsed other reviews by the same author, I'm a little confused about how one could like Love Hina, but not like Kanon. Maybe it just doesn't have enough fanservice.

Anyways, maybe I've just never seen a good drama anime, but Kanon sits up there as a really solid, good, entertaining anime.

 

[aaron552]

Maybe it just doesn't have enough any fanservice.

Fixed that for you.

KyoAni are well known for minimal-to-no fanservice. Exceptions being Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu and the intro to Lucky Star. One particularly memorable and gratuitous panty shot in the K-On manga was replaced with a bowl of rice in the KyoAni adaptation.

 

[mindlesspuppet]

I'm just confused, how could someone give such a poor review about an anime that has a good story line, interesting characters (albeit a little too cutesy at times), good dialog, and at the very least a main character who doesn't make you want to choke him to death with his intestines until he shuts up about being a hero of justice that manages to do more property damage than the earthquake in Haiti being repeated about forty-five times in the same day who also has the intelligence of a six year old, when you say Line Barrels of Iron is a good anime.

Never did I said Line Barrels of Iron was a good series, that was a different reviewer.

Now that I browsed other reviews by the same author, I'm a little confused about how one could like Love Hina, but not like Kanon. Maybe it just doesn't have enough fanservice.

I'm a little confused how anyone could compare Love Hina and Kanon at all, they are entirely different kinds of series.

 

[suubersnake]

Maybe it just doesn't have enough any fanservice.

Fixed that for you.

KyoAni are well known for minimal-to-no fanservice. Exceptions being Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu and the intro to Lucky Star. One particularly memorable and gratuitous panty shot in the K-On manga was replaced with a bowl of rice in the KyoAni adaptation.

Thanks

Never did I said Line Barrels of Iron was a good series, that was a different reviewer.

I'm a little confused how anyone could compare Love Hina and Kanon at all, they are entirely different kinds of series.

I apologize for the rant on Line Barrels I guess I misread the author of that review.

As far as the comparison between this and Love Hina, I drew that because both are about delinquent males getting involved with large numbers of females a varying sizes and shapes. While the differences encompass the storytelling where one uses excessive fan service and bad overly used jokes, and the other uses good story telling and no fan service. The premise was what I was getting at.

In retrospect, it was a pretty bad analogy because they are about as similar as Halo and Mass Effect, where both save the world but that's where the similarities end.

 

[Kyogissun]

The only thing I have to comment on is this... Kanon is one of the earlier works of Key and as a result, kind of fell to the staples of bishoujo games past...

But it began the direction of games having a heavy bit of drama revolving around death and whatnot.

Kanon DOES take for-fucking-ever to get going, I don't disagree with that. But if you stuck it out through the end, the story isn't unenjoyable, just... weak.

To any drama fans, if you didn't like Kanon, just move onto either Air or Clannad. Both are amazing shows and while Clannad does have an even slower pace, that's because there's a 'lot' more story to tell. And unlike Kanon, the other character's stories don't lack major influence over the plot.

As for Air, it's a 'flawless' production. Amazing animation, voice work (Well, except for the english dub of the Summer arc, ep 9 and 10...), BEAUTIFUL music and what is one of the beststories of all time in anime, even with it's incredibly bittersweet conclusion. Air is what rekindled my love of anime back in 2005, making me sort of 'wake up' and see that aside from the other not quite so super serious but still drama heavy shows like say .hack//SIGN, there was more out there to check out.

Right now though, Key fans are on a dry spell of anime adaptations...

God help me KyoAni, if you do not announce Little Busters! TV or the Tomoyo After adaptation that's been rumored for a while now after K-ON!! finishes airing, heads are gonna roll. I'm already displeased with the mediocre excuse of a second season of haruhi suzumiya and K-ON just... makes me cringe with displeasure. Just because I like Key shows, doesn't mean I like moeblobs...

Except Potemayo, that's my lone exception.

 

[ReflecttheStorm]

To be completely honest, I disagree with almost everything you've said here. If it wasn't for the title, I'd have thought you were talking about a completely different anime. I haven't seen the English dubbed version, so that may be part of it. Then again, perhaps not.

I must be incredibly blind, because I didn't see any of the "blatant foreshadowing while introducing the cast". And perhaps I have incredibly bad taste in music because I found the soundtrack to be above average at the very least.

I also did not find that any of the characters became obnoxious, though I can understand why some might think so.

If by the end you're not quite fed up, it's likely you've got it bad for one of the countless moe traits and are beyond reason.

Does enjoying moe take one "beyond reason"? That seems very close to saying "if you don't agree with my opinion, there's no point arguing, because I'm right and therefore your arguments are invalid"

This entire review seems to be an elaborate troll. Please tell me that I'm wrong.

http://myanimelist.net/anime/1530/Kanon_(2006)

Ranked #42 by over 22,000 so far

I'm still sort of new to anime, watching anything from Robotech Macross to Ergo proxy, Lucky Star to Elfen Lied - and I've been delighted with what ive seen, this includes Kanon 2006

I once saw a movie called "The Safety of Objects" this was based on a few short stories by the same author, which were eventually (to some degree) all squeezed in the one movie, and in my opinion this worked very well - tho it seems to be an aquired taste for some

in anycase, Kanon 2006 is obvisiously both loved & hated by many people & with a planned offical australian release (thanks to madman) later this year, it seems there are more that enjoy it =]

the ost, art, storyline(s) & general presentation were all done very well... imo!!


but alas,
ill stop here and continue watching last exile ^^


oh i should state ive never read manga or these anime games, I just enjoy watching the ova, series, movies

 

[wolfgamer]

i love this anime i don't normaly like this type but i do like this one.