well as you can tell from the LONG time off I took there hasn’t been anything new and I’m sure that a majority of my regular readers (if I had any) have all left and gone on to read other blogs that actually update more than every quarter of a year. However, school took a priority and it got really busy there for a while, but now I’m glad to say that I am back at least for a decent amount of time.
-blitz
I update my Fall 2008 blog with another new show. Finally after all the waiting I review the first episode of Shikabane Hime Aka. I guess most anime database sites prefer the more concise view of writing with the entire summary being one sentence. “The title Corpse Princess belongs to Mokina Hoshimura, an undead girl who seeks to hunt down 108 corpses in order to go to heaven.” The whole premise sounds a little generic to many, but I think it also has potential to be rather entertaining. Well enough with the rather short background story, blog begins now!
It opens up showing a full moon partly hidden behind the clouds. The screen cuts to showing us the sign of an orphanage. A cat meows in the background as the place is quiet except for the blowing of the wind. It
Looks very comfy...
shows a young boy in his bed having trouble sleeping for good reason. Apparently there are five other kids attached to his limbs and body asleep. I think that’s rather odd, and it would be very awful to have to sleep in that kind of position. A creepy cat that we heard meowing suddenly appears. Its yellow eyes glowing as it looks through the window. The boy wakes up to look at it, and the cat jumps through the window (like it can walk through objects) sits down and speaks. It says Ouri in a very
Creepy Cat
spooky voice. The boy gets up and opens the door slowly hobbling outside down an entryway to another building. By the way he is walking and acting I’m not sure if he is under a trance or not.
It doesn’t appear he’s in a trance as he takes notice to a light inside the building he’s walking toward. He opens the door asking if the person in there is his brother. It looks to be like a temple room with a Buddha statue and many candles lit in the room. The boy opens the door farther and notices there is a girl lying on a mat beaten up with cuts on her body. Her
You think you had a rough night?
clothes are torn and tattered. He rushes over to her aid. He touches her hand and notices that her body is cold. He checks for breathing and exclaims she’s dead. Suddenly other men barge in apparently monks who work at the temple. One of them has glasses and appears to be in bad condition as well. The four men stand over the girl while the other boy, who had hidden, is wondering what is going on with the girl. Then the cat from earlier asks him if he wants to know. She tells him she’s a shikabane.
The monk with glasses rolls the shikabane on her back and says because of his lack of experience the En was almost severed, although at this time I am unaware what the En is referring to. He does some healing monk thing and holds her close to him. The boy hiding notices movement in her hands, and the girl opens her eyes. She says “Keisei sorry.” The others appear to seem relieved she’s alive. The boy can’t believe it and states to himself that she was dead without a doubt.
Suddenly it shifts to police breaking into an apartment by using a circular saw to cut the chain holding the door. They rush in to a back room and see a guy sitting on a couch with pink lights shining on him. He has his head down, and the one of the officers says he is Hagino, and they had found seven dead bodies at his residence apparently all women who had lived with him. The man responds by asking them since they’re police that if their subordinates disobeyed they would get rid of them wouldn’t they. He slowly stands up in
Wonder what the spotlights are for?
an anything but coordinated manner. The detective (I assume) demands to know what crimes the women committed, and the man replies saying they did not listen to orders. He then jumps behind him to the open window and jumps off the ledge. It is implied that he fell to his death, but with guys like that we can never be sure.
The scene shifts to the day again back to the orphanage. The children are eating breakfast, with the Keisei man overlooking. Everyone is praying and while they have their eyes closed Keisei steals some food from a child’s plate. This gets the younger brother fired up, but Keisei begins to go off on a long winded
More pain to the back of the head
speech on nothing really till a woman comes in behind him and smacks him in the back of the head sending him flying into the wall. The woman demands the priest what he is teaching the children. The older boy from the beginning of the episode comes in, and apparently he is moving out. He and from what I assume is his younger brother get into an argument over his name and as he is walking back Keisei trips him causing him to drop his box. This leads to many swimsuit magazines to spill out all over the floor.
Bad time for your "collection" to come out.
It seems that the Keisei had planted the magazines in his stuff and even to the time to write the other young man’s name on them. Apparently the young man (whose name is Ouri) is moving out and living by himself now. (A possible harem setup) A little girl at the table obviously doesn’t want him to leave. Ouri leaves heading off to school planning on getting his things after school. Keisei and the woman who smacked him on the head have a talk about Ouri, ever since the night when Keisei was hurt (at the beginning of the episode) was the night when Ouri wanted to move out.
Try to leave after seeing this face.
We are shifted to a rather empty apartment room with the sound of a shower running in the background. It’s the wounded girl from the beginning. She is in the shower, but I’m not sure if there are still smaller wounds on her still healing or if they are some kind of weird marks. Her phone is ringing, but she can’t hear it and it shifts scenes. We are now at Ouri’s school, then in his classroom where he and some of his classmates are talking about Ouri moving out. Ouri tries to hint at getting them to help him move but they run off before he can even get his sentence out. He chases after them, but bumps into a girl named Inuhiko. She asks Ouri if he heard about the “harem
Guys seem to get the abuse this fall
killer”. (AH-HA! A possible Harem Horror Show!!) This gets the attention of one of Ouri’s friends saying how jealous he is, and how every guy wants to experience a harem setting at least once. His rant is quickly ended from a hard elbow to the stomach from Inuhiko.
They go into the discussion about the killer talking about the information that the viewer already knew from earlier in the show. We do learn though apparently he did survive the fall though (like I thought depsite sound of a body hitting the concrete) and is still lurking somewhere. The scene shifts to the shikabane girl talking to Keisei about the killer. Apparently the killer has become a shikabane and they are discussing how to deal with him. It is shown that he lived through the twenty story drop and got up turned into some crazy monster that looked like a shadow attacked the police outside the building and escaped. It appears that Keisei is enlisting the help of the girl (Makina). It appears one of the guys named Honda is not very happy about keeping the girl around with his statement, “That is the reason why we keep something like you around.” However, she seems unaffected saying she will find the shikabane and kill him.
We are outside the city near dusk and you see the shadow creature fly across the skies. The pedestrians below are taking notice below but it flies fairly quicly so they can’t get a good like at it. (It looks like a more hideous and bigger version of batman in the sky.) We are back at Ouri placing his belongings in a cart as he prepares to move. He leaves walking pulling the cart behind him. We are shown another building with Makina coming up an elevator in an apartment complex. Down the hall is a room with its door open with pink light flooding out into the hallway like before. Keisei and the others (priests? I guess) are outside when Keisei is informed that one of the girls in Hagino’s (the crazy demon guy) harem is in the building and apparently Hagino had summoned her.
It shifts back to Makina peeking into the pink lit room seeing Hagino sucking the blood from the neck of a woman. The room has stained glass on three sides and the corpses of three other women are laying on the floor suggesting that he was already finished drinking the other women’s blood. Makina asks Hagino what
Tastes better than juice!
he’s doing he replies that he died and was revived, and he has become an immortal vampire. The girl responds saying no, he’s just a shikabane. The women pick themselves off the floor and one of them grabs the girls leg, it is said that they are now shikabane now also.
He rushes at her and she tries to throw a punch but he catches her punch. She breaks free does a back flip and pull out two guns, and opens fire. The demon comes out of
A rather interesting thing to have inside you.
Hagino’s body and these things that look like bone wings pop out of its body. It ties the girl up with cord like things from its body, an explosion happens in the room and the demon is flying out with all five women (the four girls from earlier) attached to him, with some kind of rope thing from its body. Makina is struggling to get free still while the demon flies above the city. She still has her guns in her hands and manages to shoot the cords wrapped around her letting her escape, but she is falling toward the streets far below.
We are then shifted back to Ouri who is struggling as he is pulling his cart up a hill. Suddenly there is a loud crash noise and Ouri sees Makina who had fallen and hit the ground. Ouri accidentally lets his guard up and the weight of the cart rolls back down the hill after Ouri let go. Ouri quickly remembers that it was the girl who was beaten up back at the temple. All of the sudden the talking cat appears and confirms his
There ARE monsters in your closet
statement. For some reason Ouri shows no sign of surprise to a talking cat. He checks Makina’s pulse and confirms she’s dead. He holds her close to him like Keisei did earlier in attempts to revive her. We are suddenly shown a scene with two sliding doors cracked open. There is fire on the other side and suddenly hands with claws burst through the door. Makina is on the other side trying to back away into against a wall from the demons. She is in pure terror. We can assume she’s in hell.
She says Keisei’s name and is covered in darkness. She wakes up in Ouri’s arms, it is now night back in the human world. She asks who Ouri is, and he says well your heart wasn’t beating and still isn’t. She asks why he knows that and yet he still isn’t afraid. He says well you’re alive. She seems to relax and smile, but quickly smacks him and runs away down the hill jumping on a moped that Keisei drove up on. They ride off from the scene. Ouri chases after her but the moped is gone by the time he gets there. Back on the moped Keisei asks Makina how her body is, she says she just regenerated, and she’s by his side. He says that the other priests are keeping an eye on the shikabane. Kiesei tells her not to touch the other women around
Fights on roofs mean the final showdown
him, because a Shikabane can’t infect other humans. He believes the women may have just been hypnotized. They reach the building and Makina takes off up the building to the roof, where shikabane is waiting still with the women around him.
The shikabane can’t believe that Makina fell from that height and lived. We are told that from time corpses like him appear. They die but they possess a will and take action. Known as a murdering Shikabane. She then says she is a shikabane with the sole purpose of destroying murdering shikabane called a hime
Locked and Loaded
shikabane. She throws off her coat and pulls out her guns again. The women rush toward her, but she dodges them and jumps over them cause she jumps like thirty feet in the air and opens fire on the shikabane. We are shown Ouri who is slowly riding his bike up a hill, looking very exhausting. Debris from the building where two Shikabane are fighting falls to the ground by Ouri causing him to crash. We are shown a shot of the priest who doesn’t like Makina standing there by a window looking down at Ouri.
We are shifted back to the fighting after the demon kicks Makina off of him she is surrounded by the women and bit and strangled however, Keisei comes to her aid. and knocks the women off of her. (I guess he is capable of some combat as well.) Both shikabane rush at each other Makina with her guns blazing sticks
I don't think they like her
them right in the demons abdomen, causing blood to shoot out. She drives him straight into a huge lighting fixture shocking him and shooting him at the same time. Finally she points the guns point blank at his head, smirking at how just now he feared her. She blows some rounds into his head, and it changes scenes.
We are at Ouri apartment who finally got his cart there. He is going to put boxes in his living room when he notices a banner, and his three friends passed out on the floor, surrounded in a mess of food and drinks.
Someone missed the party
We then see Makina getting into the shower once again her body covered in cuts. She says the stunning phrase “The smell of a Shikabane.” and the show ends. The ED starts out with acoustic guitar and sounds very fitting for the night time theme of this show. It soon picks up though to a faster paced song. I enjoy it, it doesn’t sound too bad.
My Thoughts
This show was intersting somewhat. Although I’m really kind of bewildered and slightly unsatisfied. While it seemed cool at parts, and fast paced at times, it also seemed rushed and left a lot of the plot to the imagination. It seemed like the viewer was just kind of thrown in there. It certainly doesn’t waste time getting the show moving. I still don’t know what part Ouri really is going to play later on in the show. I do like the “feeling” that this show gives off. It does a good job of portraying a proper setting. The action is good, and the the way it shows them is great. I liked the camera angles it took during the fighting scenes. I hope that it fills us in though the series and sets the plot a tad straighter in the later episodes. The ED was good, and I’ll be looking forward to the OP since this show also left it out for the first episode. I will be checking out episode 2 though to see what direction this series takes.
Once again after a short break I am continuing my blogging for the Fall 2008 season with a new series Rosario + Vampire Capu2. You may be thinking that this is a rather weird show to blog, however, more people will watch a harem, ecchi anime than they would have you believe in forums and blogs. Lets face it, these show keep getting made because well, lots of people watch them. The harem is made fun of as one of the most loser genres out there, but is seems many “losers” watch it, and I’m sure the fan service only helps it. Okay enough rant, beginning blog now.
The show opens up playing happy music (sounding like something from a 1950’s commercial) showing Moko Akashiya (the main vampire girl) riding on a bike. We get a random panty shot, and then see that Tsukune Aono (the main male protagonist) is riding beside her. They go into one of those lovey dovey scenes similar to the first season where they repeat each others name about three times each. Suddenly Tsukune blushes and ask Moko if she wants to suck his blood again, obviously a big sexual innuendo for you know what. Moka replies “No, it isn’t about sucking blood this time.” She then proceeds to jump on top of him knocking him off his bike.
Tsukune's favorite fantasy
They land in a field of flowers with a background that looks like they should be living somewhere in the deep mountains. Tsukune is lying on top of Moko and asks if its okay and we hear one of the most popular lines in harem anime, “If it’s Tsukune it’s okay.” HAHAHA!! That’s priceless! Harem shows are so funny!
Sorry did I interrupt your fantasy?
Tsukune is lowering himself to kiss her when he peeks an eye and freaks out because there are all sorts of bats around her and Moka’s vampire form has appeared instead. For those of you who don’t know from the first season Moka is a vampire however, she lives life like two separate people. Her regular form, and her form when she turns into a vampire. It is essentially two people in one body, and often the vampire form of Moka refers to the human form as a separate person. However, that was only when the rosary around her neck comes disconnected from the chain, which didn’t happen this time so I guess it’s something new she can do.The vampire form of Moka greets him and seems intrigued that he does want to kiss her. She tells him to think over his decision again, and kicks him in the groin, and launches him in the air. Again for those of you who don’t know when Moka is in her vampire form she is EXTREMELY powerful. We then learn that Tsukune was in a dream and he had fallen off his bed.
It shifts to Tsukune’s mother cooking eggs for breakfast, and you can hear him running about in a frenzy because it seems he’s late. He skips breakfast, and frantically is in a hurry to get back to the school. The school is a boarding school so it seems it is the beginning of a new semester or year. As he is running out of his front gate it appears there is another girl (new to the series) who is human (Tsukune calls her Kyo-chan) that wanted to talk to him because she hadn’t seen him in a long time. He blows her off and doesn’t even look back as he shouts sorry to her and keeps running. She is obviously angry about not being able to talk to him. Looks like another girl for our simple, male hero in the story.
Disappointed Kyo-Chan, I have a feeling she may have a bigger part later on in the series
We are filled in on typical background information from Tsukune in monologue form, like his name, age, and we find out that it is a new school year and he is now a second year high school student. We learn that spring break just ended and he is looking forward to the new year. The bus driver who is driving him to the school for monsters (Youkai Academy) asks him if he’s doing well, and is impressed he is. We get more random panty shots as they talk as the video shifts to girls riding on their bikes to school in skirts. The driver tells him to be careful of danger. The bus drops him off and Tsukune reminisces about him being at the same spot where he first met Moka. He hears a bike going by and becomes excited thinking that it may be Moka, however it is a different girl who crashes into him.
She doesn't like the "friendly" Tsukune
As they are recovering from the crash Tsukune accidentally touches her chest causing a helpless little moan to come out which I’m sure 99.999% of the viewers had a trickle of blood come out of their nose. We go into what I call “daydream mode” where Tsukune comments on how cute the girl he just crashed into is. However, in a rather comedic moment “daydream mode” is quickly stopped and the girl very angrily yells at Tsukune how much longer he plans on touching her. She kicks him off of her while calling him a pervert in the process. However, she realizes that he has a very nice aroma coming from him, and she licks his cheek. (More nosebleeds ensue I’m sure) Strangely enough after she licks him she kicks him asking him angrily what he wants to do to her. It seems she may have split personalities. She tells him to go to hell and leaves.
The scene shifts to the front gate of the school with Tsukune wondering how everyone was doing. It shifts
This makes me laugh a lot, but it must be painful if she's bleeding
into fantasy mode showing Kurumu (a succubus at the school) holding the captivation of another female student, as the other female student rubs her face in Kurumu’s rather large chest. While at the same time Yukari (a loli witch) has two girl gasping over how cute she is. Tsukune appears demanding what the girls are doing which immediately gets the attention of Yukari as she throws the girls away from her and runs toward Tsukune, but is stopped because Kurumu’s chest smacks her in the back of the head as she runs toward Tsukune as well. She jumps on him wrapping her
I love the face of the random student in the background
legs around him and smothering his face in her chest exclaiming how happy she is Tsukune remember her. Suddenly Mizore (an ice woman) throws an ice shard at Kurumu’s forehead from behind a tree, asking her if she intends on suffocating HER Tsukune.
Kurumu stands there in a daze with the ice shard still in her forehead with blood squirting out of her forehead. Suddenly Kurumu comes to and makes her long claws appear asking Mizore if she intends on ruining her and Tsukune’s reunion. Mizore fires back
Ice shard impaled in the forehead? I bet that stings a little....
by turning her hands into ice claws and getting ready to fight with Kurumu. It is stopped by having Moka run up telling the two not to fight so soon after seeing each other. Tsukune says Moka which causes them to go into “daydream” mode, much to the dismay of Kurumu, Mizore, and Yukari. They tell each other they missed each other, and then Moka says she can’t really hold back anymore and bites him on his neck. In response Tsukune says crying this is the second time. In confusion Moka says, “Second time?” All of the sudden first year girl students start cheering about being able to see the famed Moka.
They trample over Tsukune and surround Moka with googly eyes. The first years then talk about how awesome all the senior girls are such as the cute, super smart Yukari. The big breasted Kurumu, the cool and attractive Mizore, but out of all of them the most beautiful and capable Moka. They completely surround her and smother her. In all of the commotion of her being touched by tons of girls she says the famous,
How many guys want to trade spots with Moka?
“NO! you can’t touch there!” line. She is then carried off by the horde of girls. In the aftermath the other three girls are standing there dumbfounded, with Mizore crouched over Tsukune (who is still laying there in shock from being trampled) smiling and poking at him. Kurumu exclaims her excitement since she’s in the same class as Tsukune this year, as it shifts to the classroom at the same time. Moko is there, so is Yukari, and although she doesn’t say anything Mizore is there also. It figures he would be in the same class as all three of them, typical harem.Their homeroom teacher, Ms. Nekonome, (the cat lady) their homeroom teacher from last year, enters and wishes them a good year.
The faces say it all
The show shifts to all of the students at their shoe lockers and the girls lockers dump out several fan letters each. Mizore then reads on of her letters for everyone to hear and it says we are both alike we are both stalkers can we be friends? I thought it was funny, the letter is from a girl named Araara Kashiko. Reasonably so, this freaks everyone out, although Mizore seems to show no discomfort. Moko as expected has way more letters than everyone else, they literally come pouring out of her locker, and she becomes buried by a rather large pile of letters.
There is a unique letter than stands out because it has the face of the bat who narrates the show
Moka's letter receives a similar reaction.
sometimes. The letter says that she will finally be getting to meet Moka, she can’t stop thinking about her, so before the opening ceremony she wants to take Moka’s life. Obviously this gets a very stunned reaction from everyone. (Except Mizore once again) It picks back up with everyone in the newspaper clubroom and Tsukune telling everyone it’s probably just a prank, but Moka says she’s still scared. Kurumu and Yukari say it’s time to bring in the freshman, while Mizore wonders where their club president is. They believe he’s probably taking perverted pictures again. (In season one their club president took pictures of girls in the locker room and such, and even framed Tsukune once, but their okay now) It turns out he is doing just that, scoping out the freshman looking for beautiful girls among them. He sees a girl wearing knee high socks (the viewer can just see the girl from the thighs down) and gets excited however, she spots him and demands what he’s doing and crushes his camera and the screen becomes cracked. (Note: The camera angle for this scene is like the veiewer is looking through the viewfinder of the camera.) The viewer never sees the above the girls waist.
The screen shifts to Moka and Tsukune walking down the hall together, and Moka is worried due to the earlier letter she received. Everyone else tells her to lay low for the time being. We then meet another familiar face from season one, Ruby. She is also a witch, and serving as school board chairman. She was one
Ruby returns from the first season
of the main antagonists from part of season one, but she is now their friend. She goes into a long speech about her past, but Tsukune and Moko are not listening, instead a bag of candy catches their eye. However, underneath the bag is another letter that has the face of the bat. Tsukune opens the letter and reads it out loud. It lets them know she is already at the school, and looking forward to tomorrow’s opening ceremony so she can take Moka’s life. This causes Moka to freak out, and Tsukune asks Ruby if she saw someone place the letter there, but has been going on about her past this entire time, so she is of no help.
The epsiode shifts showing different clubs telling the students to join their club, while at the same time showing some familiar faces from the first season. It moves to the newspaper club where Kurumu and Yukari are dressed like maids handing out copies of the newspaper to the very willing students. Yukari and
Girls in maid costumes? One is a Loli? I bet this made at least one person happy
Kurumu are very pleased with the positive feedback, and we even get a full breast bounce to show Kurumu’s excitement….oh joy. Then it shows the redheaded girl that Tsukune got ran over by at the beginning of the episode and she says the newspaper is garbage and wads it up and throws it away. Kurumu shouts at her, but there are too many people around her trying to get a newspaper for her to do anything. By the time the crowd clears the redhead is gone.
The scene shifts to Tsukune and Moko walking in the forest alone together. Tsukune says they’ll rest in the hostel together. It turns out to Moko’s disbelief that there is another bat letter, but this time it has been attached to Tsukune’s back. Tsukune rips it off and reads aloud, just a little longer, I’m very near, the school’s opening ceremony, that’ll be your last day. Suddenly it shows a cat making a hissing noise, and running off. (but not really hissing more like when you step on its tail kind of noise). The letter causes Moko to run away in fear with Tsukune chasing after her.
We are shown the city at night, the sky is the same pinkish color that it changes to whenever, Moka’s vampire comes out. It shows Tsukune sitting at his desk feeling bad for Moka since she was completely freaked out. He opens his window where he can see Moka’s silhouette in her room. She notices him standing at his window and she gets up. We go back into “daydream” mode with them saying each other’s name several times. We then get a random shot of Mizore in the bushes stalking Tsukune looking up at him saying his name as well. She is interrupted though because Mizore meets the redheaded girl who is looking for someone or something. It turns out the redhead has heard of who Mizore is the famed stalker and calls Mizore disgusting. This causes Mizore to shoot some ice spikes at her, which she easily evades and then runs off.
It is the next morning, and Tsukune greets Moka who obviously did not sleep at all the night before and looks rather tired. She pulls out a small pile of bat letters she received the night before. The episode shows Moka receiving the letters the night before with different people delivering them to her room. Moka starts to
The letters are bad luck
cry asking Tsukune what she should do. He plays the heroic manly part saying no matter what happens I will protect you. Seems he’s forgetting that she’s an awesome vampire and he’s just some guy. The scene shifts to the opening ceremony with Tsukune and girls outside planning to protect Moka from whatever danger it could be. Mizore then tells everyone about her encounter with the redheaded girl. However, they are interrupted because randomly two guys come smashing through a wall.
A girl provoked them to anger, and they turned into their monster forms, (a Frankenstein and cyclops) and started trying to attack the girl. It turns out the girl is the redhead from before. She is much faster than them and they can’t keep up with her. The place is getting destroyed and Tsukune pulls the rosary from the
The blood-red eyes of awesome
chain which awakens the vampire inside of Moka. She easily sets everything back to order by taking care of the two kids who had turned into their monster forms. She turns back into Moka, and finally the redhead girl meets up with her. She asks Moka if she read all of the letter she sent her. Moka tells everyone to run whenever she sees her. You find out she is Moka’s sister. Immediately after, the episode ends with Moka biting Tsukune’s neck.
Screen shot from ED
The ED is about what you would expect from a harem ecchi show. The song itself is actually not that bad. However, it is an upbeat song that seems to just be the reason to show all the girls dancing to the music in skimpy outfits. I must say that the ED from the first season was way better. I wonder if the OP will be similar to this ED? Although for some reason I’m not really surprised at all by this ED.
My Thoughts
This show was everything I expected it to be, with a few small laughs mixed in. Have a guy surrounded by tons of girls, make sure Kurumu’s breasts are big and bounce, make sure everyone gives panty shots even at the most random times, have Tsukune and Moka go into daydream mode several times and just say each other’s name, and have Moka’s vampire form appear once. The big plot mover wasn’t really that big. Oh my gosh the redhead is Moka’s sister, which really isn’t too surpising because anyone could have picked up she’s a vampire after the bike scene with her and Tsukune. I mean they haven’t even said she’s a vampire but you know she is. So this episode was everything I thought it was going to be, it even let me hear more some of the popular lines from harem anime so that’s a bonus. The only surprise was the lack of an OP so i guess I will have to wait till next week, I’ve already heard the song, but just haven’t seen the footage it goes with. So I guess with the next episode will contain pretty much the same thing. Man, harem shows make me laugh. Just to note there were WAY MORE panty shots in this episode than what I mentioned obviously. I got tired of trying to figure out why there were so many of them.
She's so awesome she gets an extra picture just because.
It is time to kick off my blogging for the Fall 2008 anime season. It is very fitting that the first show I’m starting with is the one of the fall seasons biggest shows, Clannad After Story. A large number of fans have been waiting impatiently for this sequel to air. Like the name implies this season follows the After Story path of the visual novel, which if the people on Anime-Eden forums are to be believed I’ve already run into a major spoiler, but I’m not going to ruin it for you like they did. (Note: if you want to tell about endings to anime in forums USE SPOILER TAGS PLEASE!!! It is finally here and boy am I excited. But enough about me not talking about the show, here we go.
Screen of Kotomi from the OP
The OP for Clannad is really good I enjoy the music as well as the opening montage of scenes that portrays. You can definitely tell that this is a higher budget show with the extra animation and filters in the background as well as the soft color lighting that helps add a grand affect to the sunset shots. But first we are greeted with some peaceful flute and acoustic guitar music as it shows two people, one adult male and one young boy (very possible Tomoya is one of them) riding on a train and talking but you can’t hear their voices. It then moves to a field full of flowers and they’re walking holding hands. You learn this is a daydream by Tomoya because it is interupted by Nagisa telling him to watch out for a stray baseball being hit at him. It shifts to present day and you see Nagisa and her family outside, and her dad is playing baseball with the neighborhood kids like he did in the first season. He dedicates his next home run to his wife, Sanae, and he hits the ball straight out of the park and accidentally breaks a window, supposed to be a comedic moment. The OP then starts up.
Picture from the OP. Although it's kind of tough to see with the green hair and big blue ribbon I think this may just be Fuuko although it seems like she's an adult. Could it be a surprise later on?
We learn that the shopping district that Nagisa’s family lives in is playing another district and Nagisa’s father, Akio Furukawa, wants Tomoya to get his friends together from the drama club and join the team. We then get background information in monologue form from Tomoya who lets us know the second semester started, he is still living with Nagisa’s family, and he has no clue about his future. Move forward to the drama club room where Kotomi (my favorite character), Kyou, and Sunohara decide to play, while Nagisa and Ryou decide to cheer. It seems that the very funny, abusive relationship between Sunohara and Tomoyo (the girl, great fighter, school president) will continue since Tomoya lied and told Tomoyo that Sunohara wanted to do something perverted to her, which caused Sunohara to be kicked into a wall.
Don't do anything perverted to Tomoyo!
Tomoya plays it off as a joke to test Tomoyo’s athleticism. Afterward Tomoya makes a joke, at Sunohara’s expense again, and he gets Yoshino Yuusuke to join as well. Yoshino is the man, former music star, that married Fuuko’s sister (Koko) in season one. Afterward, they get Misae, the dorm mother, to join the team also, and mention getting Mei (Sunohara’s sister) to play.
It shifts to everyone parting with Nagisa and Tomoya where Nagisa tells Tomoya they should invite his father as well causing Tomoya to tense up, and say maybe next time. After this it moves straight to the pregame. You learn that Misae, Yoshino, and Koko (Yoshino’s wife) all knew each other from their past. The pregame part ends with Akio making a joke about Sanae’s terrible bread by saying if they lose they’ll have to eat it. (Of course Sanae was not present.) The game starts and you find out that Akio has a good fast ball and can pitch rather well, giving up zero runs. It moves forward to Akio’s team batting. Sunohara leads off faking a huge power swing and ends up bunting. It’s a pop-fly backwards though and is easily caught by the catcher. After Kyou mocks Sunohara he demands that she hit the ball which she does getting a single. Misae is next who also hits a single.
Misae can catch and hit.
Akio is fourth who they intentionally walk. Next up is Tomoyo with the bases loaded and she hits a grand slam. It moves to the top of the second inning and the other teams star player is batting, he swings the bat loses the grip and hits Akio (the pitcher) right in the leg. This leads to a shocking moment of having Akio call on a relief pitcher who is no other than his daughter Nagisa. Nagisa’s first batter she faces hits the ball to Tomoyo who throws a ROCKET to Tomoya on first base, but he manages to hold on. Nagisa manages to escape unscathed from the inning.
Tomoyo's throw could have killed him!
It moves forward and Akio’s team is batting. Tomoya is up to bat, and he strikes out. The next batter is Kotomi, who being her amazing genius self, goes through some complex statistical probablility formula using the length of the bat, the diameter of the ball, her arm length, strength, range of motion, speed of pitch and the trajectory of the ball to “accidentally” hit the ball and get a single. Sunohara hits into a double play getting himself and Kotomi out.
It moves forward to having Akio’s team on defense with no outs and a runner at third. The batter hits it to Kotomi who manages to catch it, but was so excited she caught it, she forgot to throw it home to Sunohara who was playing catcher, so the runner tagged up on third and scored. We see that was it was the top of the third and Akio’s team gave up one run. So the score is currently 4-1. They move up to bat and Kyou and Misae start off with hits. They have a runner at first and third with no outs with Nagisa up to bat who ends up striking out.
Don't Cry Nagisa We All Strike Out every now and then.
Tomoyo is up next and instead of hitting a home run, she decides to try and hit the ball “girl like” according to her and hits an easy pop fly resulting in an out. They show the scoreboard and it has a 2 in the run column so I assume the other team got another run sometime. So now it is 4-2 I assume. Tomoya is up to bat with Mei (Sunohara’s sister) on first, but because of his bad shoulder he decides to do a sacrifice bunt which works and advances the runner. They show the scoreboard and one team scored one in the third and fourth inning but I’m not sure which one, so I’m not sure what the score is right now.
Akio’s team is back on defense and Misae (the dorm mother) makes a great jumping catch. Switches quickly to Tomoyo hitting a single. Up next is Yoshino who is frustrated after not being able to contribute to the batting decides (with a scary red/black aura) to hit the next pitch which he succeeds at.
He's Serious now!
They show Yoshino who is making an exaggerated appearance walking and talking about giving them a great thing called memories, but turns out he was walking the bases and got easily tagged out. It switches forward with the other team now winning 5-4 so those two runs earlier in the third and fourth inning were the other team scoring. Nagisa takes the blame but Sunohara tells her its not her fault, it’s just the players are too good. This leads to everyone pointing out all the mistakes Sunohara has made in the game. So they move forward to Akio’s team batting in some inning and Misae hits a pop fly causing the first out. Next up is Nagisa who amazingly hits a single. Tomoyo is up next but unfortunately hits a line drive to a fielder and is called out. Yoshino is up next and hits a single and starts walking around the bases again and talking about memories again, but this time it is okay because he called time out.
Tomoyo takes her failure line drive rather seriously
Mei is up next and she beats out the throw to first for a single. So the bases are loaded and Tomoya is up to bat. He receives words of encouragement from everyone on the bench in a shounen style if you believe in yourself you can do it kind of thing. He steps up to the plate, and then it switches to after the game with everyone eating at Nagisa’s house, and then we are told that Tomoya pulled through and they ended up winning. It shifts back to the game after Tomoya made contact with the ball, all dramatic and in slow motion showing the ball spinning in the air. However, it makes an unexpected shift back to the field with the robot from season one sitting in the grass looking up at the sparkly lights in the sky and we are greeted with a To Be Continued. Episode 1 finished!
Unsurprisingly the robot makes his appearance at the end.
The ED is rather upbeat this time around and the Dangos are once again present. I will admit after having the show filled with slower keyboard chords with a symphony effect on them, for a airy, fantasy type theme, this music is somewhat of a slight shock, but it is by no means a bad song.
MY Thoughts On Episode 1
This episode seemed like your standard first episode of a series. It was more laid back and had a lighter tone to it with all of the extra comedy, but did not feel completely useless. It filled you in on background information rather quickly in monologue form and did not linger on what happened in the previous season like many other shows do. However, with the flashback at the beginning from Tomoya’s daydream, the appearance of the robot at the end, and a flash of a possible adult version of Fukko in the OP, this episode still gave hints to the big surprises ahead. The animation was still very impressive, and it would seem that Tomoya and Nagisa are together just as everyone thought. Overall it was still a good, funny episode and I’m looking foward to the second. This concludes my post on Clannad After Story Episode 1. Please note this was my first blog post for a specific episode of an anime ever, so I would appreciate it if you would leave me comments telling me what you thought about the post, Thank you! I will now leave you with an unbelieveably awesome picture from the OP.
Yeah, this is awesome, and yes, they are waving good-bye at you!
Mamiko-Noto
As of recently I believe I have found my favorite seiyus, (voice actors) in anime. I’ll go ahead and let you know this is my personal taste, and is in no way supposed to be who I think is the best seiyu. In fact it is rather the seiyu who’s voice I enjoy listening to, and I find myself recognizing their voices in different series. In the beginning I didn’t really pay attention to voice actors all that much, but as my time watching anime increased and the number of series I had watched increased as well I began recognizing certain seiyus in their different roles. So with much help from anime news network, I have been able to make for sure the seiyu was someone who I was familiar with.
Yuka Voiced by Mamiko Noto
The first seiyu I will be talking about is the first voice actor I really recognized and the first voice I really picked up to and enjoyed hearing. Her name is Mamiko Noto. She has held major roles in popular anime such as Shakugan No Shana and Shakugan No Shana Second as Hecate and Fumino Konoe, School Rumble through School Rumble Third Term as Yakumo Tsukamoto, Sola as Matsuri Shihou, Maria-sama Ga Miteru through Maria-sama Ga Miteru season 4 as Shimako Toudou, and Elfen Lied as Yuka. Yes, before you blaze me for leaving her out of your favorite anime I am aware that she has been in many other popular anime with major roles, but there are so many that listing all of them here would be time consuming and rather pointless.
Shimako Toudou voiced by Mamiko Noto
I will admit that I didn’t pick her up on her voice immediately, in fact I watched all of Elfen Lied, some of Sola (only watched the first two or three episodes and haven’t finished it yet) and all the first three seasons of Maria-sama Ga Miteru without paying attention to who was voicing what. However, what really caused her voice to really stick out to me was Clannad. I really enjoy Clannad, if you have read my review of Clannad during my Kyoto Animation blog series you would know that, and Kitomi Ichinose’s arc, the character who Mamiko Noto voices, was my favorite out of all the arcs in Clannad. I thought her voice matched Kitomi’s character perfectly, her voice was soft and quiet, however it felt warm-hearted and innocent, which perfectly described Kitomi’s character. Even during all of the distress in Kitomi’s arc her voice still stood out, from her telling of her disturbing past, to the sad emotions her character portrayed it really stuck out to me as a great voice. I still think that this is my favorite character that Mamiko has voiced that I have seen so far.
Kotomi Ichinose from Clannad
After Clannad I just so happened to start watching the School Rumble series. Yeah I know I’m late to the party, but in my defense my invitation didn’t come as soon as many others, meaning I didn’t really get into anime until somewhat recently. I really enjoyed the School Rumble anime, I thought it was funny, and the all of the comedy elements really stuck out to me. Then I heard Yakumou Tsukamoto’s voice, and I knew immediately that it was the same person. I didn’t really do any research because I figured it was just luck of the draw that she was the seiyu of another semi-main character. So I enjoyed School Rumble and the Second Term, which afterward I moved onto other series.
Forget the Reiji Maigo that hat is way cooler!
After a couple of series I watched Shakugan No Shana and Shakugan No Shana Second. Yes, once again I know I’m a little late, but see previous answer for my reason. All I had to hear was Hecate say her first line when I picked up on her voice. After watching Shakugan No Shana I took a break from new series (new to me) and rewatched an episode of Maria-sama Ga Miteru since it is one of my favorite series and I heard Shimako speak and I picked up on it immediately. This made me wonder though since I had already seen this show earlier and had not recognized her voice, what other shows has she voiced in and I didn’t know it? After this I had to go to anime news network and check to see what anime Mamiko had voiced characters in. To my surprise it was many popular series with major roles.
Yakumo from School Rumble
Like I said before I had to go back to Elfen Lied, Sola, To Love-Ru, Kanokon, and Full Metal Panic! to hear her character’s voices. Sure enough once I heard them I recognized most of them. In Kanokon and Full Metal Panic! she voices a guy so it was harder to pick up on, but you can still kind of hear a similarity. I must say though she is my favorite seiyu, I enjoy the calmness and quietness of the characters she voices, and I must say I just flat out like the voice she does.
There are still a lot of anime she is in that I have in my collection, but have not watched yet those titles include the following:
Ah! My Goddess/Ah My Goddess Flights of Fancy as Sayoko Mishima
Gunslinger Girl as Elsa
Hell Girl as Ai Enma
Mai-HIme as Yukino Kikukawa
Mai-Otome as Yukino Chrysant
Persona Trinity Soul as Ayane
Simoun as Rimone
Trinity Blood as Esther Blanchett
The Familiar of Zero: Princess of Rondo as Tiffania Westwood
So I still have quite a few series where she voices that I own I just haven’t got around to yet, but her resume of voice acting includes many popular anime not listed here. So I have named Mamiko Noto as my favorite seiyu for the distinctness of her voice (in my opinion, the softness and calmness of her voice, and her voice seems to fit the characters she voices. This wraps up my post of my favorite seiyu and starting soon I will be starting my Fall 2008 anime blogs, I am looking so much to the Fall 2008 anime series and I’m sure you are too.
The first trailer for Chaos Head with actual footage from the show has been released. The link is posted below. From what I see it seems that possibly friendship could be a big theme because it seems everyone is helping each other. Could possibly have some eechi elements in it, but the big news was the the girl who appears to be all black and looked like a demon. That makes me wonder, and also greatly intrigues me to what direction this show will be headed. My excitement for this show has increased, I can’t wait to tune in for this one.
Click on the link below, then click on the menu link, then the information link, and finally the yellow Japanese link and the trailer will pop up and play.
I wrap my blog series on Kyoto Animation with the most recent series made my Kyoto, Clannad. Clannad, like AIR and Kanon, is based of of a visual novel by Key. It has excellent animation, the colors fit perfectly with the feeling of the show, and I believe it mixes perfectly raw drama, sadness, comedy, and happiness all together into one huge show full of greatness. It is my favorite out of all of the Key novels animated by Kyoto. If you liked AIR and Kanon then you will obviously like Clannad, and if you didn’t like AIR or Kanon there is still a slight chance you’ll like Clannad.
Clannad sticks to the basic formula that all Key shows have followed. The main character, in this case his name is Tomoya Okazaki, a third year high school student, who lives in a broken home. His mother is dead, and his father who’s in a downward spiral full of depression and alcohol, is unable to acknowledge Tomoya as his son. They are on very tense terms since in the past they had a fight which caused Tomoya’s father to injure him not allowing him to play basketball anymore.
He meets a girl named Nagisa Furukawa on the way to school, she is Clannad’s sickly girl, who is repeating her third year due to an illness last year. The story follows Tomoya as he progresses through the school year, meeting new faces, and helping the girls he meets along the way. The first part is a different story that is not fully explained in the first season. It follows a girl who is alone in a world where time does not past and she builds a robot to keep her company. There is implications throughout their screen time that this will play into the story later on in a major way but, has not been revealed yet.
Like Kanon, Clannad runs the series by focusing on one girl’s storyline at a time. Fortunately, it does not completely leave the other girls out by having all the girls present a good number of times even if they are not in that girls “arc”. This causes the show to feel much more realistic by not having the girls disappear into the mist for five episodes. There is also a main storyline interwoven within the girls arcs and it plays throughout the entire series. The main storyline is Tomoya helping Nagisa reform the drama club. The other members all graduated so it was abandoned at the beginning of the year. The story follows them as they work with the other girls to help return the club back to the school.
She invades your dreams with starfish
The first girl’s arc played through with the main story line is Fuuko Ibuki, a younger student at the school, who has an infatuation with starfish. Her arc is essentially the Makoto arc of Clannad. However, her arc is not near as depressing as Makoto’s arc, it still has its emotional parts though. The main differences that her arc although sad does have a happy ending to it. She is sometimes called the annoying character of Clannad, but I found her to be rather humorous. You find she is carving starfish as invitations to her sister’s wedding and giving them out to the students at the school. Tomoyo and everyone else help her distribute the starfish to everyone. They meet Fuuko’s sister who tells them something shocking. I will not go farther into her arc because I don’t exactly want to tell everyone what happens since I guess this is technically a review, and this show is still rather new.
Kotomi at her violin recital
The second girl’s arc played out is Kotomi Ichinose, a genius girl who is way smarter than her grade so she spends her time in the library reading books. Tomoya approaches her to see if she would be interesting in joining the drama club. She accepts in helping them, and her arc progresses as they listen to her play a violin recital even though she can’t play the violin at all she still enjoys trying. Everything goes well until one day on the way to school it is believed Kyou Fujibayashi’s sister Ryu, two girls in the group helping Nagisa reform the drama club, was in a terrible bus accident however, it turn out she was on the earlier bus. This leads to the resurfacing of memories of Kitomi’s past as it sends her into a mode of emotional panic and distress. She locks herself up in her home weeks.
This leads to Tomoya trying to help Kitomi which causes him to remember he had known her when she was younger, and the played together in the garden at her house. However, he finds out that her parents were killed in an accident when she was little. In her rage and sadness of trying to burn one of her father’s documents she lights the house on fire almost killing herself and Tomoya who had shown up to visit her because it was her birthday. Kitomi’s arc is my favorite arc of Clannad because it is pure drama, although it seems a little cliche it fits Kitiomi’s character so well. Eventually Kitomi is cheered back up by certain events that I will not spoil here.
Nagisa with her best moe impression
The last arc is Nagisa’s arc, who is Clannad’s sickly child therefore you know she’ll go to the hospital or at least get very sick again at least once. Her arc is pretty predictable, although it does have some surprises along the way. I won’t really be going into detail here, but it’s the same she became really sick in her past once that she almost died. This caused her parents to stop their careers they were working on and open a bakery at home where they could watch Nagisa more closely. Her parents quitting their jobs plays into the arc later on, but I’m not going to spoil it. This is the final arc, and after this the series come to an end.
Clannad is a spectacular show, it is full of drama and raw emotion, but seems very able to pace itself. The storytelling in my opinion is some of the best. While to others it may seem like they left many things out it’s understandable since there is going to be a second season Clannad: After Story. I enjoyed this show more than Kanon because it seemed like it took the flaws of Kanon out, but kept all the good parts. In Clannad the focus is still on a certain girl, but there are two other story lines moving, the drama club, and the mysterious world with the lonely girl. It keeps the story from getting one dimensional. It still has a magical feel to it, note Fuuko’s arc, but it doesn’t seem so “over the top” as Kanon.
Episode 24 is more like an OAV, a big what if Tomoya and Tomoyo dated. Tomoyo (easily confused with the main male protagonist) is a part of the group but really not, she has her own objective of getting elected school president, however she makes an appearance in most episodes. She also plays out much of the comedy with fights between her and Tomoya’s best friend Sunohara. There are six main girls in Clannad and three of them have their arcs played out, four if you include Tomoyo’s side episode, so I assume that Ryu and Kyou will be a big part of she second season. I also assume they will finish the lonely girl with the robot story and reveal what part she plays in the story. I highly recommend checking out the first Season of Clannad especially if you have seen either or both of the other Kyoto Projects of Key Visual Novels.
This ends my blog series on Kyoto Animation I hope you enjoyed reading this series. I am currently looking at other series I am going to do, however, the new fall anime season starts next week, so I’ll be busy writing about that. But I will still have smaller posts mixed in with the Fall 2008 anime posts.
We all scream for ice cream!!
I continue my blog series on Kyoto Animation with one of 2007’s most popular anime Lucky Star. It is a slice of life anime that follows the lives of four girls. The main character is named Konata Izumi, a high school girl who is a gifted athlete, but only wants to spend her time watching anime, reading manga, or playing video games and MMORPG’s. She attends school with her three friends Kagami Hiiragi, Tsukasa Hiiragi, and Miyuki Takara. Like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya it has a cult following. Often I wonder which show has the biggest following because the fandom for both shows is just ridiculous.
The animation in Lucky Star is top notch, while the art style and direction seems to be more on a cartoony design it does not cause the animation to falter at all. Yes, these girls are in high school even though they look like they should be eight years old. This is the power of the loli’s, I don’t know if this is one of the reasons why this show was so popular. The show is considered a slice of life comedy, and there will definitely be laughs along the way.
Thumbs up from Konata? 1000 points!
The story in Lucky Star is non-existant, but it’s supposed to be that way. Each episode can be watched seperately without seeing the others, now obviously when they make references back to other episodes every now and then you won’t get it, but if you watched this series out of order you wouldn’t be completely in the dark for every episode. While to some this may seem like a real negative point, I see it as a positive, because it’s a light entertaining show with no huge complex storyline it makes the show much easier and entertaining to watch.
Haruhi in a commercial in Lucky Star
Lucky Star wasn’t called the anime for the otaku for no reason. It makes TONS of references back to other anime from making slight jokes, to openly talking about it. Some shows that get reference points in Lucky Star that I can remember off the top of my head are: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kanon, Gundam Wing, Strawberry Panic!, Shuffle!, Initial D, Maria-sama Ga Miteru, and ToHeart to name a few. Not to mention all of the background references to other shows for instance since Konata is an otaku she has the typical otaku merchandise in her room such as manga that has the actual covers of the manga they are portraying, figurines of other popular anime character, to having a Bonta-kun stuffed animal in her room. (Bonta-kun is the mascot character from Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, another show by Kyoto Animation.) The appearance of many references to other shows is a great input not only does it give it a “sense” of realism having an anime world with so many other references to anime in it, but it makes it fun for the viewers to see all the references and name as many as they can.
I say "Dance, Dance!!"
This show is either a hit or miss with people and for many people it’s going to land into the miss category before the OP even finishes playing. Picture this a teenage to young adult guy or girl is already a little sketchy on watching this show after they have seen a few screenshots because to many the whole super loli character designs will turn them off from the show immediately. If they get past the loli characters and decide to give it a shot they hear the OP which for many will already set their mind and they will hate it no matter what, or not even finish the song and turn it off. Don’t get me wrong I don’t mind the OP at all but for anyone who sees the show they can definitely see someone not liking the OP and that ruining the entire show for them.
Loli's in maid costumes? Otakus rejoice!!
The show is good for easy watching. I highly recommend it to anyone who watches anime regularly, if you are just a casual watcher you’ll probably miss out on a lot of references to other shows, but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy the show. If you are looking for a show that has a storyline then you’ll want to pass. If you can pull yourself past the whole extreme loli and you know what kind of show you are getting into you will probably like it. This wraps up my post on Lucky Star tomorrow I will write about the latest show from Kyoto Animation here’s a hint.
More moe looking girls....
I have decided to add another show to my blog list for this fall it is Shikabane Hime: Aka. The plot sounds intersting enough and I decided I will be addding it. So now I will be bloggin Clannad After Story, Rosario + Vampire Capu2, Chaos Head, and Shikabane Hime: Aka
Tonight I am continuing my blog series about Kyoto Animation Kyoto Animation shows with the sad, but still great Kanon. To avoid any confusion I will be writing about the 2006 edition of Kanon. Kanon is Kyoto’s second anime based off a visual novel by Key. It is quite apparent that Kyoto is getting better with storytelling because as compared to AIR it is much better. Nothing has changed from the soft colors, big colorful eyes, and girls that just scream moe at the viewers though. The OP is a great fit it is a slower, softer song that seems to have very sad overtones to it which is a hint to what’s in store for the viewer.
The story follows the main male lead character named Yuichi Aizawa. The background information is fairly cliche in the sense of the protagonist returning back to a city that he hasn’t been to in a long period of time this one being seven years. He doesn’t remember the memories of his childhood that he gained here while playing with the other children who he sees again for the first time in a long time. The background sounds very cliche for harem anime but luckily the similarities for the most part stop there although not completely.
He is attending school and meeting friends, who all seem mainly to be girls, and also meeting other friends who do not attend his school. Kanon follows the story of Yuichi as he interacts with the girls that he meets and slowly recalls the past memories he has had with each of the girls. Each section of the show seems to focus on a particular girl, while of course there are introductions in the beginning the show begins to shift to focus on one girl.
This show earned the title sad girls in the snow for a reason first off because it’s winter during the show and there is usually snow on the ground and well it’s sad at parts, fairly simple. These girls do have their fair share of problems as nearly all of the cliche problems usually found in anime seem to be present in this show while some other problems are not so cliche. Also keep in mind that all the girls correspond to a certain archetype as well.
Makoto loves the Jam....not
The first girl’s story we see played out is Makoto she is the mischievous girl who tries to give the character a hard time by playing pranks on him all of which fail. I will go ahead and say it that her arch is probably the saddest out of all of the girls. I will state here that the viewer does need to know that some of the problems the girls are facing are more “magical” than others. The viewer finds the reason for Makoto’s problem and you slowly watch her deteriorate into nothing. By deteriorate I mean she slowly loses her ability to function which is rather sad.
Mai guarding the school at night
After the finishing of Makoto’s arc the show moves to focus on Mai Kawasumi who is the silent character type. She is guarding the school from spirits that have appeared and she stands there each night destroying any spirits that appear. However, she is having a problem that is eating away at her and spreading through her body. Later you find out why the spirits are attacking, what caused them to appear and you learn of the reason why Mai guards the shool each night. Her situation is more original than the others and the reason why she is in bad health is more original, but maybe harder to understand.
Shiori, the sickly child
After Mai’s arc comes Shiori’s arc which is probably the most cliche out of all the arcs. Shiori does not attend school because she has a sickness which does not allow her to attend school. She finds out the disease is going to kill her. You find out she has sister who attends school who has turned her back on her because she knows in the back of her head her sister will die so she doesn’t want to be too attached to her. It shows the pain that the two sisters endure because they want to spend time together, but they don’t want to face the fact that they will be seperated forever.
Nayuki: the snow bunny creator
Shiori’s arc is followed by Nayuki’s arc. Nayuki is Yuichi’s cousin so you must know that the history is going to run deep between the two. You find out that Yuichi rejected Nayuki when they were younger in a rather harsh way destroying the snow bunny she had made for him. Yuichi doesn’t remember the event until later on. Her mother gets hit by a car after buying a cake that Nayuki wanted. This makes her feel responsible for the accident which sends her into a huge depression.
Ayu: the most moe of them all
Ayu’s arc is the final arc to be resolved. She says the famous catch word “Uguu..” like Misuzu’s “Gao..” it is also extremely awesome. Throughout the series Yuichi spends the most time with Ayu and their relationship runs much deeper than what Yuichi remembers. Her arc is the deepest and is one of the most complex. She says she attends a school in the forest, which turns out to play a big role in her and Yuichi’s past. You find out the truth behind Ayu which is one of the most emotional scenes in all of Kanon. The ending is a happy one after you see all of the conflicts resolved.
While the show is full of strong details and animation, there are some issues with the show. One weakness of the show is that it only focuses really on one girl at a time. It causes other characters to be strangely absent for long periods of time, and once their arc is over they will not really be seen for the rest of the series. Another weakness is the filler episodes that were added in the series. The 2002 series had 13 episodes while 2006 series has 24 episodes. So you have some filler that wasn’t there in the first series. A small weak point is that many may not understand the ending very well.
In final statements I highly recommend Kanon it has high quality animation, more focused storytelling, although it can seem a little too focused at times, it doesn’t take anything away from the show. Of the three Kyoto Animation series based off of Key Visual novels this one is the most emotional. I highly recommend this show to anyone. The show has many great features and few flaws, and the flaws are rather minor in comparsion to the greatness of this show. This wraps up my post for Kanon, here’s a hint for the next show in my blog.
Seito Academy 