Retrospectives: Serenata di Kanon

Sorry I’m a few years late, guys.

Prepare for *gasp* an actually tl;dr post! Or the closest I can ever get to one.

Hmm, how should I start off? Oh, the reason I didn’t watch this spectacular anime until now. Mostly because by the time I got to even see this show after heavily getting into anime, I was too deep into watching Clannad and After Story. Man, those were epics. So since the season’s heading for a turn towards the worse, I decided to watch older, better series. As the cliched way goes, the oldies are the goodies. I guess when I started watching the first episode of Kanon, I was into the last few episodes of After Story, which couldn’t be topped at the moment; too emotional.

Ok, I’ll make it short. The series was ________.
You know why? Because no words can be put in that blank to disgrace the title. It didn’t feel like a typical harem show, or rather as someone else said, it was a story “with a harem”. Heck, if you’re going to talk about harems, you might as well classify Clannad as a story “with a harem” as well.

Such a classic makes me wonder what the heck I was watching in the last 3 years. Enclosed is a long overdue review:

Plot

As a young child, Aizawa Yuuichi had often visited his cousin in the city. However, something drastic happened to keep him away for seven long years. Now, Yuuichi returns, his memories of those days are simply gone.

Settling into the wintry town, Yuuichi comes across several young girls, all of whom are connected to his past. As he befriends them and continues to interact with them, the long forgotten memories from his childhood begin to resurface…

The themes and little hints they give you from the story are brilliantly placed. The ever revolving themes of dreams, miracles, promises, and the past each episode spark your interest and almost act as a cliffhanger to get you hooked. As a bit of the fragments of the past get revealed each episode, you can see why there was a seven year gap of memories erased from his mind.

Having 24 episodes and given more time in the story than the original, there’s always some space for improvement as you can wrap up loose ends, and that’s exactly what the 2006’s version of Kanon does. If you haven’t watched Kanon or the original yet, you can expect a tearjerking emotional rollercoaster ride that makes you get the feeling that it was all worth it at the end. KyoAni wins people back as fans as they did a great job tying the past/present and the connections between the main character and each other character quite well. I found the Makoto/Ayu arc quite sad and almost had me bawing with tears, with Shiori’s arc coming in a close second. Not everything is sad in the part though, as there are some lighthearted/comedic parts that will brighten your mood back up.

Any show that gets you crying or tears welling in your eyes is an automatic add to my top anime list, if not anyone else’s.

Character

It never felt like a harem style show at all. I mean, none of the characters are all lovey-dovey with Yuuichi, and you don’t have other people butting in on a story arc. Being more focused on the story that is going on during the arc without much other interference is another factor that I thoroughly enjoyed throughout the show. Each character has a unique point and a unique past surrounding them which the feeling that you were slowly filling in the puzzle pieces together as you got more into the story. Of course, who doesn’t love a random unnecessary throw in like catchphrases for the characters. Although, I bet people who have watched the show will instantly remember it from an “uguu~”.

Not all things come to an end as the girls in the story almost die from a certain factor they have hidden, which wouldn’t be coined as a happy ending at all, wouldn’t it. Ayu with her promises, Shiori with her condition, Mai with her past, and Makoto/Nayuki with their relationships toward Yuuichi. Each girl plays an important role in a story as well as towards Yuuichi as the story moves along. Yuuichi himself is not your typical supposedly harem male lead as he reminds me more of someone like Tomoya from Clannad or Kyon from Haruhi (which surprisingly he is! or rather, voiced by him I mean). Even through the constant teasing and pranks or uptight personality he might show, there is a soft, strong side to him. He shows no hesitation to the person he likes and stays by them until the end. Awesome character developments are to be had, in a nutshell.

Presentation

I just plain loved it. The music, the art, everything. The music fit in well to the situation as Clannad did. If you remix, re-tempo, or reorganize the music, you get Kanon’s music. With each original piece comes a variation of a single piece which seems to make it a whole new piece that just synced. The art requires no argument; definitely better than the previous one. KEY and KyoAni, good job on the remake. The surreal colors they put in each atmosphere made it different and much more realistic than what felt like the bland 2002 version. I’d call the remake a whole new version of the original or possibly version 2. The sad parts of Kanon only had me tearing up even more with the way they portrayed it and the music playing in the background. The OP/ED was another well pick, but the ED leaves a little more to be desired at the sad parts.

Conclusion

What I watched: KyoAni’s big three.
What I expected: A great work of art which would have me crying in the end.
What I got: Exactly what I expected. But I almost got close to crying, since something in me just doesn’t have me crying for great series anymore. But tearing up was damn close.

I give Kanon a 9.5/10. Anyone who hasn’t watched it should watch it now, even if they don’t watch these types of shows; it’ll be worth the ride, trust me. The only complaint I have about the series is that they left some parts confusing, such as Ayu’s part. This leaves you wondering what Ayu even was. An astral projection? All in Yuuichi’s head? A spirit? Some questions remained unanswered. Nonetheless, a thumbs up to Kanon as well as a teardrop.

And that’s my 2 cents on Kanon. Now to ponder whether I should try the VN or the original.