Kanon Episode 1

I wonder which person required SO MANY alarm clocks to wake up from their sleep. Hmm, it is pretty scary how much of a sleepyhead Nayuki can be.

And yes, the next project of the godly Kyoto animation has finally reached my shores. I am so excited over Kanon for the longest time now and when I was informed that it is available on Eclipse, I rushed over to download it. The time to wait while the download slowly trickles in is really long and it feels like I waited an eternity for it. When I got it, I felt like crying.

It is a dream come true. This time, I had very high expectations of Kanon. Did it fail me with the first episode? No way, the graphics were top notch, as expected from KyoAni. The story seems to be progressing at a steady pace too.

In that snow field seven years ago…

Characters

Nayuki: She seems to be rather ditsy and immature, with her mannerisms rather amusing as she forced Yuiichi to say good morning when it’s morning and good night when it’s night. She is Yuiichi’s cousin and Yuiichi is staying in her house currently. She seems to be an animal lover and has rather idealistic and an innocent personality. I quite like her because she seems to be really cute, and dont tell me she likes Yuiichi…Oh man, she is funny.

Yuiichi: The main male lead. He has not been around in the town for seven years and it seems that he cannot remember any of the memories that he had when he was a child. He did have recurring dreams of a girl calling out to him but those memories disappear almost immediately. He seems to be pretty normal, with a bit of sarcasm in him. He is going to study in the same class as Nayuki soon and staying at her house until he graduates from high school.

Ayu: Uguu~. Will this be the new catch phrase? We have “gao” for Air and this uguu~ is really addictive and cute. She is a gal that is extremely queer. I mean, which gal has such a mixed up reason when she was the one walking away from a seller (while not buying for her food) and she said she was getting chased. She also kept turning around when she needed to see her bag. She has a bag with wings and she met up with Yuiichi before when they were young…She remembered too. Yuiichi did not…

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Episode summary

It started firstly, with the meeting of Yuiichi with Nayuki, as Yuiichi had waited two hours for Nayuki to pick him up. I like the monologue of the dream that started the show after the meeting, talking about the red snow in the dream that is flowing down, as the memories of the dream were locked up. Even as the colors in the dream faded away, the memories still remain, somewhere.

We then see Yuiichi waking up from his bed, wondering where he was. He looked through the window to see snow as he stepped out of his room, seeing Nayuki hunting for her uniform. She had track training for today during the winter break, and was looking around for it. As she left, she told Yuiichi that she would be bringing Yuiichi around the town, as Yuiichi would be staying in this town forever and ever (somehow, these words spooked me…), even though Yuiichi mentioned he would stay at least until the graduation of high school.

As he was helping Akiko (Nayuki’s mother) get rid of the snow in the pathway, he noticed that Akiko did the snow shovelling very fast. After the effort, Yuiichi rested in the couch, with Nayuki rushing back. Yuiichi commented that Nayuki was just the same as before, and she pouted, saying that Yuiichi meant that she was immature. They went around the town, visiting various areas before reaching the school. Two possible future main leads were shown interacting with a wild dog in the school. Yuiichi and Nayuki went past the hospital and Yuiichi seemed to have bad experiences with hospitals. They also met up with Nayuki’s classmate, Kaori and another male classmate that was a porter of sorts.

They then reached the hill top, overlooking the whole town. Yuiichii commented about how he cannot remember anything about the town, whether he liked it previously or anything at all. A fox then appeared, with the animal lover Nayuki trying to get the fox to come over. It left. The scene then changed with Nayuki buying some groceries from the supermarket. Nayuki asked Yuiichi to follow her but he was more worried about tagging along with her. With that, he said he would wait for her outside, and she said he had to promise to wait and not leave.

While Yuiichi was waiting, a girl carrying a bag with wings ran over him and dragged him along to a cafe, saying that she was being chased by someone. She was actually rambling about some things scaring her when she had ran away when she had not paid for her food. Yuiichi dragged her back and paid for the food that she took. She ate happily while they went around, and she stated that her name was Ayu. When Yuiichi mentioned who he was, she seemed to remember something but left, saying that she would meet him again and pay him back.

That was when Yuiichi realized that Nayuki was waiting for him and she sulked all the way back home, saying that he’s a liar. She eventually relented, saying that she’s late. A dream sequence then occured when Yuiichi felt asleep in his room, with the situation of the supermarket happening when they were kids. Nayuki going and asking Yuiichi to wait. Yuiichi meeting up with Ayu then and she was crying…

What happened in the past?

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Thoughts

Kanon is top notch stuff. Even though there is nothing really happening in the first episode, the graphics, with the nice OP/ED to boot, has given this series a nice start. There are also some minor introductions of other major characters that will be appearing soon. I am already liking this and it’s a definite yes that I will blog on for this series. This is probably the first series that I have openly stated that I will blog on, but it deserves it.

It’s Kyoto animation anyway and I am biased toward them. Some mentioned that the character design, with the giant eyes looked really scary. I actually like this art style because it makes the characters look cuter. Yuiichi lacks a bit of emotions and character for now, even though I feel that his character will develop better with time, since he is the centre of a harem.

I do not know but Nayuki seems to be hiding something and the likes. Maybe i am overly sensitive but I got a feeling she knows much more than what she seems for now. Ayu too. Maybe everyone is hiding something which is the reason why Yuiichi cannot remember anything that happened in his childhood times. Ayu is probably the key to unlocking this mystery. What is her involvement with Yuiichi? Who is Ayu?…

I wonder….Episode 2 seems to be Yuiichi going to the same school as Nayuki. Interesting, can’t wait to watch more. =/