Kanon

Based on a popular dating sim video game, you would be forgiven in thinking that the anime that used it as it's source material may not be that great. Surprisingly however this is not the case, Kanon is a wonderfully poignant story of love, loss and forgiveness that inspires a warmth that is ironically in direct contrast with it's snow covered winter back-drop.

Yuuichi is the protagonist in this drama, he transfers to a distant town where his cousin and aunt live - it's a quaint location, midway through the winter season where a thick blanket of snow covers every surface. Yuuichi is no stranger to this place though, he has visited before when he was younger, and the events that occurred then would now on his return begin to fully transpire.

A Criticism squared at Kanon is it being too formulaic, and this is more or less the case, a vaguely familiar pattern emerges after the second arc or so. The major characters that were introduced quite early on all have their own dilemmas - often the root cause being something that happened in the past. However regardless of this flaw, the anime as a whole doesn't really suffer for it. The real draw is the fleshed out characters - mannerisms, eccentricities and sheer personality all intertwine to form a group of people that you really genuinely care about. It's nearly impossible to not be charmed by such a winning combination.This all lends itself to undeniably it's greatest strength, because you can emphasize so well with them the moments of harrowing sorrow are all the more moving. So as a result it's almost guaranteed that you'll tear up watching this - only complete un-interest in the genre or a lack of pulse are any reasonable excuse not to!

Kanon is a thoroughly engrossing drama with an emotive pull that is almost unparalleled,sumptuous relationship based progression make this stand out amongst it's field as well as making it highly memorable to the viewer. To some though, the charm and cuteness may at times be too sickly sweet - which is really encapsulated by the strong Moe style that the show uses, which can it must be said take some getting use to. The narrative is consistently strong however; with sufficient pacing and variation that this is quickly forgotten. The only drop in momentum comes towards the end of the series itself where some loose ends get tied a little too conveniently. But don't allow this to deter you from watching this spectacle - beautiful in both animation and narrative Kanon is essential viewing for anyone interested in the genre. A whimsical Winter Fairy tale that will melt even the most concrete of hearts.

Well, Thats about it... Its the best "romantic-type" series that I've ever seen.

Its basically the story of a high school guy named Yuichi that comes to a new town to live with his aunt and cousin. As time passes he begins to know other characters (mostly girls) (by the way...They are all so very cute)and they start to become really good friends.

As times continues to go by he discovers that he has met some of the girls before and his memories from previous vacations spent in the town start to come back. He then realizes that this previous visits weren't always nice and that some stuff where buried in his deepest memories for a reason.

Animation is superb, so are music, character development (one of the best EVER, almost every character is deeply developed and almost every personality and background is perfectly done, just amazing!!) and most importantly, the feelings. This series has an amazing ability to transmit feelings if you are not a very strong person for this kind of stuff you will probably cry, or at least feel like it a lot.

Its just one of the best animated series ever, absolutely beyond all words... I absolutely recommend it...

How exactly do I sum up kanon? It has a lot of things going for it and I really enjoyed just as much as I think a lot of people will. But the question that I'm asking myself is, is it a masterpiece? The plot meanders around a bit in Kanon but unlike other shows where I will criticise this for I can see that Kanon wasn't necessarily used to create a plot. It was made for the viewers to experience something a little different. They seem to have some sort of a plot going for the first 2-3 episodes where our main character Yuichi Aizawa returns to a little town which he used to spend most of his childhood in but the thing is he doesn't seem to remember much about the town aside from his cousin Nayuki and his aunt Akiko. While spending time in the town he encounters some girls that are all connected with his past and the more time he spends time with them the more he remembers about his past. So the plot goes into arcs with each girl getting about 5 episodes with Yuichi spending time with them and helping them out with problems in their lives. Now you might be sitting there reading this thinking that it doesn't sound that good and you may be right but it isn't exactly about that. It's about how Kanon delivers this to us. The one thing that stands out to me about Kanon is how they deliver this simple idea and turn it into something emotional. I'm not gonna lie I did end up crying a couple of times during Kanon. Mainly because it addresses a few depressing themes. It tackles stuff from self-harm, suicide and disease. But Kanon isn't all about the depressing stuff it does have comedic moments thrown in at times. Personally I think just that should tell you that you should watch this show.

The characters are fantastic and none of them are the same. You have varying characters with all sorts of different personalities. There is the energetic character, the attention seeking character, there is also a character that is intentionally made bland because they want to add a mystery persona about there and they succeed in it. I wasn't that fond of the dub however. There wasn't that much wrong with how the lines were delivered or anything it's just the voice actors in general. They all seem like pretty good voice actors it's just that I didn't really think their voices matched with the characters. I personally preferred the sub version.

The animation is similar to my thoughts of Bunny Drop's animation. Mostly the animation seems good and the animation adds something more to the characters called moe. It makes me like the characters even more with the animation that they're given. I know that that may sound a bit strange but if you watch just one episode of Kanon you will know what I mean. However I did notice sometimes in the show that sometimes the animation stuttered a bit but overall it was good.

Like Bunny Drop there isn't much I can say about the sound in Kanon as unlike other animes there isn't much action (there's like 5 episodes of some sort of action.) The sound that is used in Kanon though is good. That's all I can say about it because there ism't much to talk about it was just good.

I highly recommend Kanon to everybody I know it misses a few marks off of me because of a couple of flaws it has. I would say give it a miss if you can't stand disturbing or depressing themes though.

How could the guy who stole taiyaki order again? Why do you have memory loss? Why don't you remember the old days? The main character only tells me in dialogue what I am wondering about and there is no explanation.

I was looking forward to this piece. The reason is because a person named "key" is incredibly famous. I know it's an obvious plot since it was released in 1999, but... there are too many! How many times are you showing the same development?!

"I don't know why, but... I hate you to death!" What do you mean... You hate the main character for no real reason... What on earth happened in your childhood? I know. In the past, plotting without explaining things on purpose worked... but in situations where it was difficult to accept, the genre changed to fantasy. That makes it even more difficult to accept. The female characters around them all have similar personalities, so the only difference is their appearance. Please... please add at least one male character... CLANNAD was really well done! Teacher!

This is a fairly melodramatic anime but it is also touching and very rewarding if you stay with it. Yuichi comes back to his aunt's home after seven years. However, he doesn't have any memory of the last time he was there. He meets people that just come into his life which you surmise must have some link to the past. It is winter almost throughout the anime, which perfectly mirrors the sentiment of the characters. Every episode, there are 24 in all, feels onto the next extremely well and the plot is very adult when it comes to themes of love and loss. You'll ready want to watch this to the end to see how the story evolves. Nothing else to say other than highly recommended.