In an effort to provide some more useful information on the site an almost 2 month brainstorming session came up with the idea of going back and writing my opinions about older shows that I have watched in the past. So here goes…

A lot has been said about Kanon with some proclaiming it as a masterpiece, and others who dub it as trash. Kanon is the second offering in what many call the “Key/Visual Arts Trilogy” which are adaptations by Kyoto Animation of 3 of Key/Visual Arts visual novels. The first being Air, Kanon second, and the third is CLANNAD. All three shows feature very similar art styles and feel. Now I will say that I have never experienced the visual novel itself, so I cannot attest to how well the anime follows it’s original material.

Kanon itself is the story of a boy Suichi who returns to a town where he used to spend vacations with his aunt and cousin, but he has lost his memories of that time. As he begins to settle in to his new environment people he was involved with as a child begin to appear sparking his old memories. It’s a fairly straight forward plot and fits the standard theme of most visual novels by using a catalyst such as lost memory to allow the story to unfold while obscuring or misleading one from seeing the actual plot until almost the end. Of course as with most anime the opening credits pretty much gives you a pretty decent idea of what the main focus of the story will be. Another touch is that the entire show is set in a winter environment to add to the feel of the story.

The characters are well thought out, and quite easy to like. Even though most of them fit into typical anime/visual novel stereotypes they have their own unique style which makes them stand out among similar characters that have used in countless stories. As with almost all visual novels the story is chock full of harem elements with the main character being a boy who seems to attract every girl in town to him. I guess I can see why some have a problem with this type of show, but knowing in advance that it is based on a visual novel which are also commonly referred to as “girl get” games or “dating sims” you should pretty much not act surprised when the idea of the show is for Suichi to be surrounded by females and that he must eventually choose one to be with. Personally I tend to enjoy these adaptations, and I think my favorite thing is trying to figure out early on what is going to happen in the end. By playing a few visual novels one can pretty much get the idea of how they operate, so it’s easier to understand stories based on them even though you may not know that particular story. The main mechanisms of a visual novel are the routes and character interaction, so after playing a few it’s fairly easy to spot the various routes and character arcs, and then using the amount and type of interaction with each character to determine which route the main character is taking (here’s a hint… In most VNs the character that shows up the most is usually the character whose route is being followed).

As for the story itself it was quite well written, and flows nicely from beginning to end. It didn’t seem too rushed as some shows tend to be, and each episode builds on the story without too much extraneous material to fill up gaps in the story. Honestly one thing that surprised me was that the descriptions and trailers for this show were a bit misleading. Everything always screamed that this was possibly set in a “middle of nowhere” type of environment with a stranded on a snowy mountain feel, but the actual story takes place in a fairly decent sized city, although they did still manage to make the environment feel a bit isolated which I found quite interesting. If there is one flaw in the story then it is the same one that all visual novels share. In order to push the plot forward too many things happen too conveniently. Of course things like that don’t typically happen, and the chance of things happening in order or just at the proper time to be useful is always a bit much to swallow, but it is to be expected on these kind of adaptations.

Overall I think the show was done quite well, and I can understand why some may not like it, but I feel those types will probably not be ones to enjoy any kind of show adapted from game type material, so I would take most negative opinions with a grain of salt. If you have liked other visual novel adaptations then chances are you will like this, and even if you don’t typically like this type of story it is still well worth giving it a try. Without giving anything away I will say that if you like Air or CLANNAD then you will almost certainly enjoy this, and there is one more point to make… The story is pretty straight forward, and easy to understand unlike the confusion of Air or CLANNAD in which you have to watch a few times to figure out exactly what is going on. This one you can get everything just watching one time (of course that didn’t stop me from watching it 3 times anyway).

So is it a masterpiece??? Who knows? It doesn’t have quite the epic feel of CLANNAD, but is still quite an impressive story, and the artwork is on par with the other two shows which I consider to be Kyoto Animation’s greatest works to date from a visual standpoint.