Kanon 2006 3 - Strange illness

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The harem tendencies most fully embraced in the early parts of Kanon are probably the parts that would turn people off the most. Yuuichi flits from girl to girl like any other harem anime.

It gets to the point where we get an establishing shot every 5 minutes or so which we can directly correlate to another character swap.

Hey, look, the courtyard! Shiori doesn't like people who don't give her enough screen time.
Upstairs, during lunch! Talk, Mai, talk! Ahaha~
To the shopping district! Let's shop go look for ambiguous plot devices with uguu~
Back home. Let's sleep! Or not! Makoto prank wars.
Hey, wait, we forgot somebody...

"Usotsuki."

Hit the jump for massive spoilers on everything. This episode is starting to lean towards the Makoto arc, however, so we'll concentrate on her a lot.



Dream sequence. Only the second or third time I've blogged it and I'm already ready to say 'you know the drill'. Same song, different verse. This time we get more specific background scenery.


The incredibly important tree is shown, in all it's definitely-not-cut-down glory. Ayu also mentions not knowing the passage of time. Because, you know, she's been in a coma for seven years. Not even very much witty to say about it~



Anyway, Makoto, who looks for food in the closet, claims not to know who she is. This is rather strange to any normal person to know somebody who doesn't remember anything about themself (except that they hate you), but actually for Makoto it's a true statement.

Because, y'know, she's a fox. Who got abandoned on the hill. By Yuuichi. Seven years ago. Plot!


The photo booth, Makoto's Vaguely Important Theme, is introduced with the discovery of many, many (at least 9) pictures Makoto took by herself, all mostly the same. That must've been a strange sight, her by herself in the photo booth, I imagine for hours on end. XD

The question of how much Akiko really knows is put into question as she activates her famous One Second Approval to allow Makoto (as yet unnamed) to stay. It's shown later on she knew of Ayu Ayu and the presence of Fox Makoto, but I wonder how many of the dots she can connect...

Prank gag is invented and Makoto breaks the kitchen, clinging to the refrigerator almost like an animal (hmm...). The Minase family thus also begins a trend of fourth meals at 3 in the morning. Nayuki's always the only sleepy one still.


Kitagawa proves to be the master of Five Second Foreshadowing as he notices Shiori just seconds before we get her token scene for this episode. Note that their first school meeting is revealed in Super Slow Motion, as Shiori takes about a million seconds to reveal herself from behind a tree.

As she would say, "That looked pretty cool just now, huh?"

Also, they do that Action Movie Confrontation thing where they walk circles around each other. Great camera work.


Also, Shiori has a cold. Right. No explanation needed.


Shiori introduces herself at the end as Shiori No Last Name But Definitely Not Misaki. Even if she did mention her last name I wonder how many people would get the connection. (or, if you read the credits it's already revealed -_-)

Also, Shiori has the cutest damn smile of any Kanon girl. Except for Mai in Episode 12.


Back to the 'forgotten girl' (relatively), Nayuki, who has a horribly foreshadowing quote about waiting (pictured). This can be best applied to Ayu in the hospital/on the bench, but it's also very Nayuki as she still has some loose story ends from 7 years ago to be tied up.


We get our one minute Mai scene but learn really nothing except 'ahaha~'. I think.


Shopping district ensues, and cue Uguu~ing. Ayu still has no weight. At one point I was keeping an Uguu count for Ayu but it got out of hand, and distracting from the actual plot. Unfortunately there is no test at the end for Yuuichi; "In order to save Ayu, tell us: how many times did you and her combined utter uguu~ in the first 12 episodes?"


The theme of Ayu's Lost Thing is introduced with incredible amount of vagueness, thanks to the Kanon Town Amnesia Effect.

Don't worry, Ayu, you'll remember. And then you'll remember that you didn't want to remember. And then you'll remember you're not alive. Oops~

Anyway, searching scene with montage ensues, and Ayu heads to all the food places in town (not a very good memory, eh?). Kanon, of all anime, disproves the fact that you can only get to guy's hearts through their stomachs. It's equally applicable to both genders.


We get more foreshadowing as Ayu makes a complete fool of herself, mistaking a bookstore for a bakery (presumably taiyaki?) and not knowing what in the heck is a cell phone. (she sounds so incredibly naive when she asks that, with that smile too...)


Also, for the deeper details, I wonder sometimes where does Ayu go at night? It's pretty clear that she has no home to go to - except maybe the hospital. But she doesn't seem aware of her paradoxial existence; not knowing her backpack's emptiness, not knowing her 'school' got cut down - she acts too shocked in Episode 20 for it to be an act.

Does Ayu just dissapear when she leaves around the corner? Does she fall into a sort of coma, awakening only when Yuuichi appears?

Or does she even exist? Rather, is she just a figment of Yuuichi's imagination - he is probably the only one who knows of the red hairband, for one. Is this Ayu a product of Real Ayu's imagination, or Yuuichi's?

That's the questions that should be asked in Kanon more often.

-CCY