Taiyaki Never Goes Bad: Kanon Drama CD, Part 2

The wonders of being American and, as such, Japanese-illiterate, is that new content manages to come out for old, popular shows seemingly endlessly.

When in reality perhaps all the rampant merchandising of a show ended a few years ago - in this case, the last drama CD was released in 2003 - the slow trickle of the content through the fansub community (understandable, non-anime content is usually a bit slower to translate) allows for a steady supply of material on the English side of things

As such, the continuing translation of the Kanon drama CDs (supposedly 5 in all; or at least, the third 'Akiko' set) is something that really sends rabid fanboys like me over the moon.

The drama CDs are, admittedly, less than canon (insert pun) content, in that many characters' personalities are different than what's seen of them in the anime. This is mainly true for the side characters, who didn't get much exposition anyway, though; as such, it's entertaining enough to see a side to the secondary characters that time didn't allow.

So Mishio - and, dare I say it, Kuze - fans will really find a lot to like with the drama CDs.

And pardon the fanwankery, but I think a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised with the animation of the drama CD as well.


OTL really went above and beyond the call of duty with their release of the drama CD. Presented in visual novel format, the backgrounds and characters on-screen change in true VN fashion; starting with the second CD, the mouths even move - in sync - with the voices!


Not to mention, some of the extra work in creating backgrounds - such as this manga Yuuichi was reading - or entire characters, in the case of Kuze, who had no sprite in the original VN! It really does a lot towards extending the entertainment value of the drama CD, and I have to hand it to OTL for all their extra work.

Not to say that the drama CD is any less subpar. Check out this previous post for the first ten stories of the first CD.

Continuing off, the 11th story of CD 1, Kuze's Struggle, deals with the everpresent enemy of arcadegoers everywhere, the crane game. As most should be familiar with by now, Mai is a stuffed animal fan, and so when Mai sees a cute one (or what passes for it) trapped in a UFO catcher (hint: a way to not say 'crane game' twice) she is instantly drawn to it.

It's revealed that she actually wants to get it for Sayuri, in that pseudo-quasi-yuri form of friendship that the two have, and so, 'Crane Crasher' Yuuichi, being the manly man he is, vows to get that animal for her.

Like most manly men, Yuuichi fails miserably. Kuze, ever the cocky bastard, comes into the scene to taunt him, when it's revealed to him that the doll is for Sayuri. Then it's his turn to try to win one for her. Being an even manlier man, and with some sort of soft spot for Sayuri (there's a shipping doomed to fail), Kuze fails even harder, and makes some great baseball references in the product.

Flash forward to the Minase household, where Sayuri recieves a bunch of stuffed animals from Yuuichi and Mai...but mostly Mai. 'Crane Crasher' Mai. Kuze drops in, now playing the stalker role, and proudly gives Sayuri one as well...that's revealed to have been purchased from a convenience store. Amusement ensues.

Nayuki's Bathhouse Laws, the 12th story, deals with the travel of the Minases and one very lucky Yuuichi to a public bath, after the latter utterly destroyed their private bath (without even resorting to miso soup like a certain Makoto).

It's more of a light track than a humorous one, as Nayuki recounts all the fun things they used to do in the bathhouse together (...whaaaaat?), which mainly involves Yuuichi pulling a lot of jokes on naive Nayuki. Certainly shows that the two go way back and have a good relationship...although maybe too good; Nayuki references how back then she and Nayuki used to go into the same side (i.e. gender-wise) of the bathhouse. Scary.

The 13th story is actually the bonus track of the CD, and deals with all the Kanon characters drumming up attention for the other drama CDs, although there is some funny fourth-wall-age when each character shows up in turn to advertise their section...even crazy-laugh Kuze. It gets to be a big crowd.

Moving on to the second CD, as usual, the first story, Nayuki's Errand, is a slow kind of intro piece, with more of a relaxed feel than a funny one. Nayuki asks Akiko via phone if she needs any errands run for her on Nayuki's way back from school.

Now, as much of a kind-hearted person she is, Nayuki mainly asks because she spies her slave carrying buddy Yuuichi across the street. And so, Akiko asks Nayuki to purchase the usual truckload of stuff.

Yuuichi is the first to get home, by himself, and it's not until later that Nayuki manages to flop through the door, pushing the bell with her face (Incidentally, there is a mark on her sprite just as descripted. Props.) while carrying multiple bags of rice.

By then, it's revealed that Yuuichi suddenly got dragged into another taiyaki thievery situation by everyone's favorite uguu~machine, and as such didn't notice Nayuki. Poor girl had to carry home all the food by herself instead of turning down her mom. At least now she'll be strong and fast. And sleepy. And ever-adorable.

The ominously titled second story, What'll Happen to Yuuichi Tommorow?!, occurs around New Year's, and begins with Makoto begging Yuuichi for New Year's money, having spent all the cash from Akiko. Yuuichi, a beggar himself, flat out refuses, saying that you only recieve money from old people like Akiko.

Catch the fatal mistake.

Yuuichi goes off to spend his own money, and eventually runs into Akiko and Makoto exploring the shopping district. Confused as to why Makoto gets more attention (and money), Yuuichi inquires, and suddenly his critical error becomes clear.

Never call Akiko old.

As such, Akiko goes on the offensive with that famous brand of very subtle threatening (suggesting that the family needs three bags of rice today, paid and carried by Yuuichi), showing that it's not just her jam that you need to worry about. I can't decide whether it'd be scarier to have Subtle Mafia Agent Akiko or Yandere Akiko, but either way, this is an amusing scene.

The last story released so far, Makoto Wants to Write a Diary, is a long one and a golden one. It begins with Yuuichi recounting some of his relatively ordinary days in his diary, the recurring theme being him buying his harem food to raise their spirits.

Eventually, we get to Yuuichi writing about himself at the bookstore. Having previously bought Makoto the shoujo title Love Love My Darling, Yuuichi notes that it's up to volume eleven, and, being the macho man he is, decides to read it for himself.

Naturally, he's hooked, and begins to read one of the scenes (the confession, naturally) out loud. After a good read, he looks up to find everyone's favorite ice-queen-turned-fangirl, Mishio, reading along with him. He flips out at her scarily obsessive antics - especially since it's unknown whether she actually read the confession part with him or not.

At this point he escapes from the flashback into reality, where he finds out that his diary entry for the next day has already been written for him by Makoto. Tommorow, he is fated to lend money to her for nikuman and manga.

Unsurprisingly, he raises a fuss, and so Makoto recieves her own diary compliments of Akiko. Within a day, however, Makoto writes an entire half-year's worth of entries...all reading the same thing about getting money from Yuuichi. It takes a bit to iron out the misunderstanding.

Although, to Yuuichi, nothing is scarier than the final line in his entry for the last day, written in pink marker and voiced by Mishio in the CD: "Aizawa-san and I confessed to each other..."

Gold, gold I tell you! I don't care if Mishio wasn't a tenth this energetic and love-love (not even like shy, but more Lisianthus-style "I'm gonna get you to love me, damn it" stuff) in the original work, this kind of personality flip for her is hilarious and completely awesome and I'm finding myself liking her as a character even more.

Kuze doesn't fail to dissapoint in his moment in the spotlight as well, even if the thought of him chasing after Sayuri sets off the gag reflex. The usual formula of 'cocky attitude + complete failing' works well, and his analogies are very funny.

The other characters don't dissapoint as well, although they do fit their defined role more with Nayuki being the childhood friend, Makoto being dense/naive, and Akiko being very 'friendly'. If there was one issue, it'd be that there wasn't enough Shiori Yuuichi didn't have as much of his usual sharp wit, instead being more on the recieving ends of situations; but this is a change from the norm and allows the side characters to shine.

Otherwise, I would give the drama CDs a hearty recommendation for anyone who needs more Kanon, as it's an amusing take on the normally dramatic life of the sad girls in snow.

-CCY

When you need your fix: Kanon Drama CD

got uguu~?

As is common, or so it seems, for most anime (and by most I'm using two or three popular anime as a benchmark) Kanon has a series of drama CDs out in Japan. Drama CDs, as you would expect, are audio-only stories, typically side stories (i.e. not relevant to the plot) which are more for light entertainment than anything else - I bring this up considering the often heavy plot matters of Kanon.

Recently, the Kanon audio CDs have been getting fansubbed by OTL, which I think is a first for this sort of stuff. They've done a good job of it as well, presenting it in the visual novel format, with character portraits and backgrounds to match up the text. It might be a simple task, but it really adds a lot to the experience.

But what of the stories themselves? The question one really has to ask when going into this is,

Can you get too much Kanon?

Do the drama CDs fall into the cash-in category or are they worth your time? There are 10 stories and they run about 40 minutes in total. The download size for all of them is roughly equivalent to that of a normal episode of anime (170 MB) and since, well, it's Kanon, the seed speed shouldn't be too bad.

And with that, I can give it a solid recommendation, although it does get a bit awkward at times. Hit the jump for full details.

The good thing about this drama is that the side characters really get a lot of airtime compared to their normal plots. People like Kaori and Mishio in Kanon 2006, and especially 2002, really didn't have a whole lot of purpose other than plot devices. But now, in the drama, we get to see their lighter side, as they spend some friendly time with Yuuichi.

What bugs me a bit about it is Yuuichi's extension of his harem, as such, to these characters as well as Kaori and Mishio exhibit some...questionable...behavior around him, which is a bit disturbing even if it is refreshing to see them break their 'look at me, I'm Yuki' quiet exterior.

Incidentally I have no idea as to the exact release date of this, but I'd imagine between the 2002 and 2006 versions of Kanon as Yuuichi sounds a lot like his 2002 counterpart.

Morning at the Minase's is the first short segment to open up the drama, and clocking in at less than a minute it's not too much to watch. To be honest I don't think it was intended to be, given that it's lacking on the 'funny' per se, as it's just a snapshot of the morning life at...uh...the Minase's. Shocking, isn't it.

Akiko's Shopping List deals with Akiko's scary prowess with food, whether it be having Yuuichi buy another couple hundred bags of rice, or Akiko's ability to cook about everything...especially some things she shouldn't be cooking *cough*jam*hack*.

Shiori's Portrait deals with pretty much exactly what you'd imagine, Shiori and her spectacularly bad art skills. Amusingly enough though Akiko and Ayu both manage to correctly identify Shiori's drawing of Yuuichi - even though he himself cannot do so. The question is, does Shiori really draw that bad or is Yuuichi just a jerk? Perhaps Akiko and Ayu are in on the joke?

Kaori's Crisis is the first of the better ones on the CD, so to speak, and deals with Yuuichi getting into his usual awkwardly haremtastic situations. Nayuki, Yuuichi, and Kaori were all supposed to meet up at the Hyakka cafe as always to study together for a test or something, but when Nayuki gets sidetracked without being able to contact the others, it turns into a surprise 'date' between Kaori and Yuuichi...or so she believes. I can't tell if she's really that dense (and/or into Yuuichi) or just messing with him, but either way, hilarity ensues.

Makoto's Revenge deals, like Shiori's story, with her incredible lack of talent, this time in physical strength - remember the punching scene at the end of 2006 episode 2? Yeah, like that. And so, Yuuichi brings Makoto up through an epic training sequence to help her defeat him. Such training involves, cleaning the bathtub, and buying Yuuichi stuff. See, Yuuichi's clever! And also a jerk, but that's irrelevant, because this is a good skit.

Mai's Valentine deals with pretty much exactly what you think it is, and in exactly the manner you think it is, in that your first guess is wrong but your second is probably right. Sayuri and Yuuichi catch Mai taking cooking lessons from Akiko (I think this might be the only time ever in vaguely canon storyline that the two cross paths) in order to help her learn how to cook chocolates. So of course they put two and two together and come up with five in predicting that Mai's making chocolates for Yuuichi. That'd be meltingly adorable...but no. Sayuri, on the other hand...you see it coming, but it's still entertaining to watch, for sure. Not Mai bias at all here. Nope. Nuh-uh.

Mishio and Fate approximately doubles the amount of time she's existed in the Kanon universe (hello, short end of stick). Yuuichi is out to go buy Makoto stuff, as always, and he runs into Mishio in the manga section of a bookstore. Of course, Makoto's into girly stuff and so it's a bit awkward what Yuuichi's looking at (incidentally, those with sharp eyes can spot a volume of Lucky Star). As such, Yuuichi the still-sort-of-jerkish-guy commandeers Mishio to make the purchases for him, in return for, uh, taking her out to eat. Harem plus plus? Harem++. He also manages to pull the same move he did with Kaori in doing something innocuous looking that completely flusters the girl. Come on. I would put money that either Kaori or Mishio would be the obligatory one person (and only one, somehow) that wasn't completely head over heels for Yuuichi.

Kaori's White Day as typical proves me wrong, as this short-ish piece deals with Yuuichi's lack of care for his new harem member, in that he manages to dish out at least 8 or 9 boxes of giri (i.e. gift, non-romantic, whatever) chocolate for White Day (heh, there's a problem for having a large harem) but happens to convienently forget Kaori, despite all the false starts that make her think he actually does have something left for her (he doesn't). Right, and Kaori only claims she wants her giri chocolate back. Mmhmm, sure.

Ayu's Wish Upon a Star completes the 'every girl appears' checklist (although Nayuki and Sayuri don't get solo stories), in the episode where Ayu deals with typically Ayu stuff: 1) uguu~ and 2) taiyaki. The two of them walk together and exchange uguu~'s as usual when they spot a shooting star. Yuuichi tells Ayu of the whole 'repeat wish 3 times before star dissapears' thing, which causes Ayu to repeat her wish about a million times, spamming it in hope that a star appears. Cute, but annoying. Very. Ayu's wish, since this isn't the main storyline, deals with her and getting taiyaki. A lot of it. Ironically enough it comes true as Akiko pulls out another deux ex machina in having recieved about a couple hundred taiyaki from a co-worker (where does she work?).

Mishio and Fate II - yeah, she's back! Didn't see that coming, eh? Funnily enough I didn't mind it too much as I really do think Mishio deserved more screentime - if not only because of the rapid development she got in 2006 that showed some promise. Mishio and Yuuichi happen to run into each other at Hyakka again, and this time Mishio shows some interest in fortune telling. She discovers that, typically enough, the personality of her and Yuuichi both match up with the ones predicted in the book - what are the odds of that? (Very high) Mishio shows a bit of her scary obsessive side though, in discovering that her and Yuuichi apparently have very high compatibility together, under certain situations. She gets worked up to the point where the waitress calls for Aizawa and both of them respond - remember, women adopt the man's name when they get married.

See, Yuuichi? To hell with Ayu, Nayu, and the rest. You've got Amano. Mmhmm.

-CCY

Doublepost: Kanon Kazahana + sola 1

Luckily, before the downtime I was able to stock up a nice pile of anime to watch, a lot of them old and some of them new. Among the ancient we have Honey & Clover, Da Capo, To Heart 2, and ONE. Among the newer we've got Wangan Midnight and sola in the queue along with Lucky CHANNELUUUUUUUUUUUUU Star.

Although, I must say, with every series I'm getting more and more piled up in a jumble of names, hair colors, and relationships.

In this post I'll cover briefly in text form Kanon Kazahana, the special OVA-ish thing that came after the TV run of Kanon 2002, as well as the first episode of sola, a series from 2007. Whoa.

Technically, I should warn for Kanon spoilers, as Kazahana comes after the canon Kanon (OK, I just like to say that word) storyline, not to mention me discussing the ending of Kanon for no reason than other to scare off people. Hit the jump.


Kanon 2002 is a hit-or-miss anime, in that it really sort of depends on whether you've seen the remake, Kanon 2006 or not. Despite its flaws, 2002 was a decent series, but the biggest problem with it is that the 2006 version completely destroys it. 2006 is longer, and thus has more time for better pace and storytelling. The Makoto arc takes forever in both versions to me, but forever in 2002 is twice the forever of 2006, since there are only 12 compared to 24 episodes.

2002 is animated in a different fashion than 2006 as well, in that 2002 is what could be called quite 'ugly', due to it being outdated. 2002, also tends to have more of an 'anime' feel to it, with the characters going into SD mode and having extreme facial distortions more often, which will be a hit or miss.

And in 2002, personally, Yuuichi comes across as much more of a jerk than a sarcastic guy who's really nice on the inside. I'm not sure if this is the casting or the Kyon voice (although, I saw Kanon before Haruhi), but in any case it's definitely a bit of a drag on 2002.

But, of course, 2002 has its high points as well, as has been discussed down on the Kanon board in GameFAQs (see, the boards are good for something!). The main merit for 2002 is for the Nayuki fanboys, who get as close to a NAYUKI ENDING DAMNIT as they're going to get (although, the Mai and Shiori fan in me wonders how the end would have gone if it was tilted that way). There are other minor pluspoints as well, like a bit of 'fanservice' (although there's not much either way, rare for an eroge adaptation), some characters being handled better, and so on.

Kanon Kazahana, however, is one of the greatest things 2002 has to offer. Kazahana is a 'after-the-end' special, which I don't believe was per se covered in the original version, so Toei's probably taking some liberal adaptations here. But it works, at least only because it's interesting to see where everyone ended up...whenever this is. Probably a year after episode 12 or 13 (considering, at least in 2006, a year was covered between the hospital incident and the hairband incident).

Mai and Sayuri have moved abroad to Generic Sunny Nation, and we get to see an adorable Mai in Not-School-Outfit and with her hair down, and an exposition of her...relationship...with Sayuri. (move along now...) She's still the same lovable character as always, with her quiet demeanor hiding a hidden level of kindness.

Mishio still spends forever on Monomi Hill. She seems to be talking to the air, but suddenly Makoto materializes out of nowhere, one of the bigger shocks of the episode. Perhaps Mishio and Makoto meet every day or every so often now at the hill. It's nice to see Makoto gone...and it's nice to see her not forgotten too. Hehehe.

Shiori and Boy Haircut Ayu spend some time together having drinks (unfortunately not of that kind) in the shopping district, in which Shiori is typically humble in complimenting Ayu on her haircut and saying how looks don't matter anyway. A bit of a slip, at any case, at her pleasure from having gained another position in the cute race. (all of a sudden with their talk about looks I'm tempted to ask how many of them are eligible for the Flat Chested Alliance...)

Nayuki, as always, is running, and she gets a large piece of exposition in this episode as she's running a strong second place to Ayu in the Yuuichi competition, having confessed her feelings and gotten in a kiss - very impressive in any case. One leftover piece is how Yuuichi is going to handle her, and perhaps vice versa, afterwards. Nayuki claims she is OK to Kaori (who, of all people, actually IS going out with Very Feminine Jun, at least for today!), but as usual I doubt that's true, as she still seems a bit down.

Nayuki and Yuuichi share a retake of the Nerine-on-the-swing-bench scene from...an entirely different anime in which they discuss things that may or may not make Nayuki feel all better. In the end they separate paths and walk from each other in a very symbolic manner, probably symbolizing them moving on. It's too bad there isn't another guy in the series to ship with, since Jun doesn't count at all.

And Akiko...cleans the house. No jamu today, even. Well, she's the hidden backbone of the anime anyway, at any rate.

With just that summary it's a bit hard to show why Kazahana's worth your time, but it has its interesting moments, its amusing moments, and its heartful moments, so give it a try if you've watched 2002 or even just 2006. It's a good episode, even if the art is a bit lacking.

...as for sola, hmm, that's going to be a trickier thing to explain as because it is a new anime it is mandated that I do not get it at all. That's usually the draw of a lot of these anime, of course, the promise of having things Make Sense. There's not a lot to say about the sola characters whose names I do not remember, but nearly all of them probably have quite the interesting story, whether it be Feminine Cameraman Protagonist guy, Tomato Soup girl In The Church, Quiet Hospitalized girl, Vaguely Tsundere Possibly Childhood Friend girl, Spoiled Loli-In-A-Box girl (in a maid outfit or something!?), and Probably Evil guy With Glasses. That's about all I've caught out of it, and all I remember without screenshots. I'll recap it perhaps later, and when I've seen more episodes as well.

-CCY