 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | ADV FILMS | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 16:9 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | ENGLISH DD 5.1 AND JAPANESE DD 2.0 | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 100 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | T | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 01/01/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 12/21/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | HOLLY ELLINGWOOD |
Kanon is an anime series featuring an idyllic winter town, a boy with amnesia, and the many girls in his life. It holds a mystery and a slowly dawning sense of melancholy. Based on the visual novel by Key, also responsible for AIR, Kanon features slice-of-life style storytelling and absolutely gorgeous animation.
Just to clear up any possible confusion, there are two Kanon TV series. The first was 13 episodes long but was met with some disappointment by fans in Japan. The second TV series is 24 episodes in length and strived to stay closer to what fans wanted while offering a more in depth story and character development. It is this second series that ADV has offered here. The original visual novel has also inspired light novels, manga series, and even CDs. The anime opens on a train traveling during snowfall, highlighting some wonderful animation. From there viewers are introduced to a sleepy town where Yuichi has returned after a number of years. A traumatic event wiped his memory clean of his time in the village, but the girls in town remember him. There’s his sweet cousin Nayuki whom he stays with, the soft-spoken girl Shiori who suffers from a mysterious illness who befriends him, a rough and tumble gal who loves to tackle him named Makoto, and the cute and rather enigmatic Ayu, a girl who seems to have a bond with Yuichi, if only he could remember it. The anime starts slowly, building up to the introduction of each of the girls re-entering or being introduced for the first time into Yuichi’s life. It quickly shows some quirky and then exuberant comedy, particularly with the arrival of Makoto. Her constant fights with Yuichi are hilarious and seem more the stuff of sibling rivalry than any serious grudge. The series so far has a gentle and understated tone. There is nothing too heavy in the first volume, yet toward the end, fragmented dreams of lost memories are beginning to resurface. What they mean and what caused him to lose his memory all those years ago still remains a mystery, and may well prove to be the underlying story beneath an otherwise quiet slice-of-life tale. The animation is incredibly lush. The backgrounds, snowfalls, and appealing character designs shine throughout the anime. Done by Kyoto Animation who also animated AIR, viewers will get to see another feat of gorgeously rendered imagery. The soundtrack, like with its sister anime AIR, also uses the score and music from the original visual novel it’s based off of. It has some wonderful music, particularly the opening song. EXTRAS:
Bonus features include ADV previews, clean closing and opening animation, and a behind the scenes look at anime production. This first segment looks at the Japanese anime production house and focuses on character designs and features interviews with Tatsura Ishibara (Director). IN SUMMARY:
Kanon is an atypical anime series for a harem genre. It has a gently paced understated story with slowly building poignancy and a lush animation style that all can enjoy. Kanon is an anime with a gentle heart that will charm viewers.
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