#AniTwitWatches Rd. 10: Kanon 1 – 3

This is another round of Jon Spencer’s project. If you don’t know how it goes, consult one of the other posts on it, such as this one which introduces it.

Episodic Impressions

Kanon 1

• I don’t have (m?)any expectations going into this anime. I know it’s a Key anime and I’m meant to cry at it…but that’s about it.
• *sees ep. 2’s title* What’s an “introit”?…Some kind of song, I suppose.
• *gets a few seconds in*…is this the “uguu” anime, by any chance? *checks* It…it is!!! (I’m a bit scared now. What happens if the animation melts?)
• “I thought it was still 2:00!” – LOL, I said I was going to start this but ended up working on my Wednesday post for an hour longer than I expected, so…similar experience, I guess(?)
• I swear, all the Key dudes look the same…
• I think there was a complaint in AMQ that all Key songs sound the same. That’s not true, but I can see where it comes from based on the sound of this one.
• I feel like I’m reading a kinetic novel I have no control over…or one on auto. Makes sense, considering the origins of it.
• *stares at frog sign for a second* That sign says “Nayuki’s room”…so he’s living with a bunch of girls? *sigh* Harems gotta harem.
• *Nayuki strips so we can see her bra* – Duuuuuuuuude, this is not the fanservice I was asking for. I wasn’t even asking for fanservice from this.
•  “Can you show me around town later?” – Chalk it up to me playing a bunch of Ren’py otome games, but…I can just imagine the map they’ll lay out for you so that you can go romance those gals (Nayuki included).
• I dunno…how long is forever? (as I remember asking in a different post – I don’t remember if it was on WordPress or Tumblr, but it’s a Teen Titans reference.)
• You thought CGI cars these days were ugly? Nope, they haven’t changed in years, according to the ones that just went past.
• That looks more like a factory than a school…
• Kitagawa…? For some reason, the combination of name and face rings a bell. “Kitagawa” isn’t the most uncommon name by a long shot, but I get the feeling I’ve seen this character before…I just don’t know why. Update: Turns out I was thinking of Yusuke Kitagawa, who I got in a personality quiz once.
• Oh! I was checking up Kitagawa and turns out Kanon is meant to be a play on (Pachelbel’s) Canon. It makes sense, although outside of the OP I’ve had the episode on mute so I can focus (Nabe sidetracked me by requesting a certain post from me – that’s the one that took longer than it was meant to, so you’ll see it in soon) so I didn’t even make the connection.
• Despite the uguu eyes, you can sort of see the future already in them – the Key style that would become sharper over the years under the collective artwork of PA Works up until Kamisama ni Natta Hi today, plus the studio artstyle of Kyoto Animation.
• Why is the food shop called Cosmos…? I dunno.
• I literally yelled “Oh s***!” when Uguu Girl showed up. (I don’t know her name just yet, so she’s Uguu Girl right now.)
• For some reason, Uguu Girl reminds me of Leo from Taiso Samurai…a runaway from some bigger conflict, perhaps?
• Why do I get this suspicious feeling Uguu Girl is homeless…?
• …doesn’t Ayu mean “sweetfish” or something? It’s an appropriate name for an “uguu” girl, I think, because that sounds similar. Update: Apparently it does…in katakana. Ayu’s name is in hiragana.

Kanon 2

• The subs are kinda blurry on the video, but shouldn’t that be spelt “Nayuki”?
• What is that thing with the “45” anyway? An air humidifier?
• Just turn all the alarms off already!
• The edges of the girls’ capes are different. I presume they change based on year level…?
• LOL, that’s a major fail, Kitagawa. I think I’ll start calling him Major Fail Kitagawa from now on.
• Red = 2^nd year, blue = seniors…so what’s the 1^st year cape like?
• …why is there a nude guy in this art class? Still life drawing of human figures? (LOL)
• …man, this anime makes me want taiyaki. Due to COVID, I haven’t had any for a while. (That also makes me think: I haven’t had takoyaki or yakisoba in a while, either.)
• There were enough clues last episode that Ayu and Yuichi had met before that I’m just shrugging at this supposedly sentimental reunion.
• Someone’s just abandoned a shovel in the background there…LOL.
• Oh…great. A tsundere. I can tell because she looks a heck of a lot like Asuka from NGE.
• Oh great x2. Now we have uguu and auuu…

Kanon 3

• Kinchaku. I would assume that is made of tofu skin and filled with something or other (and my suspicions are being corroborated by the recipe I linked)…I’ve probably seen a kinchaku before, at the very least in an anime, but I don’t seem to remember where I’ve seen it before if that was the case.
• LOL, a konnyaku (also known as “devil’s tongue jelly”).
• If the guy’s gimmick is that he has amnesia, the first thing you shouldn’t do is…well, introduce a girl with the same gimmick. It makes your protag (the guy) even less of an existence than he already is.
• I thought the girl at the window was going to be “Kyouko Satsumura” (I nicknamed “Kyouko” “grudge girl”), but…it was that first-year from last episode.
• Based on the fact I’m meant to cry at this…this first-year’s gonna die, right? (I realised I’ve been quite resistant to this anime, which is why it’s taken me 2 days to get through the set episodes for this week…well, aside from the slight dizziness/headache/blocked ear I’ve had lately…but yeah, melodramatic anime generally have some of the worst reactions from me because they’re 1) predictable and 2) easy to spoil the endings of, like with Anohana and Shigatsu.)
• …I need a drinking game for Ayu. “Drink if she shows up once an episode”…or something like that.
• When Yuichi imitated Ayu and made that silly face…I couldn’t stop laughing. (What sorts of girls is Jun Maeda into anyway…? The small, cutesy kind anyone would call “moe”…?)
• Ayu…dropped her purse, right?
• The characters in this series have a real memory problem. Sure, we’ve been stuck on our devices for several months and that takes a toll on people’s memory, but still…this is on the very edge of plausibility.
• “Creps” (sic).
• That stuff about phones…makes sense for 2006, but not now. Everyone’s on their smartphones a lot now. Update: Now that I remember the Wikipedia page says Kanon was first released in 1999, it makes even more sense.
• “Makoto” is a gender-neutral name, but is apparently more popular with dudes from what I know…which is probably why it sounds masculine to Yuichi.
• This arguing’s going to get old fast…*sigh*

---

You can watch this anime on Funimation and AnimeLab.