…I just don’t get it.
The uncharacteristically short girls with gigantic chins, the mouths way too close to their noses, and that freak tendency to stand in random locations such to allow as much wind to blow through their intricately animated hair as possible. Oh, and the proverbial “call of moe” that never fails to dupe unsuspecting audiences. Uguuuuu~
Yea, you know what I’m talking about – that one show that everybody’s been talking about, the one getting subbed by 50 groups and blogged by another 200. Its predecessor was the originator of “uguu”, later evolving into some cult-status t-shirt reading “gao gao stegosaur”, which somehow was enough of a hit to prompt the production of a full-blown 24 episode remake of the original.
WHY?
As I’ve been trying to explore in the FreezeFrame column, some shows are just fantastically memorable, having that inherent quality of being “timeless”. Add recent successes Ouran and Suzumiya Haruhi to that list – both of those shows did so much and did them to perfection, striking a perfect balance between humor, drama, and character development, along with great character design, animation, and voice acting.
Apparently Kanon was memorable enough to warrant a remake from juggernaut studio Kyoto Animation.
I watched about half of the original Kanon before I got tired of the taste of puke in my mouth. I lasted through the entirety of AIR, my fingernails completely worn down after continuously clawing away at my desk in torturous pain.
I tried to understand it, I really did. Kanon and AIR were good at setting a mood and sticking to it, but they completely failed at drawing me in. I got tired of watching these toddlers whining, crying, bumping into unsuspecting single guys with amnesia for no particular reason. Every episode. And how the hell does the wind blow through their hair when they gigantihumongormous chins are redirecting all air flow? Wait…who the hell cares?
I realize that it’s supposedly an otakian wetdream to be thrown into a small town with pixilated prepubescent honeys throwing themselves at your feet, but there are other shows that do this much better. SHUFFLE, Suzuka, Da Capo (pure trash but at least their chins were proportional) – even that animation travesty ICHIGO 100% was more enjoyable.
Is Kanon 2006 different? The seiyuu work is excellent, the animation strong, the chins have been downsized – but the formula is still essentially the same. A rehash of the original, twice the fun with 24 episodes. That’s not to say remakes don’t work – on the contrary, the beginning of Futakoi Alternative and the new Negima series pull it off quite well, but these shows brought something new to the table. While I doubt the prospects of Kanon Seed Destiny, it would be nice to see the story retold from a different perspective or placed in a different setting.
Maybe I’ll finally understand it the second time around. In the meantime, can somebody please explain the appeal of this show?
-Jaalin
Omni’s Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of Jaalin and do not necessarily reflect my own opinions.
