Kanon ep.01

October 7, 2006 | 39 Comments

Opening Theme: 「Last regrets」 by 彩菜 (Ayana)
Download: HI-RES AVI format (creditless) (45.6MB) | PSP format (creditless) (13.3MB)

First thing first, the OP and ED are identical with the creditless version that appeared on the DVD version, except with text on top of it. Since I've already uploaded the creditless version for some friends a few months ago, I may as well use them here. I swear that they are not Karin ED! XD If you don't get the joke then I'm glad. As for this episode itself, it certainly looks pretty. It seems no expense was spared in making this particular title. Voice-acting wise, I was confused when I first heard Yuuichi since he looks a bit like Kyon (of Suzumiya Haruhi) but sounds like Mayama (of Honey and Clover). After a while, however, I simply sees him as Kyon. :D Anyway, I've just had the chance to re-written the summary so that it includes details that I left out when I wrote the it the first time around.

A boy is waiting for someone, complaining about the fact that the person he's waiting for is late. Eventually, A girl is seen rushing towards the boy. Upon seeing the boy the girl points out that snow are piling up on him. The boy explains that is because he's been waiting here for 2 hours. The girl is surprised because she thought it's still around 2. In return, the guy points out that even if this is around 2, the girl will still be late by one hour. Since they haven't seen each other for 7 years the girl asks the boy if he remembers her name. Instead of answering the question, the boy simply asks her if she remembers his name. The girl tells him that his name is Yuuichi. Yuuichi pretends that he doesn't remember the girl's name, calling her "Hanako" and "Jiro". The girl pouts and tells the boy that she's a girl. She's also upset because the boy can't seem to remember her name. Before they leave the area, however, the boy smiles and asks "Nayuki" to go with him.

After the opening, the voice of a girl tells herself that she's dreaming. A dream that she has every day. A never-ending dream with red snow, a world stained in red. When she looks up at the sunset sky, a small kid was crying. She wants to wipe those tears but her arms can't move. The tears that streams down his cheek disappeared into the snow. She could only watch in vain and sadness. "It'll be fine" someone said. Because of this, that person asked her not to cry. "It's a promise"....she wonders to whom these words belong to. The dream then changes to another colour, a dull grey one. Yuuichi then wakes up, wondering where he could be. Outside, Nayuki can be heard saying "Uniform" repeatedly and that she has no time for this. Yuuichi opens the curtain to his window and notices that everything outside the house is now covered in snow. He then goes out of his room and asks Nayuki why she's making so much noise so early in the morning.

He promptly gets scolded by Nayuki who wants him to say "Good morning" when he wakes up. So Yuuichi does that and Nayuki replies in return. Nayuki asks him if he knows where her uniform is so Yuuichi suggests that maybe his aunt, Akiko, washed them. Nayuki panics to hear this and goes downstairs immediately. Yuuichi mumbles about the fact that the uniform has strange design. Nayuki who overhears him from downstairs disagrees. Nayuki finds her uniform but unfortunately it's still a bit wet so Yuuichi suggests that she puts it under Kotatsu for a while. Nayuki, however, tells him if she does that, the uniform will get wrinkled. Yuuichi asks her if today is not Winter holiday. Nayuki admits that's true but she still has track and field practice to attend since she's the captain. Downstairs, Nayuki's mother, Akiko, wonders if Nayuki can make it in time. Yuuichi is shocked to see his aunt since she is carrying a large pot containing hot water.

Yuuichi can't help but wonder what the hot water is for so she asks Yuuichi to come outside before pouring the water on the gate's handle. That way Nayuki can open the handle easily. Before Nayuki can go far, however, Yuuichi asks her if she can show him around town later on. Nayuki doesn't mind if Yuuichi wants to do that. After Nayuki left, Yuuichi decides to clear the snow on the pathway. His aunt appears to tell him that he can take a rest if he wants to but since Yuuichi is a man, he forges on. Yuuichi explains that Minase Akiko is his mother's younger sister and Nayuki's mother. After he finished with the job, Yuuichi returns to the living room, saying that when he was young, he frequently came to this town to visit. This is the first time he sees Nayuki and his aunt since seven years ago. Nayuki then returns home, asking Yuuichi to come with her to see the town. Yuuichi is aghast at the corny lines and tells Nayuki that she certainly has not changed.

As they walk out of the house, Yuuichi apologises to Nayuki for bothering her. She, however, doesn't mind at all. If anything, she wants him to become familiar with the town as soon as possible since he'll be living here forever and ever. Yuuichi tells her that he's not sure about forever but he'll definitely be living here until he graduates. After looking at several unique places around the city, Nayuki takes Yuuichi to the school where he'll be studying. Yuuichi asks Nayuki if this place used to be a cornfield. Nayuki confirms this and proceeds to show Yuuichi which building is old and which one is new. Upon seeing students walking around, he points out to Nayuki that there are a lot of students around for a day off like this one. Nayuki explains that those students are here for make up classes or club activities. After Yuuichi and Nayuki left, two girls called Mai and Sayuri are seen engaged in conversation. Sayuri wants to know what Mai is doing.

As it turns out, Mai was trying to pet a little dog but the dog runs away in fear when it sees another human. At the same time, Nayuki is in the middle of showing Yuuichi the hospital. Upon seeing the place, Yuuichi tells Nayuki that is one place he wouldn't want to visit. Nayuki laughs since she remembers that Yuuichi never likes hospital. While Yuuichi explains that nobody likes hospital, a girl called Shiori is seen walking towards the place with her mother. When Nayuki and Yuuichi reach the town center, a girl calls out Nayuki's name. Nayuki recognises the girl as 'Kaori' and the guy who comes after the girl as 'Kitagawa'. Yuuichi asks her if they are her friend. Nayuki confirms this, saying that they are her classmates. Kaori also happens to be her close friend. Upon seeing Yuuichi, Kitagawa thinks its rare that Nayuki goes out on a date. He promptly gets elbowed by Kaori, who explains that she and Kitagawa just happened to run into each other.

The guy whinges saying that if they just happened to meet then she shouldn't ask him to carry her belongings. To end the fight, Nayuki introduces Yuuichi as Aizawa Yuuichi, her cousin. Kaori realises that Yuuichi was the one that Nayuki was talking about the other day so she introduces herself. Kitagawa then steps forward and is about to introduce himself but Yuuichi immediately says that Kitagawa is probably Kaori's groceries carrier. Kitagawa refutes this but when Kaori asks him to hold some of her groceries, he obliges and carries them. Kaori then pulls out two hot coffee cans from the shopping bag and gives them to Yuuichi. Kitagawa is dismayed to see this, claiming that he was the one who bought those coffee. Kaori, however, tells Kitagawa not to be stingy. Kitagawa suddenly becomes territorial and tells Yuuichi that Kaori belongs to him. Kaori responds to this by stepping on his foot before bidding goodbye to Nayuki and Yuuichi.

Not surprisingly, Kitagawa immediately goes after Kaori. This for some reason, triggers a flashback of dull grey forest in Yuuichi's mind. When Nayuki takes Yuuichi to see a river, Yuuichi admits that he doesn't remember what happened in the past. He feels that many things happened here but he's forgotten all about it. Nayuki assures him that he'll remember it slowly. She likes this town so she wants Yuuichi to like it as well. Nayuki becomes distracted when a fox appears behind them so she starts playing silly game with the animal. The two then go to a shop but Yuuichi refuses to come in so Nayuki asks him not to go anywhere. After Nayuki enters the shop, Yuuichi sees a dead tree and feels as if he's seen this scenery 7 years ago. All of a sudden, a girl with a winged backpack runs towards him. The girl complains about the incident but when Yuuichi tries to apologise, she drags him away from the area and into a coffee shop.

The girl explains that she was buying Taiyaki when she realised that she forgot her wallet. After seeing the owner yelling at a cat for stealing his Taiyaki, the girl became afraid and ended up running away from the area while clutching the fresh and unpaid Taiyaki. Yuuichi realises that the girl essentially stole the Taiyaki so he drags her back to the Taiyaki seller, promising to pay for it if she apologises for stealing them. After they've done this, Yuuichi notices the wings on the girl's backpack and asks her about it so the girl turns her body around trying to see it. Yuuichi suggests that instead of turning her body around, she should just turn her head. The two eventually decide to part ways so the girl introduces herself as Tsukimiya Ayu. Ayu is surprised when she finds out Yuuichi's name but she pretends as if there's nothing wrong when he asks her about it. She, however, tells him that she'd like to see him again and tells Yuuichi it's a promise.

Upon hearing the word, Yuuichi remembers the face of a girl but he's not sure who that girl is supposed to be. Ayu wonders if there is anything wrong but Yuuichi denies this so she smiles and bids goodbye to him. After Ayu left, Yuuichi realises that he's left Nayuki alone so he returns to the shop and finds Nayuki sulking because he lied to her. Nayuki eventually forgives Yuuichi since she did made him wait for 2 hours when he first arrived. That night, Yuuichi asks Nayuki if he can borrow an alarm clock so Nayuki lets him pick one of her many alarm clocks! Yuuichi then goes to bed and dreams about his past. In the dream, chibi Nayuki wanted to go shopping and asked chibi Yuuichi to accompany her. Yuiichi promised that he will wait outside the store and when he did this, a girl bumped into him crying. Because Yuuichi didn't know why the girl was crying, he asked for her name and found out that it's Ayu. Yuuichi then took Ayu's hand and lead her away.

Impression:

I really want to be impressed with the storyline but at this point, I think it's a bit boring. It feels like a slice-of-life series but it's even more slice-of-life than Honey and Clover. The episode actually shows Yuuichi waking up, talking about laundry, and go shopping. Thankfully, there are some interesting mysteries scattered throughout the episode. For example, I'd like to know which girl was talking at the start of the episode. I also wonder why Yuuichi forgets about a few things but remember other details. It seems as if he has a selective amnesia. I assume just like in this episode, Yuuichi will slowly regains his memory. I am happy that Tomokazu Sugita gets to voice Yuuichi because he gives the character a slight sarcastic nature. I really like the part where he made fun of Jun for being a luggage boy. His physical similarity with Kyon is a little bit unsettling at first but I eventually get used to it and stops seeing him as Kyon.

From the two girls that have been introduced so far, Ayu is probably my favourite. I mostly like her because just like Yuuichi, she has some mysterious background that has yet to be revealed. Nayuki is too much of a childhood friend character to me and I don't like that kind of character. I do feel sorry for her though when Yuuichi stood her up because he got dragged away by Ayu. By the way, is the wings behind Ayu's backpack is something important in the story? At first I thought Ayu couldn't see the wings but it seems she can see it so I guess it's nothing special then. The red world that was shown at the start of the story is also intriguing. Overall, I think the story has some potential but it needs to start focusing on the mystery as opposed to the everyday life of the girls. Having said that, I suspect the first few episodes will probably be reserved to introduce all of the lead female characters.

Ending Theme: 「風の辿り着く場所」- (Kaze no Tadori Tsuku Basho) by 彩菜 (Ayana)
Download: HI-RES AVI format (creditless) | PSP format (creditless) (14.8MB)

I think I've mentioned this when I wrote the Kanon: Prelude entry but I think the ED theme feels a lot more dramatic than the OP theme.

Preview

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