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ローゼンメイデン 
October 13, 2006 | 
36 Comments
Maybe I'm just starting to get used to it but the second episode feels a bit better than the first one. It also helps that it introduces a few new characters that I like. The problem is, I don't think Yuuichi will end up with either of them. In addition to this, the animation quality is still as good as last week's episode. This is a good thing because there is a likelihood that the quality will remain consistent throughout the entire series. Besides, judging from other Kyoto Animation series, they don't usually have major quality issues halfway through the series. When they don't have budget, they'll just show a series of long shots and stills that last few minutes. :) Anyway, I've managed to re-written this entry as I promised the day before.
The episode begins with a girl talking about being in a dream. The dream is always the same, returning over and over again to the same scenery. While she sleeps slowly, there is one thing that she wishes: when she opens her eyes, the next scenery that she sees will be a different one. In the morning, Yuuichi is awakened by the alarm clock going "Asa. Asa da yo....Asa gohan tabete, gakkou iku yo....". After turning the alarm off, Yuuichi opens the balcony's window. All of a sudden, however, he hears a loud alarm clock noise coming from Nayuki's room. Yuuichi knocks on Nayuki's room and when she doesn't answer it, he barges into the room. He is surprised to see that Nayuki has at least 10 alarm clocks going off all at once. Yuuichi tries to wake Nayuki up by calling her name. When that does not work, however, he decides to turn off every single alarm clock in her room before shaking Nayuki forcefully to wake her up.
Nayuki eventually wakes up and the two of them have breakfast prior going to school. When Nayuki asks Yuuichi why he doesn't use jam on his toast, he tells her it's because he doesn't like sweet things. Upon hearing this, Akiko tells Yuuichi that they have jam that is not sweet. All of a sudden, Nayuki stands up from the table, thanking her mother for breakfast and goes up to her room. After Nayuki left, Yuuichi decides to take her toast and allow his aunt to spread this 'special' jam on it. Upon biting the toast, however, Yuuichi regrets the decision and asks his aunt what kind of Jam this one is supposed to be. Akiko, however, refuses to tell, claiming it's a secret. Yuuichi sweatdrops upon hearing this, telling his aunt that the taste is 'complex' (read: bizzare, but I doubt Yuuichi will use that word when talking to Akiko, who is his aunt) or one might say 'original'. Despite this, Yuuichi bravely gulps the entire toast into his mouth before leaving the breakfast table.
Just as he and Nayuki about to open the door, however, Akiko asks Yuuichi to buy Oden once he finished school so they can have it for dinner. After the two go out into the street, Yuuichi asks Nayuki what kind of jam that her mother made but Nayuki doesn't know either. As they walk to the school, Yuuichi bitches about the cold weather, asking Nayuki if it's this cold everyday. Nayuki, however, tells him that today is actually a lot warmer than usual. As they pass a street, Nayuki asks Yuuichi if he remembers this neighbourhood. Unfortunately Yuuichi doesn't seem to recall anything so Nayuki tells him to fight on and try to remember. Yuuichi, however, doesn't care whether or not he can remember it. Nayuki thinks if there is one person who wishes to be remembered by him, then he should try to remember the person. Nayuki then checks her watch and realises that at this rate, they won't get to school in time. Because of this, the two decide to sprint to school.
The two manage to arrive in school tired but on time. Yuuichi wonders how Nayuki is okay while he's out of breath after running to schoo. Because of this Nayuki reminds him that he's the leader of track and field club after all. Kaori and Jun then arrive at school so Yuuichi starts calling Jun 'Luggage carrier'. Jun becomes angry at Yuuichi but when Kaori hands him her bag, he accepts it happily. That day, Yuuichi introduces himself as Aizawa Yuuichi to the rest of his classmates and ends up getting seated next to Nayuki. After he sits in his chair, Kaori criticises his self-introduction as 'normal'. In retaliation, Yuuichi tells her that if there is an unusual self-introduction, he'd like to see it. A few hours later, the class is over but Nayuki still has her club to attend to. As the two exit the class, Yuuichi asks Nayuki not to tell anyone about the fact that they stay in the same house. Nayuki apologises to Yuuichi but unfortunately, she already told everyone this morning.
Nayuki starts to run on the stairs to avoid Yuuichi but she loses her balance and falls on top of two girls, Mai and Sayuri. Nayuki worries that she may have hurt Mai but Mai tells her that she's not in pain at all. Sayuri asks Nayuki if she herself is not injured. As Mai and Sayuri leaves the area, Yuuichi notices that the ribbon on their uniform is blue, which suggests that they are 3rd years. Before Yuuichi and Nayuki go on their seperate way, he tells her that he wants to look around the school. Nayuki warns him not to get lost since this school is quite big. A few minutes later, Yuuichi is lost and ends up wandering to the rooftop where he buries himself inside the snow. He also gets a look at the library, the laboratory, the computer lab, and an art class where a male model is posing nude. Thankfully for Yuuichi, he gets to meet Kaori while wandering around the area. As Kaori takes him out of the school, she tells him that she's heard a lot about him from Nayuki.
Kaori also tells him that she's never seen Nayuki looking so happy like when he first came to their classroom. Once they get ouside, Kaori feels as if she's left something inside. That something turns out to be Jun, who is now wandering aimlessly inside the school looking for Kaori. After he part ways with Kaori, Yuuichi proceeds to go to the town centre to buy those Oden. When he gets there, however, he bumps into Ayu again despite his attempt to evade her. As usual, Ayu drags him off again because she forgot to bring her wallet when she tried to buy Taiyaki. This time around, however, it was a stray dog that caused the owner to react in a hostile manner. In the end, the two end up eating the Taiyaki together while Yuuichi tells her that after this they'll go and apologise to the Taiyaki seller. Eventually, the two realise that they've lost their way and each one was actually following the other. Yuuichi explains that he has no idea of the area since he just transferred here.
Ayu is surprised to hear this so Yuuichi tells her that 7 years ago, he often came to play in this town. Upon finding out about this, Ayu asks Yuuichi if he is Aizawa Yuuichi, a boy she met during her childhood. She believes that Yuuichi has returned here to keep their promise. Yuuichi finally recognises Ayu as the little girl he often sees in his mind. Ayu is so happy to hear this and wants to give Yuuichi a welcome back hug. Yuuichi, however, evades her and as a result, Ayu hits the tree in straight line. She immediately accuses Yuuichi of trying to avoid her. Their fight, however, is interrupted when they hear another loud noise coming from an area not too far from t hem. As it turns out, a girl has dropped her groceries all over the snow. In the meantime, Ayu is still unhappy that Yuuichi hasn't been as excited as she is about their reunion. Because of this, Yuuichi decides to ignore her and helps the girl to stand up and pick up her groceries.
As the three of the walk together, Ayu points out that the new girl seems to have bought a lot of groceries. The girl explains to Ayu that the reason for this is because she doesn't get out very often. Upon hearing this, Yuuichi sarcastically tells Ayu that since someone is paying for her, he thinks it's not a problem for her. Ayu is annoyed to hear this, telling Yuuichi that the way he said it makes her sounds like a bad person. The two then bicker whether or not Ayu is a good or bad person. Despite this, Ayu thinks that their meeting was foreordained. Ayu suddenly becomes curious about the new girl's class so the girl tells them that she's in 1st year. Upon hearing this, Ayu points out that it means she's one year below her, which shocks Yuuichi because it means he and Ayu are in the same grade. The girl then parts way with Yuuichi and Ayu because her house is nearby. However, before she can go far, Yuuichi asks her to show them a way out of this area.
After leaving the area, Ayu and Yuuichi apologise to the Taiyaki seller. Ayu then tells Yuuichi that she had a good day today so she wants them to meet again and asks Yuuichi to promise this to her. She then remembers how when they were young, they used to do Yubikiri (pinky promise). Yuuichi, however, tells her that she's wearing a glove so Ayu takes it off and do a quick Yubikiri with Yuuichi. Ayu then part ways with Yuuichi, reminding him of the same Ayu from his childhood. After Ayu left, Yuuichi is about to go to supermarket to buy Oden. However, just as he's about to enter the shop, a girl wearing a cloak approaches him, saying that she's finally found him. She then tells him that she has grudge against him and proceeds to take off her cloak, revealing herself as a red-haired girl. The girl then tries to 'beat' Yuuichi up but her punch lacks any power. She claims that this is because she is hungry before passing out in front of Yuuichi.
Impression:
I think this episode flows a lot better than the first one. Well, either that or I'm quite used to watching the daily life of Yuuichi by now that I can just relax and enjoy the ride. I also happen to like Shiori, Mai, and Sayuri. I think their mature personality appeals to me a lot more than Ayu and Nayuki's child-like behaviour. However, I doubt that Yuuichi will get paired with any of them since the storyline seems rather heavy on Ayu and Nayuki side. Ayu looks especially important here now that she's revealed as the girl that Yuuichi met when he was a little boy. The thing is, I am not sure what is the importance of this knowledge. Is this has anything to do with the narrator at the start of the first episode? In that case, I assume something happened to either Yuuichi or Ayu back then and someone, probably Yuuichi, promised something to Ayu. Another strange thing that I notice is the fact that Ayu doesn't seem to go to school.
I assume this is just a small town and there is only one school in the area. Therefore, if Ayu goes to school then she would have been seen in the school along with Nayuki and the others. The same thing can be said about Shiori, who was not seen anywhere near school on this episode. The last mystery belongs to the new girl, Makoto, who for some reason is angry at Yuuichi. Come to think of it, these girls give me the impression that chibi Yuuichi was quite the player back in the day. Speaking of Yuuichi, that uniform that the male students get to wear at school is horrid. It's probably one of the ugliest uniform set I've ever seen in anime. I find this weird because the girls' uniform is quite good and bordering on lavish, one might say. I think the best male/female uniform was the school in Suzumiya Haruhi. Comedy-wise, I kind of like the jam scene in this episode. I have no idea why Yuuichi looks dizzy though. Is there a forbidden substance in that jam?
Preview
I'm glad to hear that you are willing to give the series a chance as opposed to just dismissing it right away. Stick with it and I think you'll like it.
Yay! Garten's gonna continue doing it! :D
By looking at the pictures, I can manage to understand it. The last screen cap [not the Preview screencap] is interesting, gonna introduce one of the heroines [not sure what's her name though XD]
Sooo... Yay Garten!
Akiko might be a MILF but her jam is poisonious...
Good ep, flowing very well. Also, it helps that Kyon is much more likable than the (fairly intolerable) Yuuichi of old from the Toei version.
I'm feeling more and more at ease with Kanon from KyoAni :)
i remember how this series used to make me hungry for taiyaki XD
I'm surprised that they introduced Makoto (the blonde girl) so early, but I'm gald they did as she's my favorite. I can tell from the screencaps that this is going to be a "cute" episode. And woohoo for the Sayuri, Nayuki and Mai pileup.
Thank you for the great screen caps.
Out of curiousity, what do you work as ?
月宮あゆ、 萌えすぎるぞ！ はぅ～ お持ち帰り～♪
Na Bae san, I'm a graphic/web designer.
On another note, it seems everyone either like Ayu or Nayuki or Makoto. Is no one here likes Shiori? I think she has the best chemistry with Yuuichi so far.
I am an Ayu fan myself, though I would put Mai as the #2 pick. When I first watched the Toei series, I was quite fond of Shiori, but I would never want to see Shiori and Yuuichi together. It just seems so... wrong! Makoto is an awesome character, though, and her friendship (I only see them platonic myself) with Yuuichi is something I have always wanted to see grown and developed upon.
Besides, Ayu's ending always chokes me up in a way that none of the others did!
LOL don't try to hard to figure out the importance of the characters, just let it flow or you'll ruin it.
When you consider the default boy's uniform is a black jacket and pants, no matter how elaborate the girls' are, any deviation is fine by me.
The best line so far is when we find out that Yuuichi's inner monolouge isn't quite so... inner: "Why are you narrating?"
I feel like its Suzumiya again ~_~ Ayu+GIrl-who-tries-to-hit-Yuuichi = Haruhi
and Yuuichi = Kyon.
Is it me or does the VA for Yuuichi talk exactly like Kyon?
Personally,I support the brown-haired girl from the snow incident.Either her or Kaori. Uguu~
for sum reason, i get the feeling KyoAni's referencing suzumiya haruhi when Kaori poked fun at Yuuichi's 'normal introduction' when Haruhi's intro was clearly out of this world xD
Another part is when Yuuichi narrated about Kaori appearing when he turned around, which is just like how Kyon is constantly narrating his thoughts in SHnY
well, ofcos, i've never played the game, so im not sure if those are included in the actual dialouge.
Ohoho. At first glance I thought I'd be disinterested because of the slice-of-life style, but it's somehow made to work. I guess it's because the story is very character-driven, with a hint of mystery due to forgotten memory. The forgotten memory I find helps to produce anticipation of future episodes, as well as overarching episode cohesion.
Also, the little MoSH references were adorable. 'Unusual self-introduction,' 'narration'--wahaha.
Dialogue-wise, the show is pretty consistent with the game. Especially the part where Yuuichi unwittingly explores the school and ends up relying on Kaori to get to the shool entrance.
I have to disagree with people whenever they mention that Kanon is a slice-of-life anime. If Kanon were a slice-of-life anime, there wouldn't be a need for the implicit monologues laced with depressing atmospheres aside from Yuuichi's flashbacks.
I guess I'll have to remind people here that Key/VisualArts's products are entirely driven by their respective themes. Kanon is driven entirely by the two recurring themes of faith in miracles and faith in promises. AIR is driven entirely by Ryuya's (Yukito's ancestor from 1000 years back) promise to protect Kanna with a secondary theme that covers the premise of the soul being interlinked with memories. It is debatable whether family is also a theme of AIR but I'm personally of the opinion that family isn't as thematically important as the two themes I mentioned regarding AIR. Clannad is almost entirely driven by family-related themes since there aren't any supernatural ordeals to deal with. Planetarian is driven by its theme about what it means to be alive as a human.
Anyway, back to Kanon episode 2. Yuuichi's introduction was fairly normal/standard for a lot of reasons. While Kaori certainly looks like the cool and mature type of person, you have to remember that she's a native of that particular town of Hokkaido. In the first episode, Nayuki already mentioned something regarding the foxes of the hills and how they were special to the town. You will want to keep that in mind as well.
I seriously need to replay Kanon because I can't remember if there were unique monologues at the start of each chapter or not. There probably were since the story itself is driven heavily by its themes.
Shiori... isn't what you can call a "mature" girl... People who have had experiences with the Kanon franchise will understand what I've said.
Garten, good of you to have noticed what was odd about Ayu, Shiori, and Makoto. As for what REALLY went happened to Yuuichi seven years ago, you'll have to wait on that. Another cookie for you for noticing that Yuuichi remembers Ayu aside from his cousin (Nayuki) and aunt (Akiko). This is a very important first step to unravelling the events of 7 years ago.
*spoiler starts*
Yuuichi was really only friends with 3 girls back as a kid. Nayuki and Ayu have been confirmed as 2 of the 3 girls. You'll have to guess who the third girl is and it has nothing to do with whether she remembers him or not.
*spoiler ends*
Personal note:
I think the uniforms that the boys wore were very much in line with its surroundings. I mean, you ARE talking about people living in an area of Hokkaido where it snows fairly frequently. A turtleneck cotton/wool/cashmere sweater with an overcoat does wonders in insulating body heat.
The Yuuichi of Toei Animation probably wasn't able to bring out his sarcastic side because of time-constraints. There's a lot of things to digest in Kanon and I think they [Toei] did well with what limited resources they had.
Oh yeah, it takes roughly... 70 hours to read through all the text in Kanon. AIR took roughly 75 hours or so because I had to look up the archaic references of Ryuuya and Kanna's time. Watching a 24 episode anime only takes about 8.5 - 9 hours or so. Watching a 13 episode anime takes about 5-6 hours. Imagine the headache of having to find the fine balance between having enough to understand what goes on vs having explained too much to be able to finish within the time-limit.
I've exhausted my own thoughts about Kanon ep2 on Animesuki already. Overall, I agree with what everyone's been saying (I did a little shop just to poke more fun at Kyuichi).
There's alot of questions about Shiori's introduction scene that if I go into detail, will be a terrible spoiler. All I can say is that KyoAni's slight variation should have no impact with the climax of Shiori's backstory given KyoAni's track record.
Shiori is my favorite character, Garten.
As for her introduction scene, the "change" doesn't really bother me. In fact, I think Shiori's story works better with minimal foreshadowing... hits you a lot harder. Still, I was curious how KyoAni was going to play that.
I'm happy to know that you will be blogging this... I watched the first Kanon anime, but I won't say anything since it seems that yo haven't and I don't want to spoil you the show.
It's a nice anime, hope you will like it.
I'd have to agree with Jeff Lawson's opinion regarding how Shiori was introduced. I'd say that her introduction to the audience was subtle enough from the first episode but this direct introduction in the second episode definitely had some changes that I thought might be appropriate in the long run.
I suppose it depends entirely on how KyoAni will execute Shiori's plotline later on before anyone can really judge whether the change in detail was appropriate or not.
And bwahahaha on the jam scene. That's one of the few randomness that Akiko demonstrates in the game. Bwahahaha.
I forgot to mention this but did anyone remember that Nayuki was supposed to give a can of coffee to Yuuichi when she went to pick him up?
Hmmm, come to think of it, Shiori's introduction has been toned down by quite a lot...
ya hey changed the can of coffee, instead yuuichi got a pat on the head XD
also, he got some other alarm clock instead of a frog alarm clock :p
by the way, the school seems different from the last one somehow XD i dunno, more modern than the school in the last kanon.... any1 else see that?
Mmm, it did look a bit bigger than the previous school. Maybe they made it look bigger to emphasize the part where he actually got lost at school during the game?
This is so an Air "counterpart". Air takes place in sommer and Kanon in winter. Furthermore the openings and endings are alike in both animes. And not only some of the characters reminds me of Air, the story telling style is similar. I wonder if all the Key/VisualArts game are so alike.
bleh, well if you watch air, there's a part showing ayu, makoto and nayuki XD, so, its better to watch air after kanon so you understnad who those characters are actually from. and also, when shiori fell, didnt she suppose to drop a knife too? :/
Did anyone notice that Ayu started to take the glove off her left hand, but switched over to her right hand instead when they pinky swore?
Or am I reading way too much into the scene
I literally laughed out loud when Yuuichi said that he'd like to see an introduction that wasn't normal, and again when the narration comment was made. I don't know if they were supposed to be references or not, but they were awesome none the less.
I've never seen the original Kanon, nor have I played the game, so I have no idea what's going to happen or where it's going. I've been told that's the best way to enjoy the story, though. However, that said, I'm enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would.
I've seen the previous version of Kanon but i won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't. The art work this time is extremely good with the backgrounds and also better character drawing compared to previously. Also noted is the expansion of the stroyline to include more anecdotes and storyline like the jam scene which was not there previously in the 13 parter and hillariously funny. From what I've seen so far, the direction is heading well and the quality is good, if this keeps up I'm sure this will be a good series, hillarious, heart breaking and moving.
back then, i thought mai and yuuichi had the best chemistry.
To Lia:
Ah, this is the problem with dealing with people who don't know the order of events of things and immediately jump to their own conclusions based on little to no solid evidence.
Here's a Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanon
Kanon isn't an AIR counterpart. Never was, never will be. Why? Thematically, Kanon and AIR are completely different. Kanon focuses on the aspects of faith in miracles. AIR focuses on the aspects of the soul with its story progressing through the causes and effects of a curse that led to a 1000 year old promise passed from generation to generation.
To RyuSaga:
Yeah, when Shiori was first introduced to the audience in the game, she was carrying art materials and subsequently a razor that didn't belong in there. When Yuuichi tried to pick it up, Shiori dove straight at it and picked it up herself, hiding it from view.
I remember Yuuichi being a lot more of a sarcastic person than how Toei Animation depicted him so I'm really glad that Kyoto Animation is using one of the most sarcastic personas to grace the animation industry.
I bet someone knows why Shiori has a knife and what its purpose is, or "box-cutter" from the original Kanon. It is the only item which doesn't belong.
It seems that anyone hasn't realized or written the other references to The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya..
"I'm just a normal transfer-student"
That's a line coming from Koizumi Itsuki..
So far, I'm loving this series. I love Ayu, and Yuuichi keeps on reminding me of Kyon.
Mai looks as plain as ever :p i tihnk the part where they ran down the stairs and nayuki slipped was well done.
but now that i think about it, doesnt Mai remind you of yuki from 'The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya"
i thought so cause of the way she speaks
I dont like Ayu that much since she didnt do anything to "win". Not like Nayuki who has always been giving, Ayu is just a cry baby, idk about boy's opinion, but I cant stand girl like that. Besides, this reminds me of Aya and Nishino in Ichigo 100%.
And I was kinda of disappointed when I saw no "knife" when Shiori fell.
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