Kanon ep.03

October 20, 2006 | 32 Comments

I'm sorry if you can't access the site for the past few hours. Nightmare host was down as usual. I'm trying to find a new host to move to at the moment but I haven't had much success. Anyway, episodes like this one is one of the reasons why Kyoto Animation is a studio that is worth watching for. The colour pallette used in this one is stunning and gives the series a dream-like impression. I am also glad that the story starts to become interesting now that most of the characters are already introduced. I do wonder about the scene towards the end of the episode though. Is that just a red-herring or will the show actually have some monster/supernatural-slaying element to it? I am not sure how the story went in the original version but I'm glad that Kyoto Animation decides to mix the story of the girls so that the viewers get variety type of story in one go as opposed to following one story before moving to another character's story.

The episode begins with a girl asking since when did she notice that this is a dream. Has she always realised this since a long time ago? Or did she just realised this a few minutes ago? Even the answer to this question is obscured within the dream. While flowing inside the unknown time, she dreams of the day in which she'll wake up. Cut to a shot of Yuuichi carrying the girl who attacked him earlier in the evening back to Nayuki's house. Upon entering the premise, he's greeted by Nayuki who wants to know if he brings the Oden. When she sees the girl, Nayuki makes a comment how the Oden in question looks big. Yuuichi is annoyed to hear this and asks his cousin if the girl looks like edible. Before Yuuichi can say another word, however, Akiko appears and makes a similar comment about the 'Oden'. I hope these two are just playing 'Boke' against Yuuichi's 'Tsukkomi' (see Boke and Tsukkomi) because they look stupid otherwise.

The three of them take the girl into a room and Nayuki asks Yuuichi the circumstances behind this. Yuuichi explains how he was just walking when the girl suddenly attacked him before passing out. Akiko thinks they should try to wake the girl up since it's already night and her family might be concerned. Yuuichi agrees to this so he proceeds to yell at and poke the girl's cheek. When that doesn't work, he tells her that "It's meal time". That seems to do the trick because the girl suddenly wakes up and starts to look around for said food. She eventually realises that there are 3 other people in the room and wonder who they could be. An annoyed Yuuuichi tells her that's his line. After the opening, the four of them sit down around the table to eat the Oden that Yuuichi purchased. Upon seeing the girl's appetite, Yuuichi orders her to consider other people in the table. Akiko, however, defends her, saying that she's happy to see someone eating so much.

When Yuuichi asks the girl about her background, she tells him that she suffers from a loss of memory and can't remember her identity. Yuuichi immediately knocks the girl on her head and calls her a liar. He points out that if she really suffers from a loss of memory, then how can she remember him. In retaliation the girl points out that the reason is because she has a grudge on him but she can't remember other things. Wow, she was probably dumped by Yuuichi as a kid because that is one hell of a memory to remember. Their argument ends when the girl uses the opportunity to grab Yuuichi's oden so the two begins a game of cat and mouse around the dinner table. As a side note, Nayuki was smiling throughout this whole spectacle but it's such a creepy smile that she's probably planning on either poisoning the girl or killing Yuuichi. Or both. Later on, Nayuki and Yuuichi goes through her purse and finds one of those self-portrait stickers.

Normally this kind of stickers show a bunch of friends looking like idiots but this one only shows the girl on her own looking sad. Because of this, Yuuichi wonders if she has no friend. She claims that the reason she took the photo was because girls around her age also took one. When Yuuichi asks her what she wants to do now, the girl tells him that she'd like to stay here until her memory comes back. Upon hearing this, Yuuichi asks Nayuki to call the police, explaining that it's their job to help the girl. The girl, however, refuses because she's afraid of the police. Moreover, the girl has a grudge on him so he wonders if she'll want to feel indebted to his family. The girl, however, argues that Yuuichi is her 'lead' since she has forgotten about many things except what she feels when she sees Yuuichi's face. The girl claims that she feels hatred when she sees Yuuichi. She then proceeds to hit Yuuichi's on the head because she feels irritated just looking at him.

In order to stop them from fighting, Nayuki suggested that they ask her mother to make a decision. Unfortunately for Yuuichi, Akiko allows the girl to stay at the house. She's hoping that by staying here, Yuuichi's presence will help the girl to regain her memory. Once the girl left, however, Akiko asks Yuuichi to go to the police tomorrow to see if they are looking for a missing person or know about her identity. Later on, because the girl also can't remember her name, Yuuichi decides to call her 「殺村凶子」- Satsumura Kyouko (Kyouko, village murderer - hey, Haruhi reference!!). Yuuichi gets a slap on his face as a thanks. That night while he's sleeping, Yuuichi hears the sound of a door being opened. When he finds out that the new girl has gone downstairs to look for food, he uses the opportunity to scare her. He quietly sneaks behind her and grabs an unused Konnyaku. When the girl decides to get a ham to eat, he drops the cold Konnyaku into her shirt.

The girl immediately screams in horror and starts to roll around in the kitchen floor, trashing everything in her path. The noise not surprisingly awakens Nayuki and her mother. The girl explains that she's just hungry but an angry Yuuichi points out that she just had lots of foods before, including his Oden. Despite this, Akiko offers to make something for the girl. In the end, everyone ends up having a bowl of rice in the middle of the night. The next day, Yuuichi tells Kitagawa about the mysterious girl. Kitagawa thinks that Yuuichi probably had a complicated love affair with her a long time ago. I thought so too. Yuuichi disagrees since the last time he was in this town he was only around 10 years old. Well...kids are kind of fast these days and from what have been shown thus far, Yuuichi seemed like the pimp back then. Anyway, Yuuichi admits that he doesn't have memory of those days so he wonders what happened to the girl in the past 9 years.

In the present time, Yuuichi tells Nayuki that his previous school hasn't got to this point of the lesson so Nayuki promises to lend him her note later. When the snow starts to fall outside the school, Kitagawa tells Yuuichi that there is someone standing outside. Yuuichi immediately recognises her as the girl he met yesterday and asks Kitagawa if she's an acquintance of him. When Kitagawa denies this, Yuuichi decides to go down to meet her, telling Nayuki that he'll come back for lunch later. When Yuuichi reaches the schoolyard, the girl appears from behind a tree so he asks her if she's not from this school. The girl denies this, claiming that she's a student from this school. Upon hearing this, Yuuichi wonders why she's outside during lesson. Shiori explains that she has a physical ailment and therefore she is often absent from school. When Yuuichi asks her about the disease, she tells him that it's a cold but she has gotten better.

Yuuichi tells the girl that he thought she's suffering from a more complex disease. Upon hearing this, the girl tells him in that case, he can call her disease 「流行性感冒」- Ryuukouseikanbou (Influenza). Yuuichi points out that's the same thing as cold. Shiori laughs a bit and changes the topic by saying that the reason she's out today is because she wants to meet someone. The girl also admits that the truth is she doesn't know the person very well. She doesn't even know the person's name or her class even though she has met that person before. When Yuuichi asks her if the person is a boy or a girl, the girl tells him that's a secret. The girl then decides to go home, making Yuuichi confused because he thought she wanted to see someone. The girl, however, tells him that today is enough and bids goodbye to him. Before she can go far, Yuuichi tells her that his name is Aizawa Yuuichi. The girl tells him that her first name is Shiori but not her last name.

Yuuichi suddenly remembers his promise to Nayuki and not surprisingly, she's angry at him for forgetting about it. In order to appease her, Yuuuichi promises to treat her to something that is not expensive like Sushi or Sushi or Sushi...While talking about this, they see Mai and Sayuri on their way down. After the two left, Nayuki tells Yuuichi that the girls are called Kurata Sayuri and Kawasumi Mai. After Nayuki goes to her club, Yuuichi wanders around in the city and gets glomped by Ayu from behind. In exchange, Yuuichi makes fun of Ayu's "Uguu". XD Ayu, however, cheers up again when Yuuichi buys her some Taiyaki. This gives Yuuichi an idea to buy Taiyuki for Nayuki as an apology for forgetting about her. Yuuichi then finds out from Ayu that she's looking for an important item today but she can't remember what is this thing that she's looking for. Upon seeing Ayu looking upset, Yuuichi decides to help her searching for the item all around the city.

Unfortunately Ayu is easily distracted by other things such as the new menu at a Crepe stall. In addition to this, they can't seem to find the item at all of the places that they've visited thus far. The only place remaining is a cake shop. However, when they get to the area that Ayu talks about, there is no cake shop around. Ayu thinks it's strange because according to her, there used to be a cake shop prior to the bookstore. Yuuichi points out that lately shops have changed around. In the end they can't find the item but Ayu is optimistic that if she continues looking for it, she'll find it. When she thanks Yuuichi for helping her today, Yuuichi asks her if she would mind giving her mobile phone number to him. Much to his surprise, Ayu doesn't even know mobile phone so Yuuichi has to explain it to her. After Ayu bids goodbye at him, Yuuichi laments about the girl who lost her memory, Ayu who can't remember what she lost, and himself who can't remember his last 7 years.

Yuuichi then goes home to Nayuki's house only to find the girl who lost her memory trying to glomp him. Because Yuuichi tries to avoid her, however, they end up hitting each other's face. Yuuichi then finds out from Akiko that this girl finally remembers her name: Sawatari Makoto. Makoto thinks her name is cute but Yuuichi thinks it sounds like a boy's name. In retaliation, she tells him that Yuuichi sounds like a weird name. Akiko then reminds them that it'll be time to take a bath soon so she asks them who want to go first. Makoto immediately raises her hand much to Yuuichi's disagreement and the two have a fight as usual. Meanwhile at school, a figure is seen standing in a quiet hallway with swords clutched in her hand. Something can then be seen moving towards her at an accelerated speed. Before the thing can reach the girl, however, the girl turns around, revealing herself as Kawasumi Mai. Mai then flips her sword and slices the thing with it.

Impression:

I'm really impressed with this episode. At a glance it doesn't look like there is much happening but you can definitely see hints of plots brewing in the background. First thing first, Makoto reminds me a lot of Asuka in temperament. I was amused when she tells Yuuichi that her hatred of him is the only thing she can remember. And yet, she doesn't mind living on the same roof as he does. This makes me wonder if she has a crush on him when they were kids. The second mystery is about Shiori and why she came all the way to school despite having just recovered from a flu. Judging from her words, it is possible that the person that she wants to meet is Yuuichi. After all, she didn't know her name and yet she has met him before. Having said that, it's also possible that it could be someone else since she refused to tell Yuuichi her last name. I suspect her last name is similar to someone inside the school. If she had given it away, Yuuichi can figure out her identity.

The third mystery involves Ayu and her background. Before I go into this, however, is that voice at the start of the episode is Yui Horie's? It sounds like her but I'm not sure if the voice is supposed to be Ayu's or some other character. Anyway, Ayu's dialogue in this episode makes me wonder if she's actually already dead? I mean she seems to remember things that do not exist anymore like that cake shop and on top of this, she doesn't know cellphone. I think that would explain as to why she can't remember what is it that she lost and where she lost it. Although another possibility is that this entire series is inside someone's dream. I mean that's what the beginning of the narration seems to suggest. The last mystery presented in this episode is related to Mai. I have to say that this one surprised me since I didn't expect any kind of action in this series. I am a bit worry about this element because this suddenly turns the series into another direction.

Preview

On next week's episode: I hope Yuuichi makes fun of Ayu's "Uguuu" again. That was worth repeating!!

© memento 2003