Kanon ep.17

January 25, 2007 | 19 Comments

Technically the episode is awesome. The animation and design for the episode is probably amongst the best the series has seen so far. However, story-wise this one feels a bit flat. There aren't that much comedy to be found and the plot doesn't seem to be moving at all. My guess is the episode is meant to show Shiori enjoying her life with Yuuichi prior to her demise but I don't feel that it's as strong as when Yuuichi did it with Makoto. On the plus side, it was a good idea on the writer's part to connect Shiori's current plight with Yuuichi's memory of Makoto. Although this apparently doesn't happen in the game, it would have been strange in this version if Yuuichi doesn't feel a sense of deja vu when he heard about Shiori's condition. I also like that instrumental piece that always gets to be on the background everytime someone has a sad or tragic revelation. I hope that will be included in the soundtrack.

Continuing from the previous episode, Yuuichi returns home looking depressed, prompting Ayu to wonder what's wrong with him. Yuuichi, however, pretends that nothing is wrong and he's just feeling cold from the weather. A flashback then reveals the rest of Yuuichi's conversation with Kaori, which basically amounts to him asking her if she's sure that Shiori won't make it to her birthday. Shiori thinks that even if Shiori makes it to her birthday, she won't live long. The reason Kaori telling this to Yuuichi is because lately he's quite close to Shiori. Before the two went their seperate way, Yuuichi asked Shiori if she's going to continue ignoring her sister, especially since said sister won't live long. In response, Kaori tells Yuuichi that Shiori laughs when she's with him. Yuuichi confirms this, realising that Shiori never cries when she's with him. Yuuichi's thought comes to an end when Ayu enters the room to check on him.

Yuuichi wonders if there's something that Ayu wants to talk about but Ayu simply feels that she should be next to him. Yuuichi thinks it's unnecessary and much to his surprise, Ayu agrees with him. Eventually he realises that Ayu is just trying to ease his worry and therefore he thanks her for this. The next day, Yuuichi finds out that Kaori is not coming to school and similarly, Shiori is not seen around either. Later on that day, Yuuichi is seen standing at the hill where he wed Makoto. He thinks to himself how if it's a lost article, they can look for it together. If it's ghoblin, they can fight it together. However, he's not sure what he can do for Shiori. Because of this he asks 'Makoto' what she thinks someone like him should do for a girl who only has a short amount of time left. On his way home, Yuuichi is surprised to see Shiori standing near a small fountain in the city. She tells Yuuichi that this place looks beautiful at night.

In response, Yuuichi tells her that since he feels cold, he feels better if this is an afternoon. After starring at the fountain for a while, Shiori explains that when she was a kid, her parents often took her to play here. Back then she was a lot healthier. She ate ice cream with her sister, making her wish that she could do it one more time. She points out that she can't remember of having that much fun. This prompts Yuuichi to wonder if her date with him was second in the fun scale. Shiori quickly backtracks by saying that she had as much fun when she had a date with him. She thinks if she has more time, she could like him a lot more than she already has now. She feels that she has a lot of things to apologise and thank to Yuuichi. Yuuichi decides to ask Shiori what sort of illness she's suffering from but Shiori simply says that it's a complex disease which requires her to drink a lot of medicines. By now she forgets the name of the disease.

When Shiori mentions how one day she'd like to eat Bentou together with her sister, Yuuichi wonders if she's aware of Kaori's attitude. Shiori, however, understands this. Yuuichi wonders why this is the case since the two of them were getting along well before. Shiori thinks that's because right now she has nothing that she can give to her sister. Shiori then tells Yuuichi that she has a request: she wants to become a normal girl. What she means by this is that she wants to come to school, eating lunch with everyone else, going with friends to shopping district together, going home late although her body is weak, getting scolded by her parents, but being protected by her sister. She wants to be able to live normally like this and asks Yuuichi to act like her brother. Ouch. Isn't that a downgrade? Despite this, Yuuichi promises Shiori that he'd do just that. Before they go their separate ways, Yuuichi asks Shiori if she'd come to school tomorrow.

Shiori confirms this and informs Yuuichi that she has a surprise for Yuuichi too. Before Shiori can leave the area, Yuuichi asks her if there is no possibility that her disease could be healed. In return she tells Yuuichi that the only thing that could healed her is a miracle. However, miracles don't happen. When Yuuichi returns home, he finds a note from Akiko saying that she's still feverish so she's gone to rest. And oh, he should warm the soup. When he goes back to his room, Yuuichi finds out that Ayu falls asleep on his desk so he takes her back to her room. The next day, it looks like sleepyhead Nayuki has infected Ayu with her disease. Ayu claims that she couldn't sleep well last night because she had a nightmare. That day, Yuuichi is annoyed when he finds out that Shiori is not around again since she said she's going to come. He's even more horrified when Kitagawa acts like a girl, telling him that it's lunchtime.

Since Yuuichi doesn't bring lunch, he decides to accept Nayuki and Kitagawa's invitation to go to the cafetaria. He, however, drops them like hot potatoes when Shiori appears in front of his class wearing a school uniform. Yuuichi then takes Shiori to the cafetaria and orders 2 curry dishes. After a while, it becomes obvious that Shiori can't stand spicy food so Yuuichi wonders why she ordered curry. Shiori explains that's because she wants to eat something that he eats. As for tomorrow, she decides to make bentou for Yuuichi much to the guy's delight. That night, when Kaori returns home, Shiori tries to engage her in the conversation. Unfortunately the ice queen rebuffs her, telling Shiori that she's tired. The next day, Yuuichi is surprised when he finds out that Shiori has brought him not one but two large bentou boxes. Shiori herself will eat from her tiny lunchbox. A few minutes later, Yuuichi looks like an inflated balloon.

While in the city looking for stuffed animal, Yuuichi notices Kaori so he goes after her, trying to persuade her to talk to Shiori but Kaori pretends that she doesn't know any Shiori. When Yuuichi meets with Shiori again, he becomes absent-minded and remembers what Mai said about someone near him will be in trouble. That night when Yuuichi returns home, he hears Ayu saying "Konban-nyan" before entering the room. Upon seeing Ayu wearing a headband, Yuuichi wonders where she gets it from so she tells him that it's something from someone important. Upon hearing this, Yuuichi tells Ayu that he's thinking of getting Shiori a present. Unfortunately when he asks Ayu what he should gives Shiori, Ayu suggests Taiyaki. Because of this Ayu suggests that Yuuichi gives Shiori something that she likes such as taking her to the place she likes, the food that she likes to eat, etc. The episode then ends with Yuuichi realising what he must do.

Impression:

This episode feels a lot like Makoto's story in the sense that Yuuichi ends up accompanying Shiori to do things that she wants to do, which is why it feels a tad repetitive. I think Shiori is right in the sense that she has been avoiding Kaori because she doesn't have anything to give in return. Kaori herself said that she wants to pretend that she doesn't have any sister so she won't get hurt. Either way, it paints ugly picture of Kaori, who's too selfish about herself to care about others even if it hurts her a little bit. She acts like she's the one who suffers the most, not realising that she's not the one who's going to die in a few days and her sister refuses to talk to her. It's nice of Yuuichi to act like an older brother to her although that means his stock has plummet from potential boyfriend to older brother. Well, she did say 'like an older brother' so maybe he still has a chance with her even though they're playing brother/sister.

I think one thing that fascinates me about this episode strangely ends up being a bentou box. Throughout this series, I've seen characters bringing large bentou boxes for everyone to enjoy. The thing is, looking at the foods contained within them, I know very well that they'd take ages to make. I mean, who on Earth has the time to prepare all of that prior to going to school? Making the Sushi part itself would take at least a few hours. I was rather disappointed when I went to Japan and found out that bentou boxes that people prepare for lunch are normally more lunch box sizes. Seeing real people doing something completely different from what you've lead to believe in a popular culture medium is completely soul crushing. Serves me right from thinking that high school students bring large size bentou boxes to the school. Anyway, judging from the preview, last week seems to be the B-day episode. I wonder if that means it's also the end for Shiori's arc.

Preview

On next week's episode: Shiori's B-day!

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