I can’t believe it myself, but I’m rewatching Kanon 2006 while waiting for next week to come. Says much about the quality of the show when you have 10 other unwatched series in possession but decide to rewatch a recently concluded one.

Anyways, rewatching episode one made me realise there’s already a ton of clues put in it, from the random shot of Shiori and her mom passing by Yuuichi and Nayuki while on the way to the hospital, to Yuuichi’s comment “Wasn’t this a barley field before?” on reaching his school, there was really a lot of subtle nuances and clues already being thrown around since episode one.

Also, I can’t believe how much I missed Makoto’s antics. Auu~~~

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Meganekko Mai 4TW!

So finally Kanon ends, and I took more than a week to actually write this post orz. It’s probably because of Ayu ending. It’s not bad per se, but I still prefer someone else, rather than her orz. Also, a shout out to Jeff here, who did that awesome Nayuki AMV interspersed with Last Regrets ~acoustic version~.

Anyways, really awesome ending to an awesomely done show by an already awesome studio. Everyone received a happy ending(apart from Makoto, of course) and I was glad to see Shiori surviving her disease and proceeding to act damn cute as usual, Mai with her less stoic self (man, gotta admit the head chop is cute), Sayuri with her “Ahaha~”’s, Nayuki being genki as usual and Akiko-san with her jam-making skillz back to health. As they said, it’s really a miracle, and miracles can really happen.

Now I won’t read too much in to the ending, as I’m pretty unmotivated to do that and there’s nothing really concrete to read in to anyways, let’s just close the curtain down on Kanon and let’s all look forward to CLANNAD in early 2008, most likely in spring to fit in the “Spring of CLANNAD” theme. God damn, Tomoyo’s 64 hit combo is fucking awesome. Meanwhile, let’s all not forget we still have Lucky Star to tide us over before CLANNAD comes. From what I’ve heard, seen and read, Lucky Star will be chockful of moe and otaku parodies, which we, otakus, all really love to watch :).

Now to get through 2 more weeks without a KyoAni show to catch……

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A friend of mine pointed me to this article by jaalin of the Random Curiousity blog and it sparked a lively sparring between me and him lasting almost 3 hours. Here’s a little of my own thoughts.

I think it’s a total waste of ability and resources. A studio of KyoAni’s caliber shouldn’t be doing harem shows, which have traditionally just been there for the sake of showing off some more girls in maid outfits or nekomimi or some other ridiculous stuff like that.Not that I don’t appreciate it – it’s just something I feel is better left to the “lesser” studios and not the oharuhiliness that is Kyoto Animation.

Sadly, harem shows have sunk to such a level where harem is equated directly as fanservice. Of course 95% of most harem shows that have been produced are very much fanservice shows and are as she says, “quite ridiculous”. However, is it really true it’s a waste of resources and ability? What I truly think is that Kyoto Animation is trying to breathe life back in to the romance genre, after years of ridiculous fanservice shows that build upon the initial sexual nature of the origin material, totally ignoring the story of the original material. Kanon was never about the sex strictly, there was also a story to be followed and many characters to emphatise with. Besides, “harem” is a very big misnomer on it’s own, as the games just provide multiple choices, not all the choices.

If my understanding is correct, the main reason they picked up Kanon was because of the success of their initial venture into the visual novel genre, AIR.

Of course KyoAni’s venture in to AIR did in part made them take up Kanon, but in the end, they remade Kanon due to fan effort rather than picking on the success off AIR. Everybody who has even a little bit of understanding of the visual novel scene knows that Kanon 2002 did not give true justice to the awesomeness that is the Kanon VN and in fact, it would probably be more of a commercial venture by Toei to make more money off the popularity of Kanon than to truly tell the story of Kanon, while KyoAni is doing directly the opposite, by truly animating Kanon with a full storyline that encompasses the essence of the VN.

The way I see it, it’s like if Studio Ghibli decided they would make more money doing hentai. What if Totoro’s fat tail was on the front side of his body? What if Kiki used her broom for more than just transportation? What if “Laputa” actually meant “La Puta”? Could Ghibli have done it? Sure. But did they go ahead with cheap flattery and quick indulgences to make a quick yen? No way – they took their time to craft masterpiece after masterpiece that audiences around the world have held in the highest regard.In that same way, I’ve always hoped that KyoAni would start picking up material of a higher “moral standard”.

If KyoAni started to animate shows like Ghost in the Shell or Laputa, they won’t be wasting their “time and abilities”? What do you define “higher moral standard” as anyways? There isn’t much of an original moral standard to look upon anyways. Besides KyoAni did take their time with Kanon and even gave it a full 24 episode run, even if it was a remake. I would call that “taking their time to craft a masterpiece”.

So, is KeyAni a bad thing? I don’t really think so. Just like how Sunrise is associated with mecha and Gainax is associated with weirdness, Kyoto Animation’s association with “harem anime” (a misnomer by itself) will be here to stay. At least they’re pulling it off much, much more better than the rest. If Kanon 2006 is a waste of “resources and abilities”, then I’ll say we better not watch anime at all in the first place.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

OH MY GOD!! SAWATARI MIKURU BANZAI!! BANZAI!! BANZAI!!

Thank god for her, I might actually just cry if she didn’t appear this episode. At least it makes the Makoto cameo make some sense rather than just some random cheesy sequence.

Still this episode was good. I totally take back my statement about Yuuichi in my previous entry. He was awesome in this episode, especially in those two scenes. Man I really could feel the feelings flowing out like mad.

So what two scenes?

First, Yuuichi’s reunion with Ayu at the tree stump. Even though I still can’t say I’m an Ayu fan, but she was really touching at this scene, really, really touching, especially when she says her initial last wish for Yuuichi. Yuuichi really scored a lot of points by making her take that back and hugging her as she disappears.

The other scene is where Nayuki finally regains her composure and goes out to look for Yuuichi, finding him at the infamous bench. I can’t deny I went T_T when she said “We’re even.”… Nayuki’s almost-breaking voice at this scene… really conveyed a lot of feelings… both happy and sad. Also, I can’t deny she god damned looks like Akiko in that scene.

And, oh, to Guncannon, Kaori saying “Shiori will die” is a good sign, okay! No need to kill her for that.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Trojan Targets Winny Users with Anime Pictures
posted on 2007-03-02 23:59 EST

Sophos reports that the trojan Troj/Pirlames-A and its variant Troj/Pirlames-B, are being circulated on the Winny file-sharing network. The trojans pose as screensavers, but when downloaded and executed, they overwrite various files with images from popular anime / Ero-game Kanon.

The images contain statements that warn the viewer to stop using peer-to-peer software like Winny.

Originally publicized on 2ch, Winny is popular with Japanese anime and video-fans, among others. On December 13, 2006, Winny creator Isamu Kaneko was convicted of assisting copyright violations and sentenced to pay a fine of 1.5 million yen. One of the messages refers to Kaneko’s sentence, stating “Even though Kaneko-San was found guilty, you’re still using Winny aren’t you. I really hate such people!”

You know, this virus is really well done. Akiko’s one might as well just make me stop using WinNY.

Source: Anime News Network

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

What can I say… I’d go emo too if I were in Nayuki’s position. Akiko-san is truly an important existance for Nayuki and also for all of us Kanon fans. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’ll say it…. Yuuichi’s a jerk. Really.

That being said, my general impression of this episode would be it’s messy, well, towards the end at least. The first half concerning Nayuki’s reaction and subsequent breakdown I fully enjoyed and emphatised with, but the second half about Yuuichi finally remembering about Ayu’s fall was done badly, IMHO. I mean, well, he should’ve rushed her to the hospital ASAP but since he’s still a kid, I’ll look over it. Then he starts to go up the hill in a bloody snowstorm, trying to look for her, when she’s clearly disappeared in front of his eyes already, and eventually collapses… with Makoto suddenly appearing out of nowhere…. what the hell is happening OTL?? Sigh, I’m at a loss for words here…

2 more episodes to go…

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

P.S. Using Rapidshare since full size is 1.5MB and I don’t want to overload the server.

P.S. Pics are now hosted directly somewhere else. A lot of thanks to Radiosity from #nanoha!

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

A fitting episode name I must say, considering the events of the previous episode. Nayuki fans rejoice though, as with Ayu temporarily out of the scene, Nayuki gets her chance to shine.

Undoubtly the whole episode is chock full of Nayuki goodnees, considering she’s been undoubtedly shafted about 55% of the series duration already, it’s fair time she gets her share too and she made this a much more enjoyable episode than last week’s one.

The gist of this episode is her attempts to cheer Yuuichi up after he’s considerably depressed with the disappearance of Tsukimiya Ayu and well, her attempts are quite heart-warming to watch. Meanwhile, Yuuichi starts to recall back some of his memories of seven years ago, and they aren’t good ones to say.

However, the episode does end with… ▼

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Shit literally hits the fan in this episode with the legendary scene of Ayu bringing Yuuichi to visit her “school” only to find out it’s just a tree stump.This is, of course the turning point of Ayu’s story and I still remember it even it’s been 2 years since I first watched the 2002 version. I can’t really remember what happens next though, so what’s going on next will be “fresh” to me.

Suprisingly I’m not feeling the intense emotions that the other arcs have had made me felt, but then Ayu’s story is still halfway done, so for now, all I can feel is an empty feeling of “Oh shi..!” more than touched. Perhaps I just don’t like Ayu as much as I do for the rest of of the girls ;P.

Still this episode was entertaining in it’s own way, and I really like on how subtle but yet a powerful role that Akiko-san played in this episode. She instantly noticed that Yuuichi and Ayu had hooked up and went to reassure Nayuki, who seems to have accepted it well and she’s even waking up on time! Also, Akiko-san tried to give a subtle hint to Yuuichi to help him jog back the memories of 7 years ago, of which he has purposely locked away in his mind. Speaking of which, what does she job does she really do? It does feel like she’s around the house all the time.

So there’s still 4 weeks to go before Kanon ends, and this episode has proven that 25 and 26 are probably flashback episodes rather than real episodes. KyoAni’s tradition I guess. I’m still hoping that 25 and 26 might be new content though, perhaps more Nayuki-centric :P.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Nyuu~ ambush!

Just when I thought this was a more laidback episode…. ▼

… Kyo Ani springs this on us. I’ll just have to say one thing… that was some awesome cinematography going along with that scene. Never look down on KyoAni… never…

Well, with this kiss, I guess it’s really “Sayonara” for those still holding up the slight hope of having Nayuki ending. Even Nayuki herself has admitted defeat in one of the possibly best scripted sequences for Kanon 2006. I really like how she took her “rejection”, but personally, there’s a part in me that wants to see her go all yandere on Yuuichi. It’s more of a twisted way of how my mind actually pities poor Nayuki. Well, I shall just pray for her to achieve her own happiness somehow.

Also, for the Shiori worshippers, it’s just too bad there wasn’t much revelation on Shiori’s current fate, apart from her being out of sight for a while, along with Kaori… sigh…

Addendum: Before people start putting out wild theories on why loli-Ayu didn’t want loli-Yuuichi to see her climbing up the tree in, I’ll tell you why…. SHE DIDN’T WANT YUUICHI TO SEE HER TAIYAKI PANTSU!!!

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.