As I’ve mentioned before, Kanon is moving along a lot faster than I expected. Episode 5 just drives this home…
For one, it looks as if the show is about to hit Makoto’s story pretty hard. There’s still a lot left to her story, no doubt, and until I see a certain yet-to-be-introduced character pop up in a next episode preview, I can’t say, “Oh, this is it!” At the same time, I don’t see how KyoAni can stretch her story out for very long. Compared to the Toei version, the remake has been dropping hints about Makoto left and right, reinforcing my belief that KyoAni considers its audience to be primarily composed of Kanon veterans (no reason to play your cards close to your chest if everyone’s already seen your hand). Anyway, I suspect we’re only a few episodes away from having her story resolved.
As for Mai, her story is so involved that it can be slowly unraveled over time. In the Toei version, however, there wasn’t enough time to slowly unravel things, so we got stuck with a string of episodes in the middle of the show that focused almost solely on Mai alone - and, even then, certain details of her story were left untold. It didn’t work out all that well, and it proved to be my least favorite part of the show. This time around, however, KyoAni has all the time in the world. It’s possible they may choose to dive head first into Mai’s story once Makoto’s story is out of the way, but the option to take a more leisurely pace exists, at least.
Moving on to Shiori… very little of her story has been revealed thus far. Her story is actually pretty simple once its out in the open, but it takes awhile to reach that point. There’s a major aspect of her story that’s only barely been hinted at so far (provided you already know what to look for). Like the Toei version, I suspect we won’t see the resolution of her story until much later in the show.
Ayu is the grand finale, so I expect she’ll just continue hanging out in the background, snarfing taiyaki until the show’s final act. And Nayuki? Beats me. One of the interesting things about Nayuki is that’s she’s always there, and her story is one that slowly comes into focus over time. How KyoAni plans to resolve her story (if at all), I don’t know. That’s still three or four months away.
Oh, and I have to say this: Yuuichi 3.0 is quite the player. In fact, I think he’s actually differentiating himself from Kyon at this point (perhaps that was the intent?). Kyon was never this smooth.
UPDATE: Something that just came to mind… the Toei version of Kanon didn’t do much with Ayu’s story until late in the show, but her story (parts of it, at least) plays a role in the stories of two of the other girls. So, it’s entirely possible KyoAni may hit on her story a bit earlier than expected. I wonder how they’ll handle that?
Oh, and by the way… I’m going out of my way to keep spoilers at a minimum in my Kanon posts, so I request that those of you leaving comments do the same. Thanks.
Compared to the Toei version, the remake has been dropping hints about Makoto left and right, reinforcing my belief that KyoAni considers its audience to be primarily composed of Kanon veterans (no reason to play your cards close to your chest if everyone’s already seen your hand).
Or it could be that dropping all those hints are just Easter Eggs for the pre-existing Kanon fans — just like the Air and purported Haruhi references. It’s also possible that they are being put there for people to appreciate when they re-watch the series on DVD. Giving a show re-watch value is a strong inducement for getting it on DVD, after all.
I’m fuzzy on just what hints you’re alluding to, actually. I don’t think they’re all that obvious to the casual viewer.
Well, my first exposure to Kanon came via the Toei series (kind of backwards), and I remember being completely clueless as to what was going on with Makoto’s story until about the time Mishio shows up. In fact, I thought it kind of came out of left field at the time.
Today, however, I’m reading blog posts, comments, and other dispatches from Kanon neophytes, and I’m surprised to see how many people have figured Makoto out, so to speak… and the evidence they use to support their conclusions are the very hints I speak of. I don’t think these hints are “obvious” to the casual viewer, but I think KyoAni has been fairly generous with said hints (especially compared to the Toei version), and that’s not something I expected.
I could probably say the same thing about Ayu… her narration at the beginning of each episode has already revealed more of her background than I would have expected by this point in the series. It’s something that’ll be more obvious to the more observant viewer, of course, but stories full of mystery (like Kanon) tend to breed observant viewers.
Oh, and by the way… I’m going out of my way to keep spoilers at a minimum in my Kanon posts, so I request that those of you leaving comments do the same. Thanks.
Thank you. I’ve never played the game, didn’t see the Toei version, and am generally a non-fan of the whole eroge-conversion genre, but I’m finding Kanon to be quite entertaining. And I am a fan of “jigsaw puzzle plot” series….
I only know Kanon through the Toei version. I agree that they’re giving away a good deal about Ayu in the opening narration (I hadn’t noticed that the opening narration changed in the Toei version — did it?). Maybe I just don’t remember very much about Makoto, so I’m missing all the hints (I don’t remember Mishio at all).
I was disappointed in the earlier series by the way that Mai just vanished once her … problem … was resolved. I hope they don’t do that, this time.
I’ll just copy what I wrote over at Memento,
Some of the hints dropped in this episode are KyoAni originals, and I am actually quite surprised at how heavy-handed KyoAni has been with some of the clues. It might be because I am already familiar with the storyline, so I see more into it, but even first-timers are rapidly catching on, and it is only Ep05!
I can only conclude that this is part of their strategy to incorporate the five storylines into one. The roles played by some of the girls have been expanded beyond their original incarnations, and I find this to be a good thing, because while I appreciate faithfulness to the original source, I believe it is better to be not just faithful, but to improve on the original as well.
Cheers.
A friend elsewhere just pointed out that you can get a feel for when Makoto’s story will be resolved based on the titles of the coming episodes. It looks as if she’ll get one more episode than I was thinking.
Of course, for those of you wanting to avoid spoilers, don’t go looking up the episode titles!
Ahh..! Even Jeff feels that the pace is faster. Looks like I’m not wrong.
Well, I think KyoAni has planned the 26 episodes properly and I agree with your opinion that they’ll go with Makoto -> Mai -> Shiori -> Ayu/Nayuki progression. I really really like the current Makoto and it’ll be sad for me to see her plot resolved first.
>>Oh, and I have to say this: Yuuichi 3.0 is quite the player. In fact, I think he’s actually differentiating himself from Kyon at this point (perhaps that was the intent?). Kyon was never this smooth.
Yeah… Kyon was more cynical and sarcastic, his Yuiichi is made of 40% sarcasm, 50% smoothness and 10% childishness. Awesome.
I spoke too soon. Episode five just lays the Makoto hints on with a trowel.
This episode went by fast. I’ve only seen a few early episodes of Toei’s version, so I really can’t say anything about Kyoani’s pace. Since I’m a Makoto fanboy, it sounds like I should be in for some dissappointment. I suppose that because of my fanboyism, I don’t see any hints to her who she really is (Princess Peach?). Since you said that Mai’s story is an involved one, it makes sense to get rid of the simplest storyline first. And that whole porno mag scene was hilarious.
I have really taken to this Makoto , more so than Toei’s…. I have a feeling when stuff hits the fan…it will still pull a big punch even for those of us who knows what’s coming….simply because they have made the characters more likable….
I’ve never seen the old one so this is a pretty big mystery for me…
So anyway… I’m starting to think that Yuicchi is pretty evil without noticing it.
Also I think that his strategy with girls is to do things which can be construed as annoying, but is accepted in certain cases (like Mai know the future type things) and is excused for it.
Also he brings the people he annoys down, then raises them up after. Much like a big brother… he acts like one (I’m one)