Uguu~ count: 14

As the anime that was supposedly responsible for the low Haruhi episode count I had high expectations, said expectations were met, surpassed and melted into a puddle in front of Ayu. I thought this opening episode was absolutely amazing, being a Kanon fanboy, that opinion may be a touch bias but I think the general viewership will agree. As an opener it did well to draw the viewer into possible plotlines, introduce a torrent of bishoujo and set a standard for visuals.

Synopsis

The remake starts off more or less identically to the original. Yuuichi sits and waits in the cold for Nayuki to meet him at the station, after she arrives and apologizes for being late and then Yuuichi plays the same name game he did in the original. Cue OP! Afterwards we get a little foreshadowing with an Ayu soliloquy/dream sequence about her feelings as she looks up at a sky stained in red and a crying child she wanted to comfort.

It’s morning now and Yuuichi is waking up for the first time in his new and unfamiliar home, temporarily forgetting where he is. It’s the last day of winter break, however, Nayuki has to go to school for club activities seeing as she’s the captain of the track team. Sporting a recently washed and slightly damp seifuku, she heads out, promising to show Yuuichi around town after she gets back. With Nayuki off to track, her mom (Akiko) takes advantage of the newly acquired male tenant and asks Yuuchi to help her shovel the snow. However, he doesn’t prove to be of much use, tiring quickly and being considerably slower than Akiko.

Returneth, Nayuki! Fulfilling her promise, Nayuki shows Yuuichi around town, covering various landmarks and unfamiliar snow removal technology along the way. Near the shopping district the two run into Kaori and Kitagawa, Nayuki’s classmates. Insert some KitagawaXKaori comedic relief and some risque implications of the NayukiXYuuichi relationship and you have an lol worthy scene (which I did, Kitagawa is such a wuss XD). Arriving at a grocery store, Nayuki invites Yuuichi inside, assuring him he won’t get lost as long as they’re together. Yuuichi declines and opts to stay outside.

Enter Ayu, stage right, running full speed at our lucky male lead who is unable to get out of the way happily accepts Ayu’s moe headbutt…lucky bastard. After a quick exchange of words Ayu grabs Yuuichi and they run off together into a meido cafe. Here, Ayu explains that she’s being chased after by an old man for unknown reasons. Yuuichi, and his l33t detective skillzors, pieces together the truth, that she stole from a taiyaki shop and is on the run. As the respectable and law-abiding citizen he is, much to the dismay of Ayu, he drags her back to apologize and pay the bill.

After some walking, taiyaki chow down and some serious overuse of Ayu’s trademark uguu~, the two exchange names and part ways promising to meet again. Ikenai! Yuuichi forgot about Nayuki, who has been waiting outside the store for about half an hour. She goes tsun tsun for a while, but she succumbs to Yuuichi’s profuse apologizing and decides they’re even since she was late yesterday.

*NAYUKI MATH LESSON* 2.0 hours - 0.5 hours = 0

That night Yuuichi’s stuff arrives and realizing he can’t unpack all of it in a single night he asks Nayuki for an alarm clock to borrow. [sarcasm] Hmmm…don’t know about that, she only has 14 =\ Cutting it a little close there. [/sarcasm] Afterwards the two say goodnight and Yuuichi falls into a deep sleep with the silhouette of a certain taiyaki eating thief etched in the back of his eyes.

And that’s pretty much it! Add in cameos by much of the Kanon cast, a loli flashback and we’re done.

Thoughts

As I said, great opener! The foreshadowing brings back nostalgic memories for those of us who have watched the original while keeping the newcomers in the dark and building suspense. As for the pre-OP intro, I had an internal kawaii-gasm about a minute into the show with the whole “namae?” scene. Kanon’s attention to detail is a little more blunt this time around as the Kanon cast is paraded around in the background. But unfair Haruhi comparisons and nuances aside, the remake seems to be on a path to success.

Animation is top-notch, as is expected by KyoAni, the backgrounds are much more detailed, but also reminiscent, of the original. Character designs could have been a BIT better, but I’m using Haruhi and AIR as a comparison, so it’s somewhat of an unfair comparison as it looks like they tried not to deviate from original character design as best they could.

Audio was great, the OP and ED (ED especially) are really nice and background/ambient music added subtle effect without overpowering the scene. The voice acting was good for the most part, almost all of the original cast is back so no surprises really, EXCEPT Nayuki. I noticed it in the promo trailer too, she sounds a little weird, it might just be my imagination though o.o”

Trying not to sound like a skipping CD here, but again, this episode was excellent, it did exactly what an opening should to draw in new fans and appease the older and sometimes skeptical ones. Seems KyoAni will be spared from death by zergling otaku rush, good job!

*melts*

Don’t come to Canada

“Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka!” Admit it, you were saying it too

Ahh I can’t believe I forgot this sceenie, MOE HEADKNUCKLE FTW!

A valiant attempt, but Aruruu’s was still better

New char design makes Yuuichi look like a pedo =\

*condenses* *melts a second time*

Tsk tsk tsk, shame on you Yuuichi

Victories, this ep had almost everything you could ask for!

- Forbidden itoko love, check
- Forbidden (yet single) mom, check
- Lolis, check
…you get the point, on to actual scenes…
- Moe headbutt <3
- “Nayuki: namae…?”
- Nayuki’s face when she saw the fox, lawl
- Ayu spinning around to find her wings *keels over from cuteness overload*
- “Sore de? Sore dake. Sore dake? Sore dake…Uguu~” All sorts of win here
I better stop this list before I end up rewriting the script >_<

Phailures, few and far between thus far

- Character designs, would have liked to see more of a revamp in this area
- Nayuki’s voice, a little off, this might just be me though
- I still hear Kyon
- Shoveling, winter is coming ._.

I don’t know about the “Uguu~” (14, plus 1 from Yuuichi) overload, while not annoying now, if its use remains as frequent in this episode it may begin to bug me. Though I suspect it’ll fade into the background just as “dattebayo” did in my Naruto days.

~ Shirukii ~