WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

         After Shirukii and I engage in mortal combat to determine who gets to blog about Kanon kindly hands over Kanon without much of a fight, I find myself in control of the two most popular series this season. Now how did THAT happen? But in any case, the Kanon remake continues with episode two, introducing the rest of the cast of girls. [my Kanon posts may contain some spoilers for those who did not play the game/watch the first series, so beware about that]

         The morning starts off with the sweet melodious voice of Nayuki’s neko alarm clock whispering sweet nothings into Yuuichi’s ear. It’s no talking frog, but whatever gets the job done. Then of course starts Nayuki’s daily waking routine, which doesn’t involve waking up without drastic human intervention. I was half-expecting Nayuki to scream out and demand that Yuuichi leave her room immediately, wanting him to respect her privacy in her room. Apparently not, but that’s fine too. And I’m sorry to all you Ayu fanboys, but Nayuki > Ayu. She’s just so much cuter than Ayu! Whoops, Nayuki fanboyism got a little out of control =S I’m sorry, and I’ll make sure it happens again. Hopefully soon.

         After a breakfast starring a guest appearance by “mystery jam”, the two students go on their merry way to school. Yuuichi’s freezing in his coat, while Nayuki’s walking around, not even with a shiver, in only her school skirt uniform. That doesn’t even happen here in Canada! But seriously, that uniform isn’t very practical for white winters, and provides absolutely no protection against the winds of a blizzard. Be it a good thing or a bad thing, you decide.

         They arrive at school, and it turns out that Yuuichi ends up in Nayuki’s class, much to Nayuki’s delight. After giving a rather boring introduction as the mysterious transfer student, Kyon Yuuichi can’t pass up the opportunity to make a Haruhi reference at his introduction. Oh KyoAni, you kid.

         Class ends, and we see Kitagawa get shot down by Kaori, as to be expected. Yuuichi and Nayuki start walking off, when Nayuki slips on the stairs and falls straight into Mai and Sayuri. It felt very… Mikuru-ish of Nayuki to do that. And with that, Mai and Sayuri are officially introduced. In which Mai felt very… Yuki-esque. Haruhi, much?

         Yuuichi starts exploring the school building alone, only to get lost in seconds flat. In his fit of panic and insanity, Yuuichi starts narrating his situation, Kyon-style. Kaori shows up and saves Yuuichi’s sorry butt, commenting on another Haruhi reference. Oh KyoAni, you so playful!

         Yuuichi starts shopping for groceries for dinner, when he bumps into a familiar taiyaki thief… literally. Ayu’s up to her usual antics, dragging Yuuichi into it as well. After a bit of talking, they finally remember that they knew each other seven years ago. The sudden remembrance was less than convincing, but I’m willing it let it slide. Ayu dives for a hug from Yuuichi, but hits nothing but tree. So enters Shiori, the fabled sad girl in snow.

         After leaving Shiori, Ayu and Yuuichi pay off the taiyaki baker once again. Isn’t there a saying for that? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The baker should’ve learned from his mistakes already >.> And with that, the villainous Ayu disappears once again, but not before making another pinky swear with Yuuichi that they’ll meet again.

         Finally alone once again for groceries, Yuuichi is then interrupted by a dramatic entrance by a mysterious girl, one that immediately engages battle with him. The battle doesn’t go very far until this mysterious girl passes out to the lack of energy. How she’ll end up at his house in the next episode remains to be seen. I wonder if he’ll carry a passed out loli all the way home. It’ll be quite the sight, I’ll say that much.

         I rather liked this episode, but I think I’d end up saying that for every episode of Kanon. However, not much actually happened in this episode. It was more of an episode focused on introducing the rest of the girls, being Mai, Shiori, and Makoto.

         Sleeping Nayuki was just awesome, she made me a total fanboy. Although I watched the first Kanon, I never really developed any fanboyism for any of the girls, since it was one of my earlier anime series. Now Nayuki has quickly captured me since the first episode, with this second epi only solidifying her hold. Her uncontainable excitement for Yuuichi’s transfer was certainly cute, though Yuuichi was undeserving of such attention >.> Stay away from my Nayuki =(

         Ayu’s second entrance was a little forced with the entire sequence of “dodging to your dominant hand” speech. By the time it would take Yuuichi to say all that, he could’ve just stepped aside and adjusted accordingly should she follow suit. Or simply SAY “left” or “right”. As I said before, the whole thing about Yuuichi and Ayu remembering that they knew each other was also rather forced, it just seemed too fake. And the entire tree collision wasn’t exactly smooth either. Why would Yuuichi dodge that anyways? I’d gladly receive a hug from Ayu [but Nayuki takes priority, of course]. Now even with all this negative talk, it’s not like I dislike Ayu. She’d definitely rank second after Nayuki. But then again, there were only two girls shown with any significant amount of screentime. Take it however your fanboyism wants to hear.

         Mai felt very Yuki, with her lack of talking and cold expression. And I know that isn’t restricted to only Yuki, but it goes with the entire Haruhi theme. I don’t know, I’m just not feeling anything for Mai. I’m thinking she may rank last in the list, as I don’t have as big of a tsundere weakness as Shirukii does. And seeing how this is from KyoAni, something tells me that Mai’s monsters will strongly resemble the adversaries that Itsuki had to face in closed space.

         I’m really hoping for a good story involving Shiori. With any luck, we’ll get a story with more sadness and more snow than last time. Now if my memory serves, Shiori acted quite differently this time when Yuuichi and Ayu started helping her pick up her dropped items. In the original series, she did not allow them to help her out, but here she put up no resistance. I wonder how that will work down the road, as I thought it worked out fine in the original series.

         Ah Makoto, the loli-kitsune [and no, I’m not talking about notdotq]. Her entrance was fine, but in the previews, we see how she really is. Two things of note would be her slapping Yuuichi with all her might and another would be her yelling out after Yuuichi pranks her with… devil’s tongue, is it? I have high hopes for how she does in the series.

         The Haruhi references were nice, but it’s a little weird when I already hear Kyon talking all the time. Some scenes I not only hear Kyon, but also see him instead of Yuuichi. Luckily Ayu doesn’t fall under a similar curse, always hearing Sawachika Eri or Siesta. But yes, I sense a lot of Haruhi coming up. And should there be AIR references, I’ll probably miss those. Can’t remember too too much of that =/

=3

The ear scene was the first one that came to mind

Of course we need a katana wielding tsundere [except… without the katana right now]

So appears the Sad Girl in Snow

A challenger appears!

Girls really seem to be falling for Yuuichi

         With all the girls introduced, we can finally see some real development between each of them and Yuuichi. I’m definitely looking forward to it. And so begins another week long wait until the next Kanon T_T

//Soda