Kanon 12 or KyoAni, saiko!
December 22nd, 2006 by Shirukii
Whoo! Shirt tug scenes for the ultimate win
Episode rating: 9.5/10
It’s been a while since we’ve had a Kanon post here, and not that I want to infringe on Soda’s territory, but it would be a great injustice not to cover this episode.
The long awaited school dance has finally arrived and Yuuichi is eager to reap the rewards of countless hours spent molding Mai into a social butterfly. As the two hit the dance floor the entire student body freezes (literally) to watch Mai’s dress and hair animated at 60 fps with HDR and 16x AA, someone needs to get me a 720p version of this episode, asap D=. Mai’s debut is ruined by the appearance of one of the invisible demons and after Sayuri gets wtfpwned, Mai busts out the sword and starts smashing things.
Thoughts
I like how KyoAni is taking a slightly more integrated approach with Kyon’ichi’s harem. In the Toei version the pacing was very episodic whereby an entire arc would be centered around one girl with the other girls being relegated to background scenery to wait their turn. In contrast to that, KyoAni tends to dedicate about half the episode to the arc centric bishoujo and the other half is dedicated to short cameo skits by the other girls. Understandably, the exception to this was the Makoto’s arc just because Kyon’ichi had to literally dedicate all his time tending to her.
This episode cleared up the purpose of those triplet skits that were in the last episode. The lunch game with Sayuri and Mai, the promise game with Nayuki and Mai’s repetition of “[the poster] is too close to read”. It was KyoAni’s discreet way of using lazy animation to cut down on costs, presumably to save up for the dance scene. I’m no art major and I usually don’t distinguish between the good and bad in terms of animation, however that dance sequence was quite impressive. The fluttering of Mai’s dress, the physics of her hair and the dynamic shadows were made of pure winnage. There were some flaws with the school dance scene as a whole though. For one, the background characters were completely static almost the entire time, very unlike KyoAni. Also, the music wasn’t spectacular, though they were dancing a waltz so I suppose too powerful a track would ruin the underlying 1-2-3 beat.
As for this episode’s moe modes:
- Scared Ayu returns with my favourite shirt tug maneuver
- Sleeping Nayuki, though awesome, is becoming heavily overused
- Shiori continues to be Shiori <3
- Kaori continues to be Kaori -_-
- Sayuri was…ahaha~ surprisingly likable
- and of course, Mai, banzai!
Spoilers after the screencaps, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Keropi, down!
Nayuki, down! (That sounded painful)
Subtle plot hint?
lawl, phallic imagery
FINAL WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD
…
…
…
…
…
So, what does everyone think of the numerous plot hints that KyoAni are giving out? For starters there’s Ayu’s dream monologues at the beginning of most episodes. Having watched the original, I can’t interpret them objectively, but I think it’s quite obviously portrayed that Ayu’s in a coma. Added to the fact that she doesn’t seem to go to school and her disappearance into bright light sources at the beginning of the series, it all seems to point to the conclusion that she’s merely a spirit. I think I may be over analyzing a bit, I probably wouldn’t have thought much of the “‘I’m not good with heights either” comment had I not watched the original.
And another thing I had wondered about even in the original is how Mai’s demon’s can manifest physical damage. The ending of Mai’s arc in the Toei version suggested that they were products of her imagination, yet time and time again they cause real world harm. It’s impossible that Mai is the one responsible, even on an unconscious level, Kyon’ichi would have noticed that at the very least. Perhaps I misinterpreted the ending of her arc in the Toei version, anyone who has played the game care to explain this? Just remember, if you use a comment, be sure to mark for spoilers.
~ Shirukii ~
4 Responses to “Kanon 12 or KyoAni, saiko!”
Leave a Reply
Please use [spoiler] [/spoiler] tags for spoilers.
Loading ...
Konichiwa, this is actually my first visit to ur blog :P
A great episode indeed,
Ayu gets a new dress (banzai!)
Nayuki bangs her head on the table =___=;
and finally, Mai owns…. no comment needed XD
As for ur doubts:
WARNING FOR OTHER READERS: SPOILERS AHEAD.
-
-
-
-
WARNING: HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD
-
-
-
-
-
-
Ok, firstly about Ayu, i think u figured it out mostly already. For those Tiny hints Kyo-ani had been giving out for the girls are basically there as a treat for those who fan the original game. To be honest, it really gives a good humor, for example:
When Ayu comments about being afraid of ghost/spirits in Ep6. (my thought: aren’t u one too? LOLz)
The meat bun stored with the name “Meat Buns Ignored by Fox that constantly appeared in Makoto’s arc.” (doh~)
And this ep, Ayu being “not good with heights” (because u fell from a tree?)
WARNING: VERY HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD
Now for Mai’s part, Im just gonna explain what the demons really are and leave other fine details to Kyo-ani since I found Toei’s version was too rushed and vague about Mai’s arc. But the fact about those demons, they indeed originate from Mai. Mai has supernatural powers. Mai hated her power and rejected it. (why? i’ll leave that to the show) Her powers then exist as physical form and became those demons u see. Note that the powers have wills of their own as well. And since then the powers were trying to reunite with their master. They weren’t actually trying to attack people but trying to communicate which appears to be too offensive for anyone to handle. I also think its energy is very unstable and there causes radical disturbance to physical surroundings like glass windows. So in reality, Mai’s doesnt even control those powers at unconsciousness level. Even those powers weren’t actually monstrous as we thought. Nobody is trying to hurt anyone. It’s merely a tragedy that originated from Mai’s past. Thaz about what I interpretted from the original game.
Again, spoilers ahead.
Ah, I see. So the ghosts are a manifestation of Mai’s imagination, but she has special powers which allow them to cause physical damage. I was under the impression she was just psycho XD That makes a lot more sense. Thanks for the visit, come again =D
RED ALERT: ZOMG SPOILERS AGAIN ^^;
Yup, u got most of the picture.
However I wouldn’t refer those demons as product of imagination (i realy dislike the way Toei version defines it, and nooooooo its not like the boogie man figures in Toei!!!) Think of it as a master(Mai) and siritual servant(power) relationship. The demon aka power actually exists as some sort of personality.
About the property of Mai’s power, its not destrution to begin with, its more of a miracle power, on which the power was born from.
I’ve read on other fan-based forum where some ppl have misconception of Mai’s power being something like telekinetic or blah blah, but to really define it, its “wish.”
But its also because of this amazing power that [ - - - - - ]. Thaz the reason why she rejected her power.
Those power are then seperated from Mai so it’s better to say Mai currently does not have any power: she kicked the power out of her body, and tries to destroy them. Those demons/powers are acting on their own, trying to reunite with Mai(where she keeps rejecting and fighting them) and communicate with [ fill in the blank ] to tell about Mai’s past, but its just too overwhelming and ends up with “Oopsy” breaking things around (includes poor sayuri -.-).
Hope that helps more than my first post =)
I’m looking forward to how Kyo-ani is gonna handle these large amount of plot in addition to the elegant insert of Sayuri’s past, note that what i said above isn’t even half the entire Mai’s plot. Mai’s arc is going to end at ep16, cant wait XD
Word of caution tho, dont just prepare tissue. Prepare for heart attacks. . . if Kyo-ani were to bring out the true ending.
I’m hoping that with 24 episodes, KyoAni holds nothing back and carries each arc as far as possible.