Loli Mai FTW!

Now, with that fact established, I’m going to go on a bit of a tangent before talking about the actual episode…

Why Mai should be convicted of identity theft:

Is it just me, or should loli Mai really have been loli Nayuki. When I saw her loli form that was the first thought that jumped to mind, and as the episode progressed the idea only strengthened.

First and foremost, she looks a lot more like Nayuki than loli Nayuki does. Also, her energetic and upbeat ways are much more characteristic of the supportive Nayuki than the Rei-clone Mai. Though this argument is kind of weak since the whole idea of the flashback was meant to be a contrast of Mai then and now, fair enough.

But what really confused me were these, the snowbunnies. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t this symbolism supposed to be reserved for another certain blue haired bishoujo o.O? I won’t go any further into that, sparing the new viewers from spoilers. But really…wth? Is there anyone who has played the game and can explain how they justified this in the game, or if it was used at all?

Anywho, that ends my little rant, on to the episode!

Episode rating: 9.5/10

This episode marked the ending of the Mai arc and was mind numbingly awesome. Continuing from the last episode, Mai and Kyon’ichi work together to rid the school of the remaining demons…or so they think. When Kyon’ichi heads out to get their celebratory gyuudon, he returns to find out that the entire demon ordeal is more or less his fault.

Mai uses a phoenix down

A flashback to Mai’s childhood reveals that she possessed mysterious powers, which were initially used for healing. But people began to fear her, enough to drive her out of her hometown. Soon after, she meets Kyon’ichi, who accepts her for who she is, mysterious powers and all. But of course, Kyon’ichi was only there for the summer, and Mai feels abandoned when he leaves. The result is that fragments of her powers physically separated from her and manifested themselves as the demons she promised to Kyon’ichi she’d ward off.

After Mai remembers this, she thanks Kyon’ichi for his help…then stabs herself T_T. However, her fragmented power returns to her and heals the wound. Happy endings are winnage.

Thoughts

Mai love ++. Aside from having to get over that her loli form reminded me of Nayuki, this ep awakened my dormant Mai fanboy. Riding on the momentum from her crying scene last episode, we got to see a few more sides of Mai, apart from Rei-clone. Yukari does an awesome job voicing Mai in this ep. The ability to pull off the emotionless drone, genki loli and everything in between was very impressive

Mai’s childhood flashback gave much more insight to her powers and how she ended up the way she is now. Conversely, I remember being thoroughly confused after the Mai arc in Toei’s version because I had no idea what the demons really were in the end.

At first I was skeptical of the Kanon remake, since it has only been a few years since the original I wasn’t convinced it needed a remake. But with KyoAni behind the wheel and double the episodes to work with, there’s no doubt that it was justified. The remake is filling in so many plotholes using those wonderful flashbacks, this is Kanon in all its glory.

However, among the very few things that I don’t like about Kanon is how the arcs fragment the story. There is very little interaction and transition between Kyon’ichi’s harem and their respective stories. As much as this is an indication of Kyon’ichi’s masterful harem management skills, it is a huge problem to continuity.

The amount of emotion that Kyon’ichi displayed in this episode will soon be forgotten. Even though he promises to stay by Mai’s side from now on, the preview for the next episode shows absolutely no sign of her or Sayuri.

After he solves one girl’s problem, he appears to never speak to them again and jumps to the next. Of course, in “reality” there’s a lot of interaction time that we don’t get to see wherein he probably follows up on past arcs, but having non-existent transitions between arcs, and little follow up makes the series seem like several mini-series and makes Kyon’ichi seem like sort of a player/jerk. But I guess that’s unavoidable, unless a 52 episode remake comes out in a few years ;).

Judging from the preview, Shiori’s arc is up next and at the same time we’ll probably get slow progression of Nayuki’s arc, looks good. I hope Shiori takes Kyon’ichi’s advice to heart and keeps calling him onii-chan =D Oh, and that she lays off the drugs…just a little.

One last rant: Kyon’ichi cried for Mai but not Makoto? BLASPHEMY!

Moéeeee!

KyoAni sure loves their blue demons

Ponytails turn me on

T_T

~ Shirukii ~