*melts*
After a really slow start, the Shiori arc is fully underway, and as if the above screencap isn’t evidence enough, it’s excellent. The pacing for this arc seems to be going really quickly though, we might see the end of it next episode, followed by the typical half episode clean up after that. Failing that, I give Shiori’s arc another 2 full eps at the very most. Which means Nayuki and Ayu fans will soon have their patience rewarded, especially Nayu fanboys.
Episode Rating: 9/10
With Shiori’s death looming in the future, Kyon’ichi starts spending a lot more time with her. A late night meeting at the fountain gets a sort of onii-chanXimouto relationship between the two. Shiori confides in Kyon’ichi and asks him to treat her as a normal girl despite her terminal illness, which Shiori has forgotten the name of, lawl.
Well guess who shows up the next day at school! Kaori makes a break for the exit with Kitagawa (who’s jealousy of Kyon’ichi’s harem management skills is escalating) and Nayuki in tow. Conveniently being lunch time, and having conveniently just lost Mai and Sayuri as lunch mates, Kyon’ichi takes Shiori to the cafeteria.
After ordering the curry rice, Shiori reveals that she’s terrible with spicy food and struggles to eat a spoonful. Citing her only reason for ordering curry as wanting to eat the same thing as Kyon’ichi, Shiori says she’s full enough, the two walk home together and part ways, but not before Shiori promises to make a love filled bentou for her onii-chan ^^.
Enter the eternally PMSing Kaori, who ignores her sister’s greeting and heads straight for her room (hopefully putting those box cutters Shiori bought to some good use).
The next day Shiori makes good on her promise and makes Kyon’ichi not one, but two bentous, filled to the brim. Not one to back out on his promise, Kyon’ichi braces himself and digs in, while Shiori works on her relatively minuscule excuse for a bentou.
After school, the two spend some time together. Kyon’ichi takes treats Shiori to some ice cream, then two go visit the plushie shop that he and Sayuri bought Mai’s anteater at. While window shopping, Kyon’ichi spots Kaori, chases her down and confronts her, begging her to spend the coming Sunday, Shiori’s birthday, together with them. She denies knowledge of anyone by the name Shiori and walks off -_-
Midoriba would be proud
Later that night, Kyon’ichi tries to think of a birthday present for Shiori with the help of Ayu. After some pretty useless suggestions (I personally wouldn’t mind getting taiyaki >_>) Ayu has a stroke of genious and suggests, instead of a present, doing something to make Shiori happy. Which of course means he has some negotiating to do with Kaori.
Thoughts
EDIT: Credits go to Nightingale for this one, I never would have spotted it myself. In the breakfast scene from around 11:20, Ayu is holding her chopsticks with her right hand. This runs contrary to the repeated assertion that Ayu-chan is left handed. KyoAni, you may have dodged my ribbon rant, but you got caught this time!
Chopsticks of lies!
Anywho, I digress, what an awesome ep! I was expecting some overboard angsting by Kaori and a lot of sad girl in the snow depression from Shiori. But instead the episode focused more on Kyon’ichi and his attempt at making Shiori’s last days happy and memorable. And despite the appeal of the “sad girls in the snow” moe mode, happy Shiori is vastly superior to sad Shiori *nods*
A seifuku Shiori is fine too.
Though I have a feeling this won’t last and that angsting Kaori will be unleashed upon us next week.
Regarding Shiori’s character, I find her the most likable out of the whole cast. And not only because she’s attained pseudo-imouto status =D. Her situation is the closest to being realistic that this series has, no demons, no lolikitsune transformations, and no blunt force head trauma and subsequent ghostbusting (oshi-, was that a spoiler?).
This means that as a viewer I can genuinely identify and sympathize with Shiori. I don’t have any siblings, but I can at least fathom the pain that Shiori’s going through, not only with her death looming over her, but also her sister ignoring her very existence out of selfish protectionism. Whereas I am sadly unable to picture what it would feel like to be a baby fox abandoned by your savior, nor a miracle worker who fabricates demons in a delusional attempt to defer emotional pain.
She also has some of the cutest expressions and gestures ^^! *fanboys* Which explains why there are so many screencaps in this post, I couldn’t decide T_T.
Aside from Shiori, the Ayu camp was appeased with some much needed Ayu screentime. Things are slowly developing as she starts to show some affection and concern for Taiyaki Kyon’ichi, waiting for him to return at night, offering advice…etc. It’s a good move by KyoAni to shift some focus onto Ayu so that assuming the story ends the same way as Toei’s version, it doesn’t blindside the viewers.
Taiyaki? =3
On that note, Nayuki continues to get shafted in terms of screentime and character development. I don’t remember her being neglected this much in Toei’s version, I’m not exactly a fan of hers, but I’ll admit she deserves better than a constant cold shoulder from Kyon’ichi. *shrugs* maybe the script writer had a bad experience with a cousin?
As for the technical aspects of this episode, I thought they were above average this time around. I may have been biased by that awesome river scenery shot at the beginning of the ep, but it seemed like the animation was exceptionally done this time around. The music was also great, the piano score that played when Shiori welcomes Kaori back home was powerful. While it overwhelmed the dialog, I think it was well placed as a build of tension and really drove the drama of the scene deeply.
Doesn’t change the fact that Kaori is a heartless bitch though D=
Obligatory sleepy Nayuki screenie (damn scrolling marquee)
And we finish off with some Jun
~ Shirukii ~
19 Responses to “Kanon 17”
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>>no lolikitsune transformations
:(
Anyway, this episode failed for only 1 uguu. Disappointing, especially after episode 16 featured Kyon saying it twice.
Wonder if anyone noticed…
11:24
look at Ayu’s hand…. -.-
Hope they fix it in DVD, otherwise im quite impressed by the well using of snow/silence/fountain lightings and the reference to Makoto on the hill.
Highlights:
All out Shiori moe’ness, \^v^/
Ayu + Piro = Konban “Nya!” =3
Actually, some hardcore fans( bless their otaku hearts) counted the number of seconds that the five main girls have had up till Ep15, and Nayuki clocked in 2nd. ;)
Surprisingly, Makoto got first.
Cheers.
@Skane
lol, Mai was also ranked first place in terms of total screentime in one episode (ep15 that is).
@ lolikit: Lack of uguu~ is certainly disheartening =( And I thought Kyon’ichi said he wasn’t worthy of using “uguu~” >_>
@ Nightingale: I…don’t see what you’re referring to at 11:24, I must be blind. Shiori moeness \^v^/ indeed =D
@ Skane: I’m not referring to screentime explicitly when I talk about Nayuki, more so the crappy treatment she gets from Kyon’ichi. Though I’m rather surprised she ranks that high in screentime o.o But Makoto FTW!
>>11:24
>>look at Ayu’s hand…. -.-
There’s only Yuuichi’s hand on that time. I don’t see anything wrong with it.
I gotta say…….Up until this point, I thought the Shiori story-line was verging on the point of boring/predictable…..
but between the humourous banter between Yuuichi & Shiori, and the developing anxst of her older sister, this episode completely got me hooked into Shiori’s arc…..can’t wait for next week :)
P.S. The visual effect of the river at the begining of this episode was just awesome! :)
Hmm, i better rephrase it, i probably have a RAW that has different timing.
Its the House of Minase breakfast scene.
@Nightingale
I checked that time, and can’t see anything odd? Care to give a screencap?
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o226/fx18/snapshot200.jpg?t=1169877370
-.-
@ Kanon_fan82: My thoughts exactly ^^
@ Nightingale: I still don’t see anything wrong with Ayu’s hand >_> try explaining exactly what’s weird about it?
Ayu…is a lefty.
OH!
Wow, good eye lol. I never would have caught that >_> I shall add to post and credit you XD
hmm… as far as i can see, those chopsticks seems to be stuck in the rice bowl (i think) and she wasn’t holding it
notice that in the screencap, the length of the chopstick ends at the edge of the bowl, and not at the edge of rice in it
@Noob
Nah, thaz Ayu’s right hand holding the chopsticks, notice her left hand was holding the light blue bowl.
With regards to Nayuki, I would argue that her shafting in terms of character development was an inevitable consequence of KyoAni’s desire to be faithful to the source material. The harem-esque format is simply not conducive to the kind of story the original Kanon writers scripted for her, because…
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Nayuki’s story and Ayu’s stories are implicitly romantic. The romance can be removed from Shiori, Mai, and Makoto’s stories with the essence of the story left intact because their respective relationships with Yuuichi are not founded on their love for him, nor are the problems that their stories attempt to resolve. The same cannot be said of Ayu and Nayuki. The former is bound to life and consciousness by the depth of her love for Yuuichi and her desire to wait for him forever, the latter has been tormented all her life by her unrequited feelings for him and by his indifferent attitude towards her. Their stories cannot co-exist.
In the game, Nayuki’s story - her romance with Yuuichi - is entirely contingent on Yuuichi’s isolation. It is because the other girls have dropped out of Yuuichi’s life - Ayu finds her missing treasure without Yuuichi’s help and vanishes, Makoto runs away and is never seen again, and Yuuichi never meets Shiori or Mai - that Yuuichi begins to spend time with Nayuki, and as a consequence come to recognise her feelings and reciprocate them.
In the Toei version of Kanon, Nayuki’s story was basically rewritten from the ground up. Her angst over Yuuichi’s growing attachment to Ayu, her jealousy and eventual role in the series’ happy ending - these formed the cornerstone of her character there, and they didn’t appear in the original game. Toei created them because they realised that Nayuki was not a character whose story would fit into the harem format they’d chosen for the series. Her story was just not possible if Yuuichi was to end up with Ayu.
@ Nightingale: Entered and credited ^^
@ Tim: Whoa, that’s a pretty dense analysis of Nayuki’s character and the inevitability of her treatment. It’s true that Nayuki and Ayu’s “endings” can’t coexist though.
Well, hopefully she at least gets some serious angsting time, even moreso than in Toei’s version. I’m still looking forward to the Ayu ending though.
SPOILERS
Well, basically…
Toei Nayuki: Is privvy to the development of Yuuichi and Ayu’s relationship, and becomes increasingly jealous until Ayu’s disappearance, whereupon she begins to feel guilty for being happy that Ayu is gone. Struggles with her conflicting feelings, such that she barely speaks to Yuuichi even with the other girls out of the picture and Akiko hospitalised. As Yuuichi is about to leave the city to be with his parents, she admits her feelings for him via a recorded message, and then plays the critical role in resolving Yuuichi’s relationship with Ayu by alerting him just as he’s about to leave to the fact that Ayu is in the room next to Akiko. Thereafter reconciles herself to the fact that Yuuichi loves Ayu, and not her.
Game Nayuki: As the other girls drop out of Yuuichi’s life, she begins to spend more and more time with him. They study together in her room for exams, and as they do so their relationship grows steadily more romantic. Akiko’s hospitalisation speeds things up; as Yuuichi comforts Nayuki, they end up making out in the snow, having sex in her bedroom, and becoming a couple. At no point is there any danger of Yuuichi leaving the city (indeed, Yuuichi’s ‘bad’ girl-less ending involves him just continuing school as usual with Nayuki), nor is there any real conflict with Ayu.
they end up making out in the snow, having sex in her bedroom, and becoming a couple
LOL, I love how bluntly you put that.