The beauty of this anime puts it near the top of my list of favorite anime. I'm not talking about the animation—the animation is good, though; it's definitely better than the original 2002 anime. Instead, I mean the beauty of the story, and, in places, the dialogue and script. To emphasize that, I'd like to quote Sayuri Kurata:
"Hey, do you know what the name of this song is, Yuuichi? It's an old classic. It's Pachelbel's 'Kanon in D'. A kanon is a type of song where the melody keeps repeating, and with each repetition the song grows more and more beautiful and vibrant as the new chords harmonize with each other. Wouldn't it be great if the progression of life was like the progression of this song? Nothing would seem to change, but everything would just get richer and fuller."
Kanon makes me cry, tears of sorrow, but also tears of joy, but even the tears of sorrow aren't bad to cry. I see the tears of sorrow as tears of empathy, and, somehow, not as painful as my first impression was when I cried those tears.
The way that the creators of this anime could display this story so well that it makes people cry who rarely cry (well, not me, but someone I know—you know who you are) is amazing and shows the work, creativity, and talent of those people who made it.
The story of the anime is a delicate thing to summarize without spoiling something while still making it seem interesting. I will try my best to balance on the fine line.
Yuuichi Aizawa is in his second year of high school. During the winter of that school year, he transfers over the the same high school as his cousin, Nayuki Minase. His cousin lives in a different town than him, and even though he used to visit seven years ago, his memory of the town is very hazy.
Yuuichi will be staying in the town for quite a while—at least until he graduates from high school. While he is there, he, of course, starts making friends, some of which are "mysterious girls from his past who all need his help." To know how to help them—and, in some cases, even figure out they need help—requires him to remember them and important details from his past.
Even though this anime made me cry, most of the episodes are funny (or hilarious) and a fun time. And, of corse, there's always awesome Yuuichi to cheer you up. My brothers and I have "officially" dubbed Yuuichi the best male anime protagonist.
Everything in this anime can bring into the emotion of the scene so beautifully, every bit of it showing drama. The music will alone choke you up when you connect it to a scene, and the way the scene is shown by the animation, the camera angles, etc. works so carefully and wonderfully.
Anyway, this anime is a must see, high up on my brothers' and my lists of favorite anime. (My brother kicked 「灼眼のシャナ」("Shakugan no Shana") off his list of "The Three Anime of Epic Win-ness" to make room for Kanon.)
Show Info:
Episode Length: They're about 25 minutes, and they all have one episode in them
Total Episodes: 24
OVA: None
Second Season: None
Second Series: I would not consider the 2006 anime to be a second series, but I'll mention here that there was a different Kanon anime done by Toei Animation in 2002.
TV Special: None
Based Off Of: A visual novel
Licensed in America: Yes
Opening Theme: "Last Regrets" Performed by: Ayana
Ending Theme:「風の辿り着く場所」(Where the Wind Reaches) Performed by: Ayana
Personal Favorites:
Character: That's a hard one... I love Makoto Sawatari, and I also like Shiori Misaka. Also, as I said before, Yuuichi's awesome... I'm getting away with just saying those.
Villain: It's the same as in "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya"; there aren't really any villains, and out of the ones I'd consider "villains", none of them get my tag of "favorite."
Episode: 6. Easy as that.
Episode: 6. Easy as that.
Opening: There's only one.
Ending: Once again, only one.
