December 2007

Kanon is a story set in a snowy town of Hokkaido.  The main protagonist, Yuichi Aizawa is returning to the town after being away for seven years.  You discover over time that he used to visit during summer vacation back in grade school, but he does not remember anything from his past.  Yuichi Aizawa moved in with his Aunt Akiko and Cousin Nayuki Minase to finish out high school.

Kanon
4 Stars

Kanon is a story set in a snowy town of Hokkaido.  The main protagonist, Yuichi Aizawa is returning to the town after being away for seven years.  You discover over time that he used to visit during summer vacation back in grade school, but he does not remember anything from his past.  Yuichi Aizawa moved in with his Aunt Akiko and Cousin Nayuki Minase to finish out high school.

Over the course of time, Yuichi reunites with several girls who turn out to have a great deal with his past and future.  Ayu Tsukimiya, a fun-loving girl from Yuichi’s childhood reappears by running into him on the street; she is stuck in a haze, and does not remember much from her past.  Makoto Sawatori shows up unexpectedly and begins attacking Yuichi for no apparent reason.  After the attack, Yuichi brings her back to the house and she is welcomed into the household by Akiko and Nayuki, where they learn of her extreme amnesia.  Nayuki Minase is Yuichi’s Cousin, but she also has always been in love with him.  Nayuki is also a great athlete and is in the same class with Yuichi.  Shiori Misaka, sister of Kaori, shows up outside of Yuichi’s school in the courtyard waiting for her sister that never comes.  Over time, Shiori and Yuichi become close, allowing her to confide in him about her illness.  Mai Kawasumi, a very quiet and often understood, third-year student at the same high school as Yuichi.  Mai remains silent, slowly explaining herself as the series progresses.  Mai’s one and only friend until Yuichi came along was Sayuri Kurata.

The main girls in the anime cause the plot to be ripped into five pieces.  With a plot in so many sections it is hard to fully grasp everything, although, Kanon does a fine job at explaining things plainly.  The use of flashbacks and clues allows you to follow the story with ease.  The flashbacks are used to show when a memory has been rediscovered within the character.  Yuichi slowly remembers bits and pieces of his past, which included Nayuki, Ayu, Makoto and Mai.  Yuichi had known each of these girls, and either completely blocked out their memory or parts of it in Nayuki’s case.

Ayu, as you will discover, was a girl he had promised to return to after the school year let out again.  But what Yuichi does not remember until the very end was that Ayu had an accident right before he left town, she fell out of the large tree in the forest clearing.  Makoto was once a fox who he befriended before the Kanon story started.  Mai was yet another friend from Yuichi’s past.  Yuichi had deserted each of these girls, where they continued to think about him, creating their own insanity.  Yuichi helped each of the girls in the story in some way.  Ayu eventually recovers from her comatose state, kind of a sappy ending though.  Makoto died but only after she accomplished every wish she ever made thanks to Yuichi.  Mai, after defeating the demons she believed to be attacking her and Yuichi returned to her happier self.  Shiori finally recovered from her illness after Kaori accepted her as a sister, which is all she wanted from the start.  Moreover, Yuichi finally realized that he had hurt Nayuki all those years ago.

This is my first hardcore romance drama, and I have to say that it was a pretty confusing anime series all together.  You never fully understand Mai’s demons, Makoto’s ability to become human then finally vanishing, Ayu’s ability to detach from her comatose-self and I am still left wondering why everyone had such horrible cases of amnesia.  Kanon was sappy, tear-filled and most certainly strange.  The plot was incredibly difficult to follow, especially with all the amnesia involved, although I did like the flashbacks.  It seems that many people agree with the 4.5 out of 5 star rating on this anime, but I cannot seem to figure out why.  I did not particularly enjoy this anime, but maybe I just need more action to enjoy something.

Having a horrid nightmare, Muto Kazuki dreams he was brutally killed by a serpentine creature while trying to save a girl. He wakes up screaming, thinking it to only be a normal nightmare. He attends his normal high school life with his friends and sister, Muto Mahiro, and gets sentenced to an after school detention for misplacing his school briefcase. He seeks out his teacher after the sentence only to find out it was the creature from his nightmare, disguised as a his teacher.

Buso Renkin
4 Stars

Mahiro comes looking for Kazuki because he was out so late, only to find him running from the beast. They are both rescued by the girl from Kazuki’s dream. Her name is Tsumura Tokiko and she is an Alchemic Warrior. Mahiro is unconscious from the battle so Kazuki returns her home and seeks out Tokiko again. He finds her in the old abandoned factory on the hill and she is locked in combat with a giant beast. He charges in and summons a lance out of no where and ends up dealing the final blow to the creature. Tokiko was amazed and infuriated at the same time. Kazuki had no idea where this lance came from. Tokiko finally begins to explain what has been going on.

Kazuki’s nightmare wasn’t a dream, he actually was killed. He tried saving Tokiko from a beast known as a homunculus. A homuncului is a creature with an embryo-like creation from a plant, animal, or even a human that has been placed inside a human. The embryo then crushes the brain and takes control of the body, giving it abilities that mimic the natural talents of the embryo’s origin. Feeling bad for him, Tokiko used a Kakugane on him to replace his pierced heart, causing him to live again. Hoping that he’d live to be a normal person still, she fled and didn’t tell him what happened. Leaving it to seem like a normal nightmare.

A Kakugane is a tablet that transforms a person’s Buso Renkin, or will to fight, into a tool used to defend themselves. Kazuki’s lance is his own Buso Renkin. People with Kakugane are typically an elite group of warriors known as Alchemic Warriors. Their purpose is to rid the world of homunculi and try to restore what is commonly known as the Philosopher’s Stone. Kazuki begs for her to train him to be a Alchemic Warrior. She takes him under her wing and tries to keep him undercontrol. 

They continue to fight Homunculi until Tokiko gets an homunculi embryo attached to her. She is diagnosed with 7 days left of human consciousness before becoming a homunculis herself. They track down the culprit responsible for her condition. It is a fellow student of the highschool that Kazuki attends. He is a genius, but deathly ill boy that is trying to form a human based homunculi embryo so he can live on forever. His name is Koshaku Chono, or Papillion. Kazuki chases him down, but is too late. Chono becomes what is known as a Super human and Kazuki fights him to the antidote to save Tokiko. After an epic battle, Kazuki wins and saves Tokiko from her fate. Chono is also saved by his great-great grandfather Chōno Bakushaku, or more commonly known as Doctor Butterly.

Doctor Butterly restores Chono from his decrepit state and recruits him into the LXE or “League of Extraordinary Elects”. This organization is made up of homunculi with the sole purpose of restoring a super Alchemic Warrior named Victor. Victor possesses what is known as a Black Kakugane, or a super charged Kakugane. It makes him extremely powerful with a power to drain energy from everything around him and use it as fighting strength. Dr. Butterfly manages to restore Victor and he wreaks havoc on the world. Kazuki tries to fight him, but ends up using all his energy and changing his Kakugane into a Black Kakugane himself.

The other Alchemic Warriors find out and try to kill Kazuki, causing him and Tokiko to flee. They try to find a way to neutralize the Black Kakugane while the rest of the Alchemic Warriors try to put an end to both Victor and Kazuki.

 

 

This series really surprised me. I was really addicted to it. The plot itself takes many twists and turns that leaves you begging for the next one.

The one thing that really stands out is the relationship between Kazuki and Tokiko. At first Tokiko barely tolerates Kazuki, thinking him as a child and incapable of understanding what’s really going on. But by the end, they appear to be in love. It’s really touching how all the battles and hardships brought them together.

Another thing that interested me about this series was the battling. There was plenty to go around and with every individual having a unique buso renkin with different powers, it made every battle fresh exciting!

Amazing series for the action fan or the romantic warrior lovers out there. A great series to get hooked onto!