Kanon (2006) - 05: Demons' Serenade

Title:Kanon (2006)
Episode:05: Demons' Serenade
Synopsis
serenade = a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor.
Still a very slow development, lots of Makoto, and a bit of Mai, but not really...
Comments
[Devil Doll, 2006-11-04]
I'm torn by this episode. I almost turned it off after they spoiled Mai's secret in the very first scene. Why are they doing everything wrong with Mai so far? Keeping that thingy invisible... Mai was a magical character in the first series and is about to become a mere freak now in the second. Well, actually there's something I like about Mai's role: She apparently took over the function of Amano Mishio in this version - and that makes a lot of sense, given her knowledge about these things. Yuuichis attempts to make Mai speak were shown in too much detail for my taste, although his joke about the love confession was great.
Way too much Makoto for my taste (according to Mai's statement Makoto's case might be resolved early in this series). Yes, she's better than in the original series, but given so much time she's more repetitive now; yes, she is who she is (and her scene licking her hand was nice), but she's still bothering me. Yuuichi's comment about her behaviour was almost spoilerish... well, those who don't know what's happening later will still be surprised.
Nice idea about that massage from Nayuki; wonderful performance by Sayuri's seiyuu. And I want to read Akiko's mind even more than in the original series because of how she treats the two blonde girls. Shiori's appearance was too short, almost as if her function was to tell us that Yuuichi is the onii-san of all the girls now (even Nayuki, because Kaori told him to be so). Yuuichi's late reaction to Ayu sitting at the breakfast table was not really plausible.

All in all - very mixed impressions this time.

AstroNerdBoy (04 Nov 2006):

This was the funniest episode to me thus far, not that it was a laugh-fest or anything. However, I did enjoy Yuuchi's having fun at Mai's expense about the love confession. I also was amused (even if it was cliched) at Yuuichi getting the naive Makoto to go pick up a porn mag for him. Funnier to me was his meeting with Shiori and telling her to call him "Oniichan," then changing his mind as soon as she said it. But as DD says, it does fit with the theme of the episode -- Yuuichi is acting as the girl's "oniisan," and this comes out more so with how he treats Makoto and Nayuki (which is more understandable since he lives with them) by not only picking on them hard, but attempting to teach them right and wrong.

Ayu showing up at breakfast was really the only way for the writers to work her into the story, but I did find it almost spoilerish with her at the very begining. Yuuichi's reactions were done in a cliched fashion, so as DD stated, not very plausible and to me, not funny.

Speaking of spoilers, Makoto's behavior as well as Yuuichi's forshadowing remark about her behavior seem a bit obvious to me having seen the show, but as I reflected, I realized that if I hadn't seen the show and didn't know what it all meant, it could make it a neat, "Oh wow! They were laying the groundwork even back here." Still, what Yuuichi said was just a bit to much of a, "CLUE! HERE'S A CLUE!" moment.

As to Mai, I didn't have a problem with her coughing up her secret to Yuuichi right away. But thus far, the writers have really been avoiding the supernatural elements of the original anime in how Makoto arrived and in Mai at school at night. And there has been more of a push to include more cliched elements in, such as the incident at the bath. We'll see how things turn out though.

However, I have to say that I did enjoy this episode and am looking forward to next week.



Stretch:
I'm pleasantly surprised how hilarious this show continues to be, even five episodes into it. The synchronization of the audio and video in my SS-Eclipse fansub was slightly off, which made it obvious how important timing is, especially in regards to the clever, cutting remarks Yuuichi tends to make. Kanon is definitely the show with the most witty writing of this season. The incident with the curtains gave me a genuine scare at one point. My favorite line: "I feel it's a big deal that I made her say tako-san sausage".


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