Kanon (2006) - 06: Divertimento Filled With Mystery

Divertimento (italian for "enjoyment") - a music genre, with most of its examples stemming from the 18th century (Haydn, Mozart). The mood of the divertimento is most often lighthearted (as a result of being played at social functions) and it is generally composed for a small ensemble.

We start by seeing a flashback to 10-years ago with Ayu sitting on the bench in the Square waiting for Yuuichi. After eating Taiyuki, Ayu reveals the loss of her mother, which prompts Yuuichi to yubikiri again to meet her on the following day.

Present day, Makoto again attempts to get her revenge on Yuuichi by dropping fireworks in his room. The next morning (Sunday), Ayu again comes by for breakfast and invites Yuuichi to go to a movie with her. After some teasing, he agrees. Yuuichi then attempts to convince Makoto to get a job so that she can buy all the manga and pork buns she wants. He believes that it may help with her memory loss, though his aunt isn't so sure. After escorting Makoto part-way to her job interview, he then visits the school where he finds Shiori waiting. She has no explaination as to why she continues to come to the school day after day.

Yuuichi is then slightly late for his date with Ayu, mimicking the flashback event from 10-years ago. Ayu reveals she hasn't seen to many movies, and the (apparent) only movie playing is a horror one. Yuuichi is bored and mostly teases Ayu, who refuses to watch anything. They go for coffee (or something like that) afterward where Yuuichi teases Ayu some more.

Returning home, Yuuichi learns that Makoto fell asleep during her interview. Akiko-san makes a call to a friend and gets Makoto a job, though Makoto doesn't seem to enthused about it.

After killing some time, Yuuichi returns to the school with some food for Mai. He hears the crash of desks and finds Makoto with her sword in a trashed classroom. She tells him that he need not bother about her for a while as he needs to be there for Makoto, as Makoto will apparently be needing him. Returning home, he finds that Makoto has tried once again to get her revenge by filling the bath with miso soup.

AstroNerdBoy (13 Nov 2006):

While I enjoyed this for the most part, this episode really didn't do much to advance the plot of any of the girl's stories. Mai again advises Yuuichi to be there for Makoto because she feels Makoto will need him. OK, she did that last episode and we are repeating ourselves. Makoto, on the other hand, continues to try to pull pranks on Yuuichi. For me, this is starting to get old because beyond Mai's caution, there's no progress on advancing Makoto's storyline.

Speaking of no progress and repeating themselves, Nayuki's continued running gag about being so sleepy is starting to get old. Yeah, I know that's who she is and she wouldn't change overnight, but because there were no advancements in other places, this becomes a bit troublesome.

Yuuichi finding Shiori is a clue, which will be noted by those who saw the original series. But beyond the clues, her appearance was merely a, "I'm here" moment.

Finally, there's Ayu. As before, we get a flashback to her and Yuuichi from 10-years before and again, Yuuichi ends up duplicating events of the past, this time by being late in meeting Ayu. While its not much, we do get a bit more progress in Ayu's story (easier to spot if you've seen the original series), it wasn't much. Akiko-san again seems to know more of what's going on with Ayu, but again, we are repeating ourselves. While it was nice that Ayu and Yuuichi went on a date, his "mean oniichan" routine is getting old to me.

Ultimately, the problem with this episode is that we recover a lot of ground that previous episodes have already touched. I hope that next week we get actual progress.

[Devil Doll, 2006-11-14, I didn't read ANB's part before writing this one]
There's almost no progress storywise. This is what I was expecting from this remake: A bit more depth of the characters, and more side story elements. Unfortunately they aren't leading anywhere, such as Makoto's job interview.
Makoto has become the center of the events for now, and the next episode will again focus on her story (but didn't Akiko intend to ask the police about Makoto? Akiko seems to know quite a lot this time, and she acts accordingly). Mai has effectively asked for a break about her issue (which I found much too explicit - there would have been more elegant ways of postponing her part of the story, which now looks as if it weren't supernatural at all), and that's a pity because Yuuichi seems to be seriously interested in her (no warning to stay away from her or huge respect for the senpai unlike in the original series, she's a real girlfriend candidate this time!). Sayuri is great as ever but I'm disappointed how weak Nayuki has become in this remake - she was the secret star of the original series (and her relation to Ayu was crucial for the outcome!) but she's almost redundant in this one so far. Kaori and her "porter" have completely vanished from the scene... the way of weaving the substories together is the main problem for the storywriters in both productions. The "homeopathic dose" of Shiori every week is a bit boring now, but we know it's just too early for any progress here. Telling the cinema episode at this point already surprised me, as it is way too early for any "date" between Yuuichi and Ayu. Shouldn't they have left this one at its original position?
By the way, the flashback sequences with young Ayu and Yuuichi make this series even more similar to Lamune. We know for a fact that the same story has to be told, yet the rearrangement of the episodes creates a bit of fog how the development will actually progress. It's almost like Aa! Megami-sama! TV in this aspect, and it gives the fans of the original something to look forward to.

Stretch:
Speaking as someone who knows very little about the original series, I thought that going to a movie was definitely the best part of this episode, but all-in-all it wasn't nearly as funny as last time. There was very little development of the demon-hunter Mai angle either, so I'm a bit disappointed. The miso soup gag seemed more weird than funny to me.

P.S: the timing of the subtitles in the SS-Eclipse fansub is still off somewhat.

My favorite line: "Hey, a body blew up" --Yuuichi