My Gundam 00 liveblog crashed and burned, but since Kanon is both more interesting, short (fifty episodes is way too many to liveblog), and ripe with Snark Bait, I think I'll give liveblogging another try. ^^;

Er, not sure if this is a necessary warning or not, but because I'm not a huge fan of moe, my thoughts on it might lean towards the negative.

Updates will come approximately whenever I feel like it usually on the weekends, though they depend heavily on schoolwork and procrastination levels.

edited 29th Sep '10 4:34:47 AM by NatTheWriter

Will this liveblog be blind, or have you already watched some episodes of the series?

I've watched three episodes, so it's only partially blind.

edited 29th Sep '10 6:30:02 AM by NatTheWriter

Damn, I watched this a long time ago expecting a cutesy moe-fest. I got exactly that with some SERIOUS Player Punches.

You've been warned.

^ Yay, tear-jerkers!

Okies. Liveblogging time.

Kanon (2006)

With the male protagonist seated inside, a train speeds through a snowy climate.

The scene cuts to him sitting on a bench in the city, shivering and muttering, "She's late." Decently timed, the aforementioned female character finally runs over to him, pushing back a strand of blue hair and commenting on the snow piled up on him. Cue a bit of you-are-late-all-the-time banter and apologies for making the poor guy wait two hours in that weather.

So! It has been seven years. Does the male protagonist remember her name, she asks? He retaliates with the same question, and the two then state each others' names: Yuuichi and Hanako. Except she isn't actually Hanako, and Yuuichi is either a forgetful fellow or a tease.

How 'bout Jirou?

...Okay, so not that either.

Yuuichi diverts from the topic in favor of grumbling about the cold and how they really ought to get going. The blue-haired girl's looking downcast when he looks back over his shoulder and adds, "Nayuki." She smiles in relief, and the two go off on their merry way.

The opening is alright.◊ Though the animation and artwork are made of pretty (albeit heavy on the shininess), the music is too slow and synthy. Pretty skippable.

Dream-musings.

I'm seeing a dream,
The dream I see every day...
The endless dream...
The red snow
The world stained in red.
The small, crying child was blocking the red sky.
I wanted to wipe away his tears, at least.
But the hands wouldn't move, and the tears trailing down the cheeks soaked into the snow, and...
All I could do was watch.
It was so painful...and so sad...
It's all right.
So, don't cry.
"It's a promise."
I wonder whose words those were.
The dream starts to fade away to a different color.
Yep...it's a promise.

Episode 1 - The Silver Overture

Yuuichi takes a moment or two to recognize his surroundings—having relocated to the snowy city and all—and exits the room to ask Nayuki what all the fuss is about, so early in the morning. She scolds him on his epic failure to say "good morning"; probably semi-sarcastically, he bows and and gives the proper greeting. That aside, she asks him if he's seen her uniform. He says that it's very likely being washed by Akiko. As Nayuki dashes down the stairs, he comments on the weirdness of the uniform's design. Having overheard his snark, Nayuki retorts a denial of said weirdness.

Weird Uniform = Found! Too bad it's a little damp. After some banter about the merits and flaws of kotatsu-heating, they discuss school—though it's still winter break, Nayuki needs to visit the club meeting, being the captain and all.

A minute or so later, she bemoans the still-damp uniform and states that, contrary to Yuuichi's suggestion, she really needs to hurry up. And hey, if she defies the laws of everything and runs at 100 m/s, she can make it on time! :3

After accepting Yuuichi's request for a tour around town, Nayuki is off. And it is now time for some heavy-duty snow-shoveling with Akiko.

Yuuichi introduces her via narration as Akiko Minase, the younger sister of his mother. He continues on with the narration back at the house, explaining how he used to visit the city often as a child. Exposition aside, Nayuki returns, wearing a grin on her face and accompanied by a peppy sound effect that sounds sort of like "BWIIIING". Whee, time for the tour.

Awkward pause. .__.;

Nayuki: What's wrong?
Yuuichi: Nothing, just thinking about how you haven't changed at all.
Nayuki: You mean I haven't matured? :<
Yuuichi: I don't know.

Meh. Time to end this awkwardness and go on the tour.

Nayuki shows Yuuichi around, introducing him to, among other things, the school that was once a field of barley. They walk away and the focus shifts to two students—Sayuri and Mai—before returning to the tour. Up at the shopping center, which Nayuki frequents, they run into her best friend, Kaori, and Kitagawa, the guy who appears to be carrying all of her stuff. Kitagawa wonders aloud if Nayuki, too, is on a date, and promptly gets an elbow to the gut, courtesy of Kaori. Who then snaps that they themselves aren't dating, and she just happened to run into him.

And make him carry her stuff. >_>

Meanwhile, Nayuki introduces her cousin Yuuichi, and Kitagawa is introduced as the porter, courtesy of Yuuichi. A few minutes of Butt-Monkey antics go by, and the pair departs.

Ooh. Ominous flashing memories of ominous trees.◊

Next scene, Nayuki and Yuuichi stand atop a hill. Nayuki muses about how it hasn't changed one bit. Unfortunately, due to what's probably some form of amnesia, Yuuichi can't share the nostalgia. She reassures him that he'll remember it all eventually and goes on to express her love for the city—

waitwaitwait

Fluffy fox. =D Maybe it's friendly!

Aww. It fled. It did not want a hug from Nayuki. As Yuuichi points out, it's a wild fox, and wild foxes generally do not appreciate human hugs. Nayuki protests that the foxes on this hill are special. They even have a legend surrounding them—therefore, their specialness is undeniable.

...wait. You forgot, Nayuki?

Darnit. :&lt;

In need of food for dinner, Nayuki goes to the supermarket. She lets Yuuichi stay outside as he wants, albeit reluctantly. With a few glances about the area, Yuuichi wonders about seven years ago.

Suddenly, uguu~!

With tears in her huge, widely-spaced brown eyes, the little girl sits up and moans, "That hurt." Yuuichi sends his apologies, commenting that she was running so darn fast that he just couldn't get out of the way in time.

Uguu~, she whines. She's really not that fast of a runner.

Running and abundance of uguu~s aside, there's no time to chat. The girl grabs his wrist and dashes off, dragging him behind her as she runs around town. Finally making it to a café, she takes a seat and sighs—"We should be fine if we've come this far." With Pachelbel's Canon playing in the background, she confesses that she's being chased, and Yuuichi, too, is in danger. At the sight of someone outside, she ducks her head.

Yuuichi: You're being chased by him?
Girl: Yes.
Yuuichi: Is it related to that paper bag?
Girl: N-N-Not at all!
Yuuichi: (sigh) He looks like a really generous old man.
Girl: You can't judge people by how they look.
Yuuichi: Why does he have an apron on?
Girl: Probably...because he runs a taiyaki shop.
Yuuichi: Why would a person running a taiyaki shop come chasing after you?

Good question. o-o; Well, the girl explains. She's always loved that taiyaki shop, but tragedy struck at her last order: no wallet.  ^*

Yuuichi points out that she's the one in the wrong. Kicking her legs under the table and sobbing another uguu~, she protests that she had other reasons for it. The two go back and forth with Yuuichi asking her to spit it out and her saying that it's a long, complicated story with lots of plot twists, fanservice, drama, religious symbolism and giant robots. Finally, she explains.

She's hungry.

Not sold on her compelling story, Yuuichi drags her back to the taiyaki shop. The little girl wails another uguu~, insisting that she'll pay him back tomorrow. Insisting that tomorrow's too late, Yuuichi continues to drag her along. He'll pay for the taiyaki, in any case. She just needs to apologize.

Aaaand all is forgiven.

Now, munching on taiyaki and gushing over its sheer yumminess, she gets informed by Yuuichi that eating all that shall make her pudgy. She retorts that she doesn't care, so he asks her to prove she can eat it all. She uguu~s, he uguu~s back. She uguu~s yet again at his plagiaruguu~. ...Okay, the uguu~war was fun, but this is getting really annoying. =_=

So, how 'bout those winged backpacks?

The girl is confuzzled. What wings? She spins around a few times in search of said wings, uguu~ing over how she can't see them.

Yuuichi: Just moving your neck would be enough.

Noticing the wings, she smiles and takes note of their cuteness. Shortly after, Yuuichi points out that she is a weird girl.

Uguu~. D:< She takes offense to that statement!

Welp, time to depart. The girl introduces herself as Ayu Tsukimiya. She expresses surprise when he introduces himself, but shrugs it off, calling it nothing.  ^*

...Nayuki's still at the supermarket, isn't she. .___.;

He sprints over and finds her with a bag of groceries on her lap. Bitter, she looks away and calls him a liar. Fast forward to the evening, at which point she's still giving him the cold shoulder, disregarding his apologies. However—likely spurred by her mother's simple "no fighting"—remark, she smiles and forgives him, seeing as she was late yesterday. And now they're even.

Seeing as there are still plenty of boxes to unpack and school commences tomorrow, Nayuki offers Yuuichi to take one of her alarm clocks.

...That is a crazy collection of alarm clocks.◊ O_O; It would suck if they were all to go off at once. Anywho, Nayuki gives him the pink kitty alarm clock and he heads off to bed.

Right as I drift off to sleep, a figure of a girl comes to mind. Without figuring out who it is, I fall asleep.

Meaningful childhood flashback time!

The scene plays out nearly identically to its teenage counterpart, including Nayuki's trip to the supermarket (one piece of dialogue there is copied word for word) and a familiar moeblob crashing into Yuuichi with a resounding uguu~. She is a sad, sad moepanda. As she sniffs and cries, Yuuichi introduces himself and decides to ask her name. She sobs out an "Ayu", and upon being asked for her last name, she sobs out another.

The crowd of adults catches sight of the crying Ayu and somewhat confused Yuuichi, pondering if he's bullying her, and Yuuichi decides they should probably get out of there.

Yuuichi: Let's go, Ayu-Ayu!
Ayu: Uguu~...I'm not Ayu-Ayu!

And so they run off.

Some thoughts:

The animation is excellent. Looking at Kanon 2002 right after this is...euh. It's like eating burned sugar cookies after having a plate of amazing pie. x_x Good thing Kyo Ani redid it.

I checked out the dub and while it's good, Ayu sounds too bratty and Nayuki, though more natural, IMO, a little too deep. It contrasts awkwardly with the moe-moe. On the other hand, going back to the sub after listening to the dub makes the voices sound painfully shrill, so...not quite sure which one to go for.

How old is Ayu? She looks and acts eleven. Maybe younger.

End Note

I had taiyaki once. It tasted like waffles. Really yummy. @_@

Anywho. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, since it helps to know what I'm doing wrong. Humor is my weak point and really can't be helped, so please give feedback on pacing, what to keep in and what to leave out, spelling/grammar/awkwardly-phrased sentences, needs moar potholes, needs less potholes, etc.

edited 3rd Oct '10 8:06:15 AM by NatTheWriter

Well, seeing as it seems you're trying for a humorous blog, rather than an analytical one, it was OK. It's pretty streamlined, and easy to read, but it was a tad too lengthy and the red potholes felt a bit superfluous.

In any case, good job.

You're right about the potholes being unnecessary. I won't use them in future entries.

I'm not going for humor—it really is my weak point. At most, there will be some snark. I'd like to take the analytic route, though admittedly I'm not entirely sure how to combine analysis with a recap. Something to work on. (I should take a look at the other liveblogs and see what the more analytical ones are like...)

Thanks for the feedback.