I finally found an episode that really seemed to work.  Yes, Keiichi and Belldandy are nauseatingly sweet, but at least there was some actual direction involved.

This episode had an honest to goodness plot!  And it was actually a somewhat interesting one!  Granted, it was just a race, but it was fun watching everyone work together to get to the final goal.  Plus, we finally get to see a bit of the Belldandy spark that’s been so sorely lacking in the animation.  She comes off so sweet but spunky in the manga, but in the anime she’s just kind of vapid.  While she didn’t gain any intelligence, she did grow a bit of a spine, as did Keiichi.  I can appreciate that.

The “villains” continue to be flat and annoying.  While the guy (I can’t even remember his name, he’s so bland) was pretty annoying in the manga as well, Mishima’s lost something in the transition, which is a shame.  She’s more enjoyable in the manga, and I can’t quite put my finger on why.

Still, everything worked together fairly well overall.  I also can’t decide if Touma Yumi’s starting to transition better into the role of Urd or if I’m just getting used to her voice as Urd.  Either way, it’s a great improvement.  Inoue’s rendition of Belldandy still isn’t quite working for me though.  Still a bit too forced in parts, but I’m slowly getting used to it.  I swear she’s doing the character different from the OAV…I should watch it again sometime soon just to satisfy my curiosity.

Not looking forward to the next episode, but at least I’m not dreading it either!

I had originally planned on really trying to give this episode a chance.  I’ve been harsh about this series.  Unfortunately, that plan had to go unused, because this episode was just a mismash of complete incoherence.

There was no lead in, no build up.  Just suddenly, girls in bikinis on stage trying to upstage each other.  Sudden party.  Near accident. And then two people who presumably do not need to do such things themselves spend the rest of the episode stalking Belldandy and Keiichi.  At least hire on professionals if you’re that damn rich and so bumbling.

Honestly, this doesn’t even feel like anime.  It feels so much like an American cartoon–and not one of the good ones (and I’m not knocking American cartoons here, I love my share of them, but it felt like it was trying for that sort of humor and failing badly.)  Usually the episodes at least have a flow (tedious as I often find it), but this one was completely disjointed, jumping from one unfunny gag to the next.  Urd falls asleep to enka!  Urd can do amazing things with whips!  Mishima tortures Keiichi with snails and model cars!  Belldandy talks to animals! The rich dude sings karaoke and hangs out with bondage-looking folks! Dack Daniels!

…huh?

It’s taken me a month to work up the will to stomach another episode of this.  Alas, Urd did nothing for the series.

First off, I was struck by how much Keiichi and Belldandy suck the energy out of a scene.  Peppy opening number, which while I might not like, it’s still got some energy.  Then Keiichi and Belldandy are shown and I feel like my soul dies a little of sheer boredom.  Their seiyuu are 100% phoning this in–as are the writers and artists.

Urd…ugh.  I suppose she does help.  At least it breaks up the utter monotone of scenes involving Keiichi and Belldandy, but still.  I’m rather fond of Touma Yumi in general, but she’s really not right for the role (or at the very least is using the wrong voice for it).  Instead of sultry siren the voice is that of a matronly mother.  It doesn’t have any sort of sexiness to it at all, which makes it feel very disconnected from the character being shown with the (too much) cleavage and hairbrained schemes.

Also, what was up with the random acts of violence?  She’s not even a fun psycho in the anime, just just psycho.

I don’t think I’ll be watching the second season of this series, not with how much I’m disliking the first one.  It’s possible Skuld might save the day when she’s finally introduced, but at this point I’m really not holding my breath.  I realize I’m being very, very negative, but really, this is just so bland and lacks any of the charm of the manga.

(And I swear, if I hear “Keiichi-san” one more time, I’ll scream.  That’s all she ever says!)

It’s been entirely too long since I last watched an episode of this series.  Episode 52 was a great one to pick it up with though.  Kyoko at her finest.  Then again, when is Kyoko not at her finest?

I can’t help but gush over Kyoko’s character.  There is just so much depth there, and unless something goes terribly wrong between now and episode 96, I have a feeling she’ll find her way into my top five favorite anime characters ever.  Her devotion, her spark, her fieriness, her kindess, her intelligence, her quirks, all of them come together to create a character that I absolutely adore.  The Mythical Husband doesn’t watch Maison Ikkoku with me much, but he too shares my feelings about Kyoko just from what he has seen.  We spent a solid 30 minutes discussing her at the end of this episode.  It’s just so difficult to stop once we start going about her.  Such a marvelous job with her.

The episode was poignant and memorable, with Kyoko dealing with her changing feelings towards her past life.  It’s so realistically portrayed, her agony over what is essentially the act of moving on.  It’s so hard to be the survivor, because you feel like you’re never allowed to stop grieving.  Her steady transition and her realizations have been done perfectly.

I also liked how concerned everyone was for her.  Granted, it was because Yotsuya intentionally led them astray, but still, they all really were worried about her.  Good to see.

All in all, a great episode.  I’m a little concerned about the next disc, given what I’ve read from the back of the case, but hopefully it’ll still be enjoyable.

I’m going to slightly alter what my husband said to me while I was watching this episode to make it a bit less tacky.  Belldandy has gone beyond vapid to the point where I’m beginning to wonder if she isn’t mentally handicapped.  It’s not cute.  It’s not even funny.  It’s just painful to watch her act so stupidly–particularly when she’s perfectly capable in most other settings.  Naivity can be a very fun characteristic to work with, but when taken too far, it just piles on the misery.

Next episode will bring in Skuld and Urd, but I have little hope.  I’m not sure even Hisakawa can rescue this train wreck.

Oh, and why is the art and animation so cheap and ugly?  It’s not that old of a show, given the manga’s popularity, surely that had something of a budget to work with. Right? I guess not…

I am six episodes into the series now.  Does it ever get good?

Let’s start with the music, shall we?  Boring.  Really, truly boring.  It’s so incredibly generic, and so ill-fitting for a series based on a manga that’s been running for ages and is a hit.  Shouldn’t they have put some effort into it, rather than just turning it into a snooze fest?

The voice acting? No effort.  Kikuchi Masami’s performance as Keiichi sounds like he has a perpetually stuffed up nose and makes my ears bleed.  Fuchizaki Yuriko’s performance as Megumi is nearly as bad–and the voice the seiyuu is using does not at all match her character.  Even the goddess of seiyuu herself, Inoue Kikuko, seems to be just phoning in her lines.  I do not recall such poor performances in the OAV and movie…

The characters? It’s like the best parts of them from the manga were specifically removed to make this the dullest series possible.  Usually I’d be eagerly awaiting Hisakawa Aya’s first appearance as Skuld (outside of the first episode’s narration), but now I’m a little afraid.  What if even Aya can’t give this series a spark?  Then what?

I’m going to give it time, and I’ll finish it, of course, but damn, trudging through episode after cloying episode is just draining.  Watching this series feels more like work than my actual job.

I finished watching Kanon last night.  My initial reaction was that the ending was a cop-out.  However, after mulling it over for just a few minutes, my opinion began to change.

But I shouldn’t get ahead of myself.  Rather than worrying about the ending, what about the show as a whole?  Throughout the entire series I was decidedly underwhelmed by the music.  Given that music is a bit part of my viewing experience, this was quite the disappointment.  Some pieces were nice, but most were mediocre or worse.  A bit of a disappointment.

The art I liked overall.  Okay, I hated everyone’s eyes, they just didn’t fit in with the rest of their character designs and were on the whole entirely too disturbing.  However, I did like some of the character designs extremely well, most notably Shiori.  The others look like they were plucked from anime (which in this case really wasn’t too much of a negative), but Shiori almost looked like they cross the artstyle of the other characters with a bit of Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena.  There was just something that popped about her design, and I really liked.

The characters were remarkably enjoyable.  I never did like Makoto, and the story surrounding Kaori knocked her down a few notches for me, but the rest were oft-stereotypical but also always enjoyable.  Ayu managed to avoid saying “uguu” just too many times (she actually stops entirely for a few episodes), which gave her just the right amount of cute and hapless without being totally saccharine.  Nayuki cracked me up with her sleepiness.  Shiori was intriguing, and I loved her voice (and character design as mentioned above).  Mai I enjoyed, and I also liked her friend whose name I always forget.  Kitagawa was annoying, but his heart was always in the right place.

And then there was Yuichi.  Without him, this series would not have worked at all.  It’s so nice to have a male character in an anime that not only is nice, but also has a bit of a backbone.  Perhaps he’s too perfect, but then again, so is my husband so it was believable to me.  Between the excellent acting on the part of his seiyuu and just a good overall character concept, he kept me watching even when the girls’ stories got a little too tiring.

Really my biggest beef with the series is how much it felt like I was watching a game.  The way the girls were written out of the story when their arc was done was almost a bit insulting to me as a viewer as well as the characters.  That, and they did rather cop out with Shiori… (I won’t say anthing more about that.  I’m somewhat glad what happened happened, but I think I would have been more pleased if it went a different way.)  I don’t see why they had to completely get rid of characters when they were no longer important.  Couldn’t they have at least still hung around out of the way?  Nayuki was around the entire time without being problematic, why not Mai and her friend?

The ending left me with some mixed feelings.  In some ways, I wish the series had ended with the 23rd episode.  Bittersweet, but rather fitting.  However, I was always a fan of the final pairing, so I’m also quite glad it turned out as it did (and it was actually something I expected, too.)  The final episode was a bit too much of it (I think 23 & 24 could have been combined), but still, it was a nice ending to the series.  I might not be perfectly thrilled with it, but I’m not sure if I could have been either way.

Overall, I did thoroughly enjoy the series.  It’s a great guilty-pleasure anime when you’re in the mood for a bit of cute girls in a dramedy.  There’s plenty to giggle at, there are plenty of moments to reach for the tissues, and while the execution is sometimes an issue, it works well enough to keep the show moving forward and the viewer engaged.

I’ll admit, I didn’t particularly enjoy the end of the Mai arc.  It felt very forced and out of place.  Shiori’s arc, on the other hand…

Still had plenty of forced parts, such as Kaori’s stubbornness.  I can see her refusing to spend time with her, but the whole, “I don’t have a sister,” bit was a bit too much.

Shiori was a great character.  I’m guessing at this point she’s dead, although I won’t know for certain until I watch episode 19 (which will likely be tomorrow night.)  I loved how she was so upbeat and yet so realistic at the same time.  “They’re called miracles because they don’t happen.”  I also liked how she would skirt any issue she chose not to discuss, such as exactly what disease she had.  Now granted, I think that could be chalked up to Key not feeling like giving the disease a name, but her “forgetting” it made it seem more like she didn’t want to tell.

For a random Ayu moment, for some reason her headband is very special to her, as mentioned in episode 17.  Something to keep in mind for the future.

Anyway, her story is probably over.  She said goodbye, after all (I loved her method of doing so), and I doubt they’ll keep her around.  They aren’t keeping anyone around.  That’s my biggest beef with the series, the use ‘em and lose ‘em attitude.  Why can’t Mai still be around for lunch?  Killing off Makoto worked well (and is expected for Shiori), but randomly writing out Mai and her friend was just lame.  Will Kaori receive the exact same treatment as well?  It’s a major flaw in the series, and hurts my overall appreciation because it exacerbates the feeling of watching a game rather than an anime.  I hope Clannad will not have this same fault.  I still am really enjoying Kanon, there are just things I wish could be changed.

I wonder if I should watch the other version of Kanon someday once I finish up this version.  I’ve heard it’s not very good, but I can’t help but be curious.

Heading into the aftermath of the ball.

Kitagawa can be a total goof and is pretty annoying, but you can’t deny that he’s a nice person.  He comes to Mai’s rescue by collaborating with Yuichi’s story that Mai’s sword incident was actually a dance that was scheduled to occur.  Which is a totally lame excuse, but since it was corroborated by Kitagawa (who comes up withs ome pretty lame ideas himself), it was believed.

Still a little bit going on with Shiori and Kaori.  Shiori does not deny having an older sister named Kaori, but then she does something interesting.  She appears to protect Kaori (and herself) by saying there are actually two 3rd years named Misaka Kaori.  It was an interesting protection, keeping herself from hurting over Kaori’s denial of her, and protecting Kaori from any anger Yuichi might have over her denial of her little sister.  Curious to see where this is going.

Mai’s “wan” and “moo” were amusing.  I also liked that she wouldn’t tell Ayu where to find what she was missing (nor what it was.)  Mai understands the importance of keeping much of her knowledge to herself.  If she made it easy for everyone, no one would ever have to struggle and grow.

We get to learn Mai and Sayuri’s story (they met due to a stray dog), and that Mai goes to great lengths to make sure Sayuri gets a birthday present.

However, the biggest part was Yuichi finally losing it and yelling at Mai.  She told him to leave when they were fighting demons, and Yuichi laid into her since he had actually provided a bit of a hand.  I like that he’s not in the least bit concerned about making his feelings of caring for people known.  His speech was something that you’d expect to come from a shoujo heroine, not the male protagonist of a dating sim anime.  Kind of refreshing, really.

Mai doesn’t change her behavior though–I like that her response is not to argue when he shows back up the next night.  That’s her form of acceptance, I think.  “Yuichi, who are you?” is making me want to get straight to the next episode too.  Shame I have to fold laundry first.

So we’re heading into the Mai arc, but continuing to add in select moments from Ayu’s life, and Shiori’s also still kicking around.

Ayu is an interesting character, and seems to hold the key to most of Yuichi’s forgotten memories.  Yes, Makoto sparked some, but those were only Makoto-related ones.  Ayu, on the other hand, seems to be reminding him of his life there in general, with her and with Nayuki (poor girl keeps getting left places.)  They were a cute ‘couple’ as kids, I’ll be interested to see if they continue for a more romantic line, or if perhaps one of the other girls will end up with his heart.

Shiori’s last name is found out to be Misaka, but Kaori denies any knowledge of her.  I’m curious to see just what’s going on there.  Has Kaori tried to break away from her as a protection from the pain of an ill sister?  Is Shiori even alive in the first place now?

The ball allows us to see Mai all dressed up.  The choice of pink seems a bit odd, but she looks quite pretty.  How Utena.  Dancing to Sleeping Beauty’s “Once Upon a Dream” (or whatever it’s actually titled) was an interesting touch.

Sayuri suggests that she, Mai, and Yuichi all share the same type of burden.  I hope we’ll get to delve deeper into Sayuri’s mindset and life as well as Mai’s.

The battle scene was pretty cool.  It would have been better if Sayuri had been slightly more injured though.  If she’d stayed unconcious or something…just a touch more dramatic, perhaps.  Then again, I like having characters I like get seriously injured or wounded.  I wonder if there’s a term for that?

Anyway, I’m very glad I’ve already got volume 4, because I think I’m going to have to keep plowing through so I can find out what happens next.  I am thoroughly enjoying this series.  That wasn’t expected…