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| Kanon | |
|---|---|
 Cover featuring heroineAyu Tsukimiya | |
| Developer | Key |
| Publishers |
|
| Director | Naoki Hisaya |
| Artist | Itaru Hinoue |
| Writers |
|
| Composers |
|
| Platforms | Microsoft Windows,Dreamcast,PlayStation 2,SoftBank 3G,Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access,PlayStation Portable,Android,Blu-ray Disc,iOS,Nintendo Switch |
| Release | |
| Genres | |
| Mode | Single-player |
Kanon is a Japanesevisual novel developed byKey, a brand ofVisual Arts. It was released on June 4, 1999, forWindows as anadult game. Key later released versions ofKanon without the erotic content, and the game wasported to theDreamcast,PlayStation 2,PlayStation Portable andNintendo Switch. The story follows the life of Yuichi Aizawa, a high school student who returns to a city he last visited seven years prior, and he has little recollection of the events from back then. He meets several girls and slowly regains his lost memories. Thegameplay inKanon follows abranching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the five female main characters by theplayer character. The game once ranked as the second best-selling PC game sold in Japan, and charted in the national top 50 several more times afterwards.Kanon has sold over 300,000 units across several platforms.
Following the game's release,Kanon made several transitions into other media. Twomanga series were serialized inDengeki Daioh andDragon Age Pure.Comic anthologies,light novels andart books were also published, as wereaudio dramas and several music albums.Toei Animation produced a 13-episode anime television series in 2002 and anoriginal video animation (OVA) episode in 2003.Kyoto Animation produced a 24-episode anime series in 2006. The 2006 anime was licensed and dubbed in English byADV Films in 2008, but the license was given toFunimation after ADV's closure. The 2006 anime plays on the association betweenKanon and the musical termcanon by usingPachelbel'sKanon D-dur, orCanon in D major, as a background piece at certain instances throughout the series.
Kanon is aromancevisual novel in which the player assumes the role of Yuichi Aizawa.[1] Much of itsgameplay is spent on reading the story'snarrative anddialogue.Kanon follows abranching plot line with multiple endings, and depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction.[2]
There are five main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, and text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose different choices to further the plot to an alternate direction.[1] After Mai's scenario is completed, a replay of her route will offer an additional choice to play through Sayuri'sback-story.Jun Maeda, who worked on the scenario forKanon, commented in March 2001 that the Japanese public may have fallen under the impression that Key makes soothing games because ofKanon's influence, but Maeda affirmed that there was not one person who worked onKanon who thought that.[3]
In theadult versions of the game, there are scenes with sexualCGs depicting Yuichi and a given heroine having sex.[1][4] Later, Key released versions ofKanon without the erotic content. The versions that include the adult content have one explicit sex scene in each of the five main story routes, in addition to one fantasy scene.[1] Outside of these, there are two scenes withnudity.[1]Yūichi Suzumoto, a scenario writer who worked on later Key titles, commented that the sex scenes inKanon are very self-contained, and can be easily removed without altering the story.[3] Maeda remarked that the sex scenes were not written withreproduction in mind.[3]
There are several important locations featured in theKanon story, though the location names are seldom mentioned explicitly in Key's works. The events of the story occur during winter, and since it often snows periodically over the course of the entire story, the city is always presented covered in a layer of snow. Theshopping district is featured throughout the story when the characters go into town, and especially whenever Ayu appears in the early story. The high school where Yuichi and the other main characters attend, including the school grounds, is shown predominantly in Shiori's and Mai's stories, and is otherwise a general setting where Yuichi interacts with other characters.[1]
There are recurring themes that appear throughout the story. A music theme is present, as the episode titles from the 2006–2007 anime have parts in their titles related to music, such asoverture andintroit.Miracles play a large part in the story;Kanon's plot line and characters are influenced by various instances where miracles occur.[5] The act of promising and keeping promises is found throughout the story.[6] Yuichi eventually makes important promises to the five main girls while at the same time fulfilling past promises he had made with four of them when he used to visit the city as a kid.[1]
One of themotifs in the story isamnesia, or memory loss; three of the main characters—Yuichi, Ayu and Makoto—suffer from amnesia in varying degrees; this is used as a plot device to advance the story.[1] Another motif deals with the favorite foods of the five main heroines.Newtype USA stated in an article onKanon that "it's when the characters are eating something really tasty that they seem most beautiful and alive", despite the somber setting and overall tone of the series.[7] These five foods of choice are:taiyaki (Ayu), strawberries (Nayuki),nikuman (Makoto), ice cream (Shiori), andgyudon (Mai).[1]
The player controls Yuichi Aizawa, the game's protagonist and a cynical 17-year-old high school student. He is known to play jokes on the girls his age he knows and interacts with throughout the story. Despite this, Yuichi is very loyal and will go to great lengths to please others, even at the expense of his own time and money. He generally has a selfless personality and does not ask much from others in return for what he does for them. Ayu Tsukimiya, the game's main heroine, is a short, strange, and mysterious girl immediately recognizable by her winged backpack, red hair band, and tendency to refer to herself with themasculine first-person pronounboku (僕). She has a fondness for eatingtaiyaki, and is notorious for her nonsensecatchphrase, "ugū" (うぐぅ), which she mutters as an expression of various negative emotions such as frustration, pain, and fear. Yuichi's first cousin Nayuki Minase, another of the game's heroines, has been in love with him since childhood, and must learn how to deal with her feelings, especially with the threat that he may fall in love with one of the other girls. Nayuki talks noticeably slower than those around her, and has constant trouble waking up in the morning except on a few occasions when she is up before Yuichi, much to his surprise.[1]
Yuichi is accosted a few days after arriving in the city by the third heroine Makoto Sawatari, a youngamnesiac girl. Despite this, she is sure that she holds a grudge against Yuichi from when he last visited the city. Makoto has a mischievous side and constantly plays pranks on Yuichi. She has an affinity towards the spring and once wished that it would stay spring forever.[8] Yuichi coincidentally meets Shiori Misaka, another heroine and first-year high school student suffering from an unexplained illness since birth. Her affliction has caused her to become very physically weak, and she is almost always absent from school because of it. She tries to be strong in the face of her condition, and gets along well with others, even though she does not know very many people her age due to her condition. The fifth and final heroine of the game is Mai Kawasumi, a third-year student of the same high school that Yuichi attends. She has a cold attitude towards almost everyone, but despite this, she is actually a very kind and caring person; she "punishes" someone who makes a playful joke about her by giving them a lightkarate chop to the head.[1]
Kanon's story revolves around a group of five girls whose lives are connected to the same boy. Yuichi Aizawa is a second-year high school student who had visited the city where the story takes place seven years prior toKanon's beginning. The story opens on Wednesday January 6, 1999[1] when Yuichi arrives in the city and is very detached from it and its inhabitants. Prior to his return, it is decided that he is to stay with his first cousin, Nayuki Minase, and her mother, Akiko. After his long absence, Yuichi has forgotten almost everything except minor details of what happened seven years before and is in need of being reminded of what he left behind. Nayuki initially tries repeatedly to jog his memory, but is unsuccessful. Throughout the story, as he learns about the supernatural undertones of the city, Yuichi is reminded of the events of seven years ago.
On the day after Yuichi's return, he is out with Nayuki who is showing him around the city. Nayuki remembers that she has to buy things for dinner, but Yuichi is reluctant to go into the store with her. Moments after Nayuki leaves him waiting on the sidewalk, a strange girl named Ayu Tsukimiya collides with him with little warning. Upon recovering, she drags him away to a nearby café and confesses to inadvertently stealing a bag filled withtaiyaki after being accidentally scared away by the salesman before she had a chance to pay. They decide to meet up again another day and Ayu scampers off. A few days after he has been in the city, Yuichi is accosted by a girl named Makoto Sawatari who haslost her memories, though still remembers that she has a grudge against him from when he last visited the city. After she collapses in the street, he takes her home and learns about her situation. Akiko gives her permission to live with them for the time being, which is against Yuichi's plan to hand her over to the police.
Another girl who is connected to Yuichi's past is Mai Kawasumi who attends his high school as a third-year. She takes it upon herself to fight and defeatdemons at night while the school is deserted.[9] Due to this, she is constantly blamed for accidents because she never denies them, being too sincere to say anything and knowing that no one will believe that there are demons in the school. Yuichi coincidentally meets a fifth girl named Shiori Misaka who he gets to know along with the other four heroines in the story. She has suffered from an unexplained affliction since birth which makes her weak to the point of missing school because of it. Yuichi starts to talk with her more after noticing her in the school courtyard one day. It turns out that Shiori stands outside on the school grounds nearly every day because she wants to meet someone dear to her.
Most ofKanon's development staff originally worked for the visual novel publisherNexton under the brandTactics. After the release of the brand's third gameOne: Kagayaku Kisetsu e, most of Tactics' staff left Nexton to pursue work in another publishing company where they could have the freedom to produce their next game.[10] Itaru Hinoue, who had previously worked atVisual Arts once before, introduced Key's founding members to the president of Visual Arts, Takahiro Baba.[10] Baba gave the developers the freedom they desired, and they officially transferred to Visual Arts where they formed Key on July 21, 1998, and started production onKanon.[10] The planning for the visual novel was headed byNaoki Hisaya who was also one of two scenario writers withJun Maeda.[11] Hisaya wrote the scenarios for Ayu, Nayuki and Shiori, while Maeda wrote the routes for Makoto and Mai. Art direction was headed by Key's artistItaru Hinoue who worked on the character design and computer graphics.[11] Further computer graphics were split between three people—Dinn, Miracle Mikipon, Shinory—and background art was provided by Torino. The music in the game wascomposed byOdiakeS,Shinji Orito and Jun Maeda.[1]Kanon was the first and last visual novel developed by Key that two of the main staff—Naoki Hisaya, and OdiakeS—worked on before pursuing a similar line of work in other visual novel studios.[12][13]
Kanon was released as anadult game on June 4, 1999, in limited and regular editions, playable on aWindowsPC as aCD-ROM.[4] The limited edition came bundled with theremix albumAnemoscope remixing background music tracks featured in the visual novel.[14] Key released an all ages version on January 7, 2000, for Windows.[4] An updated adult version called theKanon Standard Edition was released on November 26, 2004, with added support forWindows 2000/XP as aDVD-ROM.[15] TheStandard Edition incorporates the extra graphics added to the earlier all ages version of the game, and other technical changes such as more save slots. An all ages version of theStandard Edition was released on January 28, 2005.[4] An updated all ages version ofKanon compatible forWindows Vista PCs was released by Key on July 31, 2009, in a box set containing five other Key visual novels called Key 10th Memorial Box.[16] Another all ages updated version compatible forWindows 7 PCs calledKanon Memorial Edition was released on April 30, 2010.[17]
The first consumer consoleport of the game was released for theDreamcast on September 14, 2000, byNEC Interchannel.[18][19] APlayStation 2 (PS2) version was released on February 28, 2002, also by NEC Interechannel.[20] The PS2 version was re-released as a "Best" version on December 22, 2004.[21][22] The PS2 version was bundled in a "Key 3-Part Work Premium Box" package together with the PS2 versions ofAir andClannad released on July 30, 2009.[23] An adult version playable as aBlu-ray Disc was released on December 16, 2011, by Asoberu! BD-Game, a brand of Visual Arts.[24]
Prototype throughVisualArt's Motto released a version playable onSoftBank 3G mobile phones on October 27, 2006,[25] and another version playable onFOMA mobile phones in December 2006.[26] APlayStation Portable (PSP) version of the game was released in Japan on February 15, 2007, byPrototype. The first release of the PSP version came with a special DVD featuring a message from five of the voice actors and a recompiled opening video from the video game version.[2] The five voice actors on the DVD included:Mariko Kōda as Nayuki Minase,Akemi Satō as Shiori Misaka,Mayumi Iizuka as Makoto Sawatari,Yūko Minaguchi as Akiko Minase, andTomokazu Sugita as Yuichi Aizawa.Yui Horie as Ayu Tsukimiya voiced the short introduction of the DVD, but was not featured in the contents of the DVD itself. A downloadable version of the PSP release via thePlayStation Store was released by Prototype on November 9, 2009.[2] A version playable onAndroid devices was released on November 30, 2011.[27][28] An adult version for Android devices was released in January 2013.[29][30][31] A version playable oniOS devices was released on April 4, 2013.[32] In the original release, there was no voice acting for the characters, but in the later versions produced for the Dreamcast and PS2, full voice acting was included. The only exception was Yuichi, who was not voiced in either version. However, the PSP release features voice acting for Yuichi, provided byTomokazu Sugita.[33] Prototype released aNintendo Switch version in Japan on April 20, 2023.[34]
Visual Arts and Prototype announced a Windows release forKanon distributed viaSteam with English, Japanese and Simplified Chinese language support,[35] which released on June 20, 2024.[36] It was released on Nintendo Switch on February 14, 2025.[37]
| Kanon | |
| Genre | Drama,supernatural[38] |
|---|---|
| Light novel | |
| Written by | Mariko Shimizu |
| Illustrated by | Itaru Hinoue |
| Published by | Paradigm |
| Original run | October 23, 1999 –August 1, 2000 |
| Volumes | 5 |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Key |
| Illustrated by | Petit Morishima |
| Published by | MediaWorks |
| Magazine | Dengeki Daioh |
| Original run | February 2000 –July 2002 |
| Volumes | 2 |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Naoyuki Itō |
| Produced by | Mamoru Yokota |
| Written by | Makoto Nakamura Ryōta Yamaguchi |
| Music by | Hiroyuki Kouzu |
| Studio | Toei Animation |
| Original network | Fuji TV,Kansai TV |
| Original run | January 31, 2002 – March 28, 2002 |
| Episodes | 13 + OVA(List of episodes) |
| Manga | |
| Kanon: Honto no Omoi wa Egao no Mukōgawa ni | |
| Written by | Key |
| Illustrated by | Kinusa Shimotsuki |
| Published by | Fujimi Shobo |
| Magazine | Dragon Age Pure |
| Original run | June 29, 2006 –October 20, 2007 |
| Volumes | 2 |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Tatsuya Ishihara |
| Written by | Fumihiko Shimo |
| Music by | |
| Studio | Kyoto Animation |
| Licensed by | |
| Original network | BS-i,TBS |
| English network | |
| Original run | October 5, 2006 – March 15, 2007 |
| Episodes | 24(List of episodes) |
Fiveadultlight novels written by Mariko Shimizu and published byParadigm were released in Japan between October 1999 and August 2000.[39][40] The cover art and internal illustrations were drawn byItaru Hinoue, the artist who drew the artwork in the visual novel. The basis for each novel was one of each of the five heroines and had titles that were taken from the musical themes pertaining to each character in the original game. The first two released wereYuki no Shōjo (雪の少女,Girl in the Snow; Nayuki) andEgao no Mukougawa ni (笑顔の向こう側に,Beyond the Smile; Shiori) in December 1999. The third wasShōjo no Ori (少女の檻,Girl's Prison; Mai) released in April 2000 and the fourth novel was titledThe Fox and the Grapes (Makoto), released two months later. The final novel titledHidamari no Machi (日溜りの街,A Sunny City; Ayu) was released in August 2000. Paradigm re-released the five novels in conjunction withVisual Arts under their VA Bunkoimprint, which removed the erotic scenes, starting withYuki no Shōjo on June 27, 2009,[41] and ending withHidamari no Machi on December 26, 2009. To make up for the missing erotic content, Shimizu wrote additional content for each volume. A sixth novel titledKanojotachi no Kenkai (彼女たちの見解,The Girls' Opinions) for the supporting character Sayuri Kurata written by Shimizu and illustrated by Zen was released on March 31, 2011.[42]
Following the release of the original visual novel, Key collaborated with TI Tokyo to release the Kanon Trading Card Game.[43] The game was showcased through Comiket, with the original beta cards and promotional materials appearing in winter 1999. This release would also be expanded to include the Air Trading Card Game, based on Key's followup visual novel,Air, alongside several expansions to the core game.
A set of five drama CDs were released between September 29, 2000, and April 27, 2001, with each volume focusing on a different heroine.[44][45] A set of five anthology drama CDs were released between December 22, 2001, and May 25, 2002, with each volume again focusing on a different heroine.[46][47] Aradio show to promote the Dreamcast port ofKanon titledKanon: The Snow Talk Memories Yuki Furu Machi no Monogatari (Kanon -The snow talks memories- 雪降る街の物語) broadcast 13 episodes between October 6 and December 29, 2000. The show, produced byMovic, was hosted byYukari Tamura andTomoko Kawakami, the voices Mai Kawasumi and Sayuri Kurata, respectively. Aradio drama titledMinase-sanchi (水瀬さんち) broadcast 53 episodes between October 6, 2001, and October 5, 2002. The show, which was broadcast onTBS Radio and Radio Kansai, was hosted byYūko Minaguchi, the voice of Akiko Minase, and narrated byAtsushi Kisaichi. The voice actors fromKanon were also featured as guests. Five CD compilation volumes containing all of the show's broadcasts were released between August 30, 2002, and April 26, 2003.[48][49][50][51][52]
The firstKanonmanga illustrated by Petit Morishima was serialized inMediaWorks' manga magazineDengeki Daioh between the February 2000 and July 2002 issues.[53][54] The individual chapters were later collected into two separatetankōbon volumes published by MediaWorks under theirDengeki Comics imprint released in September 2000 and on July 27, 2002.[55][56] There are six chapters in total, three in each volume. Aside from theprologue in volume one and theepilogue in volume two, the other four chapters concern four of the main heroines. From chapters one through four, the main heroines presented are: Shiori Misaka, Makoto Sawatari, Mai Kawasumi and Ayu Tsukimiya. To make up for Nayuki not getting a chapter of her own, the story is altered in that Nayuki is in most of the scenes Yuichi is in.[57][58] The first manga is different from the visual novel in that Shiori's, Makoto's, and Mai's stories are not told in their entirety. Near the end of each of these girls' stories were originally intended to give the viewer the remaining answers, but the manga version ends these girls' stories prematurely.[57][58] This was due to the manga putting more focus on Ayu's story.
The second manga illustrated by Kinusa Shimotsuki, under the main titleKanon: Honto no Omoi wa Egao no Mukōgawa ni (Kanon ホントの想いは笑顔の向こう側に,Kanon: The Real Feelings of the Other Side of the Smiling Face) with the subtitleeach regret of Kanon, was serialized between volumes two and seven ofFujimi Shobo'sDragon Age Pure magazine sold between June 29, 2006, and October 20, 2007, respectively.[59][60][61] The first volume was released in Japan on April 1, 2007, and focused on Nayuki's story.[62] The second volume was released on December 8, 2007, and focused on the other four heroines.[63] There are nine chapters in total, five in volume one and four in volume two.
There have also been many releases of mangaanthologies produced by different companies and drawn by a multitude of different artists. The first volume of the earliest anthology series, released byIchijinsha under the titleKanon Comic Anthology, was released in November 2000 under theirDNA Media Comics label.[64] Volumes for this series continued to be released for another two years, ending in December 2002 with the 14th volume;[65] an additional 15th volume was released later in February 2007.[66] Ichijinsha also released two more volumes of anthology collections offour-panelcomic strips titledKanon 4-koma Kings in April and June 2001.[67][68] Softgarage released an anthology in a single volume in December 2002 titledKanon Anthology Comic.[69] In April 2004,Ohzora released an anthology composed of works based on bothKanon andAir titledHaru Urara: Kanon & Air.[70]
Between June and August 2004, Ohzora also released five separate volumes of manga based onKanon drawn by five separate artists.[71][72] Ohzora later collected some of the previously published manga anthologies into two volumes titledKanon Anthology Comics Best Selection released in December 2006 and January 2007.[73][74] Additionally, Ohzora released another 13 volumes of an anthology series titledKanon under theirTwin Heart Comics label. The now-bankrupt publisher Raporto also released 21 manga anthology volumes titledKanon under theirRaporto Comics label between November 2000 and October 2002.[75][76] The last manga anthology, a collection of four-panel comic strips released in a single volume byEnterbrain titledMagi-Cu 4-koma Kanon, was released in January 2007 under theirMC Comics label.[77] Each of the anthology series are written and drawn by an average of 20 people per volume.[70]
The firstKanon anime was produced by the Japanese animation studioToei Animation and directed byNaoyuki Itō.[78] Thirteen episodes[79] were produced and aired in Japan onFuji TV between January 31 and March 28, 2002.[80] The series also later aired onKansai TV. Later, a singleoriginal video animation (OVA) episode titled "Kanon Kazahana" was released in March 2003.[81] The anime series and OVA used the songs "Florescence" and "Flower" for the opening and ending themes, respectively. While it does not appear as the ending theme in the first 12 episodes or in the OVA, the game's ending theme "Where the Wind Reaches" is used as the ending theme for the series in episode 13.[82] Additionally, the game's opening theme "Last regrets" is played near the end of episode 13 during the flashback scene.[82]
Starting in 2006,Kyoto Animation, the animators of anotherKey game-turned-anime,Air, decided to animate a new adaptation ofKanon. This version, directed byTatsuya Ishihara[83] and written byFumihiko Shimo, aired between October 5, 2006, and March 15, 2007, onBS-i, containing 24 episodes.[84] The series was later rebroadcast onTBS.ADV Films announced on September 21, 2007, at theAnime Weekend Atlantaanime convention that they have officially licensed the secondKanon anime series.[85] ADV had previously posted a trailer for the series in August 2007, but was soon taken offline once the news had been spread on the Internet.[86] The first English-dubbed episode was made available via streaming online atAnime News Network between December 23 and December 30, 2007.[87] In July 2008, the licensing rights of the secondKanon anime were transferred from ADV toFunimation Entertainment (now known asCrunchyroll as of 2025) who continued to produce the series in North America.[88]MVM Entertainment releasedKanon on DVD in the United Kingdom on April 14, 2022.[89]
The second TVKanon animation features updated animation quality, and uses the samevoice acting cast as the first anime, with the exception ofYuichi andKuze. Unlike the first anime, the actual theme songs from theKanon game are used for the second anime's opening theme, ending theme and soundtrack. There is one song featured as an insert song in episode 16 that did not come from the visual novel titled "Last regrets (X'mas floor style)" byEiko Shimamiya fromI've Sound's first albumRegret. Other songs are used from thearrange albums released over the years, which includeAnemoscope,Recollections,Re-feel, andMa-Na.
The visual novel has two main theme songs, the opening theme "Last regrets", and the ending theme "Kaze no Tadoritsuku Basho" (風の辿り着く場所,Where the Wind Reaches), both sung byAyana. The lyrics for both songs were written byJun Maeda, and arranged by Kazuya Takase ofI've Sound. The five heroines haveleitmotifs. Ayu's theme is "Hidamari no Machi" (日溜りの街,A Sunny City); Nayuki's theme is "Yuki no Shōjo" (雪の少女,Girl in the Snow); Makoto's theme is "The Fox and the Grapes"; Shiori's theme is "Egao no Mukōgawa ni" (笑顔の向こう側に,Beyond the Smile); lastly, Mai's theme is "Shōjo no Ori" (少女の檻,Girls' Prison).[90]
The first music album released wasAnemoscope which came bundled with the original release ofKanon in June 1999. The next release was a single, "Last regrets/Place of wind which arrives", which contained the opening and ending themes plusarranged versions of threebackground music tracks and a male vocal version of the opening theme. A compilation album containing tracks from the two albums was released in December 2001 calledRecollections.[91] Thegame's original soundtrack was released in October 2002 containing 22 different tracks along with short versions of the two theme songs.[91] A piano arrange album was released in December 2003 calledRe-feel which contained five tracks fromKanon and five fromAir.[91] Excluding the first two albums, each of the albums released for the visual novel version were released on Key'srecord labelKey Sounds Label; this is due to the first two albums being released before the label was formed.[91]
Thefirst anime's first original soundtrack was released in May 2002,[92] anda second followed in July 2002.[93] The first anime's opening theme is "Florescence" and the ending theme is "Flower", both sung by Miho Fujiwara; themaxi single containing the anime's opening and ending themes was released in June 2002.[94] An album containingmusic box arranged tracks of music from the first anime was released in July 2003 calledOrgel de Kiku Sakuhin Shū.[95] The albums released for the first anime were produced byFrontier Works andMovic. A single was released in commemoration for the second anime called "Last regrets/Kaze no Tadoritsuku Basho" which contained the game's original opening and ending themes in original, short, and remixed versions; the album was produced by Key Sounds Label.[91]
According to a national ranking of how wellbishōjo games sold nationally in Japan, the originalKanon release for Windows achieved its highest rank at number two in the ranking.[96] Three years later in June 2002, the original release ranked in again at 45, and then again at 46 the following two weeks.[96] The original release also made the ranking after that at number 41 in early July 2002.[97] TheKanon Standard Edition premiered at number 16 in the rankings.[98] TheKanon Standard Edition remained on the top 50 list for the next two months, achieving the rankings of 47 and 35.[99] The all ages version of theKanon Standard Edition premiered at number 42 on the national ranking, went up to 35 the next month, and did not appear on the rankings after that.[100] The Dreamcast port sold 42,379 units in the first week and was the fourth top selling console game in Japan for that week.[101]Kanon has sold over 300,000 units across several platforms, not counting the PSP release.[33]
Five days before the first PS2 release forKanon, a PS2 printer called Tapis MPR-505 went on sale which enabled the user to print out game screens.Kanon was one of the three games supported at launch, the other two beingAmerica Ōden Ultra Quiz fromDigiCube andMarle de Jigsaw fromNippon Ichi Software.[102] The first PS2 release in 2002 was reviewed by the Japanese video game magazineFamitsu where the game received an overallscore of 29/40 (out of the four individual review scores of 7, 8, 7, and 7).[103]Yūichi Suzumoto commented in an interview in March 2001 that he felt the end ofKanon's story could be summed up as "the prince and princess live happily ever after. The end," resulting in an ending that does not expand on what could possibly happen afterwards.[3] In the October 2007 issue ofDengeki G's Magazine, poll results for the 50 bestbishōjo games were released. Out of 249 titles,Kanon ranked fifth with 71 votes.[104]
Characters fromKanon have appeared in severaldōjin games not directly based on theKanon series such as theEternal Fighter Zero game byTwilight Frontier where most of the playable characters either came fromKanon or fromOne: Kagayaku Kisetsu e.[105] The dōjin gameGlove on Fight featured at least twoKanon characters: Ayu Tsukimiya and Akiko Minase in afighting style game along with various other characters taken from other media.[106] The characterAyu Tsukimiya in particular is known to appear in works outsideKanon, such as in strip 67 of thewebcomicMegatokyo where Ayu is shown eatingtaiyaki.[107]
The secondKanon anime series was reviewed atAnime News Network where Theron Martin commented how the series is a "formulaic moe haremfest", and how themoe aspects of the series may make viewers "feel like they're drowning in a vat of gooey cuteness". The series is described as being similar to the anime television adaptation ofAir, saying "LikeAir, the first four episodes can be simply summarized as 'male lead arrives in town and kills time interacting with cute girls.' UnlikeAir, however, these interactions can occasionally be very funny."[108] Martin also comparesKanon to the anime adaptation ofShuffle! which is described as "bombing" whereKanon "works". The reviewer chalks this up to the characters "endear[ing] themselves to the viewer...far better than whatShuffle!'s do." Martin cites the transition between humor and serious content as a defining feature of the series.[109] However, Martin comments how one of the series' flaws is how it "overplays the mundane cutesiness and moe cards at times" causing little to happen with the plot. Yuichi is described as being "too erratic to be fully credible" or easily believable.[110] Despite the series' drawbacks, Martin still describes the series as "one of the best moe-centric series to date" and lauds Kyoto Animation's production values makingKanon "one of the prettiest-looking anime series of the past year". Martin adds another series comparison, citingKanon as the "polar opposite ofGurren Lagann", which deals primarily in its action-oriented content.[111]
Kanon (PS2, NEC Interchannel): 7 / 8 / 7 / 7 - (29/40)
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