Hello and welcome to my Kanon 2006 Article! I can’t remember the last time I had enough time to write an Article for Anime Forums. Life has been crazy but it has slowed down for the time being for me. So here I am, back with another Article! This Article will be different from my previous Articles. (if anybody who has read those is still here xP) I will not be doing an episode guide. Instead, I’m going to discuss the main characters of Kanon 2006.

Do NOT open the spoiler tags unless you’ve already watched Kanon 2006 as they contain MAJOR SPOILERS.

Aizawa Yuuichi

Aizawa Yuuichi is the main character of Kanon. He used to visit the city but, after a terrible tragedy, he leaves and doesn’t return for seven years. When he finally goes back, he hardly remembers anything from seven years prior. He lives with his cousin, Nayuki and her mother. As he interacts with the people he met in the past, he slowly starts to regain his memory. Yuuichi is this fun guy who teases all the main girls but he has a good heart and often acts like an older brother and protects them. He does choose a girl towards the end which I’ll discuss later on.

This whole person going to a city, leaving for seven years and returning with few memories really reminded me of the anime Celestial Method which I absolutely loved so that alone instantly got me hooked on Kanon. I seriously would love to be Yuuichi. All he does is go to school and then wander around talking to beautiful girls xP He’s a really great guy.

Yuuichi’s Ending

Later on, Yuuichi realizes he is in love with Ayu. They share a kiss. Ayu’s ending occurs and after lots of tears, heartaches and a miracle, they end up together.

I’m not going to go into this too much since most of it involves Ayu’s route and I’m going to discuss it later. It’s really sweet and a good pair up for Yuuichi. (although not the best in my opinion but I’ll get to that later. xP)

 

 

Nayuki Minase

Nayuki is Yuuichi’s cousin. She loves strawberry sundaes. She’s such a heavy sleeper that she has to have a plethora of alarm clocks and even then, they don’t always wake her up and Yuuichi or her mother has to get her up. Even when she gets up, she is often in such a sleepy daze that, she can eat, get dressed for school and head out to school with Yuuichi before she even wakes up. Then she’s confused as to how she got to where she was fully dressed xP This often causes her to be late for school and she often ends up running. She runs to school so much that she became the school’s star runner and captain of the track team. She loves cats despite being highly allergic to them.

Nayuki is an extremely fun character to watch. Her sleepy dazes are always so amusing to watch because she usually passes out again, often while eating or walking. xP  Her “neko mode” is pretty adorable as well. She easily has the best facial expressions out of every character in Kanon.

Nayuki’s Ending

After a request for strawberry cake leads to Nayuki’s mother getting in an accident, Nayuki shuts down and completely blames herself for what happens. She tries to pretty much cut herself off from all her friends saying that she doesn’t deserve to be happy since it was her fault that her mother was in the hospital. It’s mainly due to the intervention by Yuuichi and some of her other friends that snap her out of it. Her mother survives the incident. It is also revealed that Nayuki is in love with Yuuichi.

Seeing that expression on Nayuki’s face, in the above picture, nearly destroyed me the first time I was watching Kanon. She’s such a sweet girl that I just want to save her from the pain although that pain does make her stronger in the end. With this being based on a Key VN, I was soooo afraid Nayuki’s mother was going to die. I was so relieved when it was revealed that her mother didn’t die.

 

 

Mai Kawasumi

Mai Kawasumi is a mysterious girl. Due to her disregard for what’s considered “normal behavior”, she’s viewed as a delinquent by the other students. She can usually be found with her best and only friend Sayuri. She doesn’t talk much and even when she does, it’s usually brief responses. After meeting Mai in the hallway of the school at night, Yuuichi starts eating lunch with Mai and Sayuri and Mai slowly warms up to him.

Mai is the cute, quiet type in Kanon. Don’t let that disguise fool you though because she’s a badass with a sword. She is extremely protective of Sayuri and let’s just say you wouldn’t want Mai to catch you being mean to or hurting Sayuri. It won’t end well for you xP.

Mai’s Ending

It is revealed that Mai’s mother became ill when Mai was younger. After her mother is miraculously healed, we find out that Mai has the power to heal anybody and anything.  This power made the townspeople fear her and as a result everybody except her mother ostracized her. Mai was told that she would meet someone who would be able to put aside her powers and become a great friend and that friend was Yuuichi. Soon after, Yuuichi had to leave town and return home. This made Mai sad and, out of desperation, she made up a story about demons invading the field of wheat where they played together. Soon afterwards, a school was built on that field and Mai started walking the grounds at night, sword in hand, fighting off the demons. It is revealed that the demons are the manifestation of Mai’s power. Together with Yuuchi, Mai defeats each of the demons and afterwards, she tries to commit suicide but fails which lands her in the hospital.

Mai’s ending is okay. You basically just find out that the destruction is caused by Mai not accepting her healing powers and the fact that she missed Yuuichi. Each time a demon was killed it hurt Mai. She survives her suicide attempt due to something I’ll discuss later.

 

Shiori Misaka

One day, while adventuring with Ayu, Yuuichi meets Shiori, although during the first encounter, Yuuichi doesn’t get her name. A few days later, as Yuuichi is staring outside the window during class, he notices that Shiori is standing out in the snow right outside the school. When lunch comes, Yuuichi goes outside to talk to Shiori and learns her name and that she is outside waiting for somebody. He also learns that she is a student there but she is sick with a cold and that is why she isn’t in class. Yuuichi tells her to go home since she is sick and it’s snowing which isn’t going to help her get better. Nevertheless, she shows up every day waiting for somebody.

Shiori reminds me a lot of Nagisa from Clannad (Nagisa’s character may have been based on Shiori since they are both Key titles) She’s sick, sicker than what she tells Yuuichi at first. She has a dream and that’s why she’s waiting for someone everyday at school even though she is too sick to actually attend. She’s a really sweet girl.

Shiori’s Ending

Shiori is expected to die before her next birthday. We also find out that Kaori Misaka (Yuuichi’s classmate) is Shiori’s older sister but because she knows Shiori is going to die, she acts like Shiori doesn’t exist. Yuuichi eventually gets Kaori to acknowledge and to spend time with Shiori which makes both girls much happier. The person Shiori was waiting for was her sister Kaori. It was her dream to go to school with her sister. However, Shiori does not die and starts to get better due to the same reason Mai didn’t die which I’ll discuss later. This leads to Shiori returning to school and fulfilling her dream.

Now you see why Shiori reminds me of Nagisa: the lasting sickness, potential death and wanting to fulfill her dream. I was so happy she didn’t die. Her playful personality despite the fact she knew she was dying was beautiful.

 

 

Makoto Sawatari

Yuuichi meets Makoto when she attacks him out-of-the-blue in the middle of town. She was then carried her back to his cousin’s house (where he is living), where she lives as a guest for the remainder of her story. Despite having lost her memories, she eventually remembers her name and is sure that she holds a grudge against Yuuichi from the past when he visited the city back when he was younger. Makoto’s amnesia, is much more severe than Yuuichi’s or Ayu’s, but from an entirely different source. It takes her a while to warm up to a stray cat she finds and taking Yuuichi’s suggestion, names it Piro. Makoto loves Piro very much and will often carry the cat around on her head. Makoto has a mischievous personality which leads to her performing various pranks exclusively on Yuuichi during the middle of the night due to her strong dislike for him, something she constantly reaffirms. Her pranks vary in severity, such as simply dropping food on him or once even throwing lit firecrackers into his room. Yuuichi always counters them and as a result, Makoto is the one upset in the end. As time passes and Makoto starts feeling more like a member of the Minase family rather than a stranger, she honestly grows to like Yuuichi, effectively looking beyond her latent distaste for him. Makoto has an idiosyncratic expression, “auu~”, which she says when she is frustrated or sad. It has no real meaning. Another unique speech pattern of hers is that she always refers to herself in the third person. Near the end of her story, Yuuichi buys a present for Makoto, which she chooses. It’s a bracelet with two bells on it. Makoto enjoys the sound they make.

Finally! I’ve gotten to my favorite girl in all of Kanon! Makoto is so adorable and her failed attempts at pranks usually in up with adorable scenes with her. Auuuu~ She’s so adorable when she says Auuuu~ I just LOVE IT!!! Her interactions with Piro are always super adorable too! She’s easily the best character in all of Kanon in my opinion. I don’t think I mentioned it earlier but she eventually becomes addicted to manga and meat buns and she eventually gets Yuuichi to read to her. So adorable I could die xP

Makoto’s Ending

We find out that Makoto is not a human but instead a fox that Yuuichi found ten years ago when he came to the city as a child. Yuuichi first found Makoto, back then a young fox, injured on Monomi Hill and he took the fox back and kept it in his room for the rest of the summer. One day, Yuuichi tells the fox about an older girl that he had a crush on named Makoto Sawatari, which is where Makoto’s name is derived from. At the end of summer break, Yuuichi takes the fox back to the hill and he runs away soon after releasing her, leading her to be angry with Yuuichi. Her desire to see Yuuichi again was so strong that her wish was granted…..at the cost of her memories….and later…..after her humanistic qualities start to fade and all she can say is Auuuu~, Yuuichi takes Makoto to Monomi Hill and pretends to marry her,  making her final wish come true. Soon after, Makoto dies fulfilling the final requirement of the miracle.

Makoto has the saddest route in Kanon because she actually dies. My heart broke and I hated that the cost of her miracle was her memories and later her life….Even now, I can barely type my thoughts on the matter because being reminded of it just makes me want to cry :’( :’( :’( :’( :’(

 

 

Ayu Tsukimiya

Ayu is a rather short, strange, energetic, and a very mysterious girl who literally bumps into Yuuichi early on in the story. She is easily recognizable by her winged backpack, and her red hairband. Ayu is left handed and loves to eat taiyaki. Ayu often takes out her frustration by using the idiosyncratic expression “uguu” much like Makoto with her “Auuu.” She is searching for an item that is important to her but she doesn’t remember what it is only that she’ll know it when she sees it. She has a severe lack of present day knowledge such as she doesn’t know what a cell phone is. She has memory loss as well.

Ayu is really adorable and my second favorite girl in Kanon. Her “Uguuu” makes me die of adorableness just like Makoto’s “Auuuu~” did. Encounters with Ayu are pretty funny because she usually runs toward Yuuichi trying to hug him and he dodges which leads to her hitting a tree or falling over. She never stays mad at Yuuichi for too long though because he buys her taiyaki which she loves. And now onto the final ending of Kanon.

Ayu’s Ending

Seven years before the story begins, Ayu falls out of a tree and hits her head on the last day Yuichi was going to be in town. At first, he believes she died, but Akiko reveals she is in the hospital and has been in a coma for the past seven years. The Ayu Yuichi has been meeting in town is actually an astral projection of herself (similar to Fuuko in Clannad). Later on in the series, with Yuuichi’s help, she breaks out of her coma, and gets her hair inadvertently cut too short when she goes to a barber shop, leading him to comment how much she looks like a boy like he did before. The item she had been looking for was a small angel doll that Yuuichi had given her telling her that it would grant three wishes as long as Yuuichi could make the wishes come true. She uses two of them and then her and Yuuichi bury the doll in a jar as a kind of time capsule. While Ayu is in her coma, she gains the ability to have one wish granted and she chooses for the one she cares deeply for to always be happy; that’s why Nayuki’s mother, Mai and Shiori didn’t die.

I was heartbroken when I thought Ayu was dead. I was so relieved to find out she was in a coma and when she finally awoke. If Yuuichi couldn’t have Makoto, I would settle for him loving Ayu. I don’t know why Ayu’s wish didn’t extend to saving Makoto….maybe the cost of the Makoto’s miracle overrode the effects of Ayu’s wish. I just don’t know…..

It was a pretty good ending to a great anime!

 

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey I’ve taken you on through the lives of the main cast of Kanon and I hope that you’ve either watched it or that this Article will inspire you to watch it! Thank you so much for taking the time to read it! I hope you have a great day!

~Ryuji