(Skip if you’ve already read the first paragraph of one of the other ones) So the summer of 2009 has come to an end last week on Tuesday. Well, what that brings is also the end to all of the summer seasons of anime that I have been watching. I’m not going to lie, I was pretty ambitious when I started the season; investing time into about 14 different series simultaneously. Needless to say, that didn’t work out so well – ended up dropping a ton of series that I found boring or just didn’t bother to keep up with. Now I find myself at the end of summer with around 6 series completed of varying quality. I have to say, 2009 hasn’t really blown me away with any anime, but it’s been interesting. So right now, I’m going to sum up what I have finished this summer: Bakemonogatari, Hayate no Gotoku S2, Canaan, Saki, Spice and Wolf S2, and Requiem for the Phantom. These aren’t listed in any particular order, so don’t follow it so much like that. Anyway, here we go.
So this article got extremely long. I’ve split it up into 3 parts so it’s easier to read. You’ll be able to tell when I’m wrapping up by the title of each one. I included the intro paragraph in each of these articles too in case you decide to read one, but not the others.
What do I have to say about Canaan?…well for the least, I have some mixed feelings about this anime. The action scenes were par and the story, while it was good, wasn’t anything spectacular. Seeing how I didn’t really many action anime this season, it was a bit sub-par for the course I’d say. As you may have guessed, the main character of the anime is Canaan. Canaan is a mercenary who is currently operating out of Shanghai. She was raised from the Middle East during a war and was trained during that time. At first glimpse, the story seems to be about a terrorist group that go by the name of the Snakes who are purposefully experimenting with the Ua Virus in hopes of creating super-soldiers that are like Canaan. Canaan has the special ability to synthesize all 5 of her senses and use them incredibly effectively. As the series goes on though, we learn that there are connections between Canaan and Alphard who is the leader of the Snakes.
Oosawa Maria’s role in this anime is to help stimulate Canaan’s growth as a human being. I would say that from their relationship with each other, both of them begin maturing. If you ignore the fact that Maria is always getting kidnapped and Canaan is absurdly killing everything that stands in her way to get to Maria for a second, and just observe their mentalities, they begin to have realizations that their relationship isn’t practical and can’t work. In my opinion, the whole anime focusing on their relationship is kind of silly while all of the other plot is going on as well, but it seems to tie in ok.
What bothers me the most though, is the end of the series. I’m not going to put any spoilers here, but I have to say that it’s a little cheesy and kind of ridiculous. Whatever though – it is what it is. I give this anime a mediocre rating mainly because I wasn’t whole hearted about watching it all in the first place, but it did keep interest. Anymore than 13 episodes might’ve pushed me off though.
Well, we have anime about card players, people making bread, and playing go, so why not one about Mahjong? Also, let’s add elements that make it seem that every girl in the anime seems like they have feelings for other girls while making it seem like this anime is still completely innocent. Well with all of that aside (Wait…can we really just ignore that?!), let’s start talking about the anime. Miyanaga Saki (the girl on the right in the screenshot) is the main character of this anime. She has just entered high school and somehow finds her way up to the mahjong club. The only problem is that she hates mahjong. As the other girls in the club realize very quickly though, Saki has the uncanny ability to score 0 points every time she plays. Through like 2 episodes of drama, Saki learns to love mahjong (and Nodoka), is super skillful at it, and can even win in a very absurd way almost every time.
There are a few filler episodes and whatnot, but from episodes 6 to 19, all the content is basically filled with the girls from Kiyosumi (the name of their high school) trying to win a spot in nationals. I have to admit though, even within these, there are a lot of episodes about the relationships of some of the teams they are playing against and a few episodes where not much happens, but overall the anime tries to make mahjong an intense experience. I’m not sure how many of you have actually played mahjong, but let me tell you, it’s absolutely nothing like they portray. I’m very disappointed that there are no sparks coming from my eyes or people fighting in the background while I play mahjong. In fact, I think my lack of knowledge of mahjong actually makes this anime more fun to watch.
By now, you must be wondering why I even kept watching this anime at all since you may have seen an episode or two and been like “well, this sucks. What next?” I think I kept watching it because I enjoyed the mahjong playing. Some of the characters were even pretty supernatural on how they played the game. No one in real life would ever be able to play the way these girls played, but it was actually kind of fun. Not the typical thing I’d ever watch, but hey, we need these kinds of anime sometimes right? Maybe not, but oh well. Maybe I was just unconsciously in it for the underlying rated R themes that only perverts would pick up on, but I’d like to think not.
