mDuo13

Though there was a bit of a delay, my journey to review recently-ended anime continues with CANAAN, an anime adapted from part of well-received-in-Japan-but-never-translated Wii visual novel 428. While 428 as a whole is produced by studio Chunsoft, CANAAN is based on a section within the game created by TYPE-MOON founders Kinoko Nasu and Takeuchi Takashi. As you might guess from my current website design, I've been a dedicated fan of TYPE-MOON since 2002 anime Shingetsutan Tsukihime. As such, I've been looking forward to CANAAN since it was announced, even before I had the faintest idea what it was about.

CANAAN is a 13-episode series by rookie studio P.A. Works, whose only other solo production work was True Tears (a series I haven't seen). It follows Japanese photographer Oosawa Maria as she travels to Shanghai and encounters for the second time special operative Canaan, a gun-toting, vaguely Middle-Eastern girl whose synesthesia gives her the power to see people's emotions and dodge bullets. However, there are those who would interfere with the friendship developing between Maria and Canaan, including a terrorist organization with connections to Canaan's past and a weaponized disease known as the Ua Virus.

Plot & Characters: It's hard to put a rating on the plot of CANAAN. On one hand, the series has a number of plot threads that feel like loose ends, a certain amount of extravagant implausibility that one must simply accept, and some jarring breaks in tone. On the other hand, the series has some very fascinating characters, an exciting plot, and what I felt was a pretty satisfying ending. Some characters, like Liang Qi, are just obnoxious, but by and large the cast is full of characters whose emotions and motivations are complicated and interesting. And most importantly, it has several moments of intensely powerful pathos. Still, I am a noted sucker for girls-with-guns and Type-Moon series both, so your mileage may vary.

Art & Animation: I must admit that I am impressed with the general quality of the animation P.A. Works has produced for this series. The character designs, by virtue of being based on Takeuchi Takashi, were already a win. So what if Canaan looks like Arcueid with a pallette swap and a breast reduction? That just means she automatically looks great. Of the other characters, only Alphard really stands out as a top-notch design, but the remainder of the cast is still very nicely drawn, including the guys. But the animation that P.A. Works has produced for CANAAN is an accomplishment of its own: the characters don't often look like misshapen blobs even during the in-between animation, and the action scenes are both fluid and plentiful, with significantly more budget than this season's biggest show, Bakemonogatari. From time to time there's some incongruous CG, but overall, CANAAN is one of the best-looking shows in recent memory.

Music & Sound: The music for CANAAN is probably one of less notable points in the series, being perhaps a slight bit above average overall. The opening is by Faylan, whom I knew previously from insert songs to Ga-Rei -Zero-; it's generic, decent Japanese pop-rock, high energy but nothing special. The ending theme, by annabel, expresses deeper emotion through pretty vocals layered over with heavily processed, slick-yet-chill techno, and is a lot better. Nanase Hikaru's orchestral soundtrack is encompasses a range from pounding, high-tension strings and percussion to spine-tinglingly sad violin(?) solo, but almost never does the music take precedence over the dialogue. CANAAN is a very talky series, which makes it good that the series has some big-name, talented voices including Sawashiro Miyuki, Sakamoto Maaya, and (although her character doesn't speak much) even Noto Mamiko. Unfortunately, this show marks the second time in this batch of reviews that I have to protest against the use of Nakata George as only comic relief. I respect the fact that they found a place for "the archetypeal Type-Moon villain"'s voice, but making him a zany taxi driver instead of a villain feels like a mockery of what he stands for. I guess they couldn't find a role for him after Ootsuka Akio nailed the opening monologue so hard it put his whole (rather long) resume in a new context.

Humor: The amount of effort that CANAAN goes to to try and earn laughs is actually one of its weakest points. The series does manage some good gags, but if it had settled for that rather than pushing them and destroying the mood with cartoonish stuttering and cartoonish taxi-driving, it'd make the series stronger overall.

Viewing Considerations: CANAAN is a series for mature audiences only. It's got the full array of usual suspects - gratuitous nudity, lots of blood and violence, some "sexual situations". It doesn't take any of them to extremes and it doesn't interrupt the story for extra fanservice, but you should be prepared for a show that's certainly not family-friendly. There's no actual sex, though, and the gruesomeness of the violence doesn't reach Higurashi or Elfen Lied levels, so you can make your own decisions about what age is old enough to watch it.

Overall: I had high expectations for the series, and while it didn't blow me away, the series generally lived up to those expectations. On the other hand, most other TYPE-MOON fans I know who watched the series have expressed a lack of enthusiasm for the show. So I guess it's best not to expect the most from CANAAN, because it's certainly flawed, but even so, the series' best moments more than make up for its worst ones.