^{428 The Animation}
CANAAN

This anime started has a first episode with some really nice animated action and big number of potentially interesting characters. Not everything excelled but, all in all this series turned out pretty good and above average. I watched it first for the action but, the show ended up deepening it’s characters a lot and the last episodes, specially the ending, were what made this anime really good.

I didn’t find any of the characters annoying and started liking some of them a lot in the end. I specially liked the two antagonists’ story, even though it can only be (partially) understood in the end lol.

This series has some humor and lots of cool action scenes, even though short. As for the drama, I only really liked it in the end, the stuff happening between Canaan and Alphard, the rest wasn’t really that interesting but, never boring too. What’s important, e

Bottom line, started as an above average action series, that ended up delivering fully with a really nice ending.

Finally the ending left me optimistic that if there’s ever a sequel, it will much better and more mature and got me interested in checking the original Wii visual novel, although it probably wont ever be made available in English :( There’s also a manga out there, probably a direct adaptation of the anime, not sure.

On what I can definitely check, there’s 3 rumored CANAAN movies to come. I’ll post more on it once I know :)

Land Of Hope

The train explodes. Canaan feels it and gets shocked but, only for some moments. She changes drastically after that. She finally understands how to do what Siam was telling her about. He was talking about how to use her synesthesia to it’s full capabilities. Alphard understands this and feels like she can see through her. She finally gets nervous and the battle shifts. Canaan is now in control.

A helicopter from the Snakes comes to get Alphard. She and Canaan fight their way to the top of the train. Canaan manages to get Alphard under her control. She says she finally understands Alphard’s color, it’s like she’s dead, since the moment she killed Siam. Alphard finally understands how she trully feels. She’s done the Flower Garden project in an attempt to become closer to Siam, since his work in creating Canaan is similar.

She then decides to stop it and "kills" herself, not letting Canaan save her. She’s probably to far down in her mind state to be able to just shift it quickly like Canaan did. After that, everyone goes back to their normal lives, separated but, together at the same time. The action scenes were awesome and very well animated.

It ends with everyone moving on with their lives in a mix of happiness and sadness, more happiness lol. Cummings is seen alive, joining some monks. Even Alphard is alive too, not sure how she’s going to continue her life. Yunyun continues with her jobs, promising to meet everyone again. Maria proceeds with her photographer carrer. Canaan continues her job.

This anime has a really nice final message, to cherish your life, memories and friends, remember them and mature through life. Love the final shot with both "Canaans".

After the ending, Canaan is shown, still on the same work with Natsume, older, her hair grown into a pony tail. She’s asked to kill a hard target, a woman with one arm. Not sure what this ending meant, not sure Canaan got who it was. I doubt this serves as a reason for a sequel, if there’s ever one, I think it will be related with something else. Anyway, really nice and complete episode.

Seasonal Train

Everyone is still recuperating from all that happened. Canaan is feeling guilt, sadness and everything else for the first time. Maria tries to comfort her and ends up doing so by just acting like her normal self. Not sure on the details but, Canaan, Yunyun and Maria all catch a train somewhere. Mino doesn’t go with them because of his car, I think, and will probably catch up with them once he puts it back to work.

The train is suddenly stopped for an inspection and something happens. They hear gun noises and Canaan goes to investigate. She gets the same feeling as when she witnessed Siam’s death and all the guilt she’s feeling comes back to her. Not sure of what her conversation with "Siam" meant. It seems too simple that it was just about her synesthesia sometimes distorting the truth and making her "hallucinate" like she just did on the train but, that’s all I understood.

Anyway, Alphard has made it so Canaan must fight her quickly or Maria will die. This way she wants to bring out all of Canaan’s strength. Their fight was really cool, more than that, it had a lot of complex drama happening. I’m not sure about everything they talked about but, Alphard is still locked in the past somehow. I think she liked the previous Siam, before he changed after being with "the second" Canaan. So, she killed him and is now killing everything it meant by killing Canaan.

She’s managed to really control her emotions and how she sees things, I think, and that way, Canaan’s synesthesia doesn’t work with her. As the fight reaches it’s peak, Maria decides to stop being a burden on Canaan, I think, and asks Yunyun to separate the trains. She probably thought there wouldn’t be enough time for rescuing her and preferred to die alone without bringing anyone with her.

Really liked this episode. The fighting and all the drama were original, even though it’s not all clear yet.

• Next Episode: Land Of Hope

Thoughts

Alphard appears in time to save Maria and Yunyun. We learn Natsume’s real role in all this through her conversation with Alphard. She also lets us know her "past" objectives, very bluntly, making a business out of using Borners as chemical weapons. Still, after all that happened, she doesn’t want it anymore.

More, she doesn’t want it to be used but, still gives it to Natsume, warning her the Snakes will have the objective of destroying any one who uses the Borner’s research in the future. They also mention some dead child, who looked very similar to Canaan, because she somehow underwent the same experiments.

Alphard moves on to deal with Liang Qi. Their fight is really cool, one of my favorites in the series yet. Cummings and Liang’s relationship continues weird but, making sense somehow. Driven to madness, if she wasn’t always there already, Liang Qi takes the medicine being developed to produce synesthesia. She starts suffering a lot and her hair changes color. I liked her mad death scene.

Hakko also goes a little crazy, good that it was Canaan finding her, being isolated from everyday life, she didn’t find the scene shocking lol. At least Hakko showed some final hotness before disappearing. I liked this scene too. This episode delivered well and concluded nicely the previous episode.

Nice episode, wasn’t expecting the series to turn so dramatic and go this far in exploring some of the side characters’ personalities. I’m interested in knowing what really went on with Canaan, Alphard and Siam. I’m also looking forward to one last and awesome fight scene between Alphard and Canaan. I still don’t feel like this show truly delivered action wise.

• Next Episode: Seasonal Train

Lost

So, Santana is trying to expose Flower Garden and the ones involved in it. That will also help in the creation of medicine for the victims, instead of having the Snakes use it to control them. Anyway, they infiltrate the old facility that Liang Qi is now using. Also, Canaan has got her "vision" back.

We also get some more info about why Canaan is so special. Her synesthesia ability was really improved with the Ua virus.

This episode focus once again on Hakko, this time with her relationship with Santana. The ending scene was dramatic and nicely done.

Liang Qi basically makes Hakko kill Santana and then uses her to kill Canaan. Minoru is forced to take action and stop her. Meanwhile, we find that Natsume has another agenda and is probably betraying them.

Nice episode, specially Hakko’s scene. Still, nothing too exciting.

• Next Episode: See Saw

Flowers Of The Past

So, Yunyun had no plans for getting the medicine, she was thinking of making peace and just dying while visiting her home "ghost" town one last time. Also, Canaan starts having some feelings, besides the ones relating to Maria.

Anyway, they all decide to help Yunyun and are attacked. Canaan still got her moves but, she goes overconfident, forgetting she lost the ability to see "colors". She almost gets hit by a shot and reality falls upon her. Anyway, Yunyun and Hakko try to prevent the attacker from being killed, as he’s from their village but, Hakko ends up killing in trying to do so. She gets really depressed again. Although Mino manages to help her a bit.

Santana finally reveals his story. He worked for the CIA and was involved in protecting that particular village against the Ua virus. But, it turns out they were actually infecting them. Their higher ups, I think, did this on purpose so that they would then text the anti-viral. Santana thought this was all in good will for the sake of the whole country but, it turns out it was made on purpose for the side effects of the virus to show up, creating the Borners. The Flower Garden Plan.

Then, the NGO, or whatever they are called, came in to try and understand what happened with the CIA and the Snakes joint operation. That’s when Santana joined with them. Anyway, Liang is coming to get her final revenge and Alphard is coming to get Liang. I still can’t understand Alphard’s motivations for doing all she did. Anyway, Alphard is about to take Liang down when Cunnings, surprisingly, tries to stop her. I was really surprised, I knew he was against this but, I never thought he actually liked or loved Liang, not sure she’s respondent to that, in her own sick way.

Nice episode. Much like the others, although I think the story should be getting more exciting than it actually is. Anyway, I liked the last part a lot, I’m really curious about Alphard. She seems to be looking for a confrontation with Canaan, like she wants her to kill her. We also need to know what Sian was hoping to accomplish with "Canaan". Right now, that’s got me more excited than the rest of the plot.

• Next Episode: Loss Of Emotion

Gravestone

Mino talks with Kenji. He alerts them to the fact that there are survivors to the Ua virus, probably because the Hebi has some sort of medicine to take care of it. They also reach the conclusion it was all done on purpose has a human experiment. We also learn a little more about Hakko’s past. It’s really bad not being able to use your voice.

Mino also pops an obvious question even though I hadn’t even thought about it. If Hakko is staying with Santana, he must have some way of getting the medicine.

Anyway, Canaan continues not being able to sense "colors", she was so used to this ability that she’s now far weaker. Mino goes to talk with Santana and they all go visit the village where the disappearances happened. Throughout the trip, Hakko shows some odd feelings towards Canaan. Maybe because she blames her for what happened to her or maybe because she’s thinking of killing her like the other survivors.

Later, Hakko tries to kill Canaan but, she doesn’t use her powers and Canaan fights it back easily. Canaan asks for sorry and says she doesn’t know her feelings. Hakko says it’s "her fault". She blames her for the experiment somehow. Santana was also responsible for it, which means he probably worked for the Hebi.

Overall, nice episode. Slower than the last two with some character development, specially between Canaan and Maria. They kind of confessed their love for each other, much like a couple, although without the romance. Still, wouldn’t have felt strange if they just kissed. Anyway, he still have no idea about what really happened but, it’s not hard to predict most of it, it doesn’t look to me like there will be a big revelation from now on. Yunyun’s reappearance was expected too. The next episode seems full of stuff happening and some more clues into the past.

• Next Episode: Reminiscence

Gravestone

Canaan enters the place and some "Matrix fighting" happens. Meanwhile, Maria’s father, Kenji, having an antidote for the virus, is called but, killed imminently, or not..

Inside the building, Canaan finds Maria and they now have to somehow stop the bombing plane, U.S.’ last measure since Kenji and the antidote were destroyed.

Alphard finally lets go of Liang Q and he Hebi abandons the place without her. The US realizes that Kenji’s death was forged so they would use the plane but, it’s too late to stop it now. Canaan forces her synthestesia to the max and changes the bomb path a little before hitting the target.

Really intense episode, really well made. Canaan ends by collapsing and losing her synesthesia ability I think. Not sure it’s temporary because of the stress she put it through or if she has lost it forever.

Not sure what the next episode will hold, we still got half-way left for things to be resolved. This is turning out quite an awesome little series.

• Next Episode: Voice