Aizawa Yuichi had often visited his cousin in the city when a young child. However, something drastic happened to keep him away for seven long years. Now, Yuichi returns, his memories of those days are simply gone. Kanon’s story spins around a gathering of five young ladies whose lives are associated with the same thing young boy. Yuichi Aizawa is a secondary school understudy who had gone to the city where the story happens seven years before Kanon’s start. He is going to stay with his first cousin, Nayuki Minase and her mother Akiko, but it’s learned that after his long absence Yuichi has forgotten nearly everything except for the tiniest details of what had happened seven years prior. He needs to be reminded what he left behind, with Nayuki trying to jog his memory unsuccessfully.
Kanon is a Japanese adult visual novel developed by Key released on June 4, 1999, for Windows PCs. Key later released versions of Kanon without the erotic content, and the game was ported to the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. 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.
The first anime adaption under the title Kanon is produced by the Japanese animation studio Toei Animation, directed by Takamichi Ito, written by Ryota Yamaguchi, Makoto Nakamura, and Michiko Yokote, and features character design by turns character design by Yoichi Onishi who based the designs on Itaru Hinoue’s original concept. Thirteen episodes were produced which aired after the midnight between January 31 and March 28, 2002, on the Fuji TV Japanese television network. Except for episodes three, four, and seven, the titles from the episodes are named for tracks on the visual novel’s original soundtrack. The series was re-released as a seven-disk DVD box set on December 22, 2004, by Frontier Works in limited and regular editions in Japan. In March 2003, an original video animation episode was released on DVD containing the single episode “Kanon Kazahana” also produced by Toei Animation and directed by Takamichi Ito. The episode is set at the same as the last episode of the anime series.
The 2006 anime plays on the association between Kanon and the musical term canon by using Pachelbel’s Kanon D-dur, or Canon in D major, as a background piece at certain instances throughout the series. The gameplay in Kanon follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction and focuses on the appeal of the five female main characters by the player character. Toei Animation produced a 13-episode anime series in 2002 and an original video animation (OVA) episode in 2003.
Episode 1: The Girl of Snow
Yuichi Aizawa comes to stay at his cousin’s home in northern Japan after seven years. He meets Ayu Tsukimiya in the shopping district, who pulls him into running away from a taiyaki vendor with her.
Episode 2: A Sunny Town
Yuichi attends his first day at his new school, and later he met a girl named Shiori Misaka after another run-in with Ayu. The next day he finds Shiori visiting the schoolyard.
Episode 3: Just This One Little Memory
After his second day of classes, Makoto Sawatari tracks Yuichi down in the shopping district, trying to pick a fight. The next day, after discovering some of her pranks, Yuichi suspects her of stealing his wallet.
Episode 4: To The Night
Yuichi finds Mai Kawasumi in the battle at night in the school building. After school, he joins Ayu in her search for a precious object, with no results. Following an incident at lunch with a stray dog the next day, he joins her for lunch.
Episode 5: The Fox and The Grapes
Yuichi visits Mai again at night, but Makoto attracts the attention of the night watch. Makoto runs away from Akiko’s house after a heated quarrel with Yuichi. Mai is implicated by the student council for some broken windows.
Episode 6: Those Girls Opinion
Yuichi searches for Makoto at night and finds her in the shopping district. Shadowing her, he follows her to the hill overlooking the city and discovers that she found a stray cat. Yuichi and Sayuri convince Mai to take part in the upcoming ball. Piro and Akiro fall ill, and Makoto and Ayu take care of them.
Episode 7: The ball
When Mai faces expulsion, Sayuri convinces the student council to reverse the punishment by agreeing to join the council. At first, Mai makes a good impression at the ball, but the lights are destroyed and Mai is again implicated. On Mai’s birthday, Sayuri is injured by the monster Mai hunts.
Episode 8: Girl’s Prison
Mai resolves to end the fighting once and for all. As Mai and Yuichi fight the monsters together, Yuichi traces another fragment of his lost memory.
Episode 9: Beyond That Smile
Yuichi learns about Shiori’s condition and Kaon’s silence. Prompted by Nayuki, Yuichi spends an entire day with Shiori, forging happy memories.
Episode 10: The Winter Fireworks
Makoto falls ill, and Yuichi discovers her true identity.
Episode 11: Promise
Yuichi and Ayu watch a movie together, and as they become closer, Nayuki is heartbroken. Ayu takes Yuichi to her school, but they make a startling discovery.
Episode 12: A Mark of a Dream
Yuichi remembers what happened to Ayu, seven years ago, as well as the thing she was searching for a little angel doll. Nayuki, Kaori, and Jun help him unearth the doll. Akiko is hit by a car in a blizzard. Ayu, in order to let Yuichi use the doll, asks him to let her go as a final wish.
Episode 13: Where The Winds Leads
It is now spring, and Mai and Sayuri have graduated, although Akiko is on the road to recovery, a rift still remains between Nayuki and Yuuich. On the day Yuichi is scheduled to leave and transfer to another school, Nayuki sees a familiar name tag at the hospital.