Moé Moé Rabu

Ayu is sitting on a bench talking about being inside the dream again. She can hear many things far and close as she sees adults walk by without noticing her sitting there. We start off by seeing a scene of the past where Ayu is with Yuuichi at a UFO catcher. Ayu sees an angel doll and Yuuichi tries to get it for her, but he failed even though he promised. Returning to the present, Yuuichi wakes up in the middle of the night. Walking out of his room, he finds Ayu in the hallway, surprised to see him. Yuuichi teases her about ghosts but then goes to accuse her for looking for valuable items, but it ends up that she wanted to go to the toilet. Walking down the stairs, with Ayu holding onto Yuuichi’s shirt, she explains that she didn’t want to wake Nayuki up, but Yuuichi assures her that her ability to sleep is not normal. Later on the pair are standing outside on the veranda watching the stars. Yuuichi reveals that he is not good with heights and Ayu reveals that she isn’t either, but the veranda is fine. Ayu then comments on how Nayuki is a beautiful and kind person, and wishes to be like her. Though she is shocked to find out that Nayuki is the same age, but Yuuichi tells her that she has her own good merits.

The next morning, Nayuki is sitting at the table with her Keropi plushy half asleep. Yuuichi shows that this is how Nayuki is and tries to wake her up but accidentally ends up smacking her head on the table. After Nayuki leaves for school first, Yuuichi tells Ayu to hurry up as well, but Ayu tells him that her school allows her to skip school, attend school and leave whenever she wants to. Yuuichi doubts this and tells her not to be late.

On the way to school, Yuuichi runs into Sayuri and Mai, and asking Mai if she remembers that tonight is the dance festival. She answers him with “honey bear” but this confuses Sayuri. Yuuichi then remembers that he made her say “honey bear” for yes and “chubby racoon” for no to make her sound cuter. Walking on ahead, Sayuri tells Yuuichi that she feels Mai is similar to herself. She doesn’t quite understand but she feels that Mai has a burden upon her shoulders. She even feels the same similarity in him.

Later in the day, Yuuichi is with Shiori, who is eating ice cream again and she admits it’s her favourite food. She offers Yuuichi half of it in which he ends up scoffing it down and ends up getting brain freeze. Shiori suggests that he do a handstand to get better, but Yuuichi feels he can’t do it here. So Shiori decides to take out all the medicine that she is carrying in her pockets. In the end Yuuichi does the handstand since he can’t afford to be sick for the dance festival. Shiori says that she wants to go to the dance festival, but decides not to since she is sick. Heading back inside, a first year asks about Shiori coming to school. Yuuichi tells her that she is sick and finds it boring at home. But the girl says that she’s not sick and has been absent from school since the entrance ceremony when she fainted. Referring to her by family name, Yuuichi is surprised to hear Shiori’s family name is Misaka. Back in class, Kaori walks out to go to her club meeting, but Yuuichi chases after her to ask her about Shiori. But Kaori tells him that he has misunderstood something as she doesn’t have a younger sister. Yuuichi asks Nayuki about Kaori’s sister, but Nayuki didn’t know Kaori had a sister since she doesn’t talk about her family much.

During lunch, Yuuichi gets his tuxedo from Sayuri and comments on how he is looking forward to seeing the girl in their dresses. Arriving back home, he catches Ayu and Akiko heading out to do some shopping. While watching TV to kill time, Yuuichi falls asleep and starts dreaming. He dreams of a time 7 years ago when he is begging Nayuki for money and ends up getting the doll for Ayu. Ayu is happy and promises to take good care of it. Yuuichi comments on how she has finally cheered up as she was sadden over the death of her mother. Ayu admits that she isn’t over it, but she feels that she can forget the sadness of it and is really grateful to Yuuichi. Waking up from the dream, Yuuichi realises the time and heads over to the dance festival.

Walking into the hall, he finds Mai and Sayuri, but is stunned to see how pretty Mai is. The two ended up teasing Mai with Mai chopping their heads in retaliation to their Boke (funny man) and Tsukkomi (straight man) joke. Sayuri gets called away by some friends leaving Mai and Yuuichi alone. Yuuichi comments how he thought Mai was someone else, which causes her to blush. Though they are shortly interrupted by the Student Council President, Kuze. He warns Mai that if she ruins this event, he will ensure that she is punished without mercy. Later by the refreshment table, Yuuichi asks if she’s mad about what Kuze said, but she says that is not due to what he said is true.

So Yuuichi now suggests that Mai should dance with someone and suggests Kitagawa, who is now begging girls. She refuses and only wants to be with Yuuichi as she is not used to these places. With the music starting, Yuuichi extends his hand to Mai to dance. Taking his hand, Yuuichi leads her to the dance floor and the two become the only couple actually dancing. The other students are impressed by their movements and comment on how pretty Mai is. With his plan working, Mai thanks Yuuichi, but then she senses something. Windows and glasses start breaking and something smashes over a table. The demon starts heading towards Sayuri, who is too scared to move. Mai runs and tries to save Sayuri, but she is too late; Sayuri gets thrown against a wall. Yuuichi tries to get Sayuri to open her eyes; Mai is shocked to see what just happened and runs off. Yuuichi notices that Mai is gone and starts looking for her, only to see her brandishing her sword and start fighting the demon. Sayuri ends up opening her eyes and sees Mai fighting, and Mai decides to make a jumping jab. But the demon disappears and Mai’s sword is stuck in the ground. Kuze now blames Mai for everything and says that she won’t get away with it.

Preview:

Impressions

KyoAni really show there tuff once again, especially with the dance and fighting scene. I haven’t seen a dance in anime that went so fluidly and smooth EVER. Well I probably have but this one just takes the cake. But really, screen caps can only show you so much so it is recommended that you watch the dance scene.

Well this episode does focus on Mai, but it does include bits from both Ayu and Kaori/Shiori. With Ayu we finally see the angel doll which will play an important role later, clues on that she doesn’t like heights and how she can go to school whenever she wants. With Shiori we find her surname and the connection with Kaori. So at this point we get bits and pieces from all the girls, besides Nayuki, but I’m curious to see if KyoAni will do the next few episodes totally focused on Mai, like how they did with Makoto.

Also with the introduction of Kuze, he looks totally different from the Toei version. But the other thing is that Key never actually had a character design for Kuze in the game. So KyoAni simply improved upon his design. But the whole giant chins from the Toei version made Kuze look more evil than in this one. Also a small Nayuki holding a neko purse is sooo damn cute~~~.

Next week Ayu meets Mai for the first time and Yuuichi learns to fight demons.

Kanon Merchandise of the Week

I had a bit of trouble trying to figure out what to show this week, but I finally decided. It’s an Ayu plushy! This is just like the Makoto plushy previous and it’s fromt he first run of plushies. Rather rare but I’m sure you’ll see these pop up on eBay now and then. Although rare, but not exactly one of the best looking type of plushies. But hey, what can you expect for something that got released years ago. Bought this from my good old friends from Tamarket.