Moé Moé Rabu

• Mai and Yuuichi are ready to face off the remaining demons. Mai reminds Yuuichi of what he learnt from training.
• Yuuichi deflects the demons attack, just like he did in training with Mai. Holding ground, Mai comes to defeat the two demons. With one left, Yuuichi realises there is one left, but notices that Mai is in pain.
• Taking a look at her, he spots black spots on her leg. Yuuichi suggests they go to the hospital but Mai refuses as she wants to continue fighting and asks for his help. So he takes her to their lunch spot.
• Mai wants him to stay by his side as bait. So resting for a bit, Mai puts her head on Yuuichi’s shoulder. Yuuichi comments how this is similar to hide and seek. Mai reveals to Yuuichi that she used to play with her childhood friend. But this friend left her.

• The final demon approaches, so Mai leaps at it, but is unsuccessful in defeating it and falls to the ground. Yuuichi prepares to fight the demon himself, but decides to lead it away from Mai, Mai yells out to lead it to the courtyard.
• Stopping at the hallway, the floor collapses and Yuuichi falls to the floor below. With the demon circling him, Yuuichi realises it has something to say to him, but it then attacks him, knocking him out through the window out into the courtyard. The demon charges at him but Yuuichi holds his ground, until his sword breaks and he is pushed back.
• The demon pounces on him pinning him down, but Mai comes jumping off the rooftop giving a final slash that destroys the demon. She faints soon afterwards, but when she opens her eyes again, she tells Yuuichi that she wants to eat gyuudon, resulting in Yuuichi giving her a head butt.
• Walking back to the classroom, Yuuichi is surprised to see not so much damage and wonders if it was all an illusion. After cleaning her face, Mai keeps saying she is hungry, so Yuuichi gives her his coat and tells her to stay put, whilst he goes out to get food.
• Arriving back, he finds Mai gone and realises that there could have been another demon and Mai wanted him to stay away from it. Running through the hallway, Yuuichi is pushed down by an invisible force. The world around him distorts and there is a silhouette of a girl with bunny ears. Yuuichi thinks that it’s the last demon but then realises that this girl is Mai and his surrounds turn into a wheat field.
• Yuuichi watches a scene of Mai and her mother talking about going to the zoo, and another scene of her mother making a snow rabbit. However, her mother’s health continues to deteriorate until one day Mai’s mother suggests they go to the zoo. However they didn’t very far as Mai’s mother felt in pain again and needed to rest. Having fallen asleep, Mai starts making a snow rabbit, but when her mother wakes up, she finds that Mai has made a zoo of snow rabbits. Seeing this, Mai’s mother starts crying in happiness, but her condition didn’t change. Her mother fell unconscious later that afternoon. Mai started praying for her mother to get better while holding her hand, and miraculously she recovered the next morning.
• It appears that Mai has the power to heal and appeared on a television program to show the world, but this came at a price of where people feared Mai, causing them to move. A voice tells Mai that a strong person will come who will accept both her and her powers. This strong person happens to be Yuuichi and the two ended up playing together all the time. Running through the fields, Yuuichi notes that Mai is too small to see in the field, so he gives her a pair of bunny ears as a handicap.
• Mai shows him her powers and explains that is the reason she had to move. But Yuuichi points out that this power healed her mother and one day she’ll like it. With the end of summer vacation, Yuuichi has to return home. Mai says that she needs his help to protect the field from demons. However Yuuichi doesn’t turn up and the field ended up being bulldozed, which starts the construction of a school, the same school they both attend.
• Yuuichi finds Mai in one of the classrooms, but she tells him to leave as she can’t protect him s she is. He realises that there were never any demons and they were all created from Mai’s powers, and that is why she gets hurt every time she kills one. This is what her powers wanted to tell Yuuichi, but they were too strong hence why he couldn’t understand them, but finally did when there was one left. When she was little, she had made up a lie about demons so her friend wouldn’t leave, and she tried to believe it. Yuuichi knows that he is that friend and that they met a long time ago. But Mai believes that friend ran away as he was scared of her powers, but Yuuichi says that he had to go home, and the next year returned to the field but couldn’t find her.
• To get her to remember, Yuuichi brings out the bunny ears he got from Nayuki and puts it on Mai’s head, telling her that starting today she’ll revert back to the Mai she once was. By accepting her powers, the battle will end - this is the message the demons wanted to tell Yuuichi.
• Trying to get her to smile, Yuuichi tells her that she was having a long dream. Telling her that she doesn’t have to fight anymore and that she can throw away her sword, but Mai can’t as she has been relying on it everyday to live. She feels that if she lets go she’ll become weak and be trouble to Yuuichi and Sayuri. But Yuuichi doesn’t care as he reminds Mai that he and Sayuri love her. Mai starts remembering the time they spent together. Teary eyed, Mai turns to Yuuichi and thanks him, but suddenly turns the sword around and stabs herself in the chest.
• With Mai dying in her arms, Yuuichi starts crying, but a voice calls out his name. He finds himself in the wheat field facing the young Mai. He apologises for coming back so late, but she is content since he came after all. She asks if he won’t go anywhere this time, but Yuuichi reassures that he won’t as they are friends. Looking at Mai, he notices that her wound has closed up. The young Mai says that she can go back and she thinks that Mai will accept her now. She tells Yuuichi that she is a fragment of Mai’s powers, but she wants him to call her by her name - her name is Hope.
• With the morning sunrise coming through the windows, Mai starts to move a little and Yuuichi urges her to get up as it’s time to awaken from her dream.

Preview:

Impressions

First and foremost, young Mai is sooooo damn cute. Funnily enough she also looks like a young Shana. But I think it’s also due to Tamura Yukari as a seiyuu as she does really awesome cute voices, e.g. Misha from Pita-Ten. But it is rather surprising to see how much Mai’s character has changed from the past to the present. But it is in a rather progressive manner starting from the discovery of her healing powers up to her lying to Yuuichi about the demons. You can see that she was desperate and didn’t want to experience the negative effect that she experienced.

But I think one major point about this episode was the amount of flashback material as compared to Makoto’s arc. It’s more to the fact that we get to know more about the character from knowing their history and I thought that KyoAni did a great job. In the Toei version, we only find out that Yuuichi was a childhood friend of Mai. So in this one it gives a larger impact as we see how Mai became how she is. But the storytelling of Mai’s arc was done well. Throughout the episodes and at the end, it just keeps giving you more questions and nicely answers them all towards the end.

With knowing that Mai’s powers are the power of healing, this doesn’t answer some other questions. Such as how Mai knew about Makoto’s identity and her fate, but also what she knows about Ayu. Also the incarnation of Mai’s powers as the demons is a bit far-fetched, but it does make sense in the end. Another thing is the snow bunnies that were shown in this episode. Anyone who has seen the Toei version know that the snow bunnies play a roll in Nayuki’s arc and is also a part of the game, as far as i can remember. Makes me wonder why KyoAni added it in for the Mai arc, but the scene of the snow rabbit zoo was rather touching.

But now with the conclusion of the Mai arc, we move onto the Shiori arc. Though it makes me question what will happen with Mai and Sayuri now? Will they make a disappearance like Amano did after the end of the Makoto arc? I’m guessing so as having the pair linger around through a new arc would be more of a detour/distraction. Though now we have 11 episodes left, I’m hoping that Shiori’s arc won’t go on for too long, mainly because since I’m not really a Shiori fan.

Kanon Merchandise of the Week

Ok since there are a few Key cards to show, I thought I’d show some more and these ones are rather fitting for the end of Mai’s arc, kind of.

A young Mai surrounded by her demons.

And some very cute snow rabbits. Makes me wish it was snowing here so I can make some./p>

Now not exactly a Kanon related item, but requested by Misuzu from visualnews.net, I’ve included a Little Busters card.

Kamikita Komari in a nurse uniform. How cute~~~~