Moé Moé Rabu

• Yuuichi heads downstairs for breakfast but doesn’t appear to be energetic, which worries Ayu.
• On the way to school, Shiori intentionally bums into Yuuichi. Having made another bento, they decide on meeting at the cafeteria. Before meeting Shiori, Yuuichi meets up with Kaori. Staring into the distance, Kaori comments how she feels that time stops when she is doing this but knows it never will. She also reveals that she knew Shiori was coming to school everyday when she talks about the schoolyard.
• During lunch, Yuuichi brings up the idea of a birthday party for Shiori, in which she agrees to attend. Afterwards Yuuichi suggests they cut afternoon classes and go wherever she wants, but Shiori feels that he’s making it out that they won’t get to see each other anymore, so they don’t go ahead with it.
• That night, he asks Ayu and Nayuki to attend the birthday party in which they agree to attend.
• On the day of the party, Yuuichi tries to invite Kaori but she says it has nothing to do with her. Yuuichi tells Kaori that Shiori is living life to the fullest each day and reveals to her that Shiori came to school everyday so she could have lunch together. With Kaori walking off, Yuuichi yells that they’ll be waiting for her.
• At the end of school, Yuuichi takes Shiori to the cafe where Nayuki, Ayu, Kitagawa, and Shiori’s classmate are already waiting. Kaori arrives back home and briefly looks at the photos of her and Shiori before falling onto her bed. The party started and Shiori blows out the candles on her cake.

• With Kitagawa attacking Yuuichi for having so many girls around him, everyone proceeds to give their gifts to Shiori. Nayuki gives her strawberry jam made by Akiko, Ayu gives her taiyaki, and Shiori’s classmate gives her homemade scones. As they are talking about how Shiori likes sweets, Kaori enters the cafe.
• With Kaori seated, Kitagawa introduces them but as he starts wondering about Shiori’s last name, Yuuichi interrupts. When Shiori gives Kaori a slice of cake, everyone notices the awkward distance between the two. So to liven things up, Kitagawa wears his dance outfit and starts dancing with Yuuichi. Shiori and Kaori couldn’t help but laugh, but stop when they look at each other. Kaori avoids eye contact with Shiori, but Shiori continues on to look at her.
• Wit the party over, everyone makes a promise to eat lunch together sometime. When Kitagawa questions about Shiori being his girlfriend, Kaori says that Yuuichi doesn’t have an eye for girls. Yuuichi follows up saying that it’s none of her business, but Kaori says it’s her business because Shiori is her little sister. This surprises everyone and making Shiori happy. So Kaori leads everyone away so Yuuichi and Shiori can be alone together. As they are walking off, Kaori turns around and tells Shiori that they’ll talk a lot later.
• So with a lot of time left, Yuuichi and Shiori do various fun things around the city until they reach the fountain later that night. Sitting down to talk, Shiori comments how Yuuichi is a strong person, but Yuuichi says that Shiori is the one who is strong. Shiori reveals that she once slit her wrist before. It happened on the night the first time she met Yuuichi. That day she was wearing the shawl that her sister gave her a year ago as a present and bought a box cutter from a convenience store before meeting Yuuichi and Ayu.
• That night she was alone in her dark room. She couldn’t hear anything, see anything or think of anything, and felt she was cut off from the world and felt she was in the wrong place. As she was about to cut herself, the moon lit her room and she thought she heard laughter. Remembering their joyful faces and voices, she felt miserable. Laughing at first she then ended up crying the tears that didn’t come when Kaori told her she wouldn’t live to her next birthday. Realising that she was crying because she was sad and laughing her heart out, she couldn’t cut herself anymore.
• Shiori believes that was a miracle, but Yuuichi feels that it’s her strength. Shiori however calls her weak and that she cannot live without the support of others. Yuuichi says that it’s ok as everyone has to live with the support of others, and that they are called miracles since there’s a chance of it coming true. Yuuichi then asks to make a promise that if a miracle does happen, she’ll treat him to a cafeteria lunch, and she agrees.
• Shiori starts mentioning about how she has many things she still wants to do and that she doesn’t want to die yet. She feels that she shouldn’t have become so close to people as she would make those people suffer like Kaori. But Yuuichi says that he was glad to have met Shiori. Upon hearing that, Shiori asks Yuuichi if she was able to keep smiling the entire time, and Yuuichi says that she did whilst brushing the snow off her head.
• Shiori notices that midnight is coming soon and that she’ll be 16 years old. When the clock strikes midnight, Yuuichi gives Shiori her present. Opening up Shiori finds a sketch book and says that she’ll treasure it and follows up by kissing him on the cheek, which surprises Yuuichi. Getting up, Shiori tells Yuuichi to stay there as she’ll go buy him something warm to drink. After sitting there thinking about Kaori and Shiori together, Yuuichi notices that Shiori is taking her time but then notices that she has taken her presents with her. Rushing off to the vending machines, all he finds is a can of coffee and a note. The note says thank you very much and goodbye. As Yuuichi stands there alone, he wishes Shiori a happy birthday.

Preview:

Impressions

So this is the conclusion of Shiori’s arc?? Knowing that it wouldn’t be a happy ending, there is a definite lack of closure on this one. Now Shiori isn’t exactly my favourite character but I was hoping that KyoAni would do something spectacular with Shiori’s ending to make me change my mind. But rather I feel somewhat empty and unsatisfied. But of course this does make Shiori disappear through the other arcs, just like Makoto, Mai and Sayuri, though I do get a feeling that we’ll see everyone at the near end of the show after the climatic end.

Comparing this to the other arcs, I prefer Mai’s overall so far. With all the hints throughout the other two arcs, it was a pretty much a dead giveaway as to what would be happening. I found most of the enjoyable parts in last weeks and this week’s episode only as this is where it starts getting into the details of the distance between Kaori and Shiori.

Kaori’s acceptance of Shiori wasn’t as good as I expected. The movement from shadow to light when she accepted her sister was great, but it lacked that emotional effect to show that Kaori really was suffering and it seems that things are ok. I was hoping that she would break down in tears or something just like in the Toei version.

So with the end of the Shiori arc I don’t think that it’s completely over. I do believe she will come back and give us a conclusion that she is alive and that it’ll reinforce Yuuichi’s quote about miracles. Next week is the start of the Ayu and Nayuki arc, but starting off with Nayuki first. Being a Nayuki fan, I’ll surely be fan-girling over the next few episodes.

Kanon Merchandise of the Week

Yes this week is a Shiori character book to commemorate the ending of the Shiori arc. Just like the previous two character books, it contains CG scenes, character profiles, staff interview and other stuff.

And below is the poster that comes with the character book. Just like the other posters, this will never hang on my wall.

As an added extra, and requested last week, I’m including a Misuzu Key Card that is part of the Hirake Gomaa game.