Moé Moé Rabu

• Seven years ago, Yuuichi made a promise to Ayu that he will return. Yuuichi says that the angel doll that he gave Ayu can grant her three wishes. So the first wish that Ayu made was for Yuuichi to never forget her.
• Back in the present, Yuuichi is standing out on his balcony thinking about Shiori. Ayu finds him standing there and sees that he is thinking about Shiori. Ayu learnt of Shiori’s sickness from Nayuki, who heard from Kaori. Ayu says that she’ll help Yuuichi however way she can since he helped her before. She tells him that he was the one that gave her the red hair band before he left the city, but neither Ayu nor Yuuichi can remember that day.
• The next day Yuuichi, Ayu, Akiko, and Kitagawa show up to cheer Nayuki on in her race. Whilst talking to her, Yuuichi overhears a bunch of guys talking about Nayuki. As Ayu takes Yuuichi to a better viewing spot, Kitagawa tells Nayuki to win as that’ll cheer both Yuuichi and Kaori up. Seeing how well Ayu and Yuuichi get along, Kitagawa tells Yuuichi to not make a grade schooler his girlfriend. However Kitagawa is shocked to find Ayu is the same age as them.

• With the race starting, Nayuki is the anchor for her team. As it is her turn she manages to pass a few runners with her amazing speed. So Yuuichi borrows Kitagawa’s bike and proceeds to follow and cheers Nayuki on, and Nayuki ends up getting first place.
• After the award ceremony, Yuuichi is with Nayuki at a cafe to celebrate her new record. Nayuki tells Yuuichi that Kaori was happy to hear that she won, but then changes the topic about Yuuichi being used to this city. The reason she asks is that she likes this city and wants Yuuichi to like it as well. Hearing this, Yuuichi asks if Nayuki has anyone she likes. Nayuki reveals that she used to have a boy she liked in grade school, but she got rejected. She thinks the boy has forgotten about it and couldn’t be helped since he liked someone else at the time. Yuuichi thinks that his feelings might have changed but Nayuki thinks that he still likes that girl back then and still does now. She describes him as devoted, even though he is mean sometimes, when he sees someone in trouble, he can’t leave them alone but that boy doesn’t seem aware of it.
• Afterwards, Yuuichi says that he’ll buy Nayuki a present for her victory. So Nayuki selects a red marble, which Yuuichi calls her strange and comparable to Ayu. On the subject of Ayu, Nayuki tells Yuuichi to not give Ayu too much trouble, but Yuuichi claims he’s the one being troubled. Nayuki says that he doesn’t understand and was about to reveal something about Ayu, but stops and says it’s a secret.
• Seven years ago, Ayu gave Yuuichi some cookies she made, but they were burnt. He then took Ayu to the forest where a large tree is and calls it his special spot. Looking at the tree, Ayu tells Yuuichi to turn around and not look until she says so. She surprised him by climbing up the tree. Yuuichi tried to get Ayu to come down but she says that she is good at climbing trees. Walking back to the city, Yuuichi asked why she got him to look away. Embarrassed, she didn’t want him to look up her skirt. With two days till Yuuichi leaves the city, the two make a promise to play again tomorrow.
• Back in the present, Yuuichi is lying in bed awake. Walking outside he finds Ayu out on the balcony as well as she happened to wake up from a dream, the same with Yuuichi. Ayu thinks that they may have had the same dream, but Yuuichi finds that unbelievable. Yuuichi then asks Ayu how much does she remember of seven years ago, but Ayu only remembers small parts and that she met Yuuichi everyday. Yuuichi reveals that he doesn’t remember much either but seems to remember Makoto and Mai and he wonders why. Although seven years has passed, Ayu says that it’s amazing because the hair band is still here and that Yuuichi is right in front of her.
• The next day, Yuuichi finds himself eating lunch with Kitagawa alone since Nayuki has club practice and Kaori is away. Feeling melancholic, Kitagawa comments how he heard that Shiori is doing well.
• After school, Yuuichi is wondering around alone until Ayu jumps him. It just so happens that they are near the bench where Ayu and Yuuichi used to meet up seven years ago, so Ayu acts out how she would scold Yuuichi. Yuuichi reminds Ayu that isn’t she is searching for her lost item, so the two spend the afternoon searching, but end up returning to the bench with no results.
• Sitting there, Ayu says that it reminds her of the days when her mother left her alone and when Yuuichi came and spoke to her. Ayu then asks if Yuuichi has ever lost an important person right in front of him. Whilst crying, she reveals that she lost someone and forced her to realise that she was a powerless child and all she could do was call out that person’s name until her voice died. That person was her mother. Yuuichi remembers about Makoto, Mai and Shiori and two other memories. He tries to tell Ayu about Shiori but breaks down and walks away from the bench. Stopping shortly he apologises, but here Ayu realises that he has experienced losing someone important to him. Ayu then tells Yuuichi to not look at her crying face and asks him to close his eyes and she follows by closing her eyes. The two lean towards each other and kiss.

Preview:

Impressions

At first I though we would have a kind of bufferafter Shiori’s arc but it looks to be right into the Ayu arc. Either way this episode was full of Nayuki and Ayu goodness and we get many things revealed in this episode. Firstly is Ayu’s hair band was given to her by Yuuichi. This will play an important part later on in the series though I’m not exactly sure how they will go about bringing it into the story. Next is the large tree in the forest, and it’s the tree that we have been seing in the OP and in Yuuichi’s memories, but with all the clues that have appeared so far it’s easy to see Ayu and Yuuichi’s past.

It was so great to see more of Nayuki as we haven’t seen much of her at all. It’s rather sad as she is my most favourite character in Kanon. But now we have Nayuki’s confession that Yuuichi si the one she obviously likes, but Yuuichi is rather dull in picking it up. However what still stands is how was she rejected and I’m sure we’ll be seeing that sometime after the pinnicle of Ayu’s arc. But at this point it seems disappointing on how Nayuki has given up on Yuuichi, especially after hearing her advice on Ayu. Though I think once she learns the tructh about Ayu, she may come fighting back.

Of course the best part of this episode was the kissing scene at the end. With my recent hobby of photography and camera angles, I’ve come to appreciate the use of angles and composition. But the cinemaphotography of the kiss scene was absolutely brilliant. With a closeup of Ayu’s tear with a zooming out and panning shot was marvelous. Definitely more dramatic than the Toei version, but it now shows that we have the Yuuichi x Ayu pair. So with the next episode being Ayu focused, it makes me wonder how they are going about with Nayuki’s arc. As much as I would like a Yuuichi x Nayuki ending, it won’t happen. Unless we see a Canvas2 scenario, but I highly doubt that KyoAni would do such a thing.

Next week’s episode is Ayu focused, but we find out more about the tree from Akiko.

Kanon Merchandise of the Week

Yes it’s a rare item this week. I was hoping to have this posted last week but with the end of the Shiori arc I thought it was better to put it off. Anyway this week is from the 2002 version of Kanon by Toei. What you see here is a Limited Edition version of the 2nd Original SoundTrack. The difference between this and the regular version is that it is in a DVD case, comes with a small trading card, and the inside of the cover slip has the autographs of the seiyuus.

A friend of mine bought this and when I found out about it, I knew I had to have it. Luckily for me, the good people at Tamarket ended up finding me a copy. I also listened to it again recently and it brings back many memories to why I love Kanon so much.

I have torrented this OST once before back when the HongFire tracker was up and running. However do not ask me to rip the CD as I really can’t be bothered doing so. Any comments asking for a rip will be deleted or edited.

Also to note, I think there is also a Limited Edition version of the 1st OST but I’m not too sure since I haven’t seen any around on auctions.