davis.allen - 2016-03-15 01:58:13

Review in Español... Anime de chicas con armas #112.. pero con historia mas profunda

stewart.steuber - 2015-08-26 10:40:32

first i want to clear up something i dont know why some people say this is bad they are clearly poor minded i dont know... but this is a real awesome Drama thats what i call a real anime that we dont have in this generation but hey lets begin and forget about the bad reviews this is a awesome Drama.. and people dont really talk about i think because their are bad reviewers or something.. who dont have good taste in anime.. thats sad but dont feel offended... lets begin !

About The Story
we have a pretty solid Storyline about a lot of things we begin with the Journalists for scops but they fall into something more terrible than they think with a lot of mystery than they want to know more i talk about Minoru but Maria seem to more care about Canaan but their is a story behind that and a lot of things but this is freaking great in Drama prepare to have some feels too just saying... , so yeah thats the kind of story we dont have in the anime now... i like the concept thats not too much unrealistic too thats stay in the realistic a little without exaggerate the things and this is very good and interesting , i miss this kind of story in the anime with a serious storyline who stay mature with a little bit of Comedy without taking all the place , this is guarranted this story is awesome !

About The Animation and Sounds
thats a serie from 2009 but have awesome graphics i have nothing bad to say about it , for the sounds you will probably remember the voice of the singer at the Opening .. or not.. depend but anyway the Ending is a little great too i will leave you the links..

Opening

Ending

About The Characters
thats better if i dont talk about each characters for this anime .. why ? because thats can steal you the punch of some story but i will talk about each characters in details in one text .. , we have a lot of nice and bad ass characters we can see they really like to live into a nightmare with a lot of bad things happen but for be short they will need to deal with it they all have their own charms good or evil.. yeah you can like the evil characters too... but you gonna be attached to a character not sure depend on you but you will more appreciated the Storyline

About The Enjoyment
we have a lot of Drama and awesome Story and thats really interesting to follow for see what is gonna happen in the next episode you cannot hate something like that... if you like Drama thats sure you will like this one and they dont have something like exaggerated power this is really realistic if you know what i mean but thats staying a Sci-Fi thats the kind of anime you just say "wow thats beautiful" at the end

if you are into Drama or Action... or like mature series you got something good no doubt about it , dont miss this anime just ignore the bad things who people are saying about this anime the Drama is just too good for be miss without forget the feels you have and some reality you can live in your real life this anime is just awesome i dont know if you gonna think the same things as me but thats awesome... 

only Terrible Anime Fans can hate this serie... or you are just not into Drama... another possibility for be simple i will say i don't understand why you are into anime if you dislike a serious anime like that...

Dont be offended but thats how i see that..

schiller.eugene - 2015-08-08 22:53:38

[Old review is old.]

I remember getting pretty excited over this anime when I first watched it. Maybe it was the well done action sequences, or perhaps it was the interesting narrative structure, or maybe it was just blind appreciation for everything P.A. Works did. Unfortunately this is another one of those shows where my appreciation turned into apathy overtime; a type of apathy that I don’t usually get. Lethargic feelings aside, there’s a lot of stuff in this show to like and a lot to dislike, and reviews don’t write themselves, do they?

Canaan is a story about the titular main heroine who works as an assassin after an emotional adolescence of loss and dangerous training. She possesses synesthesia, a power of enhanced sense that allows her to see smells, sounds, or even feelings as colors, making her a great tracker and an effective killer, though her morality isn’t as harsh as that implies. As her past starts to resurface in the form of a deadly group of terrorists and a dangerous virus that connects with her special abilities, a journey between many players is set in motion. The result is an intriguing mystery action roller coaster from the perspective of reporters, virus victims, the terrorist group, and Canaan herself.

Though the plot I just described sounds like a modern version of Baccano, the narrative is much more grounded to a traditional case of linear events with scattered flashbacks. This doesn’t stop the show’s overconfidence in scattered presentation as we get an absolute clusterfuck of events for the first few episodes. We don’t even get Canaan’s backstory containing most of her character aspects until an hour into the anime, so for three episodes we’re running around with an assassin who fights pretty cool but fails to connect with the viewers. Alongside that, we’re introduced to a couple of journalists, one of which has significant ties to Canaan that we also don’t anything about. While they act as the audience’s guide through the story in the beginning, they bring a tone of comedic anime quirkiness that clashes horribly with the subject matter happening around them. It also doesn’t help that they’re about as interesting as stale bread until the later parts of the show. We also see people who have the aforementioned virus, including some stand-in villains whose short arcs only stall for the main conflict that makes up the rest of the anime. Showing tidbits of the major villains at this time wasn’t a good choice either as it just created more unwanted interruptions from the journalists’ perspective. While it was able to establish an expectation for the type of content we’re getting into, the first act results in a huge risk of being completely lost in the maze of unexplained plotpoints and shallow characters.

I can’t say that the second act completely fixes the narrative problems, but it certainly provides much needed emotional connection to the characters. By now the main issue between the leads is set up, thus more time can be devoted to making the side characters and even reoccurring background characters effective and memorable. While the overall story progresses better than before, noticeable plot conveniences were becoming apparent, like Canaan’s rival postponing fights because she finds it fun when it’s obvious stalling, or a bit where Canaan loses her synesthesia only to get it back later without any conflict or development. The overall mood still appeared to be torn between a dominant serious tone in dealing with terrorist activity and politics, while still not venturing too far from more quirky moments. For example, treating a hostage situation with legitimate distress and adding in threatening situations for the protagonists proved effective, but adding in the United States President preaching “love and peace” à la Vash The Stampede was an obvious miss. However, some of the more lighthearted moments ended up working out, like how the building friendship between the journalist and Canaan started to become more believable in comparison to the beginning which just threw them together and told viewers to roll with it. Alongside that, the side characters are fleshed out in more playful ways that ended up being memorable and essential in later scenes. It was clear that focus on Canaan and her rival was becoming dominant while the overconfident presentation style was being toned down. It also used this time to address and explain the plotpoints that weren’t touched at all beforehand, which may have worked out in the big picture but made for needlessly confusing atmosphere that just detracted from the final result.

The final act offers the strongest narrative structure as the main cast gathers together in one place for the climax (a very well done climax I might add). The overall mood felt significantly more balanced in portraying more weighty elements alongside the right amount of casual scenes. Now that we know all the characters beyond their initial simplicity, the active presentation becomes practical in keeping up with how everyone interacts. The show also does well in giving most of the cast solid closure in their problems, with results varying from heartwarming to downright tragic. One example being the main villain’s right hand going down a progressive road to insanity which would normally be cliche in most anime trying to handle heavy elements. However, the show goes to extreme lengths to show how nuts she gets, and it ended up being very entertaining. While I knock the show so much for an ineffective beginning and a messy transition into the finale, I can’t bash it too hard for giving the characters the right amount of focus to each of their special arcs. While still acknowledging a great finale and a feel-good resolution, the scattered narrative and the poor blending of serious and not-so-serious moods dragged it down a bit too much for me. As a simple action show, it works out okay and even managed to go the extra mile in some places. The presentation issues are still detrimental though and the whole show would have been alright if not for the messy start.

The animation was probably the best part of the show, as P.A. Works proves that they can create satisfactory visuals no matter what type of show they work on. The character movement makes for some good action, the backgrounds are solid, and the effects work was impressive. I imagine character designs can be credited to Type/Moon themselves, but they work fine regardless. The only artistic aspect that felt underwhelming was the 3D work, and even then it wasn’t used often so it wasn’t a big complaint. Out of all departments, art was the only one that stayed consistent throughout, though I guess can gripe about some unneeded fanservice here and there.

The OST barely had very little presence, and you can rarely tell that it’s there when it plays in the show. As a complement this technically means it’s doing its job since there was nothing that felt totally out of place, but nothing was very memorable either. During the third act there were a couple songs that at least stood out, but not enough for me to check out the entire OST to pick them out. I liked the Opening alright and I remember watching it through many times, though it’s not exactly up there with the all time great ones. It’s energetic enough with some good animation and music, so take that as you will. I didn’t really like the ED since it’s basically the usual gimmick of showcasing the ladies of the show without clothing, partnered with a boring somber track. I just saw it as a few cheap shots and skipped it every time.

Voice acting is where some more complaints lie. On one hand, the original actors didn’t feel very impressive to me, and they rarely went further than the usual banal replications. The only time I felt like a voice was genuine was during a flashback to younger Canaan in training, but aside from that it’s a whole lot of stereotypical moe sounds and standard serious deliveries. On the other hand, the English dub ended up being passable, albeit a bit soulless. The overall tone is smoothed out with consistent mature deliveries, making the whole show a bit more bearable to watch during the messy parts. And it was nice to hear them actually pronounce Canaan correctly. It’s no Stand Alone Complex, but it’s a breath of fresh air in comparison to the original recordings.

There’s always an element of disappointment in finding out that some simple show I used to like has just faded from my reverence. While I think it’s obvious what I did or didn’t like about Canaan, it just feels grading to organize thoughts on it. Is it due to the show’s decisions to create needless decoration in some attempt to prove that it’s exceptional, when cutting most of the earlier bits would have resulted in a decent anime instead of pointless chaos? It’s so close to a simple action show that it’s kind of frustrating, and if it knew what to focus on from the get-go I would have been invested in it from beginning to end. It’s certainly not awful, but there are more balanced shows out there that end up doing the same thing Canaan accomplishes in the long run.

I give this anime a score of 5.8/10 (3 stars), and a Passive rating, meaning you can watch it if it interests you, or move along if it doesn't without missing much.

kattie.reynolds - 2015-06-27 21:19:02

Canaan is one of those anime that can keep you up all night watching it.The story is awesomely developing step-by-step,the character development is super awesome,also the feels train is going to hit you out of nowhere.Overall a 10/10 anime,having a great main character with great relation with the other ones,such as Maria Osawa.

wayne81 - 2014-08-12 09:22:24

An interesting action series that kind of loses its luster later on. 

onie.pagac - 2014-03-14 22:38:47

Canaan (kay-nuhn), as in the Promised Land of the Israelites, is an anime that will instantly hook you, but leave you scratching your head about what the hell actually got done. Long story short: a lot of nothing.

Canaan is brought to you by Type-Moon, and it shows. I'm not a fan of Kinoko Nasu's writing, and the series opens rather pretentiously with a typical statement about mankind, and it was a bad first impression for the opening minutes.

You're even staring at him! Will someone help this poor man!? No?

Too busy spending time questing human perception, are we?

Most of what Nasu calls deep I call stupid, but that type of writing ends very quickly. This is probably one of the simplest stories he has ever written. Even though it is supposedly a sequel to some Japanese Wii game called "428: Fusa Sareta Shibuya de," it's hard to feel lost due to its basic nature, and never really branching from there. It is at its heart a girls with guns anime, but one of the best of its kind. It's fun, entertaining, just clever enough to hold your interest, and has some pretty good characters with some pretty cool powers.

428 can even be seen all over the promotional art. Man, I wish I knew more about this game.

Special shout out to a taxi driver named Jin. He was awesome, and by far the best taxi driver any adrenalin pumped man can ask for. XD

Canaan's premise within its setting is solely good guy agents fight terrorists, and it never changes. It is basically split up into two halves that feature preventing a terrorist attack on Shanghai, China, and the next mainly focusing on backstory and development for our characters while they are in the middle of nowhere. And that's where the story basically lies, in all the development. The series never comes to a conclusive stop, but once everyone has found some kind of internal peace, there's not much point in continuing what would only be a plot recycled.

It's a good thing then that these are some likable characters, although I wouldn't call all of them good. Not everyone gets development, some come and go as they please, and some just kind of exist. You'll think they may be progressing the plot, but they really aren't. It's only Canaan, Maria, and Alphard who have any real significance, but everyone is fun to hang around anyway.

Now if only the series could decide if Canaan's and Maria's relationship was a yuri one or a mother-daughter one.

Nonetheless, I was genuinely surprised how well it all flowed together. I'd hate to be watching this when it came out week by week as each episode never really ends, just stops. It would have been incredibly jarring, and partially still is. However, the two arcs of the series I mentioned earlier flow together just as well as every other episode.

P.A. Works did the animation and their prowess shows, as usual. The action here looks amazing, the choreography is badass to say the least, and Takashi Takeuchi's art style adds a lot to the balance of tension and comedy. Everything art related is simply fantastic. It's not perfect though; a few hiccups can be found occasionally and the CG will stick out at you. It's not bad CG by any means, and is pretty rare in fact, but anything of remotely less quality is noticeable when you have a series looking this good.

In the audio department, nothing about the soundtrack stuck out to me. I knew it was there, but it was just an OST that exists to support what's on screen, nothing more, nothing less. And I personally disliked the ED theme of the series. Slow songs aren't an issue, but I'm not a fan of near ambient sounding music. However, the OP was incredibly adrenaline pumping and just down right awesome. Additionally, if you're looking for a good dub, you can rest assured that Sentai Filmworks has delivered. A rare statement, I know, this only their third dub I've found myself liking. For the record, I only saw the series dubbed, so I have no opinion on the Japanese.

Apparently back in 2012, Canaan's website closed down, so there's clearly nothing left for this series that Type-Moon has in mind.

Canaan is a very flawed series, but always exciting. It's on the smarter end of action anime, but nothing strenuous. It's just a good time when a good time is required, and I sure don't regret exposing myself to this series. Just try to watch it in one sitting if you can.

terrill.bradtke - 2013-05-19 04:22:54

Canaan: BOOM! Here's a Girl and a Gun

So many plot holes that they attempt to fill with girls and guns....

Story:

I don't have all that much to say about this anime, at first it caught my eye and I thought it might be neat but they didn't keep going with it. Its almost like the makers got lazy and decided they would just fill empty parts with explosions and girls.

Animation:

Eh I was a bit iffy on the style of this anime, but it went well with the tattered plot that this anime was, maybe it was just me, but this anime made little sense and it seemed like they tried to cover it with, yet again, guns, chicks, and explosions.

Summary:

Some may like it some won't, if you like the assasin theme with Gun, Girls, Explosions and little actual plot, then by all means go watch it.

-Alf