Canaan: Short, definitely not sweet, but to the point

I loved Canaan for its brevity and punchiness, but there were still some things I thought the anime could have done better.  Let's start with the aspects of the show that I liked first.  So, the story was pretty good and surprisingly well-developed for a series of only 13 episodes.  The characters were interesting, dynamic and, often, had dark pasts behind them.  For example, you have Maria Oosawa, who is super peppy and sometimes annoyingly happy. Now, this character had the potential to simply be a tropey anime girl who is nothing but happy.  However, events that occurred throughout the series revealed Maria to be a person with more complex thoughts, feelings, and experiences  than we might have supposed at the beginning of the show.  The same goes for Canaan, who initially seems like a 2-D personality with no feelings.  By the end of the show though, she too ends up being more of a "real" person than one might have previously thought.  Similarly, many of the other "good guys" in the show make personal developments and even regressions at times that add to the believability and level of interestingness of the show.  And what makes all of this possible is the series of unfortunate, yet necessary, events that unravels as the show goes on.

Our cast of characters

That's another thing that I liked about the show--the series of dramatic scenes and problems that happened throughout.  It was all so jarring, somewhat scarring, and always interesting.  Not to mention the fact that they manage to fit in some amazing concepts about people, society and unhealthy obsession.  I'm not sure if you've ever heard of the villain, Liang Qi, but she is one of the most loathsome, evil people in all of anime.  She was part of what I view as analysis of intriguing, deep concepts about psychosis and the problems of evil in diverse situations.  The other main villain, Alphard Alshua, was another well-utilized character that provided commentary on what I believe to have been jealousy and loss of principles.  On the flip side, you have others like Yun-yun, who are fun personalities that allow the audience to reflect on how people change when bad things happen around them.  I'll not tell you more than this, as I don't want to spoil anything for those of you who haven't watched the series yet, but I will tell you that Canaan is engaging and unique in the realm of character development!

I also really liked that the main characters are mostly female.  This was pretty cool, especially because animes with themes like those expressed in Canaan are what many might consider an anime for action lovers or guys.  BUT, because the major protagonists and even antagonists are women, I feel like it opens up the show's audience in a great way.  I mean, an anime where women are fighters, and skilled fighters at that, is just generally a great idea and I love it.

At the same time, there were some things I was less excited about.  One of those things was the amount of violence in the show.  There were times when I felt like there were unnecessarily gross, bloody, or over-the-top scenes that were, well, a bit much.  Granted, many shows do this same thing, but I often felt like some of the extra-violent scenes in Canaan were used to keep the viewer on their toes, rather than as a part of an intricate story line.  That is, some violence didn't really fit in with what I expected out of the show.

Liang Qi, the mentally detached sociopath.

Also, I wanted more from the story.  Yes, it was a great story for 13 episodes, but there were some areas where the story and writing could have been improved.  With that, I thought it was cool that Maria loved Canaan so much and that she admired Canaan on such a deep level, but I became somewhat annoyed with how much Maria idolized Canaan and said Canaan's name repeatedly all too often.  On a similar note, some parts of the show were a bit repetitious and slow and I could have done without them.  Additionally, I as a viewer felt as if there were not as many surprises as I might have liked to have seen in the show.  So, really, Canaan could have been more interesting, had the story been more complex and innovative, but it missed the mark on this one.

Maria Osawa embracing her friend, Canaan.

My overall rating for the show will have to be somewhere around 85%.  It is a fantastic show that I thing any anime lover should watch, but it's not something that I would go back and re-watch over and over again or follow the fandom closely for.  I can guarantee that the show will entertain you and that it will be thought-provoking.  However, it lacks in some areas in which I think the best animes should be excellent (i.e. mostly in the story and dialogue).

BY: Corey Cherrington