Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Kannagi - 03

Impressions
I liked this episode because it had great balance. The way they were able to push the story forward without being predictable, the way they introduced the new characters without going into too much detail and dragging on, and the quality jokes with good timing really set this series apart. More shows should be like this.

This episode centered around Jin's school and Jin's art club. I found it kind of surprising that Jin was in an art club, but it should have been obvious after he sculpted Nagi out of a tree trunk.

Still, I couldn't help but be reminded of other art animes like Canvas 2 and Honey and Clover. This makes me wonder what kind of anime this is going to be since there's an art club theme, pop idol theme (or maybe it was just the opening theme), and the impurity cleansing theme going on.

I do like the new characters though. Especially Kimura, Takako. Her attraction to Jin as the pure innocent boy is really funny. I don't think I've ever seen a girl get a nosebleed before.

The other guys seem like nice companions to Jin. There's the manga drawing, anime otaku, and the big, innocent, genius who likes cute things. I particularly like how the manga dude compared the series to a comic and said Jin was the star; irony is great.

As always, Nagi and Jin's interactions were chalked full of humor. When Nagi started running towards Jin I heard the Chariots of Fire theme in my head only to be brought to a screeching halt when Jin dodged her cold-heartedly. The side comments about Jin being a homo were also appreciated since I don't think they use the gay joke enough in animes. Especially considering how many male leads always act disinterested in girls.

They really brought up quite a few questions in this episode, like who was the guy Nagi likes. To me, that seems more interesting than the others but we are also given the question of why Nagi is losing her powers and who Nagi's sister is.

Overall, I couldn't ask for a better third episode. I'm definitely sold on the series already. The next episode seems to focus more on Nagi's sister which will surely be an interesting development and well worth the wait.

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