CANAAN

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionCanaan
MANGA ActionCanaan Sfill
NOVEL ActionCanaan

REVIEWS

• 

  seanny

  60/100
  Remember 9/11 and the GWB years? This Type-Moon / Mari Okada curiosity does.

  Canaan is intriguing by staff alone. It’s not obvious why I skipped over it initially. Maybe my fascination with P.A. Works didn't exist yet. Maybe Type-Moon and Mari Okada weren't the rock stars they are now. Or maybe the whole affair seemed so passé, even in its time.

  Some things age like wine, but Canaan is Pepsi Blue. If you have nostalgia for laser blue consumer products, perhaps you also have nostalgia for the George W. Bush era of blockbuster terrorism, dubious US military operations in tandem with evil paramilitary forces, black hawk choppers circling bombed out desert villages, a shadowy vice president and his cabal pulling the strings, the pervasive browns of tactical shooter video games, and more time bombs than you can shake a stick at. Canaan offers all this and more.

  That said, it's watchable. Takashi Takeuchi’s familiar character designs are rendered crisply in its acrobatic bullet-opera shootouts. And Kinoko Nasu & Mari Okada’s grim sensibilities align in a story about a warrior of fate burdened by her supernatural “synesthesia” vision (or one could call like it is: The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception), and the web of guilt and envy that surrounds her.

  Unfortunately, it rarely transcends the mundane of its era. Okada’s now-familiar brand of over-the-top melodrama makes for some entertainingly grotesque moments, but its drama is shortchanged by a semi-supernatural global conspiracy story that reaches for Metal Gear Solid levels of convolution. The hows or whys are hard to keep track of, and lack Hideo Kojima’s eccentric knack for camp and absurdist levity.

  Though Canaan is only P.A. Works’ second TV series, proceeding Okada’s True Tears, it feels older than it is. Perhaps by its 2009 release, it already missed the zeitgeist. The inauguration of Barack Obama was the culmination of post-9/11 fatigue reflected in popular media. "24" was already in its final seasons. The apocalyptic, terrorism-packed Battlestar Galactica just aired its tortured finale. Metal Gear Solid 4 wrapped up its canon a year earlier.

  The market was not ripe for a terrorism-flavored action anime in the desert with cartoony analogs of Bush, Cheney and Blackwater. Oh, and Pepsi Blue ended its distribution in 2004. Perhaps it’s better to experience this anime with curious nostalgia than with the contemporaneous verisimilitude it never fully grasped.

  Some additional thoughts to pad out the review length due to the new 2100 character minimum; all I wanted to do was edit a typo! I have similar feelings about Code Geass; its 2019 throwback movie really smacks one in the face with dated 9/11-isms. But original Code Geass debuted in 2006 — significantly earlier than Canaan — so it didn't have the same issue as Canaan did.

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• 

  R2R

  45/100
  Guns and Girls, Tomboys and Terrorism, Sci-Fi and Supernatural, all for one big disappointingly bland experience.

  https://anilist.co/anime/5356/Canaan/

  ---

  Lately, Mino has found his time as a reporter to be somewhat unfulfilling. He only ever produced gossip stories, which one would read at sunrise and then promptly forget by sunset. So, in order to get that huge scoop, he made the decision to dig into a certain terrorist group while pretending to be writing an article about the "International Conference on Anti-terrorism" that's going to be held at the capital of the factory of the world, Shanghai. He is accompanied by Maria, his blond and jovial new photographer. But when Maria unintentionally captures images of the blood-coughing masked guys at the core of a carnival that everyone appears to be rather passionately involved in, things take a sharp turn. And to her amazement, Cannan, her one and only white-haired, gun-toting batman of a friend, arrives for her rescue. Mino notices that something strange is happening in the city.
  What might it be, and what other unexpected and frightening facts are awaiting our team?

  
   It's NOT what it looks like, trust me</span></span> <center>
  The essential characteristic of "Cannan" is how well it manages its cast of characters. There are close to 15 of them, and while some rapidly recede into the background such as the gun-hu old man with his young companion or the masculine Moe cab driver and his favorite idol, others have a significant impact on the plot. With the exception of YunYun (the girl above), everyone in the story is paired: Mino & Maria, Cannan & Alphard, Sandy & Hakko, and Liang & Cummings. By the end of the story, everyone has undergone a complete transformation, but each character's development depends entirely on the pair counterpart they are interacting with because without them, you can't really like these characters and you might even detest a [few](https://anilist.co/character/19814/Liang-Qi) (I hated her as much as I felt sorry for her).
  
  </center><img width='330' src='https://imgur.com/xUx9fUD.jpeg'>
  ##### These two have a lot of similarities, with a certain [someone](https://anilist.co/character/3105/Shiki-Ryougi). <center>
  I had the distinct impression that these two tomboys were descended from [Shiki](https://anilist.co/character/3105/Shiki-Ryougi). All three of them have a guy or girl they like or look up to and are both cool and strong. However, Cannan and Shiki are similar in terms of abilities, while Alphard and Shiki are more similar in terms of personalities (they even share the same [VA](https://anilist.co/staff/95090/Maaya-Sakamoto)). Although this was more prominent later in the narrative, the anime concentrates on their rivalry and how these two overcame their origins. Beginning with some comedy and fan service, there is also sporadically brutal action.
  
  </center><img width='330' src='https://i.imgur.com/IuL0v8B.jpeg'><center>
  The fundamental issue with "Cannan" is that it falls short of conveying all of the different themes it set out to do. Themes of terrorization and human experimentation set the stage for a story of acceptance, but it was handled rather sloppily because the anime never really engaged emotionally. Additionally, despite having so many characters and only 13 episodes, none of them really hit the emotional high points they were established for, which can leave with an unsatisfying experience. Although it makes every effort, it never succeeds in bringing about the progress it promises to bring about in its own characters, even if it breaks them in the process.
  
  </center><img width='330' src='https://i.imgur.com/wyNCcAJ.gif'>
  ##### It's a Gif from OP. <center>
  It contains some impressive gun-fu action scenes, one character moment when they elevate a woman who is amusingly strolling by a sparkling fountain, and of course, those buns' bounce is beautiful, but regrettably, there aren't that many action scenes. Considering that both titles have the same creator, I suppose it makes sense that the character designs are extremely similar to those in Garden of Sinners. I paid no attention to the soundtrack other than the final song that plays as an insert, and I have no interest in looking it up either. However, the opening is quite strong.
  ___
  #<a><center>Conclusion</a>
  Personally, I don't think this anime is worth the watch, as its shortcomings outweigh its merits. But
  Watch this if you want to see some gun-slinging action or just want to waste some time. However,
  I believe there are far better Anime to waste your time with.
  
  </center><img width='330' src='https://i.imgur.com/xWnszrg.jpeg'>~~~

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