cheers, Ionian.

That scream at the end of the second episode remains very powerful for me; I’ve gone back and rewatched it several times after writing this post, and I still thenk the mix of Tifa’s voice and the (slightly dissonant? music’s not my forte) blast from the orchestra is a brilliant moment.

As for comparing the soundtracks . . . it’s unavoidably true that Gundam X’s is better than Kanon. While you and other commenters have pointed out that it’s perhaps an unfair comparison to make in the first place, as Kanon’s music was taken from the original game, I think it’s worth pointing out the disparity. Though the Musical King of the mecha franchises might be Macross; that must be an argument for another day.

I take your point about Kanon having one, and only one, preferred viewer reaction. I hadn’t thought of that, and that may be another reason why I failed to watch it in the right way. X isn’t the most complex part of the Gundam franchise, but it’s up to us to decide what we think of characters like, for example, Enil El – and Gundam 00 sometimes defiantly refused to tell us what to feel (which may have been why I struggled to engage with it emotionally, but that too is another story), though at other times it could be fairly simplistic.

And I’m fairly sure quite a few shows would give their eye teeth for ‘Human Touch’ . . .

My friend calls it my anti-fanboy alert and says it makes what I might otherwise find enjoyable somehow revolting….I wonder sometimes if he might be right. That’s not really the full story though….

With regard to Gundam X I’m glad you like the ending of episode 02 as well. To me the moment where Tifa screamed in pain at the end of the episode was more powerful then anything I saw in Kanon because it felt more natural and truly unanticipated (dare I say terrifying) then anything I can recall in Kanon. Then again Kanon is a much smaller more localized story with Gundam X that isn’t even on the same scope as either it or Gundam 00.

I also wouldn’t call Kanon more mature then either Gundam X or Gundam 00 (of course this is from the perspective of a mecha fan). The difference between Gundam and Kanon (key in general) is often in interpretation. Often in Gundam there’s more then one way to inpret events (for some reason every blogger that isn’t you or me always seems to pick whatever the most negative interpetation is in terms of how it makes the writing look) whereas Kanon knows how it wants you to interpret things (and it pretty much relies on things being interpreted in a certain way in order to succeed as a series, but then the fanbase is often more than willing to go along) and kind of hits you over the head with it. In some cases I felt like it was taking me for an idiot who lacked the ability to understand it’s narrative and thus just came across as aimed at a less mature audience with how it portrayed it’s themes.

Anyway, comparing music from Gundam X to Kanon seems unfair because in my opinion the music in Kanon seems more like an afterthought. In fact (Key)oani has never made a big impression on me with their music so much as their visual style which is instantly recognizable, whereas Gundam frequently sports some of the most memorable BGM around in my opinion. Anyone here who has seen Gundam 00 and heard the Celestial Being theme, the Union’s theme or Setsuna’s theme in Gundam 00 should know what I’ m talking about.

So I think the biggest thing that causes me to enjoy Gundam more then Kanon and such is that I feel that Gundam challenges me more to think then to feel and really as a person that people have described as almost Vulcan like in his disposition it’s safe to say that I would prefer Gundam as a form of entertainment to Kanon.

Thanks for providing me the perfect opportunity to get off my chest why exactly it is that I prefer to talk about and delve into science-fiction mecha series more than the Kyoani stuff that seems to be all the rage these days.

Oh and Kanon wishes it had Human Touch as a theme song.

Yes, but it would be hard to imagine one that matches the style of your blog.

The ignorance is there, true, though I think there’s some merit in it – does the otakusphere have space for holy fools? From what you’re saying, it sounds as though this post may be the first time this blog has resembled what you might expect on a blog – a reflection of the writer’s personal feelings and expertise (or lack of expertise, when it comes to Kanon).

As for sophist bloggers, I read somewhere that Plato gave the sophists an undeserved bad press, from which they’ve never recovered. How true that is I’ve no idea.

The problem I have with your post is that if satire is to have an edge, well, the edge is the size of a two-by-four.

If there is something that is truly insightful about your post, it would be how one could simply compare any two anime under the sun. It doesn’t invalidate what you say, but it leaves one fairly unsympathetic to your perspective. It’s a perspective fortified by ignorance, not by insight. That might sound harsh, but I hope you do not take it as so; it’s a pretty common problem all sophist bloggers run into at some point.

@ Pontifus: Sorry, I didn’t mean there to be a causal connection between the two statements – I meant that the show is both obsessed with those minutiae and also suggests that life is reduced to tearful moe. I take your point about the contrast between the anime and the game, though.

And you’re right that a story dealing with the concerns of teenagers can be a good story. Kanon may well be a good story. Sadly I don’t have a very good eye for a good story. Though I suspect character-focused storytelling is only one way of doing it (albeit the dominant one at the moment).

@ Shiri: Oh. Sorry for jumping on that, then. As I said above, I’m not too good with the intricacies of storytelling. 00 usually stuck very closely to the Gundam Pacing (title mobile suit fights to close each episode), something X is more willing to ignore. I think I see now what you meant about Black Lagoon and Kanon though. Perhaps again the problem’s with me: I should make an effort to be more interested in Nayuki hugging cats.

@ Westlo: Noted down. I’ll have to try watching Air at some point, I guess.

@ omo: A troll? Perhaps. All I can say in my post’s defence is that it was honestly written, on the basis that comparing Gundam X to Kanon and examining my relationship to both would be interesting. And if there’s an edge of satire to the writing, well, satire is meant to have a purpose and here I think it does.

Genre setting is an interesting angle, but not one I can cover: I’m only an aspiring Gundam fan, and Kanon lies entirely outside my expertise. Write about it yourself, if you’re qualified.

I’ll concede ‘maturity’, but I don’t think I ever discussed either show’s canonicity in this entry, beyond the bad pun at the end. Your concern for genre life-cycles comes much closer to the issue of anime canon than I do.