"Kanokan" only had one hook for me:it was from the studio that brought us "Toradora", perhaps the best anime ever made. So I decided to give this once a chance and hey, it's a romance. Long story short Chizuru is a girl who is obsessed with a boy named Kouta, and spends the series vying for his love and affection, fighting off any rivals and going through mostly zany plots usually revolving around her trying to get Kouta to love her, with the occasional serious battle. The only thing that kept me watching was the vain hope things would get better. Come on, the studio brought us "Toradora", it had to get good eventually right? No.
This isn't a romance in any sense of the word. It's an obsessive freak relentlessly pursuing a boy and wanting to push him into a relationship he's clearly not ready for, only caring for his feelings in so far as what will get him to fall for her. The eventual after credits ending pushes this fact even further. Her "rival" is only slightly better, if only because she's not the main character, and thus we don't have to endure her as much. So the basic premise of the show falls apart because the "love story" is the anti theisis of a proper romance, and it's the entire basis of the series. Now granted most series don't have THAT good of romance but this isn't as much of a problem because usually their focus is elsewhere. However even they at least have the basics.
Now people will argue this is funny, it's really not. I guarantee you if the genders were switched around, it Kouta was the super powered boy relentlessly stalkiing and pursuing a young girl simply cause he found her sexy, he'd be pegged as a creep. Of course as bad as this is, this is not the only fault of Kanokan.
The fan service. Now you may say "this is an ecchi, you can't fault the series for that." Well yes, I can, for three major reasons, and the first one is a problem with many ecchi in general:it's played for laughs. Titlation and humor don't really mix well. If it's a turn on, then you're not very likely to laugh cause you're too busy, well being titilated. Also since the fan service is purely TO titillate, the jokes are an excuse to present the fan service, and as such it's unlikely to be found funny. Secondly, since the purpose is to titillate, whose going to care about the story anyway?(especially one as pathetic as Kanokon's). Thirdly, it tries to cover far too much range. In Kanokan alone we have the typical panty shots and nudity, but also bondage, face sitting, latex, bunny suits, etc. As a result it's only going to appease a certain number of people very few times, and thus even on the base level it was meant to appeal it fails.
Now need I even give further mention to the characters? The two main girls are paper thin horn dogs bordering on stalker/rapist, the main boy is nothing more then an object of sex appeal to both the characters and the audience(whether it be for his shotacon looks or being a guy that two girls are lusting after), and everyone else is simply an obstacle to present to provide more fan service and thin excuses for plot. For example we get some antagonist who is meant to be a mega threat, ultimately is dispensed of whether easily and was an excuse for a 10 second scene of Chizuru bound and gagged while we look up her panties(in this reviewer's personal opinion, Chizuru should remain bound, gagged and locked in a closet off screen forever) The anime fails on every level, and why this studio needs to resort to this nonsense when it's shown capable of great storytelling with "Toradora", and what little I've seen of 'Shakuguan No Shana" also looks stellar.
1/10
