Kanon is a Japanese visual novel developed by Key, a brand of Visual Arts. It was released on June 4, 1999, for Windows as an adult game. Key later released versions of Kanon without the erotic content, and the game was ported to the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Nintendo Switch. The story follows the life of Yuichi Aizawa, a high school student who returns to a city he last visited seven years prior, and he has little recollection of the events from back then. He meets several girls and slowly regains his lost memories. The gameplay in Kanon follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the five female main characters by the player character. The game once ranked as the second best-selling PC game sold in Japan, and charted in the national top 50 several more times afterwards. Kanon has sold over 300,000 units across several platforms.
Following the game's release, Kanon made several transitions into other media. Two manga series were serialized in Dengeki Daioh and Dragon Age Pure. Comic anthologies, light novels and art books were also published, as were audio dramas and several music albums. Toei Animation produced a 13-episode anime television series in 2002 and an original video animation (OVA) episode in 2003. Kyoto Animation produced a 24-episode anime series in 2006. The 2006 anime was licensed and dubbed in English by ADV Films in 2008, but the license was given to Funimation after ADV's closure. The 2006 anime plays on the association between Kanon and the musical term canon by using Pachelbel's Kanon D-dur, or Canon in D major, as a background piece at certain instances throughout the series.
Gameplay
Kanon is a romance visual novel in which the player assumes the role of Yuichi Aizawa. Much of its gameplay is spent on reading the story's narrative and dialogue. Kanon follows a branching plot line with multiple endings, and depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction.
There are five main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, and text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose different choices to further the plot to an alternate direction. After Mai's scenario is completed, a replay of her route will offer an additional choice to play through Sayuri's back-story. Jun Maeda, who worked on the scenario for Kanon, commented in March 2001 that the Japanese public may have fallen under the impression that Key makes soothing games because of Kanons influence, but Maeda affirmed that there was not one person who worked on Kanon who thought that.
In the adult versions of the game, there are scenes with sexual CGs depicting Yuichi and a given heroine having sex. Later, Key released versions of Kanon without the erotic content. The versions that include the adult content have one explicit sex scene in each of the five main story routes, in addition to one fantasy scene. Outside of these, there are two scenes with nudity. Yūichi Suzumoto, a scenario writer who worked on later Key titles, commented that the sex scenes in Kanon are very self-contained, and can be easily removed without altering the story. Maeda remarked that the sex scenes were not written with reproduction in mind.
Plot The events of Kanon occur in winter. Since it often snows over the course of the entire story, the city is always presented covered in a layer of snow. The shopping district is featured throughout the story when the characters visit the town, especially whenever Ayu appears in the early story. The high school where Yuichi and the other main characters attend, including the school grounds, is often shown in Shiori and Mai's stories each. Otherwise, it is the main location where Yuichi interacts with other characters.
One of the motifs in the story is Yuichi, Ayu and Makoto suffering from amnesia in various degrees, which is used as a plot device to advance the story. Another motif deals with the favorite foods of the five main heroines. Newtype USA stated in an article on Kanon that "it's when the characters are eating something really tasty that they seem most beautiful and alive" despite the somber setting and overall tone of the series. These five foods of choice are: taiyaki (Ayu), strawberries (Nayuki), nikuman (Makoto), ice cream (Shiori), and gyudon (Mai).
Story On January 6, 1999, second year high school student Yuichi Aizawa arrives in the city and is detached from its inhabitants. Prior to his return, it is decided that he is to stay with his first cousin, Nayuki Minase, and her mother, Akiko. After his long absence, Yuichi has forgotten almost everything except minor details of what happened seven years before and is in need of being reminded of what he left behind. Nayuki initially tried repeatedly to jog his memory, but is unsuccessful. Throughout the story, as he learns about the supernatural undertones of the city, Yuichi is reminded of the events of seven years ago.
Characters
Yuichi Aizawa is a cynical 17-year-old protagonist in high school. He is known to play jokes on girls his age and interacts with them throughout the story. Despite this, Yuichi is loyal to impress others and does not ask much from others in return for what he does for them.
Ayu is the main heroine in Kanon, followed closely by Nayuki Minase who is the only Kanon heroine to appear with Ayu on three of the official video game covers released by Key. Ayu was created by Naoki Hisaya who wrote her scenario for the visual novel, and designed by Itaru Hinoue.
Nayuki is Yuichi's cousin, with whom he moves in with at the beginning of the story. She has always been in love with him despite being cousins and must learn how to deal with these feelings, especially with the threat that he may fall for one of the other girls.
Makoto is a young girl who suddenly attacked Yuichi Aizawa in the middle of town early on in the story, albeit in a weak manner that he could defeat her by simply extending his arm out. She is carried back to the Minase household where she lives as a guest for the remainder of her story. Despite having lost her memories, she remembers her name and is sure that she holds a grudge against Yuichi from when he visited the city in the past.
(Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 games), Akemi Satō (anime/PSP game), Maggie Flecknoe (English) Shiori is a first year high school student who has suffered from an illness since birth. Her affliction has caused her to be very physically weak, and she is almost always absent from school because of it. She loves drama and is always inventing reasons for things that happen in her life.
Mai is a third-year student of the same high school that Yuichi goes to.
Akiko is Nayuki Minase's mother and Yuichi Aizawa's aunt who works at an unspecified job and takes care of the house, cooking various types of food. She seems to not realize exactly what is going on around her, taking in strays such as Makoto Sawatari and assuming lame excuses for her behavior.
Kaori is Yuichi's and Nayuki's classmate as well as the class representative. She is intelligent and knows a lot about the schoolmates and townspeople, but seems to be unaware of any of the supernatural things that happen, even after Yuichi's caring saves someone close to her.
Sayuri was Mai Kawasumi's only friend before she met Yuichi, thus became her biggest part is in Mai's story. She is the daughter of a wealthy family, and always tries to smile and help others. Sayuri uses more formal Japanese honorifics for Yuichi when she addresses him, even when they become close friends.
Mishio is a key player near the end of Makoto Sawatari's story; she does not appear so much in this story as the other characters in this section. She mysteriously warns Yuichi to stay away from Makoto when Makoto's health begins to fail.
Development Most of Kanons development staff originally worked for the visual novel publisher Nexton under the brand Tactics. After the release of the brand's third game One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e, most of Tactics' staff left Nexton to pursue work in another publishing company where they could have the freedom to produce their next game. Itaru Hinoue, who had previously worked at Visual Arts once before, introduced Key's founding members to the president of Visual Arts, Takahiro Baba. Baba gave the developers the freedom they desired, and they officially transferred to Visual Arts where they formed Key on July 21, 1998, and started production on Kanon. The planning for the visual novel was headed by Naoki Hisaya who was also one of two scenario writers with Jun Maeda. Hisaya wrote the scenarios for Ayu, Nayuki and Shiori, while Maeda wrote the routes for Makoto and Mai. Art direction was headed by Key's artist Itaru Hinoue who worked on the character design and computer graphics. Further computer graphics were split between three people—Dinn, Miracle Mikipon, Shinory—and background art was provided by Torino. The music in the game was composed by OdiakeS, Shinji Orito and Jun Maeda. Kanon was the first and last visual novel developed by Key that two of the main staff—Naoki Hisaya, and OdiakeS—worked on before pursuing a similar line of work in other visual novel studios.
Release history Kanon was released as an adult game on June 4, 1999, in limited and regular editions, playable on a Windows PC as a CD-ROM. The limited edition came bundled with the remix album Anemoscope remixing background music tracks featured in the visual novel. Key released an all ages version on January 7, 2000, for Windows. An updated adult version called the Kanon Standard Edition was released on November 26, 2004, with added support for Windows 2000/XP as a DVD-ROM. The Standard Edition incorporates the extra graphics added to the earlier all ages version of the game, and other technical changes such as more save slots. An all ages version of the Standard Edition was released on January 28, 2005. An updated all ages version of Kanon compatible for Windows Vista PCs was released by Key on July 31, 2009, in a box set containing five other Key visual novels called Key 10th Memorial Box. Another all ages updated version compatible for Windows 7 PCs called Kanon Memorial Edition was released on April 30, 2010.
The first consumer console port of the game was released for the Dreamcast on September 14, 2000, by NEC Interchannel. A PlayStation 2 (PS2) version was released on February 28, 2002, also by NEC Interechannel. The PS2 version was re-released as a "Best" version on December 22, 2004. The PS2 version was bundled in a "Key 3-Part Work Premium Box" package together with the PS2 versions of Air and Clannad released on July 30, 2009. An adult version playable as a Blu-ray Disc was released on December 16, 2011, by Asoberu! BD-Game, a brand of Visual Arts.