Visionary Nexus Network

Since gaming releases for last week and the week before that one consisted of nothing except BlazBlue, which we’re extensively covering, and shit, I’m going to start writing some other stuff to keep my contributions up and keep you all entertained. Besides, don’t BlazBlue character bios get a little old after a while?

And that brings me to my thoughts and analysis on the latest show I’ve watched: the first episode of Canaan. Please be warned that the following will spoil things if you haven’t watched the episode, as this is more of a summary-and-review combo than anything. If you’d rather watch without knowing about anything that goes on, do so before reading.

Now, before even watching, I decided to do some digging on Canaan’s origins, since the preview for the series told me nothing about it except that random people are brought together in Shibuya for no good reason and I was only more confused when the series opened up in Shanghai, China rather than Tokyo, Japan. What I discovered was pretty interesting, though.

Canaan is based on a scenario within a visual novel for the Wii called 428: In a Blockaded Shibuya, which actually received a rare perfect score from Famitsu (oh shit; but then again so did Brawl and Nintendogs) and was conceptualized by the co-founders of Type-Moon (creators of Fate/Stay Night, Melty Blood, among other things). This, combined with an all-star Japanese voice cast (though I pay them little to no attention considering I read the subtitles), increased my expectations as I finally decided to sit down and watch the episode.

The OP wasn’t all too spectacular as it dispensed with the standard jap tunes that accompany every anime aside from Eden of the East (love~) and action scenes that usually accompany OP’s. It wasn’t bad, but nothing unexpected came up. But then then the episode begins, with balloons gently flying through the air. This peaceful scene is interrupted as a blue balloon bursts into smithereens thanks to a sniper bullet coming from a woman shooting from a rooftop. The lone word “Canaan” is uttered, presumably the woman’s name.

The voice goes off into a narrative as soldiers cart off a blue-haired woman who has some connection to Canaan before segueing to an inner-city carnival where Canaan shoots various objects including firecrackers, a stuffed animal (ironically a prize for a shooting game), and some dude, humming a chilling tune all the while. For some reason, two kids start playing with the dead guy’s blood (as you can see).

We are then introduced to two new characters: a reporter, Mino, and his camerawoman, Maria Oosawa, (at least I think so, considering all the damn characters) who are on their way to Shanghai on a project. As they speak, we see three men walk through the festival wearing fake animal heads. Some random person, for no apparent reason, removes the animal headpiece from one of them and the guy starts to go crazy, screaming and writhing in pain. The townspeople, kind as they are, assume the guy’s playing around or dancing, and decide to join in, even after he collapses to the ground. The other two masked men flee.

The scene transitions over to Canaan’s home where she is chatting with some random lady with glasses about some other woman (the woman we see carried away at the beginning perhaps?), the CIA, some group called the Snakes, and some dude and/or thing named Ambloom, but I couldn’t really keep up with it because the episode intentionally obfuscates information to weave the layers of mystery. This is not the first instance that this occurs in this episode, either.

We are then introduced to some unnamed dude who looks like Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat and his green-haired waifu named Hakko, who share a tender moment in a car before we move back to the festival where Mino ends up getting separated from Maria by following someone who resembles a Chinese politician but actually turns out to be a random old guy. Then we shift over to a conversation at a corporate office where the participants talk about synesthesia, an ability allowing someone to use all their senses at once for everything, like seeing music or colors from letters. The conversation is cut short by the owner’s secretary, who spouts some random nonsense about a sister (hi rule 63 Jin), and then walks out of the bathroom totally naked. The boss gives her orders while the shocked guest looks on as the naked secretary then hands the guest some papers.

Back at the festival, Maria is snapping away with a camera, this time getting shots of the main attraction: a parade involving a Chinese dragon that shoots water at a jubilant crowd. Maria bumps into the two animal-headed men, and the dragon’s water shoots one of their animal heads off. The guy starts laughing as he goes crazy and the children join in with his jumping and flailing, even as he bleeds to death, making me wonder whether the people who live in this place are unable to see blood or are plain stupid. Hell, even Maria doesn’t notice until she takes a picture of the guy.

After that, some masked men appear and are about to shoot the fuck out of Maria, but then Canaan jumps in out of nowhere and rescues her. The two make their escape and Canaan ends up leaving Maria in an alley tied up for her own safety because nothing is safer than having your hands tied up in a Shanghai alleyway during the New Years Festival. Especially if you’re a woman who can’t tell the difference between a guy cheering and a guy bleeding to death.

A great action scene then ensues as Canaan enters a shootout against the masked men and the idiotic festival-goers seem oblivious to all this, thinking it’s all part of an act. Mino reappears and he can tell it’s for real, also deducing that most of the people know it’s real too, but purposefully ignore it. He takes pictures before running into Maria again, who managed to use her untied legs to return to Mino.

The scene shifts to a helicopter, with the former unnamed “boss” rubbing the now-clothed secretary’s feet which then kick him in the face as the secretary hears the words “Canaan” while speaking over the phone. We quickly move back to the fight where Canaan manages to take out everything including one of the Chinese dragons. And if you thought the shifting was done with, there’s more as Johnny Cage and Hakko help out the last remaining animal-headed guy before Johnny decides to run off for some reason.

Canaan then flees the scene through the city rooftops while Maria remarks about how Canaan is still alive, which hints at some huge past thing that every anime character and their mother have these days. The last shift takes us to a military car which holds members of the Snakes and their leader appears to be the blue-haired woman we saw being carried away earlier. The transport vehicle in front of the Snakes’ car explodes out of nowhere as the woman hums the same chilling tune that Canaan hummed at the beginning. And with that, Episode One: Crimson Shanghai draws to a close.

Canaan’s debut is wild and impressive and can only get better. The mysterious main character has a connection to just about everyone, from corporate heads to random photographers to the Snakes. That said, this episode was also overwhelming due to the amount of content and transitions. They are always introducing someone new, developing connections, or adding to the mystery so much that it feels like watching the beginning of Baccano! except that Baccano!’s huge cast of characters wasn’t this difficult to keep track of, considering we’re reminded of their names at the start of every episode. As such, you may want to watch this episode a second time to absorb some of the finer details.

It still remains promising though, with some great action scenes and a deep, involving mystery surrounding a strange girl, her connections to various people, men who die upon having masks removed, and synesthesia. Only time will tell whether or not it will match Eden of the East’s great heights, but it should still be worth following.

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