Kanon – Makoto’s Arc – Final Impressions

Makoto’s arc was one of those arcs that I couldn’t watch in one sitting. The drama was so tense that I skipped her arc during my first time of watching the Kanon remake. Its not until the middle of July that I finished her arc off. After I wrote the whole review on the Kanon Anime, I decided to continue with the visual novel and finish Makoto’s arc. The feeling of the visual novel arc was just as emotional as the Anime adaption, but it was more spread out instead.

For those who watched the Anime, there was hardly any content that was left out so you don’t have to worry about spoilers.

Differences

Like with Mai’s arc, Makoto’s arc was pretty much the same in the Anime. Perhaps, this arc hardly has any changes whatsoever compared to Kotomi’s arc, which followed the majority of the content in the visual novel. There was some minor difference such as:

• When Makoto got a fever for the first time and afterwards, she could still talk until the day after Akiko, Nayuki and Yuuichi took Makoto out. Afterwards, she was incapable of communicating.
• The scenes in the visual novel towards the end was arranged differently compared to Episode 10. In the visual novel, the Minase family and Yuuichi takes Makoto out, then Amano becomes friends with Makoto and then Yuuichi takes Makoto to the hill for their final moments. This takes place in a matter of days.
• Epiloge is the same, except it takes place in spring.
• In the visual novel, Makoto says her name to Amano. In the Anime, she also tries to pronounce Yuuichi’s name as well.

General Thoughts

Makoto is one of those tsunderes that have a childish personality that melts as time goes on. Besides her tsundere personality, most wouldn’t notice that Makoto was a fox at first. However, the red/orange hair and the fangs are some of the qualities that hint her origins.

Makoto’s arc felt like a fairytale as Amano suggests while talking to Yuuichi. It felt that way since it felt so surreal when young boy who takes care of a young fox and abandon it until a few years later. The fox returns in human form without any memories to reunite with the same person that took care it. However, some fairy tales don’t have a happy ending. In this situation, the fox had to price to pay to gain human form, which we will talk about later.

Amano in Makoto’s arc serves as a guidance counselor for Yuuichi since she experienced what is happening to him now.  This is the main reason she didn’t want Yuuichi to bring her in because it would remind her of sad memories of a human fox friend that disappeared later. Eventually she gives in and becomes Makoto’s friend in the last minute as shown above. That scene simply let down manly tears down my cheeks as Makoto said her name to Amano.

Amano in the whole arc was rather stoic. Because of her loss of her fox friend, she can’t seem to find any happiness. The loss causes her to have hardly any friends and be a loner most of the time. Her feelings changed in the epilogue as she opens up and reveals herself of having a wild and girly imagination… I mean, who wants to dream about candy raining from the sky anyway?

The irony is that in the Kanon Minase-sanchi Radio Drama, Amano has a significantly different personality like she was in the epilogue. On top of that, she is now chasing after Yuuichi! Scary… (I will probably overview them in a future blog post).

In the end, miracles comes with big price and the person eventually needs to say goodbye to the fox in human form. Yuuichi belives that Makoto can get better onces pring comes. However, life does not work that way and things have to run their path. The deterioration of Makoto’s health and abilities made the whole arc feel so heartbreaking. Most of the viewers can’t help but feel sorry for her since nothing can be done to help her. Because of the period of intense sadness, this makes Makoto’s arc the most emotional arcs in the visual novel with Shiori’s being the second.

I had to admit Makoto’s arc was an emotional one and I teared a few times while playing it. Even though Yuuichi did not really kiss Makoto like he did with the other girls, she got married with him to make up for it. Besides the overwhelming drama, Makoto’s pranks on Yuuichi was hilarious, even though 99% of them backfired on her. As for the reason why she perform these pranks, she did them not because she was released in the wild three years ago, but to have fun and get attention from Yuuichi. Even though Makoto’s arc was not a happy ending, the epilogue pretty much make her story heartwarming, since we know that losing the person we love the most sucks a lot. However, we have to accept that face and never forget the good memories we spent with them.

So, if you decide to play Makoto’s arc, make sure you have a box of tissues because you will be crying… a lot (a bit of an exaggeration, but still).

Rating

9.2/10