Holy...Sugoi-sugoi. Ok I couldn't help it I had to toss out the Sugoi-sugoi. And now that I did we can move along with the rest of the review for what I believe to be the second best anime series of the Summer season. Canaan is one of those action series that grips you with the action and punishes you with a damn good story. Mixing gunfights with bonds of friendship and pure hatred and revenge with true friendship and unrequited love all due to a bio-engineered virus.
So I've been sitting here writing and re-writing this review several times now trying to get everything I can about the show into a nice little package that would tell you just how awesome this series was. However I can't seem to do that without wanting to write a really long post so I figured that I'd just let Wiki take care of that so that I could spend my time writing about the finer points that stood out to me and what I liked.
Canaan reminds me a lot of Ghost in the Shell where the action is great, well choreographed and paced out well. There isn't action just for action's sake or long drawn out fights with near impossible human feats. It's fast nasty and while the Canaan dodging bullets ability is just a bit out there it's still very real looking. Than there is the story well paced thought provoking and leaving you wanting more after each episode. I kind of laughed at the end when the yuri faction got screwed when both potential yuri love interest disappeared in a flash. The first is the love story between Ling and Alphard which was entirely one sided and ended when the one person that did love Ling, Cummings, had to kill her to end her suffering after her attempts to get Alphard interested in her failed. Her end was rather interesting and I sure didn't see that end coming. And a strange bit of fanservice as well.
The second and more likely yuri love scene is of course between Canaan and Maria but damn if we don't get trolled with a strong bonded friendship instead. That stong friendship bond is the reason why Canaan is able to defeat Alphard in the end. That's right lots of hand holding and innuendo straight out the window and to make matters even worse they end up going their seperate ways in order to protect each other.
But lets not forget the humor thankfully this splits the great action and wonderful story with a mix of humor from slapstick funny to the just bizarre. The bizarre is of course Cummings and lings airsoft S&M moments. That has to be the first time getting shot with airsoft pellets are used in a sexual manner. One of the better moments at the end is when Cummings, who is now a Buddhist monk, bends down to pick up what looks like an airsoft pellet but is actually a seedling and says something profound. Damn anime being profound and all that junk. Of course the slapstick funny comes in the form of a crazy taxi driver and the all important comedy relief of Yunyun who is great at providing us with the laughs that help to alleviate some of the seriousness of the story.
Last but not least of course is the smidge bit of fanservice tossed in which wasn't actually out of place. Or fanservice for fanservice sake. Well maybe Ling in her guns and lingerie last act was a bit of a stretch but the cosplay cafe that was an integral part to the story is acceptable. Yunyun's fanservice of course was once again just more comedy relief so that was OK as well.
So you see Canaan has it all and is well worth watching. I couldn't recommend it more and really hope that it gets picked up for a release in America as I would say that this is a definite must buy anime series. The good thing is that there is going to be three movies released. I believe they will be a retelling of the series and at the moment I'm not to sure how the movies will be done but it'll be interesting to see if there will be any changes or new animation added to the movies.
Here is the CM75 trailer:
