Anime Hajime Review: Canaan

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Canaan. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

On assignment, two Japanese reporters arrive in Shanghai during a local festival. Minoru Minorikawa (voiced by Kenji Hamada) is hoping to find a story to elevate his career. He's accompanied by rookie camerawoman Maria Osawa (voiced by Yoshino Nanjo).

Minoru runs after a possible lead, leaving Maria to explore the celebrations. Unbeknownst to her, Maria is being followed by an unknown assassin. Maria's saved by a mysterious mercenary named Canaan (voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro).

Canaan and Maria are not strangers. They met a few years prior during one of Maria’s trips to the Middle East. There the two formed a strong relationship and have remained close ever since.

Maria becomes a target of the infamous terrorist organization known as Snake. Canaan vows to protect Maria at all cost as they try to defeat the group. And its leader, Alphard Al Sheya (voiced by Maaya Sakamoto).

Series Positives

If you're looking for an anime full of action, shootouts, and super soldiers, Canaan is for you.

There were a lot of things I enjoyed in this show and wouldn’t be against watching it again. This series will grab a lot of people’s attention. And you know what? Good for them.

Canaan

A Solid Action Show

I’m not lying when I say this is a show for action junkies.

Maria

The series doesn’t waste any time and throws you right into the thick of things. Within the first fifteen minutes of the first episode, there was a killer gun fight. Followed by an awesome chase scene. And it just got cooler from there. There are so many things I can say about Canaan. But boring is not one of them.

Impressive since the show's based on the acclaimed visual novel, 428: Fusa Sareta Shibuya de. I've never played that game. But I have played a few other visual novels. And they aren't known for their fist fights.

Alphard

Plus, it’s important to note that this series looks amazing. The art style was beautiful. The character designs were incredible. Everything was crisp and smooth. It will grab a hold of you and won't let go. It’s how an action series should be.

Canaan and Alphard

Canaan and Alphard are the two best things to come out of this show.

Canaan was a fantastic protagonist. A skilled marksman and martial artist, except that wasn't what made her dangerous. Canaan had the ability to use synesthesia. Meaning could use her five senses to the best of their abilities and even swap out what each one was cable of doing. She was aware this set her apart. This awareness humanized her in such a profound way. It added so much to an already interesting character. Also, Miyuki Sawashiro killed it as the voice of Canaan.

A hero is measured by their actions and what they stand for. But when you think about it, a hero is shaped by the obstacles they need to overcome. Thus, the greater the villain, the greater the hero needs to be. So when it comes to Alphard, she f#$%ing nailed it.

It’s no fun when a villain is bland. It's fine not to like them as a person. But when you don’t like them as a character, something's gone wrong.

For whatever reason, I find a lot of female villains fit this description. They 're often boring characters. This shouldn’t be the case. So many female antagonists have this aura of overconfidence. This makes them annoying and impossible to take seriously. They spend too much effort in trying to prove to us they're evil.

Alphard didn't. She didn't use her screen time explaining why she was the bad guy. She just did whatever it was she needed to do. All her actions had a reason. We could see she wasn't the kind of person you wanted to cross.

Canaan and Alphard hated each other. It was prominent throughout the entire series. It was this hatred that was able to carry the story.

Series Negatives

I don’t know what happened. At one point I went from this is cool to Oh dear God.

I said if you're looking for a show full of action, shootouts, and super soldiers, then Canaan was for you. If you're also looking for a show full of action, shootouts, super soldiers, and nothing else, then again Canaan is for you.

 

A Jumbled Mess

The first sign of trouble came when the show started referencing details that made no sense. And were never expanded on. Canaan was based on the game 428: Fusa Sareta Shibuya de. Unfortunately, the show expected you to know its source material. Not the easiest thing to do since the game was never released outside Japan.

Now, this wasn't as annoying as Maliki…but it's still a jerk move. While these moments will leave you confused, they weren't plot-crucial. Thank God too because they were already enough things that made this show a mess.

About halfway through, the story disintegrates. Everything becomes so convoluted and complicated. I almost lost all interest.

I could never tell who was doing what. And why. At first, it seemed Snake was working alone. But then there were hints of US involvement...somehow. On a side note, it was weird seeing the President of the United States speak fluent Japanese. Then the story went even further and suggested Japan may have also been playing a role. It continued on like this for a while. And it led to nowhere. All these "plot twist" became irrelevant. So what was the point of all them?

I have no clue if Canaan’s group succeeded at what they were trying to do. I don’t think they lost. But then again, I don’t know what their end goal was.

There was no reason why this story should have been this complicated. Everything Canaan wanted to say got lost because you spend the last half of the show trying to figure out what was happening.

Final Thoughts

I left this show in disappointment. There was so much to like. This series did a lot of things right.

The art style was beautiful. The characters were memorable. The action was intense and exciting. Plus, Canaan and Alphard are one of the best rivalries I've seen in anime.

The story started off strong. There were a ton of interesting moments throughout. However, it was all woven together into a steaming pile of wasted potential.

I am annoyed, that much is clear. But I am not lying when I say I don’t have a problem watching this show again. If I need to get my action fix, and don’t care about any semblance of a plot, I would come back to Canaan.

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