CANAAN / First Impressions

Summary:

In the aftermath of what happened, Maria shuts herself in her hotel room, distraught over how Canaan isn’t a normal girl like she had convinced herself. Canaan meanwhile goes home and removes the bullet in her arm, and the thought of losing Maria causes her to remember what happened with the man who raised and trained her, Siam. She had gotten the tattoo on her arm to match his, but he had been later killed during an operation by Alphard. Canaan still thinks about revenge, and even though she can see Siam warning her against it, she’s determined not to lose anyone again. She thus goes out into the night and heads to the party that Alphard is attending. Minoru meanwhile raises Maria’s spirits by taking her out to dinner, and the restaurant they eat at happens to also employ Yunyun. Afterward, Maria decides to go for a walk on her own, so Minoru has the time to call up an acquaintance who he had asked to look into the mark that he had seen on several people. His acquaintance hasn’t had any luck, but she does mention that it could be from blood vessels coming to the surface.

Maria’s walk, on the other hand, takes her to the places that she and Canaan had visited, and she remembers all the times Canaan has saved her. She took up her camera because she wanted to look hard at what she doesn’t understand, including Canaan herself. Maria knows that Canaan shot the kidnapper to protect her, and she feels guilty for wanting to escape and inadvertently blaming Canaan. In the middle of declaring to herself that she won’t look away from the truth and that she’s Canaan’s friend, Maria nearly gets into a scuffle with some thugs who don’t understand what she’s saying, but she’s luckily saved by Yunyun. After lecturing Maria about this not being her birth country, Yunyun tries to walk away, but Maria refuses to let her go without getting to know her. Back at the party, Canaan confronts Alphard in the women’s restroom, and Alphard comments on how Siam told her that Canaan was different from them because she wouldn’t move in hatred. Alphard now observes the hatred in Canaan’s eyes and is happy that Canaan has fallen to the same level as her.

Canaan fires the first shot, but Alphard dodges and quickly gets the upper hand. Alphard compares the feeling of fighting from hatred to mud, and she claims that she’s personally already endured the disgrace and crawled back up. To prove this, she shoots at Canaan and intentionally misses each time, and she allows Canaan to escape. Canaan, however, is now haunted by Alphard’s words.

Preview

It was great to see Alphard finally getting some more character development (I’m loving Sakamoto Maaya in this villain role) and then a close-quarters combat scene against Canaan, and I was impressed by how she fought in a dress and still had little trouble winning. In fact, that entire scene was a lot of fun to watch, especially since the fights are always so well animated, even if it ended up being rather short. Maybe Canaan can put her powers to better use next time, though I imagine the point of all the hatred stuff was to put her on a path of shock or depression where she needs Maria to help her get out of the funk, so it might be a while until the next fight. At least we finally now know more about Canaan’s past and how she got the tattoo on her arm.

As for Maria, I was glad that she got over her own depression fairly quickly (that scene with the thugs was kind of awkward though), and the budding friendship with Yunyun seems promising if for no other reason than the fact that it means that Yunyun will get more screentime. If you don’t understand why I would want her to get more screentime, just look at the preview for next episode where she’s trying to stuff more buns down her top; she’s a fun character and great as comedic relief. The preview actually shows her in several different shots, so next week’s episode is likely focused on her and Maria and the idea of friendship.

And as a final note, I was also happy to see that the taxi driver showed up again, and it’s a shame he didn’t get another great scene like the one back in episode two.

24 Comments

  8. Awesome episode. THis series does seem to be the best this season.

    @Chibi

    Dude, K-ON ended. Omni seems to blocks things ASAP as they are aired in Japan so he isn’t going to blog a show that has ended and wasn’t even that good.

    Emphraim
    Reply

  15. @BROOKLYN otaku:
    Really? I, on the other hand, have the feeling I should rewatch Darker than Black after every Canaan episode.

    Btw. when does the full version of the OP come out?

    Zenzen
    Reply

  17. Just in, Canaan is going to get “three movie-version of the ongoing series” coming this October. From the wording, sounds like it’s going to be a theatrical recap of this series…to which I hope I’m wrong…

    Nanatsuya
    Reply

  21. Nicee we finally got to learn more about canaan and alphard and more of their relationship~ Yunyun was soo cute when she was playing that erhu horribly haha XD awesome fight scene at the end! I especially love how the director made it seem like Canaan was being CHASED by Alphard’s haunting words >=D Great effect to end the episode~

    rin
    Reply

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