Taking a break from otome games I decided to replay Kanon the PS2 version. I played in about 10 years ago, the PC version with no BGM, no voices and my Japanese level was pathetic where I didn’t understand anything anyway. I’m sure everyone & their grandma knows the story and/or watched both animes (i.e. me) but I figured I’d treat this like I treat all my reviews so expect a novel below! Please note this is the PS2 version so everyone was voiced (except Yuichi) and there was no unnecessary porn. The story is about Aizawa Yuichi who moves in with his aunt and cousin back to a town that he left 7 years ago. Due to a possible PTSD he’s forgotten a lot of stuff that happened 7 years ago and as he spends more time living there it’s all coming back to him now.

Sawatari Makoto – I’m going in order of the 2006 anime here so I decided to start with Makoto. Makoto runs into Yuichi in town and starts throwing punches at him which he dodges because he’s a supertroll 😆 She then randomly passes out and he lugs her home only to find out that she has a terrible case of amnesia and all she remembers is that she hates him. A few days later she remembers that her name is Sawatari Makoto as she spends her days lounging around the Minase house eating meat buns and reading shoujo manga. She thinks its hilarious playing nightly pranks on Yuichi (even though he knows it’s her) but she goes a bit too far throwing Konyaku on his head, putting Miso in his bath and setting fireworks off in his room (´ε｀；)。 One day she steps on a cat and Yuichi tells her to pick it up and hold it thinking maybe Makoto gets along better with animals than people. While they are up on a bridge near the train station she drops the cat on to the highway below (ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ 彡┻━┻ and Yuichi yells at her for being so cruel. Makoto yells back that it’s better for the cat to not know what it’s like to be with humans than get used it and be thrown out. Eventually Makoto goes to find the cat upon a hill and she ends up staying with it there splitting a meat bun. Yuichi finds them both there and lugs them both home again. They end up adopting the cat and Yuichi names it Piroshki despite the fact that Nayuki has a terrible cat allergy.

One morning Piroshki start licking Yuichi’s face and Yuichi thinks its some girl and ends up making out with it 😕 (A cat is fine too.) In the meantime to support her manga and nikuman crack habit Makoto goes to play with some kids at the nursery school that Akiko’s friend works at. Yuichi also decides to peek at her in the bath like multiple times and even though she has no idea what “sleeping together” means she still is somehow embarrassed of him seeing her naked? (　´_ゝ`) One day he meets a girl at school who is a freshman and she tells Yuichi that Makoto must have been someone he knew from the past and she has come to see him. Makoto start crawling into bed with Yuichi every night using Piro as an excuse and when they go to the hilltop area again together, Makoto says she feels like she’s lived there for a long time. Yuichi has a dream that night which is a memory from the past where he rescued a baby fox and helped tend to its wounds. He also remembered he named the fox after an older girl he had a crush on. As time passes Makoto’s hand/eye coordination worsens and her speech becomes very minimal to the point where it’s down to just “auuu”. She keeps asking Yuichi to read her manga and Yuichi has a bad feeling so he offers to buy her a present and she choses a bracelet with 2 bells on it from the dollar store. One day Makoto comes back late with a fever saying Piro ran away and she tried to look for him but couldn’t find him. Yuichi explains to her that Piro may have just returned to his original owner.

Yuichi gets a call from Amano and then meets her at the train station. She explains to him that on that hilltop a bunch of fox spirits are born and they die up there as well. She explains that Makoto might have wanted to see Yuichi one last time before disappearing from the world. She says the same thing happened to her before and that’s why she became a loner with no friends. She tells Yuichi that he shouldn’t become like her and try to be strong throughout the entire experience. Yuichi knows Makoto’s on her last few days so he asks if everyone can go out for dinner together. When they go out they also take a purikura together because Makoto always wanted to take one with somebody instead of on her own. In school Yuichi asks if Amano can meet with Makoto one more time. After school Amano agrees and she tries to get Makoto to tell her that her name is “Makoto” instead of just saying Auuu over and over. Finally Makoto gets another fever. Yuichi tells her “lets get married” since it’s something Makoto wanted to do because it was in the shoujo manga she read. Akiko sews up a fake veil and Yuichi takes it and goes to the hill with Makoto. On the way there they walk with Amano holding hands to the school and in school they make a snowman with Nayuki. Makoto takes the snowman up to the hill as well and Yuichi says that they are now a “real family”. The veil flies away with the wind and Makoto cries but Yuichi hugs her and tells her to play with her bell bracelet. Makoto plays with the bracelet until she falls asleep…and then disappears. (Cue me crying a river ｡･ﾟ･(ﾉД`)･ﾟ･｡ うえええん) After the credits is just a shot of a sleeping Makoto with a sleeping Piro on a spring day under a tree. FFFUUUU I KNEW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN AND I CRIED ANYWAY ｡ﾟ(●ﾟ´Д)ﾉ｡ﾟヽ(　　)ﾉﾟ｡ヽ(Д｀ﾟ●)ﾉﾟ｡｡ﾟヽ(●ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ●)ﾉﾟ｡ｳﾜｧｧｧﾝ!!

Kawasumi Mai – This route was just too long. TOO TOO LONG. I don’t even like Mai so it was absolute torture for me to sit through. It’s like I got nothing against Tamura Yukari but Mai’s that quiet girl personality that just irritates me to no end. Like stop with the “….” shit and fucking say something (ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ 彡┻━┻. Anyway, you enter the route by going to the school late at night to get Nayuki’s notes. Yuichi runs into Mai fighting random monsters at the school. He later bumps into her the next day and ends up eating lunch with her and Sayuri, both of which are 1 year above him. So from here begins the process of where every night Yuichi goes to school, stops by the convenience store and brings Mai some random food after she fights her imaginary friends. At some point Makoto shows up and Mai almost slices her but then a few days later in the route Makoto disappears and Yuichi & co. just think she might have “found out who she was”. Poor Makoto. (　´_ゝ`) Anyway Mai is being blamed for all the destruction of the school so Yuichi wants to clear her name. He suggests that she attend the upcoming ball and hopefully change everyone’s mind about her persona. Yuichi convinces Sayuri to go as well (since Mai will not do anything without Sayuri) and then Sayuri convinces Yuichi to come along. Since Sayuri is a rich ojousama she gets one of her acquaintances to make the outfits for all 3 of them. Unfortunately while things are going nice at the ball at first, Mai starts seeing her imaginary friends again so she ends up fighting them and destroying everything around her. The seito kaicho rages despite both Yuichi and Sayuri’s attempt to appeal in Mai’s favor.

Mai plans to leave the school but Yuichi convinces her to stay saying that he wants to spend the rest of their remaining high school days together with her and Sayuri. He also then yells out that he likes her only to get a “I don’t hate you” response. Sigh. (　´_ゝ`) Yea well I hate you Mai lol. So then Yuichi starts using a wooden sword to train to fight these so called monsters and when Sayuri tries to join his and Mai’s practice, Mai tells her to GTFO (but only because she knows Sayuri will get hurt and doesn’t want her involved.) Sadly it comes out the wrong way and Sayuri gets really upset and avoids them for a couple days. Sayuri decides to make up with Mai so she asks Yuichi to help pick out a present for her – which they end up getting a giant stuffed ant-eater 😕 Sadly before she can give Mai the present she gets seriously injured and hospitalized. Mai then says she will finish fighting the monsters once and for all that night. After she “defeats” the so called monsters, Yuichi starts trippin’ balls and starts having some flashbacks. He remembers being in a corn field with some girl who had bunny ears on her head. This was 10 years ago that he met Mai and the entire town feared her power and shunned her so she would come to this field on her own waiting for someone to show up that would accept her. (What is this Air? Oh wait…) So then Yuichi showed up and all was good but he had to move and when he said goodbye to her Mai went all emo because she thought he ran away from her like the other townfolk did.

So then Yuichi’s trip ends and he wakes up telling Mai that she needs to stop trippin’ balls and making up imaginary monster friends. He tells her that this is her power and she needs to just drop it and return to being a happy bunny girl who frolicks in the fields. He tells her that he met her 10 years ago & that he didn’t run away but he really did have to move. Mai then becomes all moe (to please the fanboys and unmove me completely) and asks if Yuichi will comfort her when she cries. She then says that she likes him and dies in his arms tonight. Yuichi then cries a river and suddenly we’re in this endless flashback about how Mai’s mother used to be sick in the hospital and Mai would make snow bunnies. She said she wanted to go to the zoo with her mom so she went outside the hospital with her and made a bunch of snow bunnies and played with a stray dog saying she felt like she was in a zoo. Her mom of course was on her last breath (and probably shouldn’t have been out in like 0 degree weather) and she died on the bench after she told Mai she needed to take a nap. From then Mai was adopted by her aunt and then everyone would constantly call her the devil child cause she could call out demons. She would run off to that corn field waiting for someone to come & accept her – then Yuichi showed up. In the epilogue Mai and Sayuri are graduating and for some reason it’s as if they never admitted their feelings to each other? Dafuq? I’ll just go with 3P end (　´_ゝ`). Again here I wonder how the hell did they ever manage to shove an ero scene into this game? Maybe when Mai went all OC with the bunny ears? I don’t know. So then someone got all butthurt because I said this route is stupid and boring. I swear Kanon fanboys(girls?) are demented or something. Who sits there surfing hashtags and replying to random people who post in them? Oh yes the obsessive retard who’s spent 9 years fapping to a game character.

Kurata Sayuri – Sayuri’s route branches off on the 26th after you complete Mai’s. She starts telling Yuichi the story about how she used to have a little brother who died when she was still in elementary school. She was brought up as an ojousama in a rich household so she was always brought to her parents’ rich people gatherings because she was well behaved. When her brother was born he cried a lot but her dad told her to be strict with him and raise him like she was raised. Sadly her brother was probably born autistic or something and even after he was 2 years old he couldn’t talk. Sayuri was assigned to bring him to and take him from school. She noticed he had no friends and he would always cry. She just wanted to spoil him and give him candy and tell him it’s okay but her father told her to be strict with him. Eventually Kazuya’s illness got worse and he was sent to basically live the remains of his life in the hospital. Sayuri would then sneak in to his room at night and bring him candy. For the first time ever he had woken up and smiled at her and laughed with her while eating the candy. This was the first and last time they ever had a good time together as siblings. After Kazuya died Sayuri started calling herself in 3rd person so she would not be “associated” with the self that let Kazuya die. She then also began speaking with any men in polite Japanese regardless of how close they were. Soon after she began slitting her wrists hoping she would kill herself but then in high school she met with Mai who let some dog chew on her hand. From then on they became bffs and Sayuri was “saved” because of their friendship. After Sayuri and Yuichi go on their “date” she says she’ll need time before she can trust men again and asks him to wait. Well I still see it as a yuri end with Mai lol 😆 Regardless, it was nice a short and got to the point. If Mai’s route was like this I might have hated it less.

Misaka Shiori – While I’m not a fan of Shiori’s route either it was still better than Mai and I was slightly a little more moved in the game than I was in the anime. Yuichi meets Shiori because he sees her wandering around in the school yard outside. He decides to start up a chat with her and then he ends up coming to see her there every day during lunch and bringing her ice cream to eat. (I swear Yuichi gets all his women through food… ﾌﾟｯ(※థэథ)∵.*.∵). Shiori tells Yuichi that she has a sister named Kaori but when Yuichi asks Kaori about this, she just responds saying she has no idea who “Shiori” is and that she’s an only child. Yuichi is confused and when he tells this to Shiori, she responds saying that maybe he asked the wrong person. They go on a date together after a while and they run into Ayu who says they look like siblings. At one point Yuichi runs into a former classmate of Shiori’s who tells him Shiori only came the first day of school and hasn’t attended ever since – which would be bizarre for someone who claims they just have a “cold”. Shiori’s hobbies include drawing scenery and people’s faces as well as watching melodramatic dramas. After they go on another date Shiori admits that she passed out on the first day of school and she’s been absent from class ever since. She wasn’t even supposed to go to school that day either but it was always her dream to go to the same school as her sister and wear the same uniform and eat lunch together. When they go to the fountain together Yuichi tells her that he likes her but Shiori apologizes saying she cannot answer his feelings. From then on she stops coming to the courtyard at school and instead Yuichi runs into Kaori.

One day Kaori calls the Minase house and asks to meet with Yuichi at school. She tells him then and there that Shiori has some incurable disease (cancer aids I tell you) and that she will die before her next birthday. However lately her condition’s gotten a little better so she may live longer – but it’s just prolonging the inevitable. Kaori then cries saying she tried to ignore Shiori’s existance from her mind because it’s easier to pretend she never had a sister than to have one and watch her slowly die in front of her eyes. (　´_ゝ`) Yuichi is sleepless after hearing this and he gets up in the middle of the night and goes looking for Shiori. He finds her at the fountain and she admits that she likes him as well even though she isn’t supposed to. He says that for the next week before her birthday on 2/1 they will be like a regular couple and he will treat her like a regular girl. She asks if he will accept her and he seals the promise with a kiss. So then for a week Shiori starts coming to school and making bentos for Yuichi. She even manages to make a friend. They run into Ayu again during a date and this time Yuichi tells them that they are lovers not siblings. They go to a parfait place after and then run into Nayuki and Kaori. Yuichi calls them to sit at the same table which causes some awkward silence – but before they split, Kaori smiles and says that Shiori is her sister – sending shocks all around. That weekend Shiori visits the Minase house and goes up to Yuichi’s room. I think this is where the ero scene was in the pc game but for ONCE I can totally see it fitting. In the other routes – not so much. I will forgive you Shiori! 😆 Anyway since this is a ps2 game Yuichi pushes her down on the bed and kisses her and then they eat her bento before she goes home.

That night Yuichi visits her at the fountain again and she says that the day she bumped into him and Ayu she had planned to slit her wrists. When she got home, she went through with it, but then she remembered the happy faces of both Yuichi and Ayu and she felt miserable and ashamed of herself. She tells him that the plaid stole she always wears was a gift from Kaori. As they wait for the clock to hit midnight, she says her body temperature is hot and asks to lie down in the snow to cool off. She lies down saying she wishes she didn’t fall in love with Yuichi and he kisses her. After that Shiori disappeared leaving only her sketchbook where she drew a picture and the words “goodbye yuichi-san”. So see here I got all sad thinking damn I thought she wasn’t supposed to die what gives! But then spring time comes and I guess a miracle happens and whatever disease she had is either cured or she gets some drug to let he live longer or something. Anyway she’s able to return to school (but left back a year) and she buys all the ice cream at the cafeteria and tells Yuichi he has to eat it – before jumping into his arms and crying saying she didn’t want to die. In the epilogue Shiori is drawing a portrait of Yuichi and says that maybe they were all in someone’s dream and the person whose dream it was granted her the wish to continue to live on. Then they both think of Ayu and how Yuichi hasn’t seen her since she said goodbye to him after finding her “lost item”. ;_; Anyway overall not that bad of a route and the scene of the 2 sisters really moved me for some reason (*´ω｀*).

Minase Nayuki – While the other girls took me about 5-6 hours each, Nayuki only took me 2. Poor poor Nayuki. She’s just a victim of well…everything. Nayuki is Yuichi’s first cousin so we got some cousincest going on here. She’s the captain of the track team yet she always oversleeps and needs like 10 alarm clocks to wake her up (which even doesn’t work because she sleeps like a log.) It’s so freaking bad that she often falls asleep while eating or standing up. (　´_ゝ`) I can only imagine that either she runs track laps secretly at night or she’s just a bear who’s in hibernation until spring. Similarly to how all the other girls have a favorite food, Nayuki seems to be stuck on strawberry jam. Sadly her mother Akiko (who is the sister of Yuichi’s mom) makes some kind of poo-jam so she tries to avoid that at all costs. Nayuki also loves demo nekochans. She’s got cat pens, cat pajamas, but the sad part is she has a cat allergy. In Makoto’s route when they temporarily adopt Piroshki, she finds him and lets him sit on her head as she yells out nuko nuko nuko while cries allergy tears 😆 One night Yuichi has a dream that he was sitting on a bench crying, then a loli Nayuki came up to him saying she waited for him at home but he never showed up so she came to see him. She made him a snow bunny but when she gave it to him he slapped her hand away and it flew to the ground and crumbled. (´；ω；｀) I mean I can understand he wasn’t in the mood to see anyone after his girlfriend just fell of a tree but Nayuki didn’t know this so again – she’s just a victim.

Nayuki watched the morning fortune teller on tv and it says that the capricorn will have a bad week this week. That’s funny cause most of the girls in this game are capricorns (except Shiori who’s an Aquarius) (　´_ゝ`). That night he talks with Nayuki and she tells him that she wants Yuichi to be back the way he used to be and he realizes then that he likes her. He has a continuation of the dream about where Nayuki gave him the snow bunny. After he knocked it out of her hands she cries and apologizes saying that “i know you hate snow”. She also asks him to meet her in this place tomorrow before he leaves (I guess his family was moving the next day.) Nayuki ends up waiting the entire time the next day, getting showed on, but Yuichi never shows up. Yuichi then takes Nayuki to the place he was supposed to meet her at 7 years ago and he tells her he’s sorry and that he likes her. Nayuki gets upset saying that her feelings 7 years ago aren’t there and she’s just not sure now so she leaves. That night Yuichi stops by her room and she says she thought about it really hard and will forgive him if he buys her 7 strawberry ice cream sundaes. ﾌﾟｯ(※థэథ)∵.*.∵ She says she still likes him as well and he hugs her. The next night Nayuki says “it’s ok if it’s you Yuichi” and yea they actually end up doing it. I was shockefd! Ps2 game wut? Well we didn’t see anything but they left that after-sekks CG since nothing was showing in it afterward. Oh well I guess Nayuki is the lucky one who gets to score – too bad it’s incest (　´_ゝ`).

They go to school as usual but in the middle of class a teacher runs into their class room and tells them to come to the principal’s office. There they find out that Akiko has been hit by a car and when they go to the scene of the accident all they see there is blood and a crumbled piece of strawberry shortcake. (´；ω；｀) Akiko is hospitalized and Nayuki gets so upset over this she ends up in a huge depression and locks herself up in her room refusing to eat. Yuichi tries to get her to eat something but all she does is tell him to GTFO. She cries and says that she was always just living together with her mother and she doesn’t even know who her dad is. (The world may never know…) Yuichi ends up skipping school the next day and he sits on the bench where Nayuki waited for him 7 years ago, until he gets snowed upon as well. Eventually Nayuki shows up saying “someone’s skipping school”. She says that she’s not strong and she wants Yuichi to support her. As an apology for being “late” she gives him a kiss. Yuichi tells her he cannot promise miracles but says he’ll be by her side. He makes a wish into the dream for Akiko’s recovery. It’s spring time now and Akiko’s fine and dandy as Yuichi and Nayuki head off to school. I feel shafted. I really wanted more stuff on Akiko’s recovery. Also I laugh now as I remember one of the Kanon animes mentioning that Yuichi and Nayuki weren’t blood related cousins to lower the incest factor. Sorry, they are blood related TOEI animation, you cannot deny! 😆

Tsukimiya Ayu – Ayu is basically the main heroine and all the dream sequence text at the beginning is all about her. Ayu is a compulsive taiyaki thief and rabid glomper so whenever she runs into Yuichi she’s either with a bag of stolen taiyaki or glomp attacking him 😆 Once you are on Ayu’s route Yuichi has dreams every night revealing the past between him and Ayu. The dream sequence starts with him meeting a chibi crying Ayu in town saying that her mother just died and left her all alone. Apparently nobody in this game has a father so when your mother dies you become an orphan or something （ಠ_ಠ）. Yuichi buys her some taiyaki and then a few dreams later they go to this foresty area. There’s a big tree there and Ayu claims to be a pro tree climber so she climbs up it. Yuichi says he passes because he’s afraid of heights. They keep meeting up in town and one day they go to the arcade where they try to win something from a crane game and after a while Yuichi wins Ayu a little blonde angel doll. Pausing on the dream sequence here for a moment, back in reality whenever Yuchi meets Ayu she always says she is “looking for something”. She doesn’t know what it is or where she left it. Back to the dream sequence – Yuichi tells Ayu that the angel doll he gave her will grant her 3 wishes – granted by him of course. He says he will do his best but he’s broke and you can’t ask for more wishes＼( ^o^)／ The first wish Ayu makes is to not forget about her when he moves away from town.

Back to reality – one day Akiko gives Ayu a pair of movie tickets to a scary movie and she goes to see it with Yuichi. She cries and hides in her coat while Yuichi makes fun of her the entire time. That night Ayu stays the night at the Minase’s and ends up actually staying over for a few days saying her mother is on vacation. When she calls home no one picks up but that’s because she knows her mother is dead but she doesn’t want to tell that to Nayuki or Akiko because they will feel sorry for her and ask her to stay longer. Ayu attempts cooking but she can’t even slice a carrot since she’s like mentally 8 years old or something. While Yuichi and Nayuki go to school as usual Ayu stays home and helps Akiko for some extra cash saying her school lets her take “breaks” whenever she wants. That night Ayu and Yuichi talk on the balcony and they both remember that Yuichi bought the red headband for her but they don’t recall what happened the day of him moving out of town. Akiko one morning asks Yuichi if he remembered what happened 7 years ago. Yuichi says not really why? Akiko just mentions that a “tree was cut down”. That night Ayu tells Yuichi she’s gonna stop staying at their house because she feels bad about it and then she starts crying saying she doesn’t know why the tears are suddenly coming out. The next day as Yuichi heads off to school a frantic Ayu runs to him crying saying that Akiko’s in danger and that she may die like her mom did in the past. Yuichi agrees to go home and check and Akiko just has a flu or something. While Yuichi goes to school Ayu ends up taking care of Akiko which makes her feel a lot better.

When that night Yuichi walks Ayu “home” she tells him that just the train station is enough. When they get there Ayu asks if Yuichi ever lost anyone important to him. She says that the thought of losing Akiko was like losing her mother again and she just couldn’t take it anymore. She says when she lost her mom she felt like a helpless child who couldn’t do anything. Yuichi suddenly remembers the feeling of losing someone as well and Ayu says that she can tell he has the same expression and he understands her pain. She tells him to close his eyes because her face is full of tears. He does so and she reaches up and kisses him. She lets go and apologizes saying she did it without thinking of his feelings but Yuichi says that he likes her and asks if she likes him too. Ayu says she’s liked him ever since back then and they make a promise to meet at the station the next day. They meet up the next day and hold hands as they walk around. That night Ayu comes through his house window saying she didn’t want to wake up anyone so she climbed up on the 2nd floor 😆 This is prolly where the ero scene was in the game but since we’re in PS2 land (and not Nayuki’s route) Yuichi acts like a gentleman and lets Ayu sleep in his room while he goes and sleeps downstairs on the couch. The next morning he meets her outside (she escaped before anyone could see her?) and says he wonders what kind of school Ayu goes to because she seems to love it so much. Ayu agrees to meet him in the evening and show him her school.

They go into the forest where Ayu claims her school is but when they get there all they see is a tree stump. Ayu panicks saying she was there this morning and when she checks her bagpack for her school items she finds that it’s completely empty. She then drops her bag and runs into the forest saying she needs to find something. They end up at that tree path thing where they bumped into Shiori. It begins snowing and it gets dark so Yuichi’s unable to see Ayu and he starts calling out for her. Eventually he finds her by hearing a digging sound. Ayu is in the snow digging over and over saying she has to “find” something. Yuichi offers to help her but after they dig a few holes they get nothing. Yuichi goes to grab her coat to give it to her but Ayu says she can’t see him anymore, apologizes and disappears. That night Yuichi has a dream that the day before he was supposed to move away he met up with Ayu at the place with the giant tree. They decided (as Ayu’s 2nd wish) that the place would now be their fantasy school where there was no tests, no homework and they could take a day off at any time (why even go to school?（ಠ_ಠ）) and every day would be taiyaki for lunch /puke. The next day Yuichi wakes up and Ayu is no longer at that bench at the station waiting for him like before. He has another dream where they were in that tree area and he and Ayu found an empty glass jar. They put the doll that Yuichi caught from the crane game for Ayu, into that jar, and buried it in that area. This is Ayu’s “thing” that she’s been looking for and the following day Yuichi asks Jun, Kaori and Nayuki to help him dig around with shovels to try to find it. Evening hits and they’re about to give up but Jun comes through and finds the jar.

The doll inside the jar is all torn up but Nayuki offers to use her awesome sewing skills and fix it up. That night Yuichi has a final dream. The day he was supposed to move he went up to the place with the tree to meet Ayu. Ayu was on the top of the tree but she lost her balance..and fell. She probably broke her spine because after a while she said the pain suddenly went away (probably because the nerve connections to her spine got cut off) and then she said she can’t move her body. Additionally the snow underneath Ayu’s body was starting to turn red… Yuichi cried saying he will call an ambulance but that was the last time he saw her. Just then Yuichi created an illusion that he gave Ayu the headband that he bought for her as a present and she accepted it happily. This is probably the illusion that he spent Ayu’s entire route with. The next morning Nayuki brings Yuichi the doll she fixed up and he takes it, along with Ayu’s bag and goes to the forest with the tree stump. Yuichi cries saying that he still loves her and then Ayu shows up and says she still loves him too. She says she has no time left and has come to say goodbye. Her 3rd wish is for Yuichi to forget her. Yuichi hugs her and then Ayu disappears and all traces of her, including the doll are gone as well. Time passes and Ayu’s ghost existence is wiped from everyone’s mind. One morning Akiko tells Yuichi that 7 years ago the tree that got cut – the girl who fell off it has regained consciousness this morning. More time passes and the game switches to Ayu’s POV. She’s on the same bench she always waited for him and then he shows up, makes fun of her really short hair cut but now they can live happily ever after cause it’s AAAWWWWWLL right. ＼( ^o^)／ I expected myself to cry in this route but for some reason I didn’t. I guess because in the end something inside of me felt like the entire thing was balls because you don’t just RECOVER from a spinal injury. Is that even possible? I think Kyoto Animation sentenced her to a wheel chair which sickened me at first but now that I think about it, it actually makes a hell lot more sense than what Key and TOEI are trying to pull here. Waking up from coma I can see but being able to move fine & dandy after you injured your spine? Good luck with that. （ಠ_ಠ）

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Well as I mentioned this was a replay for me so I had somewhat a pre-determined opinion about a lot of stuff. Despite all this Makoto’s route still made me cry a river so while Ayu was my favorite route before I definitely feel like Makoto’s ranked up a little higher this time around. It was definitely a lot nicer to finally be able to play the game and actually understand everything but it just felt EXTREMELY long to me. I mean yea I don’t even know how the hell I’m complaining about length here when I made it through Clannad but a couple things helped irk me. Despite this being a PS2 port, there was no auto-run or auto-skip. Yes I spent like 40 hours of my life pressing the O button. It was not pleasant. After finishing 1 route then having to start over and hold the R1 button to skip made my wrist hurt even further (also made me  remember the same freaking problem in HimeHibi too.) There was this one scene where Ayu would show up, remind us that it’s not her route and then disappear. This scene happened in EVERY SINGLE ROUTE that wasn’t hers and you couldn’t skip through it. You couldn’t even force skip because that didn’t exist in this game (　´_ゝ`). Since the game was pretty retro they only ever had 1 sprite per screen and would constantly switch around when there was a group chat between say Kaori, Jun, Nayuki and Yuichi. On the topic of Jun, the poor guy only had ONE FACE. Whether he was sad, happy, angry, he only ever had 1 facial expression. Really? You went through the effort of drawing a sprite for him but you couldn’t even give him multiple face expressions? Sunohara from Clannad would be sad 😆 There was a nice bonus that if you completed each character’s gallery you’d get little chibi CGs at the end. While Yuichi wasn’t voiced in the PS2 version, he was apparently voiced by Sugita Tomokazu in the PSP version. If I had his voice I bet I wouldn’t have fallen asleep (literally) through a lot of these routes (　´_ゝ`). I think Makoto and Ayu were the only characters whose routes I didn’t have to stop, take a nap, and then continue. Meh woulda been nicer if this game had auto mode so I could multi task when I began dozing off but I guess old game is old. I think for any new fans the game is worth playing – but only with voices. I can’t imagine being able to stay awake in this game if it was completely silent like the PC version and the ero scenes were badly drawn and uncalled for so you don’t wanna play the PC version for those anyway （ಠ_ಠ）.

And now for something completely random: