1 You know, if you want to get someone to watch this, you're not necesserily helping. Just a thought.

2 Pete, my reactions are my own. If the reader doesn't want to watch the show, nothing I really say will change their mind, like as not.

However, that's not going to make my posts any different. I'm not trying to get someone to watch the show, I'm posting my reactions to the show. In this case, I honestly believe that this was the finest five-or-six episodes of anime I've ever seen. I also believe that the character of Mai won't reappear in the series. I'd be lying if I said differently.

If THAT makes someone not watch the series, well, that's kinda silly, but okay. That's life, I suppose. They'll be missing out on a great show, but that's their choice, isn't it?

I'm not shilling for KyoAni here, I'm coming out with my opinions and thoughts. If the reader trusts my opinion enough to try a series on my recommendation, well, I'm honored and flattered. If they read my opinion and say "that's full of crepe," I'm okay with that.

As long as the reader is entertained, and is interested enough to come back, that's enough for me.

3 Yeah, it looks like we're getting stuck with the Ayu ending. Mai's arc was awsome. Not awesome, awsome. As in, "Aw, sometime it had to end, but why now? We've got 11 more episodes to go!"

Frankly I don't think Shiori is as tragic a character. Mai's miraculous blessing is ironically also her great curse. By comparison, Shiori just has.... um, spoiler.

And if you won't shill for KyoAni, I will. They've become the only studio that I will check a series out, just based on them doing it. I'm not convinced they did a great job with the FMP series, but then, I've only watched one DVD of the two seasons they did. So just on the strength of Melancholy and Kanon alone, I'd give any series of theirs a shot.

I'm of the opinion they need to trademark those orange skies though; they do them so well.

Also another series you didn't mention (maybe you didn't see it either) was Ouran Host Club. It starts out and ends as silly fluff, but it's good fluff. The main characters turn out to have all kinds of surprising angles to them. They're usually silly, but deeper than you'd expect for such an absurd series. I think the twins' story was probably the best.

4 Personally, I think Mai's arc was awsome and awesome.

Seconded on the shilling for Kyoto Animation--the weakest series they've ever done is Air, which is still very much above average.

5 I did watch Ouran, and liked it quite a bit, which came as a big surprise to me, as that type of show generally ranks just slightly higher than tentacle pr0n in my judgement.

Instead, I found it VERY funny, and a little bit touching to boot.

I didn't use it in "For Those Who Don't Like Sport..." because, um... I forgot about it. Oops.

6 As I've noted elsewhere, my general soft spot for dark-haired sword-slinging babes combined with some exceptional storytelling to make the Mai arc my favorite stretch of Kanon '06 so far, even if I thought that part of the ending was a bit "huh?"

The entire sequence at the dance is, all by itself, some of the most enjoyable anime I've ever watched.