Discussion topic for the Kano arc of AIR. Feel free to discuss anything from the Kano route, but please tag references to content outside her route with [spoiler]. Discussion of Kano’s character is also welcome. Her birthday is the 12th of June.
This topic also hosted AIR Bookclub discussion from this post onward, and was referenced in our Kano Route Podcast.
What would you rate this route?
0 voters
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As always, I have not read any of the visual novels yet, but I can give some feed back from her arc in the anime.
In my opinion, Air had the weakest cast of the five, and quite honestly I didn’t think much of Kano. Even after two viewings, I didn’t feel too much for her. I was still left fairly confused by the end of it.
Kano’s sister was one of the best Air characters… Kano not so much. 
I agree, her sister is a great character. I saw her as one who took on the “mother” role after their mother died. The funny thing is, I am planning on posting a video on my top 10 favorite parents in anime tomorrow, where Haruka is one of the entries. Speaking of whom, she is actually in my humble opinion the best character in the show.
She was my second favorite character in the VN~ I skipped through the Kano route though, so missed a lot of her.
As we can see, Kano is fairly overshadowed by her sister. Potato too, by that manner. Gotta feel sorry for that factor.
cut cut cut cut cut <— don’t really click that, I had to and it’s terrible.
I felt like this route had a lot of really cool stories and characters within it- But Kano herself was just… Very uninteresting. It feels much less like its own thing and more a stepping stone of the overall story that is Air, where as Minagi’s route felt a bit more special to me. The real gem in the route was the story provided when Yukito comes in contact with the feather, no doubt. It really just felt like a scenario built for the sole purpose of showing the reader that information and to provide some more commentary on the magic of Air.
That being said, the sister dynamic was sweet. Hijiri is an excellent character and was a pretty good foil to Yukito in how they both cared deeply for Kano’s well-being, helping one another to understand the situation as best they could.
Just finished watching Kano’s arc in the anime and I thought it was alright. Kano herself didn’t really strike me as interesting or as a favorite character but I rather liked her. She was kind and friendly and well that’s about all I can say but she is likable at the very least. Her sister Hijiri was also pretty good and I liked the relationship between her and Kano as well her relationship with Yukito. I wasn’t really all that confused with the ending of her arc but then again, that’s probably because I knew that Air arguably had the most supernatural elements out of all the Key series.
Also let’s not forget Potato the cute puppy. 
Hijiri is the best character, although Yukito comes pretty close.
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AIR Bookclub discussion commences from this post onward!
Kano is just really meh.
She’s such a boring character and her route really does feel like it was leading up to the story with the feather. Like Kano was just a catalyst to get to the true story that didn’t even involve her - which sucks cuz Kano is supposed to be the main focus.
Even in Minagi’s route Michiru played a big role but the main focus was still on Minagi
Kano also doesn’t really have anything about her personality that stands out
Hijiri I found enjoyable in the anime but I hated every moment with her when she was on screen in the visual novel
So there was nothing I found really enjoyable in her route for me
Unlike most of the other characters in AIR, I can’t really point out a reference to Kanon at all here. Kano’s character is very Genki, but she’s also very much a Yukito fangirl. I think her character and route is the most experimental in this VN, so there’s a lot of good and bad (unavoidable sex scene aside) that I found in this route.
For me, Kano is the weakest of the three routes in the Dream Arc, not because the story was bad, but because it has the least to do with the overall story. Sure, there are references to the girl in the sky in several points, and the story does touch on Yukito’s faith in the girl in the sky being tested, with him deciding to forget at the end about her and living with Kano. But the dilemma of Kano herself is the focus of the story, featuring horror elements that almost, but not quite, reach Ryukishi07 standards. This route is also the most romance-focused in the entire VN (not that any of the other routes have any less focus on romance), since Kano is so drawn to Yukito, and Yukito has a huge hunch that she may have something to do with the girl in the sky.
The ending did tell me a bit about how Yukito’s power works, which leads me to my first Key Point: Who do you guys think was the person that possessed Kano, and why did she decide to possess her specifically? Also, what do you guys think is implied when Yukito says after saving Kano, “If I tried to do any more of that, I would have disappeared without a trace.”?
In the end, Kano’s route is good, but not entirely essential to knowing about the rest of the story, especially when you read the route after all the others, like I did.
Unavoidable sex scene that breaks Kano’s character :>
The person who possessed Kano was Shiraho, the mother from ancient times.
I think she decided to possess Kano cause Kano touched the feather that had Shiraho’s memory in it (via Key Magic - similar to Michiru)
I think Kano was easy to possess for Shiraho because Kano was younger and already felt regret about being the reason her mother had died
Hijiri also touched the feather, but she was already strong enough that nothing happened while Kano was not
I remember this being my main issue with the route as well. When you take out the ghost elements, the route becomes about how Kano learns to feel gratitude towards her mother instead of seeking forgiveness. I’m pretty sure Yukito brought that up quite a while before the ending though, so that rubbed me the wrong way.
Yeah this is brought up quite a while before anything actually happens.
Early on in her route she and Yukito go out for a walk and she is like “I want to meet my mom to tell her I’m sorry she gave birth to me” and Yukito is like “Don’t do that. You should thank her for giving birth to you instead.” and Kano’s like “Oh that’s good I like dat.”
Boom Kano’s done. The rest of the time is spent with the Shiraho girl.
Wow, Kano route certainly was short. I finished it in half a day… but that’s not a bad thing. (Honestly, this ‘the longer, the better’ mentality certain visual novel writers seem to have is annoying, but that’s another topic entirely.)
So… this route was pretty enjoyable. I was sad about the lack of Potato during the early to mid-part of the route, but Hijiri managed to make up for that. Yukito-Potato and Yukito-Hijiri interaction was brilliant. I love Potato. I love Hijiri. I love Yukito.
Huh? Kano? Oh, right, her… uhh… well, that lethal chef part was funny at least. She fails to be an interesting character and is outshone by Hijiri and Potato.
I also enjoyed the supernatural aspects of the route. It was done well, was quite chilling at points. Nice route, too bad about the bland heroine.
I have a hard time with this qualification, if you are judging the strength of a story only by the impact or tie in it has to the “main story line” you are going to strike out a ton of other stories. A good example being Haruka in Little Busters. If you are saying the overall story is the events of refrain then Haruka had little to do it but it doesn’t make it a weaker story at all. Me personally I believe you have to judge how something stands on its own in most cases with a few exceptions.
I can agree with this, when I was reading through I figured Kano was chosen over Hijiri because of Kano’s similarities to Shiraho’s own daughter whose name escapes me and I am presently too lazy to look up.
[quote=“HeliosAlpha, post:16, topic:332”]
When you take out the ghost elements, the route becomes about how Kano learns to feel gratitude towards her mother instead of seeking forgiveness. I’m pretty sure Yukito brought that up quite a while before the ending though, so that rubbed me the wrong way.
[/quote]This gets pretty close with my biggest complaint about the route which is how Kano grows as a character. Her character growth is seen mainly in two aspects namely her attitude towards her mother, and towards Hijiri. They chose for some reason to gloss over this and allow most of Kano’s character shift to happen in the background while allowing us to see the results of that shift in the foreground of the story and try to puzzle together exactly where the change came about.
[quote=“Rincchi, post:18, topic:332”]
(Honestly, this ‘the longer, the better’ mentality certain visual novel writers seem to have is annoying, but that’s another topic entirely.)
[/quote]Longer does not always equal better, but conversely I think there are sometimes when stories can get rushed which I honestly think we have a small case of with Kano.
[quote=“Rincchi, post:18, topic:332”]
I was sad about the lack of Potato during the early to mid-part of the route,
[/quote]He more than serves to make up for it during the later parts of the route though. His acrobatics are especially great.
[quote=“Rincchi, post:18, topic:332”]
She fails to be an interesting character and is outshone by Hijiri and Potato.
[/quote]In my opinion Kano was still an ok character. Granted she could have been a lot stronger, but they chose to tell the better majority of the story from Hijiri and Yukito’s point of view so we lose a lot of bonding time with her. At first blush its easy to brush her off as just a spoiled brat who is basically being spoon fed whatever she wants; however, I think there is a bit more to Kano if you stop and look at it, and try to figure out is there ever points where she is more aware of situations than what we give her credit for and the happy go lucky attitude is part of a front she puts on to keep up airs?
TL;DR I liked Kano going into the route and I like Kano coming out of her route, but I do feel like there was a good bit left on the table.
I feel so bad because I’ve been super duper busy the past week and haven’t had much time to read Kano’s route >_< I’ll try to catch up this week since I have a lot more free time now.
For the meantime, I’ve been making some daily points starting from the end of common route from what I have played so far. Will continue posting them as I am able to play more XD
July 24
July 25
July 26
July 27
