I finished this route with quite some time left before the podcast. Hopefully I’ll be able to discuss more actively your posts this time. 
First things first. Someone (sorry for not remembering) told me that Shiori would be the best girl for me once I read her route, and he wasn’t wrong. What I liked the most of this route compared to others is how Shiori looks like a pretty normal character. She is not abnormally shy, not abnormally outgoing, not abnormally childish. She is just a standard girl, which helps for the rest of the route to feel more credible.
It is because of this that the early part of the route feels a lot more relaxed compared to the a bit more hectic life of Nayuki’s and Mai’s, and way calmer than the havoc caused by Makoto’s pranks.
The route evolves, as I said, calmly, with not many surprises, but there is always that mystery lingering around: what’s exactly the matter between Kaori and Shiori. Are they truly sisters? Are they not? Did something happen between them?
Then the truth is unfolded. Shiori is to die in two weeks and Kaori knew it, so she distanced herself from her own sister because she couldn’t withstand the pain of having to see her die.
Here is where we see two different approaches to the situation. Either you pretend Shiori never existed or keep on hanging out with her as if no one knew she had two weeks left. One might think that Kaori’s approach is plain selfish, and it might be true, but in my opinion her actions are justified. She was broken to hear that her sister was about to die, so much that she denied the fact to the point of completely erasing Shiori from her life.
Yuuichi, on the other hand, thought that if she only had two weeks left, those should at least be the two best weeks of her life, and went out with her, trying to do anything he could to make her happy.
If I have any complaint about this route is that I would have liked to be shown more of Kaori’s and Yuuichi’s inner thoughts in this kind of indirect way. Like when Shiori stopped coming to see Yuuichi at lunch break or when they ended up eating together that monstrous Jumbo Mix Parfait Deluxe which cost 3500 fucking Yen.
Anyway, on a side note, I wanted to add another fact about how Akiko is God: she is omniscient.
Both this and her “Is anything wrong with her?” prove her to be a divinity. Either that or her job involves spying on Yuuichi.
Going on with Shiori’s story, a question prompted when I discovered her suicide attempt. She knew that she had just three weeks left. She was sad because she didn’t have life time to do all the things she wanted to do. Then, why does she want to commit suicide?
My guess is that she really didn’t want to do anything. Going to the same school as her sister and wear the same uniform is not something she really wanted to do. It was after the whole Ayu-Yuuichi-Shiori scene that she realized that happiness can be found in the smallest things in life, like an unexpected crash/encounter, or an afternoon spent window shopping with someone you love.
From there on, she thought, like Yuuichi, that since she only had three more weeks left, she might as well life them to the fullest.
Then we have the ending. Once again, the ending doesn’t clear things up completely. Did Shiori die? Did she survive? This time I’ll say that she lived. When she collapsed by the fountain, she didn’t truly die, maybe she fainted and was brought to the hospital. Then, after some time, she somehow (miracles/KEY magic) recovered and came back to her life as Yuuichi’s girlfriend.
While it’s true that this miracle wasn’t bound to happen since it is set that it is certain that Shiori had to die at around her birthday, the miracle isn’t too far fetched as the ones in Mai’s route or in Makoto’s route. It is rather like (Nayuki’s route ending spoiler) when Akiko is in hospital in a pretty bad condition but still recovers. Very improbable, but not imposible and doesn’t truly involve any magic.
Overall, I rate this route a 4. While I enjoyed it and the main heroine was of my liking, it did not strike me as hard as to give it a 5. In fact, Kanon’s routes haven’t been all that striking to me overall, but that will go in another post after we end the bookclub.
I’ll post something more afterwards if any ideas come to mind, and of course I’ll come back to your thoughts to give my opinion of them!
