January 8th
Box cutter in her introductory CG woo woooo. Good introduction though, it seems completely harmless first time, but as you find out later, it’s a huge scene to Shiori.
January 9th
January 11th
Yuichi comments on her cheerfulness, recalling that her first appearance isn’t matching how she’s acting now. G O O D S H I T right there. He also notices she keeps trying to find ways to play around. Yuichi sure is making my job easy this route, pointing out all of Shiori’s odd and meaningful actions. The Kaori connection is brought up but already the issues surrounding it are written all over her face.
January 12th
Shiori does that thing I like where she comes up with a real cheesy quote and then gets upset when Yuichi is like ‘lol the fuck?’. Yuichi continues to passive aggressively tell her to go the fuck home because he’s a nice guy, no matter how much he doesn’t like to admit it.
January 13th
Time for Kaori to get in on this, getting reeeeeal pissy at calling arriving on school on time as a Miracle. While other routes dive into miracles in a literal sense, this is the route that likes to talk about miracles a lot. Kaori’s quote on miracles is “Miracles don’t happen that easily”. She also flat rejects the existence of Shiori right to Yuichi’s face, showing her professional skills as an absolute unkawaii pig dog. Shiori has to spaghetti her way out of it when pressed by Yuichi while hints of the route spill onto the ground.
January 16th
The date is fun, by the way, it’s not a date. That’s interesting in it’s own right, Shiori strives for a life like a drama, so a date fits right in that. even as Yuichi and even Ayu dismiss that wording, she continues to insist.
January 17th
“it’s not still two weeks, it’s only two weeks” “It’s daijoubu if I have to repeat a year of school” are the quotes of the day, oh wait I missed one, I missed “did I mention I’m going to die?”. This is the first time she says her catchphrase but she seems to really mean it, when Yuichi bullies her about forgetting the next d-d-dato, this makes it a pretty good catchphrase, it can be casually thrown out for the sake of it, but it can also be used as an actual response, and a serious one at that. It’s a little bit better than ‘auu’ in that respect. It also happens to be a promise she’s pissing over, because this is Hisaya
January 18th
Shiori’s ‘Friend’ cuts the shit and tells Yuichi about the cold, she’s got a cute design in the anime.
January 18th
“Yuichi-san…time has nothing to do with how precious memories are. They’re about how important the moment was…how meaningful it was to the person who experienced it” SHIORI ROUTE MORE LIKE REALLY GOOD QUOTE ROUTE.
(dates not listed from now on)
So D O R A M A T I K U, the scene in the park where Yuichi confesses, it’s dramatic and romantic, just like a drama, and dispute living just like one of her Japanese animes right now, Shiori has to reject him. She also agrees with my philosophy on stories, you should have a happy ending.
Kaori gets her big scene, spelling out exactly what’s going on and relieving her self centered fucked up attitude towards the whole thing. It’s a really good scene, the set up, setting, music, atmosphere, all top notch stuff, but I can’t sympathize with Kaori at all, she puts more pain onto Shiori to try and save her own, she’s a failure as a big sister.
On the topic of Kaori being worst sister, Shiori immediately one ups here with an even better scene the following day. Just like that previous scene, set up, setting, music, atmosphere, it’s all here, the fountain at night background looks absolutely fantastic(Kanon, in general, has really great looking backgrounds, especially the night ones), they try and act casual and joke around before Shiori drops the bomb Kaori dropped the day before. And Shiori fucking smiles. While Kaori is broken completely by this and drops even more pain on Shiori, she grits her teeth and smiles though her own impending doom, because if one thing about Shiori is apparent by this scene, it’s that she fucking lifts.
Scene ain’t done though, Yuichi asks the question he asked last time they were in the park, that if it were one of Shiori’s Dramas, what sort of scene would it be, she repeats the same lines about happy endings being great and fiction being a door to ignoring the pain of life, only with a whole lot more pauses and a sad expression on her face, the difference is the kiss happens this time with a fantastic CG to complement it. I want to avoid mentioning the Anime in this bookclub, I really do, but this is the kind of stuff that makes Shiori the route that got absolutely the worst adaptation, the romance of this route is fantastic, loosing it impacts the route greater than any other.
SCENE STILL ISN’T DONE. Because at the end, it’s got one more trick up it’s sleeve, one of the greatest, some would say best scene in Kanon, it’s all done and done, the scene should be over, but as Shiori walks away, Yuichi screams her name, “Is there really nothing that can be done? Is it so hopeless as all that?” Is there really no hope at all?", Yuichi clings to a hope, begging Shiori to give him something to tug on to save her with no matter what, her response is…probably the best quote in Kanon “If only a miracle would happen, it might turn out all right…but…they’re called miracles because they don’t happen”. Lets back up a bit here, ok first of all, that is such a good quote, it’s the quote the OP used for Shiori, that sounds suuuuper good, but embrace the context a bit more and it boils down too “is there no way I can save you” “No, I’m going to die”, she says this with a smile, Shiori has some insane strength, she really does stare at death and remain cheerful, for herself and others, it bears repeating. And you know what? That quote isn’t even done, Kaori gave her quote for miracles way earlier, saying they don’t come by so easily, Shiori thinks they don’t happen at all, but Yuichi hasn’t given his miracle interpretation yet, so this amazing scene isn’t even over and done with completely.
In short, yeah I think the meeting in the park at night is a pretty alright scene, probably the best one in the VN.
AND THEN IT PLAYS THAT WHOLE ‘route over’ MUSIC, you know Zankou(Afterglow), acting like 'Shiori has accepted she’s going to die, nothing more to see here. Screw you Hisaya she still has a week of being a normal girl left and you are going to write it and I am going to ENJOY it.
It’s worth noting that Ayu and Nayuki…exist in this route, it’s unusual for Kanon, Hisaya don’t give a shit about the Maeda girls but he’s making decent use of his girls for this route, they do speak up with reason in this route.
The great Shiori Disaster of February 2009 is a fantastic scene, well known for it’s powerful atmosphere and excellent music choice.
For todays H-scene I have It has to be this way, there is not Revengence music that really fits Shiori, so I simply went for my favorite song that isn’t already taken. The scene was slightly actually better than the rest, but still amusing more than anything else.
We return to the fountain at night once more, Shiori pops a small revalation, she slit her wrist, the box cutter in the very first CG of Shiori is the most subtle ass hint in the world about this. Shiori tries to act like a moment of weakness makes her not stronk as fuck but I don’t buy it and at long last, we get the last Miracle quote, the one that I personally like so much more than Shiori’s more famed one, we get Yuichi’s “They’re called miracles because they do happen, even if things seem hopeless”. To Shiori ‘I can live if I get a miracle’ means ‘I’m going to die’, to Yuichi it means ‘until it happens, it’s not guaranteed’.
The voice acting is some real good shit after that, Shiori saying how there is so many things she wants to do, if by saying I mean whimpering, she gives a death speech, talking about her memories, before she drops “I…don’t think I want to die.”, strike one, she shouldn’t have to say that, ouch
Then, a few lines later “Did I manage to smile, did I manage to keep smiling, all this time?” What the fuck Hisaya. How do you even respond to that, how as she dies she thinks foremost of smiling the entire time, that’s an extremely powerful sentence, and proof that Shiori lifts more than you do.
It’s dramatic, it’s romantic, it’s genuine and emotional, it’s everything Shiori could have wanted, and myself as well.
Shiori Epilouge
You know, after all that, all those quotes I put up there, you’d think one of them would be my favorite. Nah, epilogue exists.
“Yuichi-san, can I…can I…cry now?” “I’ll be in trouble if you don’t” “Why’s that” “It’s not right for the man to start crying first”
Shiori getting to break her smile and cry, she had no reason to hold it in, but she did, she had no reason to ask permission to let it out, but she did. I don’t know why, but that K I L L S me.
Shiori’s Route
OH LAWD THE WRITING, LOOK AT HOW MANY TIMES I HAD TO JUST STRAIGHT UP QUOTE THIS ROUTE BECAUSE THE WRITING IS SO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD. HISAYA CARRYING MAEDAS HACKJOB IN KANON SO HARD.
Like seriously actually really good route, makes a certain other route worse because Come on, Makoto is the same overall concept but done so much worse Maeda is a hack it’s just that much better than it. The writing is masterful, the characters are solid and everything is just overall extremely tight.
Shiori’s Character
Shiori stands out so much in Kanon, she’s much more intelligent than the rest of the girls in general, she will retort Yuichi and talk shit back making for a different experience to the other girls. Her smiling in the face of death is admirable and makes you root for her so hard. The romance of the route is great, which is perfect to match Shiori’s craving for it.
Kaori’s Character
KAORI A SHIT, WHY TO PEOPLE ALWAYS GIVE ME STRANGE LOOKS WHEN I SAY KAORI A SHIT DID YOU PLEBS NOT READ THIS SHIT SHE’S A TOTAL CUNT.
Overall
Seriously fantastic route, funny how Kanon has the whole ‘past’ boner but it’s completely missing in this route, but where it misses out on the Memories, it makes up for in spades with the Promises and especially Miracles, this is a Kanon route though and though, the atmosphere of Kanon is perfect for the story it presents and is, in all honesty, probably the best route in the VN. Anyone who’s only seen the Anime is missing out on the full Shiori route and is to me, the major reason to go VN over Anime for Kanon, even though I believe it’s a very good adaptation otherwise.
I’d have to fill that one under fuck yoooooou.
Shiori believes fiction should have happy endings, THIS IS FICTION, SHE SHOULD GET THE ENDING SHE WANTED AND DESERVES.
Yeah the message and feel of the route would be preserved either way, but fuck yoooooooooou.
This is it, this is the point of the route, this is what is most important. Never be a Kaori, enjoy each day like it’s going to be your last. Shiori basically did. I dig that philosophy and in turn this helps fuel my attraction to this route.
