5 January 2009: Kannagi holds off late-season Nodame surge
Nagi takes a seat on the roof of the school.
By now surely everyone has heard about the sudden dip into Serious Territory during the final three episodes of Kannagi. Responses are generally negative, and perhaps only a little bit unfairly so. The shift in tone is jarring, considering Kannagi spent the first 10 episodes almost purely on comedy. I was okay with the change, but then again I also enjoy episodes 25 and 26 of Neon Genesis Evangelion. (In other news, I should totally start using footnotes again.) I want to say Kannagi tried to do for harem comedies what ef ~a tale of memories~ did for moe blobs and what Eva did for giant robots, but unfortunately Kannagi is not nearly as successful.
It's official: Tsugumi is the Best Girl in Kannagi
Fat lot of good it does ya, sweetheart.
This failure is due to the fact Kannagi's great strength is comedy. Usually if I like a series it's because I like the characters, but that's not the case with Kannagi. This is not to say I dislike its characters, because Tsugumi is a real peach and the rest of the cast is engaging enough, but they're not the reason I placed (and still place) Kannagi as the top show from Autumn 2008. Kannagi surpassed all expectations and conventions because of its comedic aspects. When you take that away—for any reason—you eliminate the best it has to offer. What's left is all right, but wouldn't have been enough to hold off Nodame Cantabile: Pari-Hen or Hyakko for example.
