Kanon (manga)

Thank goodness she has the violin, everything else in her life is a mess.

Shoujo mangaka Chiho Saito is best known as the creator of the manga versions of Revolutionary Girl Utena. This series, Kanon, is her next best known work, having won the 42nd Shogakukan Manga Award for shoujo in 1997; in fact, it's part of what influenced Utena director Kunihiko Ikuhara to invite Saito-sensei to join Be-PaPas. It predates and foreshadows many of the themes and trends in Utena, sometimes to the point where one wonders if certain ideas and scenes from Kanon were simply recycled in order to make whole segments of the famous shoujo mindscrew.

Kanon Hayashi is an 18-year-old Japanese girl with a wild, freedom-loving spirit, who has an amazing talent for playing the violin. She lives in Mongolia with her mother, spending a very simple life among shepherds and handling a small hotel, for as long as Kanon can remember. As far as she knows her father passed away before her mother even knew she was pregnant, so she stayed in the plains to raise her.

Around the time Kanon and her mom are visited by a Japanese musician named Tendou Kawahara, Mrs. Hayashi has been in bad health for a while and dies few after Kawahara's arrival, but leaves her the knowledge that her Japanese father is alive and is a famous musician. (She's unable to reveal his name, unfortunately.) Then, Kanon travels to Tokyo in search of her mysterious father. She meets by chance Gen Mikami, genius composer and director of a boarding music school as well as The Rival to Kawahara, who is impressed by Kanon's gift for music. He decides to help her find her father and teach her violin to bring her talent out. Kanon eventually falls in love with handsome 30-something Mikami, and he returns her feelings. They start a torrid romantic/sexual affair...

... and then, in a twist that shows well Saito's love for breaking taboos, they find that Mikami is actually Kanon's father.

Kanon was serialised in Shogakukan's "Petit Comic" magazine from 1995 to 1997, and was collected into six paper volumes for its initial release and three volumes for its later bunko rerelease. The series was translated and published with great success in several countries, including Italy, France and Spain, but has never had an official English-language release.

Absolutely not to be confused with the other Kanon, a seinen visual novel and anime.

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Trope Namer for:

• Aoyama Panel Judge: Because of the result of the "17th Piano Competition in Memory of Aoyama". This is the manga that made the words "in memory of Aoyama" a common expression among shoujo fans.

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This manga provides examples of:

• Backstory: Most of the cast.
• Bishonen: Lots of them.
• Chick Magnet: Gen, who is also something of a playboy.
• Childhood Friends: Kanon and a young man named Su-muna, implied to be in love with her. He marries another friend of his, however.
• Child Prodigy -> Teen Genius: Kanon is a natural-born genius when it comes to music.
• Conveniently an Orphan: The plot starts moving when Kanon's mother dies.
• Depraved Homosexual: Sachio Kajiwara comes close.
• Distant Finale: Takes place four years after Mikami all but disappears
• Elegant Classical Musician: Kanon, Mikami, Tendou. . .
• Fish Out of Water: Kawahara, when he arrives to Mongolia.
• Flower Motifs: Including gratuitious roses during at least one performance.
• Good Parents: Mrs. Hayashi adored Kanon and raised her very well.
• Harmless Villain: Kajiwara and his cronies.
• Hopeless Suitor: Tendou Kawahara for Kanon. Maybe, just MAYBE subverted at the end.
• Hot Mom: Mrs. Hayashi.
• Ill Girl: Few before the story started, Mrs. Hayashi suffered a severe accident during her manager work. The injuries she got eventually killed her in front of Kanon and Kawahara.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Mrs. Hayashi and Tendou got along very well, and had she not died they would've played the trope straight.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Kawahara in the end. Again, it might be subverted.
• Loophole Abuse: No rule says a newbie can't join a high-level music competition, or so it would seem.
• Love Bubbles: Typical in a shoujo manga.
• Mysterious Parent: Kanon's dad.
• No Export for You: Well, not for English-speaking audiences, anyway.
• Opposites Attract: Gen and Kanon.
• Parental Abandonment: Subverted. Everyone thinks Kanon's father abandoned her family; but few before Mrs. Hayashi dies, she explains that they faced lots of opposition from their families so she ran away to protect herself.
• Parental Incest: Gen and Kanon.
• The Rival: Tendou feels this way toward Gen. They eventually become romantic rivals as well.
• Serious Business: Music!
• Shipper on Deck: Before dying, Mrs. Hayashi wanted Kanon to marry Tendou even when he and Kanon had JUST met.
• Slap Slap Kiss: Gen and Kanon, a lot.
• Straight Gay: Kajiwara.
• Stereotype Gay: Kajiwara's boyfriend.
• Surprise Incest: Kanon and Mikami only find out about their blood bond after they get involved.
• Time to Unlock More True Potential: Happens a couple of times with Kanon's musical skill. Especially true when she turns out to be, not only a violin prodigy, but a piano genius as well.
• Tsundere: Gen frequently acts as a male version.
• Twin Switch / Dead Person Impersonation: Sawa.
• Two-Teacher School: Gen's academy — which, since we are on the subject, is in many ways surprisingly similar to Ohtori Gakuen in Utena.
• Unsettling Gender Reveal: Subverted. When Kawahara meets Kanon, she's wearing aa Nice Hat that hides her Rapunzel Hair. However, he never really mistakes her for a man — possibly thanks to her name, which is normally related to the Japanese name for the female Boddhitsava Guanyin.
• Unwanted Harem: Kanon has several men competing for her.