Monday 13 July 2009

CANAAN - Episode 2

Well, if nothing else CANAAN certainly knows how to kick off an episode - Helicopters, rocket launchers, gunfire, big explosions and a girl kicking seven shades out of her captors. So begins episode two of this series...

With the leader of the Snakes (and therefore an enemy of Canaan) free again, our focus switches to Maria as we learn a little about her history - Namely, how she got caught up in an incident in Shibuya involving a lethal virus a couple of years previously before being saved only by her father's ability to develop an antidote to said virus. It seems safe to assume that this incident is how she first met Canaan, although Maria herself has no recollection of the Shibuya incident herself.


However, it appears that Maria's connection to all of this is still very much an issue, as she and her fellow journalist Minoru soon discover as they find themselves the target of some ram raiders and a crazed old guy with a gun at a local restaurant. This takes us to the second big set piece of the episode, a high-octane car chase through the streets of Shanghai before Canaan herself shows up to close out the action with style.

I have to confess that I really don't have the slightest idea what's going on with the plot of this series right now, with its jumble of various factions and threads which haven't quite intertwined yet. The again, I find myself not particularly caring about those finer nuances of the plot once the real action kicks off, and it has to be said that this is carried out with aplomb in this episode - Yes, we're seen all the gunplay and fighting before a thousand times, but that doesn't stop CANAAN from doing it all with a cheeky grin and a flourish. Even the car chase is as formulaic as they come (driving through a vegetable stall and all) yet it still manages to coax forth the requisite amount of adrenaline into my veins.

This state of affairs is leaving me to label CANAAN as "daft but action-packed fun" at this point in time - As action-oriented series go it doesn't seem to be taking itself too seriously right now, but who knows where this cat's cradle of a story will deem fit to take us next.

2 comments:

kage said...

>> It seems safe to assume that this incident is how she first met Canaan, although Maria herself has no recollection of the Shibuya incident herself.

In the restaurant scene, Maria says she meets Canaan in the middle east when Canaan saved her from a dispute with several guys. Maria's also the one that taught Canaan cat's cradle.

The Shibuya incident is covered in the game 428 and Canaan's only involvement there was showing up at the airport at the end of all the events. Alphard was actually more involved in that game than Canaan -- although Alphard did pretend to be Canaan to Maria's twin sister (only Maria's met Canaan before so her twin didn't know).

Hanners said...

That's interesting to know, thanks for the heads-up on that - I'm not familiar with the 428 game, so I was assuming that Canaan and Maria had met before the whole Middle Eastern thing but the latter didn't remember.