CANAAN - Episode 3

After being saved by Canaan in the last episode, this third instalment of the series gives Maria and her slightly odd friend a chance to kick back, relax and do some sight-seeing for once, although not before Minoru gets himself and Maria kicked out of a decidedly dodgy Japanese-themed nightclub and ends up meeting a strange but beautiful woman (aren't they always strange yet beautiful in these things?) who bears the weird mark that he's already seen far too much on his trip around Shanghai so far.

Away from all that though, the real focus here is upon Maria and Canaan's relationship, as we get some glimpses into a past meeting between the two which helps us to learn a little more about Canaan, before all Hell breaks loose as the power goes out on a ride the pair of them were enjoying. Of course, this is the cue for a slightly more action-oriented segment of the episode, as Maria finds herself kidnapped and a bomb seemingly strapped to her head by the young lad we saw last episode, while Canaan uses her synesthesia to track down both Maria and her assailant, a meeting which concludes in an almost inevitably bloody ending. However, this climax isn't before we find out more about both this boy, the crazed old man he was working with last episode, and (it seems) even more about the origins of Cannan itself.


In terms of the overall theme and texture of CANAAN, this series is still proving to be hard to pin down from me - One moment it's throwing cat-eared girls and fan service at the screen, the next it's exploring the friendship between two very different girls with some clear links between them, and then we find ourselves caught in a gleefully clichéd spot involving a ticking bomb and a countdown timer. Normally I'd raise an eyebrow at some of these more incongruous moments (indeed, I laughed out loud at the bomb on Maria's head), yet the whole thing seems to be playing out with such a knowing look that I really get the feeling that such moments of humour are entirely intended, which in turn leaves me to smile and my respect to grow for the series.

By this third episode I was hoping I might have grasped what the production team are planning to do with CANAAN, but at the moment I still can't see it - Maybe it's no bad thing, as for all of its oddities I'm actually rather enjoying just going with the flow and enjoying the visuals and moments of well-choreographed action at the moment.