CANAAN - Episode 8

Despite managing to save both Maria and a number of the hostages held by the Snakes at the International Security conference, the last episode didn't end too well for Canaan, and so she finds herself waking up in a hospital room at the start of this instalment whilst still shorn of her synesthesia.

This state of affairs leaves Canaan unable to see people's emotions, which offers up difficulties both when it comes to protecting Maria and during more every-day tasks. Despite this of course, Maria is as enthusiastic and pleased to be spending time with Canaan as always, and she explains these feelings to her friend later on in the episode.


Aside from those two, the US bombing of the security conference and the subsequent loss of face for the American president appears to have seen a shift in his thinking, as he now appears to be working with the Snakes to some degree after having his "love and peace" slogan made to look hypocritical by that aforementioned bombing. Elsewhere, Hakko seems to be more affected than most by the recent goings-on, leading her to cause trouble at a concert and eventually make her way to the town that was exterminated (supposedly) by the Ua virus alongside Canaan, Maria, Minoru and Santana.

While this may all sound coherent enough when concatenated and written down here, I have to be honest in saying that it all feels a little messy when shoe-horned into a single episode of anime - While this series has been able to hide behind its beautifully-realised action scenes and the like at times previously, when shorn of such moments it begins to feel like a show that has bitten off more than it can chew, and it seems unsure as to exactly how it wants to digest the mass of substance that it now has stuffed into its proverbial mouth. This means that we're bounced all over the place for much of this episode without feeling like we've achieved anything much in terms of plot progression, which can be as frustrating as it is slightly dull. Even eight episodes in we're still being served up subtle clues when it feels like this is the time for answers, and with the episodes running down fast I can't help but feel that time is going to run about before we get a neat and tidy ending to this series. Perhaps that's what the announced set of CANAAN movies is for?