Kanon - Reception and Legacy

Reception and Legacy

According to a national ranking of how well bishōjo games sold nationally in Japan, the original Kanon release for Windows premiered at number two in the ranking. Three years later in June 2002, the original release ranked in again at 45, and then again at 46 the following two weeks. The original release also made the ranking after that at number 41 in early July 2002. The Kanon Standard Edition premiered at number 16 in the rankings. The Kanon Standard Edition remained on the top 50 list for the next two months, achieving the rankings of 47 and 35. The all ages version of the Kanon Standard Edition premiered at number 42 on the national ranking, went up to 35 the next month, and did not appear on the rankings after that. The Dreamcast port sold 42,379 units in the first week and was the fourth top selling console game in Japan for that week. Kanon has sold over 300,000 units across several platforms, not counting the PSP release.

Five days before the first PS2 release for Kanon, a PS2 printer called Tapis MPR-505 went on sale which enabled the user to print out game screens. Kanon was one of the three games supported at launch, the other two being America Ōden Ultra Quiz from DigiCube and Marle de Jigsaw from Nippon Ichi Software. The first PS2 release in 2002 was reviewed by the Japanese video game magazine Famitsu where the game received an overall score of 29/40 (out of the four individual review scores of 7, 8, 7, and 7). Yūichi Suzumoto commented in an interview in March 2001 that he felt the end of Kanon's story could be summed up as "the prince and princess live happily ever after. The end," resulting in an ending that does not expand on what could possibly happen afterwards. In the October 2007 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, poll results for the 50 best bishōjo games were released. Out of 249 titles, Kanon ranked fifth with 71 votes.

Characters from Kanon have appeared in several dōjin games not directly based on the Kanon series such as the Eternal Fighter Zero game by Twilight Frontier where most of the playable characters either came from Kanon or from an earlier Key game titled One. The dōjin game Glove on Fight featured at least two Kanon characters: Ayu Tsukimiya and Akiko Minase in a fighting style game along with various other characters taken from other media. The character Ayu Tsukimiya in particular is known to appear in works outside Kanon, such as in strip 67 of the webcomic Megatokyo where Ayu is shown eating taiyaki.

The second Kanon anime series was reviewed at Anime News Network where Theron Martin commented how the series is a "formulaic moe haremfest", and how the moe aspects of the series may make viewers "feel like they're drowning in a vat of gooey cuteness". The series is described as being similar to the anime television adaptation of Air, saying "Like Air, the first four episodes can be simply summarized as 'male lead arrives in town and kills time interacting with cute girls.' Unlike Air, however, these interactions can occasionally be very funny." Martin also compares Kanon to the anime adaptation of Shuffle! which is described as "bombing" where Kanon "works". The reviewer chalks this up to the characters "endear themselves to the viewer...far better than what Shuffle!'s do." Martin cites the transition between humor and serious content as a defining feature of the series. However, Martin comments how one of the series' flaws is how it "overplays the mundane cutesiness and moe cards at times" causing little to happen with the plot. Yuichi is described as being "too erratic to be fully credible" or easily believable. Despite the series' drawbacks, Martin still describes the series as "one of the best moe-centric series to date" and lauds Kyoto Animation's production values making Kanon "one of the prettiest-looking anime series of the past year". Martin adds another series comparison, citing Kanon as the "polar opposite of Gurren Lagann", which deals primarily in its action-oriented content.