List of Kanon Characters - Main Characters

Main Characters

Yuichi Aizawa (相沢 祐一, Aizawa Yūichi?)

Voiced by: Atsushi Kisaichi (2002 anime), Tomokazu Sugita (2006 anime/PSP game), Miwa Yasuda (Young Yuichi, Japanese),
Chris Patton (English), Shannon Emerick (Young Yuichi, English)

Yuichi Aizawa is the main protagonist of Kanon. He is friendly and outgoing. He constantly teases the main cast of girls throughout the story which varies in severity depending on the girl. Despite this, he does have a soft side that likens him to an older brother as noted by Shiori Misaka. He used to visit the city in which the story takes place, but his memories of that time are gone, slowly coming back to him as he interacts with the people he met in the past. As noted by himself, he is afraid of heights and not very fond of sweets. While not aware of it at first, Yuichi slowly begins to take notice in the supernatural events occurring within the city. During these times of revelation when he will discover something outrageous, he stays strong with the girls he has made close friendships with. Since Yuichi is a normal person, he tries to help them any way he can and will usually go out of his way in order to protect one or more of these girls.

Yuichi does not have a story behind his character. It was told that due to a family situation, it was decided that Yuichi would live in the Minase house from now on until he decided to move out and live on his own. When Kanon's story begins, Yuichi meets the five heroines and becomes intrinsically linked with each one of them as the story progresses. Yuichi's main purpose in the story is to be the one where the story revolves around as the protagonist and thus he becomes deeply rooted into each of the five main plot lines associated with each of the heroines. Yuichi attempts in each arc to stay with the respective girl until their arc has concluded. With Mai, Yuichi helped to fight off the demons, and with Makoto he stayed with her until she ultimately died. With Shiori, he indirectly prevented her from committing suicide, and with Nayuki, he remembers when Nayuki confessed to him 7 years ago with a snow bunny. He also tried to be there for her when her mother was in the hospital. Lastly, with Ayu, Yuichi tried to help her find her lost item, eventually finding it and repairing it with Nayuki's help.

Ayu Tsukimiya (月宮 あゆ, Tsukimiya Ayu?)

Voiced by: Yui Horie (Japanese), Brittney Karbowski (English)

Ayu is the main heroine in Kanon, followed closely by Nayuki Minase who is the only Kanon heroine to appear with Ayu on three of the official game covers released by Key. Ayu was created by Naoki Hisaya who wrote her scenario for the visual novel, and designed by Itaru Hinoue. Hisaya commented on how he thought Ayu was the one character in Kanon that he felt he grasped the best, but noted it was very difficult to write her character due to Ayu being primarily energetic. After Hinoue drew wings on Ayu's backpack, Hisaya suggested that they remove them due to spoiler reasons, and while Hinoue went along with it at the time, the wings were later included once again.

Yuichi meets a lively seventeen-year-old Ayu on the day after he moves to the city depicted in the game. As the story progresses, Yuichi discovers that she is trying to find something she lost, but she cannot remember what it is; Yuichi tries to help her in her search, but with no initial success. One of her most defining characteristics is the repeated utterance of her catch phrase "ugū" (うぐぅ?) which she mutters as an expression of various negative emotions such as frustration, anger, and fear, something Yuichi enjoys teasing her about. Ayu refers to herself with the masculine pronoun boku (僕?)—Japanese for "I", a rare occurrence among females. Her favorite food is taiyaki. She is seen eating the confection many times throughout Kanon. She can be a bit of an airhead, and despite looking younger than her age, she is actually the same age as Yuichi.

Seven years before the story begins, she fell out of a tree and hit her head on the last day Yuichi was going to be in town. At first, he believes she died, but Akiko reveals she is in the hospital and has been in a coma for the past seven years. The Ayu Yuichi has been meeting in town is actually an astral projection of herself. In an epilogue, she breaks out of her coma, and gets her hair inadvertently cut too short when she goes to a barber shop, leading him to comment as he did before how much she looks like a boy.

Nayuki Minase (水瀬 名雪, Minase Nayuki?)

Voiced by: Mariko Kōda (Japanese), Jessica Boone (English)

Nayuki is Yuichi's cousin, with whom he moves in with at the beginning of the story. She has always been in love with him (in Japan, the marriages between first cousins are legal) and must learn how to deal with these feelings, especially with the threat that he may fall for one of the other girls. She adores strawberry sundaes, but the mere mention of her mother's "special" homemade jam makes her sick (or anyone else after trying it). Nayuki is a heavy sleeper, which has led her to collect dozens of alarm clocks; they do not work on her, but instead wake Yuichi every morning. Since she has such trouble waking up, she is always running for school and is in fact the school's star runner because of this. Similarly, she became the captain of the school's female track team despite being in her second year. She takes a long time to get up in the morning and will pass out several times in the morning, even while standing, before completely waking up. Despite her attempts to stay conscious, she still tends to fall asleep a lot in class, but Nayuki eventually was accepted into a top level university.

Nayuki has a fondness for animals and never misses an opportunity to try to pet one, even wild animals, such as cats, dogs, or even the occasional fox if she can help it. Unfortunately for her, she is allergic to cats. One of her defining features is that she tends to talk slower than the rest of the characters. She will often state the obvious to Yuichi, such as when lunch break occurs or when school ends. Also, when Yuichi breaks a promise with her, she often calls him a liar. Nayuki is second to Ayu as the most used character in the series' marketing. Also, in both anime adaptations, her story runs at the same time as Ayu's. In the anime and manga, it shows how Yuichi had rejected Nayuki years ago when she tried to confess to him because of Ayu's accident.

Nayuki is the first girl to appear in Kanon's story. Nayuki's arc revolves around her mother falling victim to a traffic accident and being hospitalized as a result. This causes Nayuki to fall into depression, and Yuichi tries to console her during this time, though Nayuki tries to push him away as much as she can. In the original version of the visual novel, this was the point in her story where Nayuki's H-scene could be viewed. Nayuki eventually comes out of her depression and makes up with Yuichi. If the player follows the correct choices in following Nayuki's arc, her "good ending" takes place while Nayuki is still depressed. Yuichi ends up confessing to Nayuki, saying that he does not see her as a cousin, but as a very important girl. However, Nayuki is deeply upset by the sudden confession as she questions him on why he did not come to meet her seven years ago. Later on, Nayuki is able to accept Yuichi's confession.

In the epilogue following this scene, it is revealed that Akiko has fully recovered and returned home from the hospital. Nayuki accidentally forgets to turn off her alarm clock and the player gets to hear the recorded message that Yuichi left for her: "Nayuki, I can't make a miracle happen, but I can be by your side. I promise if you're in despair I will comfort you. At happy times, I will laugh with you. Even in winter, filled with snow; even in spring, when the sakura tree blooms; even in the quiet summer; even in fall, when the color of leaves change; and even if the snow starts to fall again. I will stay here. I will not go anywhere. Because I...I really like you."

Makoto Sawatari (沢渡 真琴, Sawatari Makoto?)

Voiced by: Mayumi Iizuka (Japanese), Tiffany Terrell (English)

Makoto is a young girl who attacked Yuichi Aizawa suddenly in the middle of town early on in the story, though so weakly he was able to defeat her by simply extending his arm out. She is carried back to Yuichi and Nayuki Minase's house where she lives as a guest for the remainder of her story. Despite having lost her memories, she remembers what her name is and is sure that she holds a grudge against Yuichi from the past when he visited the city back when he was younger. Makoto's amnesia, or memory loss, is much more severe than Yuichi's or Ayu Tsukimiya's, but from an entirely different source. She feels sad that pets sometimes are abandoned when their owners cannot take care of them. Due to this attitude, it takes her a while to warm up to a stray cat she finds halfway through her story which Yuichi later names Piro. Makoto is shown to love Piro very much and often carries the cat around on her head.

Makoto can be clueless about things that people her age should know, such as the fact that she can buy her own pork buns and manga; Yuichi had commented once how she lacked common sense due to a lack of social experience. Like Ayu, she too has an idiosyncratic expression, "Aū" (あうぅ?), which she says when she is frustrated or sad; likewise, it has no real meaning. Near the end of her story, Makoto starts to wear two bells around her right wrist and enjoys the sound they make.

From early on, it becomes obvious that Makoto has a mischievous personality, which leads to her performing various pranks. These are done exclusively on Yuichi because of her strong dislike for him, something she constantly reaffirms. Her persistent attempts at pranks on Yuichi vary in severity, such as simply dropping food on him or once even throwing lit firecrackers in his room. However, he manages to turn each prank back on her, which makes her all the more determined to successfully prank him. As time passes and Makoto begins to feel more as a member of the Minase family rather than a stranger, she honestly grows to like Yuichi, effectively looking beyond her latent distaste for him. Soon after her attitude change, she starts weakening and eventually becomes incapable of communication because her wish to be at Yuichi's side would only last for a short period of time. Makoto falls in love with Yuichi and says she wants to be married to him and stay with him forever. At the end of her story, after she and Yuichi have been "married", she disappears in front of Yuichi, and is presumed to have died.

Makoto is in fact not a human being but instead a fox that Yuichi found ten years prior to the beginning of the Kanon story. Yuichi first found Makoto, then a young fox, injured on Monomi Hill and he took the fox back and kept it in his room for the rest of the summer. One day, Yuichi tells the fox about an older girl that he had a crush on named Makoto Sawatari, which is where Makoto's name is derived from when the Kanon story is just beginning. At the end of summer break, Yuichi takes the fox back to the hill, and he runs away soon after releasing her, leading her to be angry with Yuichi. With her desire to see Yuichi being so strong, her wish was granted at the cost of her memories and later her life. The two later reunite after the fox transforms into Makoto near the start of Kanon.

Shiori Misaka (美坂 栞, Misaka Shiori?)

Voiced by: Hiroko Konishi (Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 games), Akemi Satō (anime/PSP game), Maggie Flecknoe (English)

Shiori is a first-year student who has suffered from an illness since birth. Her affliction has caused her to become very physically weak, and is almost always absent from school because of it. She loves drama and is always inventing reasons for things that happen in her life, but the real-life drama of a sister who denies her and a life threatened by illness is encroaching on her. Sick as she is, Shiori thinks nothing of sitting outside the school for hours on end while eating ice cream in the middle of winter, despite Yuichi telling her several times to go home and rest. Due to her illness, it is not strange for her to carry around an array of different pills and drugs for her many ailments. She has a noticeably quiet voice. Shiori informs Yuichi early on that the reason she disobeys her doctors' advice and comes to school so frequently is that she wants to meet someone she knows. She is the only heroine in Kanon whom Yuichi did not meet in the past.

Shiori's first appearance in the Kanon story is the day after Yuichi arrives in town. The next day in school, Yuichi meets Shiori at school and he asks her what she is doing here. Shiori says not to worry since she is a student at the school, but has the day off due to a sickness. When Yuichi asks what she is sick with, Shiori tells him it is a simple cold, though she has had it for a long time. During the next few weeks, Yuichi starts to regularly meet with Shiori at school whether it is during or after school has gotten out. Shiori ultimately confesses to having lied to Yuichi all this time about how serious her sickness is, but does not go into much detail about it. Yuichi later finds out from a meeting with Shiori's older sister Kaori Misaka that Shiori may not live past her next birthday which is rapidly approaching.

A week before Shiori's birthday, she gets permission from her doctor to attend school for a week just like a normal student. Even after getting the chance to go to school for a week, Kaori still avoids Shiori as much as she can, not wanting to have to experience the pain that Shiori's death will bring if she ends up dying. For Shiori's birthday, Yuichi decides to throw her a birthday party the day before her official birthday at a local café and invites several others to join. While Kaori does not show up at the start of the party, she later shows up which completely changes the mood of the party. Afterwards, Kaori finally decides to accept Shiori as her younger sister which makes Shiori happier than she had been in recent months.

The rest of the night is spent at Shiori's favorite place in town: next to a very large fountain in the park. Shiori tells him that night something she neglected to say about the day they first met. That day, Shiori was planning to kill herself by slitting her wrists with a box cutter but after meeting Yuichi and Ayu on her way home from the grocery store, she could not go through with it and wanted to meet both of them again. After a kiss between the two, Shiori falls unconscious in Yuichi's arms; in the 2006 anime series, she leaves to get a drink and disappears. After this point, Shiori is taken back to the hospital and Kaori does not come to school during this time. At the end of the story, Shiori miraculously heals and is not in danger of dying anymore. She confesses to Yuichi in tears that she never wanted to die, and that she was only trying to be strong during those difficult times.

Mai Kawasumi (川澄 舞, Kawasumi Mai?)

Voiced by: Yukari Tamura (Japanese), Melissa Davis (English)

Mai is a third-year student of the same high school that Yuichi goes to. He met her standing alone in the school building at night, with a sword in her hand. She apparently takes it upon herself to fight and defeat demons at night while the school is deserted. Due to this, she is constantly blamed for accidents because she never denies them, being too sincere to say anything and knowing that no one will believe that there are demons in the school. Her best friend is Sayuri Kurata, the only person besides Yuichi that does not believe that Mai is a dangerous delinquent. Yuichi eventually starts bringing her dinner at the school while she is fighting and during these times Mai begins to warm up to Yuichi. Mai's idiosyncrasy is her unwillingness to carry on a conversation or even to merely utter the meekest of responses when addressed. Due to this, and her reputation as someone who causes trouble, she is most often avoided when at school, and is talked about behind her back. This cold side of her is shown to stem from having very little insight on other people's emotions.

Before Mai met Yuichi or even lived in Kanon's city, Mai was living in a town with her mother who was admitted into the hospital with a serious illness. When her mother is close to death, Mai starts to pray that her mother will be all right and starts to cry on her mother's hand. Miraculously, Mai's mother recovers somewhat by the morning and is soon cured of her sickness. The explanation of this stems from a magical power Mai has within herself. When she cries, her tears carry incredible healing powers which even have the power to bring things back from the dead. The media pick up on this, but Mai starts to get bullied and terrorized as being a freak, so Mai and her mother move to Kanon's city. Ten years prior to the beginning of Kanon's story, Yuichi met Mai during summer break and the two hung out together a lot for the rest of the summer, especially in a nearby barley field. When the summer break is coming to a close and Yuichi has to go back home, Mai becomes very distraught due to losing a very close friend only just after meeting with him. Mai makes up the story that demons have started attacking the field of barley and that she needs his help to fight them off. Yuichi tells her that he is sorry but he has no choice but to go back home. Mai tells him that she will wait for his return some day. The story of demons attacking the barley field is actually true but in a misinterpreted way. The "demons" were actually construction vehicles coming to raze the field in order to construct the new high school complex. Being the place where she met Yuichi, the field contains precious memories and is a place that she cherishes.

After starting to hang out with her in school, Yuichi discovers that Mai has a bad reputation at school due to the events involving the demons. Yuichi tries to improve her reputation by having her and Sayuri attend the annual school dance party, but a demon appears and makes matters worse; during this time, Sayuri even gets attacked. Yuichi starts training with Mai to help her fight against the demons and the two spend a night together at school fighting and destroying them. Mai has been getting hurt with each successive kill of the demons in the form of strange black marks appearing on her body. After an intense battle with the last remaining demons, Yuichi believes he and Mai managed to destroy them all, but Yuichi is later confronted by another demon. He ultimately sees that it is not a demon, but rather a part of Mai's own power that shows him what happened before he met with Mai and what happened after they met ten years ago.

Due to Mai's incredible power to heal things, an adverse effect that she created from this power were the "demons". The reason that she was getting hurt after destroying them is because she was killing off parts of her own self. After Yuichi tries to tell her that it is all over now, Mai stabs herself with the sword and is about to die. Just then, a fragment of Mai's own power materializes before Yuichi in the form of a young Mai and Yuichi reassures her that he will not leave Mai again. Mai's own power saves her and closes the wound she had just inflicted which saves Mai's life. Mai's power believes that now Mai will be able to accept this power that she has. Before Mai's power leaves sight, she asks Yuichi to call her by the name "Hope" (希望, Kibō?). Mai is later taken to the hospital where she shares a room with Sayuri and tells Yuichi that she will have to stay out of school until the spring. When spring comes, Mai is able to graduate high school with Sayuri.