Canvas 2 ~Niji Iro no Sketch~

Wetbeard Apr 27, 2012

6

Introduction Canvas 2 ~Niji Iro no Sketch~ is a romance anime based on a visual novel. I personally did not get the chance to play the game, but I do plan to eventually. I am not sure whether fans of the game would like the anime, but its important for them to know that although all heroines are in the anime and all of them have their moments, the spotlight is completely on Elis and Kiri; therefore, if you are a die hard fan of any of the other heroines prepare to be disappointed. Story Very few harem anime have a logical setting, but Canvas 2's setting is, to a certain degree, logically acceptable. The main character, Hiroki, is an instructor for a school's art club. Obviously, he has students, many of them female; therefore, the great number of females around him does not feel unnatural or unrealistic at any point during the anime.I described the anime as harem, but it really is not. Its a love triangle, and that fact becomes completely apparent by the first four episodes. I would have rated the story higher had I got a more satisfying ending. A satisfying ending could be a happy, bittersweet, shocking, or melodramatic as long as it provides the person watching the anime the necessary closure. Pounding your desk in irritation and aggravation is not what an ending with good closure should make you do. The only reason is I rated the story 6 and not lower than that is because the conflicts of specific arcs were resolved, more or less, beautifully and everything was going so well till the story took a sudden and rash change that ruined it all for me personally. I knew the ending before watching the anime, and I actually thought I would like it, but as I watched the episodes, I slowly realised how much I will hate the ending once I am finally done with the anime, and truth be told, I was infuriated with the ending. I wonder how I would have reacted, had I not accidently spoiled the ending for myself. To be brief, the story is good but ends horribly. Animation The animation is nothing special. Truth be told, for an anime produced in 2005, you would think it would look better than this. It does look like someone that came out in 2003. The character designs are shallow. The main way you will differentiate between the characters is with their hair color. All minor characters look like carbon copies of one another. It is not bad, but it could have been a lot better. Sound The soundtrack is great but not really memorable. Dramatic music played at dramatic points of the story and happy pieces of music played at points, but the ending song really stands out in my opinion, and the song is still stuck in my head (its been months since I finished watching the anime)  Characters The three main characters are Hiroki, Elis, and Kiri. Hiroki, like many main male characters from visual novels is very normal and average in personality and behavior. Nothing in him really stands out, except the fact that he does not retaliate once taken advantage of as shall be seen. That probably is the only thing about him that stood out in the anime. Had the anime focused more on his painful past and showed his emotions during that period of his life, I think he could have been a lot more interesting. Elis is Hiroki's cousin as well as student. I will admit that she is the reason I decided to watch the anime. Very few romance anime involve cousins, and one that does is what I wanted. I kept searching, unearthing anime till I found that Canvas 2 and Kanon have cousins in them. I had heard of Kanon before but did not know that it involves cousins, but Canvas 2 was a completely new name to me, a name that I have never heard or read of before. The anime's anonymity fueled my curiousity, so I went on to watch it. Now, let me talk about Elis herself. She is an annoying yet cute brat that constantly and consistently clings to her "onii-chan," much to his dismay.   Kiri is your typical, caring, loving childhood friend. Nothing makes her that unique, but she does have this aura around her when she is first introduced that makes you wonder in what way is she related to Hiroki's past. Conclusion Overall, I would say that the anime is ok, but the horrible ending made me forget how much I loved earlier parts of the anime. Others might actually like the ending; therefore, to each his own. One should give this anime chance, but I think it would be good to have have another anime to rebound on immediately once you are done, so that you do not feel too irritated contemplating the ending like I did. EDIT: I had a chance to try out the Visual Novel the anime is based on, and I have to say the anime did not do it justice. The character designs in the anime look terrible and bland when compared to the designs used in the VN. Another thing is, the anime focused too much on Elis and Kiri. Yes, they're the main heroines and they play a major part in the VN even if one does not take their route, but the anime should have showed more elements of the routes of the other characters. Take this as an example, the only way I knew that one of the girls in the anime is a heroine is from the anime's ending that displayed them all. There is not a single part of her route in the anime. The other heroines(excluding Elis and Kiri) all had at least an episode, more or less, but I don't think it was enough, and this is bound to frustrate fans of the VN who plan on watching the anime. There was never really a harem of girls in this romance anime. It was plain and simple, a love traingle, and all the other heroines have no purpose other than serving as filler material.

krofire Feb 19, 2022

2

Studio Zexcs brough this adaptation from an eroge visual novel in 2005 and boy is it bad. The novelisation itself is based upon an erotic role-playing game developed for Windows and later ported onto PS2, DVD and then iOS. The concept itself spawned a manga, drama CDs, further spin-off games and, of course, this anime. The latter is a car crash and must have relied solely upon the popularity of the games and other media. It takes 24 episodes to convey a story that has little or no plot whatsoever. We would go further and say that it has two of the dullest protagonists ever committed to the genre. The sheer utter tedium of this story is a true wonder and at the point of writing (2022) Crunchyroll cannot even be arsed to offer this in HD. The standard definition version (via Roku in the UK) does the show no favours whatsoever and it takes genuine determination to sit through all twenty-four episodes. It is grim. At its heart is a pretty dull love triangle between trainee art teacher Hiroki Kamikura, his cousin Elis Hosen and his childhood friend Kiri Kikyo. For some reason Hiroki is not able to paint as he did when he was younger. The reasons for this are never truly explored. He just cannot paint. Elis lost her parents in a horrific car accident and has been unable to paint using the colour red ever since. Yup, that is as exciting as this gets. Every opportunity for true drama is shut down before anything remotely exciting happens - probably a legacy of the original game-play. Beyond the core set of tiresome players there is also a large variety of teenage girls at the Nadesico Academy where Hiroki works and Elis is a student. It is co-ed but boys have almost no role to play in the story. Given the erotic-harem nature of the original game-play this all makes sense. Despite being exceptionally stupid Hiroki is adored by his female students all of whom seem to be exceptionally talented in some way or the other. Regardless of its game-play origins there is nothing erotic in the anime which is a pity as it needs something (anything!) to spice it up. The fact that the main male protagonist is an adult and most of his potential love-interests are underage girls passes without comment. Very little happens in the story other than Elis being a moody teenager and flouncing around to annoy the adults. The characters are all exceptionally annoying and seemingly unable to sort out even the most basic requirements of romantic relationships. The anime leaves you guessing up until the end as to which partner the dim-witted Hiroki will choose. He chooses the wrong one. However, if you have trawled through all twenty-plus episode of this nonsense you will simply not care by this point. Utter rubbish. Avoid. Go play the game or something. Anything. Just don’t watch this show.

SoulScopes Jul 13, 2011

1

I saw there were no reviews for this anime so i thought hey might as well do a review for my least favorite romance anime of all time. To anyone who might watch this and is new to romance animes or is just starting out I think you should start with something way better then this so justcome to me if you need to with any questions about that but anyway i watched this anime in one sit because when it started I "DID" like it but now i hate it. anyway i am writing this at about 2:00 Am so its not really that late (for me atleast) but i still think that i wasted my time with watching this.So basiclly you can say two cuz's live together beacuse the girls parents were killed in a car crash so the other cuz takes care of her. To start off with not only does she force him to do the laundry he also has to pay for everything she owns and he cooks about 99% of the meals. So as you can she shes a real great person but wait theres more she is scared of the color red beacuse you know the crash and blood comming from her parents but anyway she says shes very mature and is over her fear of red almost every episode but she never gets over it until i beleave ep 22 or 23. Also she said she would paint a picture with red in it and show it to her friends many times in the anime but she never does she might at on point of the anime pait some thing with red in it but i will leave that for you guys to watch if you want to ruin your life. So the guy cuz has a girl hes always liked and shes always liked him so as they start to for something girl cuz comes and breaks it then they start to form again but she breaks it again so finally they repair it and i will not tell you if she breaks it but i will say that i really liked the guy cuz and the girl he always liked as a couple but you can tell by how mad i am at this anime how it turned out i bet. So also this anime is full of how should i put it ummmmm i guess fakers one example is every thing i said about the girl cuz and another faker is the guy cuz as I said he said he liked the other girl but when you watch the anime you see he SPOILER ALERT PLESE DO NOT READ IF YOU DONT WANT SPOILERS PLEASE GO TO NEXT CAPS LOCK FOR REST OF SPOILER FREE REVIEW.................................................................................................       He blows the girl he said he likes for the girl cuz and the girl cuz always said date that girl date that girl and i dont want to mess up your date beacuse when he blew her off they were going to stay over night in a hotel and maby even do some hentai stuff but anyway when he say the girl cuz she didnt say sorry for making you come or thanks for the painting you painted me even though  have been asking for a year why dont you paint some thing or even can you tell your date that im sorry so yea..............................................................................................................       OK SPOILERS DONE NO MORE SPOILERS SPOILERS DONE NO MORE SPOILERS................. So i guess i can tell you there is 1 main character i like and 2 2nd-dairy ones i like they are the girl the guy cuz "likes" the high school girl who writes novels and also her editor. BTW if you are wondering why im not using any ones name its beacuse 1. i dont remember the names of anime people i hate 2. Dont like writing long japanese names and finally 3. I dont want you guys to go yelling at me if i dis you favorite char. so now i can go back delete what i said and be like "LIAR i never said such a thing go and check for yourself" well JK about the last one but anyway i want to end on this note for people like me who have seen many romance animes this anime is one to watch ONLY if you want to go waste 8 hours of your life and to people that have watched either some or no romance animes then please do not watch this i beg of you!!!! Instead watch a good romance anime and if you dont know fo any then comment on my page and i will tell you some good ones. Well i guess thats it so thats for reading my review