List of Kanon characters

The girls of Kanon: Mai (top-left), Nayuki (top-center), Shiori (top-right), Makoto (bottom-left), and Ayu (bottom-right).

This is a list of characters from the Japanese visual novel, manga, and anime series Kanon. The main protagonist of the story is Yuichi Aizawa, a seventeen year old young man who has forgotten much of his past as a child. There are five heroines in the story, starting with Ayu Tsukimiya, who is the main heroine. Ayu is a short girl Yuichi's age that used to play with him when Yuichi was younger. She carries a winged-backpack on her back, loves to eat taiyaki, and often says her trademark Ugū catchphrase. Next is Nayuki Minase, Yuichi's cousin, who is also in his class at school. Nayuki has the problem with sleeping in, and is very hard to get up in the morning. She has had a crush on Yuichi ever since she was a child. The third heroine is Makoto Sawatari, the youngest of the five heroines, who has lost nearly all of her memories. What she does remember is her own name, and that she holds a grudge against Yuichi for something he did in the past, though not even Yuichi can remember what he did. Shiori Misaka is the fourth heroine; she is a first year in high school, though never attends class due to an illness she has had since birth. She is usually a cheerful girl who wants her sister to acknowledge her most of all. The last heroine is named Mai Kawasumi, a silent girl who initially comes off as cold towards Yuichi and others, so in effect does not have many friends. She spends her nights at the school slaying demons.

Supporting characters in the story help to further along the plot of the five heroines. They include Akiko Minase, Nayuki's mother and Yuichi's aunt, who is very easy going and will approve of things in one second. Sayuri Kurata is Mai's supporting character, and only friend other than Yuichi. She always tries to put on a smile to hide a depressing past. Kaori Misaka is another, who is Shiori's sister, though she does not admit this to be true when confronted about it. The last supporting character is Mishio Amano who has a major involvement in Makoto's story. She has a cold personality, and helps Yuichi to uncover Makoto's true identity.

Minor characters include Jun Kitagawa, one of Yuichi's classmates, who has a crush on Kaori, and has some minor involvement in Mai's story. Another character is Kuze, the student council president at Yuichi's school, who plays a role in Mai's story. The last minor character is a household cat named Piro, who instantly takes a liking to Makoto after it is first encountered.

Main characters

Yuichi Aizawa

Yuichi Aizawa.

Yuichi Aizawa.

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, and though as nice as of a person he is, he has yet to learn the sensitivity of women. 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.

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 anyway he can and will usually go out of his way in order to protect one or more of these girls.

Ten years prior to the start of Kanon's story, Yuichi was visiting his aunt Akiko's house where he stayed with his cousin Nayuki. During this time, it was summer vacation, and one day Yuichi was outside playing in a barley field in town when he came across a young Mai Kawasumi. For the rest of the summer vacation, Yuichi played with her in that field and became a very important friend for Mai who did not have any friends at the time due to her special powers. When Yuichi had to go back home when the vacation ended, Mai pleaded with him not to leave her behind, even going as far as to lie to him saying that monsters started to attack the field where they once played hide and seek together. Yuichi came back a year later and went to the field as before, but could not find Mai. The next time they would meet up would be after the Kanon story begins.

Yuichi came across a young injured fox on Monomi Hill during this time period. Yuichi brought this fox back home with him and bandaged her injured limb while all the while trying to keep her hidden from Akiko and Nayuki; Yuichi thought that if Nayuki found out that she would tell her mother and then Yuichi may have to take the fox back to Monomi Hill. Despite trying to keep her hidden, the fox eventually sneaked out of his room a few times though only Akiko found out about the wild animal. Akiko did not say anything, however, and thus let Yuichi keep the fox in his room for the rest of the summer vacation. When the vacation ended, Yuichi knew that he could not take the fox back with him and thus took her back to the hill where he first found her, saying goodbye and running in the opposite direction. This fox would later perform a miracle and become Makoto Sawatari at the beginning of Kanon's story.

Seven years before the Kanon story began, Yuichi met a young girl of the same age one day named Ayu Tsukimiya who bumped into him crying in the shopping district. Wanting to cheer her up, Yuichi initially bought her some taiyaki (her favorite food) which helped her to stop crying. When they are about to part, Ayu and Yuichi make a promise to meet up again. Over the course of the winter break Yuichi had from school, he mainly hung out with Ayu. One day, Yuichi manages to catch a small angel doll in a claw vending machine which he gives to Ayu as a present.

When the time between the two starts to wear thin, Ayu brings Yuichi to a clearing in the woods where a large tree stands overlooking the city. Ayu, whom is good at climbing trees, likes to sit on a branch high up on the tree and look out over the cityscape before her. On their last day together, Ayu falls off the tree and injures herself to the point where she is unable to move her body. Before she loses consciousness, Yuichi makes a promise to her that he will continue to play with her. That day, Yuichi was going to give her the red hair band which she later wears throughout Kanon's story.

Later that same day, Nayuki wanted to say goodbye to Yuichi before he left the city; she found him at the train station. Nayuki was holding an artificial snow bunny made from snow for the body, leaves for the ears, and pebbles for the eyes in order to resemble a rabbit. Nayuki wanted to give it to him as a present, but then saw that he was crying. Nayuki approached Yuichi, trying to ask him what was wrong, which causes Yuichi to stand up and slap the snow bunny from Nayuki's hands, effectively destroying it as it hit the ground.

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 protagonistic character 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 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

Main article: Ayu Tsukimiya

Ayu Tsukimiya (月宮 あゆ, Tsukimiya Ayu)

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

Ayu is the main female character in the series' marketing, followed closely by Nayuki Minase. Ayu is a short, strange, and mysterious girl that literally bumped into Yuichi early in the story. She is immediately recognizable by her winged backpack, red headband, and tendency to refer to herself with the masculine pronoun boku (僕), meaning "I". Ayu is notorious for her catch phrase, "Ugū!" (うぐぅ), which she mutters as an expression of various negative emotions such as frustration, anger, and fear.

Nayuki Minase

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, such relationships 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.

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 during the morning before completely waking up. Despite her attempts to stay conscious, she still tends to fall asleep a lot in class.

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.

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.

Seven years before the beginning of Kanon's story, Yuichi was visiting his aunt Akiko's house for the winter break from school, living at her house with his cousin Nayuki until the break ended. Back then, Nayuki wore her hair in pigtail braids, though later gave it up after another couple of years. One of the few things Nayuki and Yuichi did together during this break was do homework together in Nayuki's room, which was something Nayuki enjoyed since during this time he was gone from the house a lot while he was out playing with Ayu Tsukimiya. Nayuki had developed a crush on her cousin over the years, but she never told him about it.

On the last day of winter vacation, Yuichi was at the train station crying due to what happened with Ayu, though Nayuki knew nothing about it. Nayuki had been trying to find him all day because she wanted to say goodbye to him before he left again. She had brought with her what is referred to as a "snow bunny". This is a ball of snow smoothed out in the shape of an oval with two leaves attached to the top for the ears and two pebbles for eyes to resemble a rabbit. Nayuki had made it herself, though because she wasn't very good at it, it took her a long time to finish it. She had wanted to give it to Yuichi as a present before he left, but when she noticed Yuichi crying, she tried to approach him and asked what was wrong. In a fit of rage, Yuichi abruptly stood up and slapped the snow bunny from Nayuki's hands, making it crash to the ground below. Nayuki remembered this event for the next seven years.

Nayuki is the first girl to appear in Kanon's story. She meets Yuichi at the train station, asking if he remembered her name or not. The truth is later revealed that Nayuki was scared that Yuichi would have forgotten her name after not being in the city where the story takes place for seven years. Yuichi, after playing with her a little, showed that he had remembered her name, which made Nayuki very happy. Nayuki is equally elated the next day when Yuichi joins her class in high school. This proves to be beneficial for Yuichi since this school was already ahead of his other school in the material and Nayuki helps him out by lending him her notes.

Nayuki's arc begins one day when Nayuki asks her mom to pick up a small strawberry cake from the bakery on her way home from work due to strawberries being her favorite food. On the way home from the bakery, Akiko, while walking across a cross walk, gets inadvertently involved in a traffic accident and is quickly rushed to the hospital. As her mother lies in the intensive care unit of the hospital, Nayuki starts to blame herself for having asked for the strawberry cake and quickly falls under depression from the guilt she feels. 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 in depressed. Frustrated and saddened by the situation of her mother, she asks Yuichi to leave her bedroom. While she is sleeping, he sneaks into her room and records a message on her alarm clock. Yuichi feels guilty that he has relied on Nayuki so much, and deeply regrets that he has ignored her feelings. Deep in thought, he goes to the park bench near the train station in the hopes Nayuki will come to find him there; Nayuki arrives and the two reconcile. Nayuki reveals her true feelings to Yuichi and the two kiss.

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

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 out-of-the-blue in the middle of town early on in the story. She was then carried back to Yuichi and Nayuki Minase's house, where she lived as a guest for the remainder of her story. Despite having lost her memories, she remembered what her name was and is sure of is 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. When it comes to her opinion on taking in small animals as pets, 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 she later names Piro. Makoto is shown to love Piro very much and will often carry the cat around on her head.

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 sucsessfully prank him. As time passes and Makoto beings 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.

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. Another unique speech pattern of hers is that she always refers to herself in the third person. Near the end of her story, Makoto starts to wear two bells around her right wrist and enjoys the sound they make.

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. At that age, Yuichi had once again come to stay at his aunt Akiko's house along with her daughter and thus his cousin Nayuki during the summer break from school. Yuichi first found Makoto, then a young fox, injured on Monomi Hill which over looks the city where Kanon takes place.

Yuichi decided to take the fox back home with him and bandaged her injured limb so she could recover quicker. For the rest of the summer break, Yuichi kept the fox hidden in his room and used to talk with her often about various things going on in his own life. However, the fox was not completely hidden as sometimes she would come out of Yuichi's room without him knowing it, though Akiko was the only other person to know about the fox. Akiko discovered the fox one day when as she was heading out, the bells she kept on her purse jingled and the fox came downstairs to play with them. Despite Akiko knowing that Yuichi was keeping a wild animal inside the house without her permission, Akiko never told Yuichi that she knew about it. One day, Yuichi was recounting to 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.

Ultimately, Yuichi had to go back home once the summer break was over, and thus he knew that he could not take the fox with him. Yuichi took the fox up to Monomi Hill where he found her and, after placing her on the ground before him, said goodbye and ran in the opposite direction with tears in his eyes. What Yuichi did not know, though, was that this fox had taken a special liking towards his human kindness, and would remember him even up to the day ten years later when she spots him on the hill on his first day back in town.

Makoto's first appearance once the Kanon story begins is in the shopping district the day after Yuichi arrived in town for the first time in seven years. Yuichi walks out of a grocery store when Makoto, draped in a cloth which hid her appearance at first, appeared saying that she will never forgive him for something he did to her in the past. Makoto rips off the cloth, revealing her appearance, and after a short attempt to get into a fist fight with Yuichi, collapses from hunger and falls unconscious. Yuichi brings her back home and ultimately discovers that she has amnesia and is unable to remember everything except that she holds a grudge on something Yuichi did to her in the past; that is he left her on the hill ten years previous, though this is not revealed until the latter part of her story. It is decided via Akiko's approval to house Makoto for the time being until they can contact her parents or when she gets her memories back. Yuichi is not ecstatic about the outcome, but goes along with it anyway.

Almost immediately after starting to live in the Minase house, Makoto tries playing tricks and pranks on Yuichi which occur primarily at night when Yuichi would be asleep. 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. Another time, she filled the entire bath tub with miso soup right before Yuichi was about to take a bath, something she got summarily scolded for by Yuichi. Later, Yuichi thinks that if Makoto got a job, she would have more common sense and not do so many pranks. Akiko eventually helps her get a job at a day care looking after young children, something Makoto was not very ecstatic about doing.

Soon after Makoto begins her job, she finds a stray cat which she later keeps as a pet and names Piro. After an incident where she drops the cat off of a bridge into oncoming traffic, Makoto later feels sorry for what she did and attempts to search for it without anyone knowing. Yuichi, worried that Makoto did not come home after they had a fight that same day concerning Makoto dropping Piro over a bridge, goes out to search for her, ultimately finding her on Monomi Hill with Piro. In the original version of the visual novel, this was the point in the story where Makoto's H-scene could be viewed.

Yuichi takes her home that night and after this point, Makoto starts to warm up to Yuichi and stops playing pranks on him. Coinciding with this new side of her, Makoto begins to show signs that she may be sick, such as being unable to hold chopsticks anymore and her legs not being as strong as they once were. During this period in the story, Makoto continuously grows to become attached to Yuichi. Not long after this starts to happen, Yuichi finds out about Makoto's true nature from a first year student at his school named Mishio Amano who once went through a similar experience with a different fox in her past. It is at this point that Yuichi recovers all of his memories concerning meeting Makoto as a fox ten years previous. Knowing that she will continue to deteriorate until she ultimately dies, Yuichi resigns to stay by Makoto's side and do as much as he can for her while there's still time. Yuichi even takes a leave from school for the time being.

An important event that marks that Makoto's story is coming to a close is right before Makoto loses most of her cognitive abilities, such as speech and a the strength in her muscles. This is when Makoto asks Yuichi to buy a cheap 100 yen bracelet for her which has two bronze bells attached to the end of it. Makoto slips the bells on her wrist, which she wears for the remainder of her story. Knowing there isn't much time left, Yuichi suggest that the entire family go out to a restaurant one night so as to feel more like a real family. During their outing, they manage to take a photo in an outdoor photobooth. Not long after this point, Makoto gets a fever which she miraculously recovers from, though has regressed to take on traits more akin to the fox she once was; physically she still appears to be a young human girl, but she acts like a young child. One night, Makoto voices her wish to someday get married with Yuichi, something Yuichi knows will never happen. Makoto soon contracts another fever which she recovers from just as the last one, but regresses further.

On Makoto's last day alive, Yuichi takes her outside to meet with Mishio once more which helps Makoto remember Yuichi's name, and is even able to somewhat voice it, though Mishio tells Yuichi this is only temporary. Yuichi and Makoto later visit Nayuki at school during lunch break where Nayuki plays with Makoto until she has to leave for class again. After this, Yuichi takes Makoto to Monomi Hill where they sit down together and eat meat buns together. Hours later around sunset, Yuichi stands up with Makoto and shows her a wedding veil he bought due to her wishing to get married with Yuichi. He begins to recite wedding vows for him and Makoto as they stare off into the sunset and Yuichi proclaims once finished that they are now married and will always be together. Suddenly, a strong wind blows by which catches the veil and soon it flies out of sight. Makoto falls to the ground and begins crying after losing it, which is when Yuichi holds her in an effort to calm her down. Right before the sun sets completely, Makoto mysteriously disappears right in front of Yuichi, only leaving behind the bells which fall to the snow.

A few days later, Yuichi is talking with Mishio at school. Mishio thinks that if just a single fox is able to produce such a miracle as to take human form in exchange for memories and life, then she wonders what would happen if all the foxes with this ability on Monomi Hill combined their power. Mishio suggests that a good use of that miracle would be if it started to rain candy, though Yuichi tells her she is too unrealistic. Finally, Mishio asks Yuichi what miracle he would want to happen. While the scene fades out before Yuichi's answer can be given, the next thing that is shown is Makoto asleep in the spring on Monomi Hill with Piro resting near her.

Shiori Misaka

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. Strangely enough, 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, though is not afraid about adding a smart-alec remark during a conversation in an attempt to sound cooler. Shiori informed 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. He is out with Ayu Tsukimiya when Yuichi finally remembers that he had known Ayu from seven years ago. Ayu, very happy about meeting him again after so long, goes in for a hug, but Yuichi dodges causing Ayu to smack into a tree. The result of which causes snow to fall from the tree onto a passing Shiori. She had been carrying groceries she had bought earlier which were now strewn on the ground around her. Seeing the trouble Ayu and he caused, Yuichi helps to pick up her things and Ayu helps out as well. Once Shiori has everything, the three of them go for a little walk down the snowy pathway and they discover that Shiori is a first year high school student. The next day in school Jun spots a young girl in casual clothes on the school grounds below their classroom. Yuichi recognizes her as Shiori and during lunch break goes down to meet her.

Yuichi asks her what she is doing here, and 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. Yuichi then asks why she is here if she is sick, and Shiori explains that she has come to try to meet someone she knows. When Yuichi asks what person she is waiting for, Shiori tells him it is a secret and leaves it at that. At the end of this conversation, Yuichi introduces himself using his full name, though Shiori only uses her given name. Upon asking what her family name is, Shiori simply walks away as if she did not hear what he said.

During the next few weeks, Yuichi starts to regularly meet Shiori at school whether it is during or after school has gotten out. Yuichi repeatedly tells her to go home so that she will get better sooner instead of standing out in the cold all the time, though Shiori never listens to his pleas. One day, Yuichi asks Shiori if there is anything she would want to eat and Shiori tells him that she would like to eat some ice cream (her favorite food), despite it being very cold outside.

When Shiori's arc begins Yuichi starts to hang out with Shiori more often than he had been doing before. On their first outing together, Yuichi brings her around town such as at the arcade, a place Shiori had never been before. Shiori proves to have slow reflexes so is not very good at the games available, but still has a lot of fun with Yuichi at the arcade. Later, they get some ice cream together and have some fun playing in the snow having a snow ball fight of sorts and building a snowman. Shiori had brought her sketch book along with her that day and wanted to sketch Yuichi. After she is finished with the sketch, she is reluctant about showing it to Yuichi but he eventually gets it from her and asks to keep the sketch; Shiori agrees. At the end of this day, Shiori and Yuichi go back to the school and head into Shiori's classroom - a place she had only been once before at the beginning of the school year almost a year previous. 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 that night 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. She had always wanted to go to the same school, eat lunch together, and then walk home together with her older sister, though due to her sickness was never able to. 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. Yuichi starts to eat lunch with Shiori in the cafeteria at this point, though after discovering that Shiori can not handle any spicy food that the cafeteria may serve such as curry, Shiori starts to make lunch for the two of them. However, she often gets so excited about it that she usually packs too much for Yuichi to normally eat in one sitting.

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 in including Ayu Tsukimiya, Nayuki Minase, Jun Kitagawa, and even Kaori among others. 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. Kaori then leaves with the others so that Yuichi and Shiori can spend the rest of the day alone.

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 boxcutter 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 midnight strikes and Shiori becomes sixteen years old, Yuichi gives her his present: a sketch book which he looks forward to Shiori using it and filling up all the pages. After a kiss between the two moments later, Shiori falls unconscious in Yuichi's arms. After this point, Shiori is taken back to the hospital and Kaori does not come to school during this time. However, in the second anime adaptation their fate is not much different. Instead of the two sharing a kiss, Shiori merely gives Yuichi a small peck on the cheek and tells him to wait while she goes to get some drinks. After Shiori has not come back for quite some time, Yuichi realizes she had been lying and had run off. Yuichi begins to look for her and finds a letter expressing her thanks towards him, and as the episode closes Yuichi merely mumbles sadly "Happy birthday...Shiori."

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

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 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 the town where the story takes place, Mai was living in another town with her mother who was admitted into the hospital with a serious illness. It did not look good for her mother's condition and with her father already gone, Mai would be alone if anything happened to her mother. Mai's mother did not want to see her daughter cry or be unhappy, so she tried to fight the illness as well as she could but knew that she was losing to it. Mai loves animals, and her mother told her that after she got out of the hospital that they could go to the zoo. One day, Mai's mother lies to Mai and tells her that she is feeling much better today and that they can go to the zoo if she wants to. Mai is reluctant to listen to what she is saying, but eventually goes along with it, believing at such a young age that her mother would not lie to her. They do not get far from the hospital before Mai's mother has to rest however, and as Mai's mother falls asleep on a bench outside, Mai starts making a large amount of snow bunnies which are snow balls formed in the shape of an oval with some leaves attached to the top for ears and two rocks or berries as eyes. Mai sets these in front of the bench and when Mai's mother finally awakens, she tells her mother that there is no need to go all the way to the zoo since they have their own private zoo here to enjoy. Perhaps due to this small outing, Mai's mother's condition becomes worse and she is expected to die soon. Mai at the point 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. Soon after, the media finds out about this power she beholds and Mai appears on television programs showing how her power works. Before long, Mai starts to get bullied and terrorized from people in town as being a freak, and Mai's mother decides that it would be best if they moved away. The town they move to is the town where the story takes place.

Ten years prior to the beginning of Kanon's story, Yuichi was visiting his aunt Akiko Minase's house and was living with her and his cousin Nayuki Minase for the summer break from school. When playing in a field of barley by himself, Yuichi comes upon Mai laying down alone in a small clearing the field. For the rest of the break, Yuichi and Mai play together in the field, playing hide and seek which initially gave Mai the advantage because she was shorter than the barley around her. So as to make it more fair, Yuichi gets some costume bunny ears and places them on Mai's head, which makes it all but impossible for her to hide effectively, but Mai does not mind. 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.

Mai's first appearance once the Kanon story begins is one night at school when Yuichi goes to retrieve some notes that he forgot that belonged to Nayuki. He was coming out of the classroom and spotted Mai in the hallway holding a sword, though when he tried to ask her what she was doing here, she did not say anything. After a demon passes by and Mai tries to slay it, it quickly gets away and when Mai is about to leave, Yuichi stops her and tries to get something out of her. Mai finally replies that she is a demon hunter and leaves after that. When Yuichi finds her at school the next day, he tries talking with her more about last night, though she does not say anything. Soon, Sayuri Kurata shows up whom asks Yuichi to join them for lunch. Afterwards, it is decided that Yuichi will eat lunch with them and does for the rest of Mai's arc.

Before long, Yuichi discovers that Mai has a bad reputation at school due to the events involving the demons. When she is fighting them, many windows get broken, which Mai gets blamed for because she does not deny being involved. This usually leads her to get yelled at a lot by the principal, though not much is ever done about it. Yuichi, wanting Mai's reputation to get better, sees that a ballroom dance is coming up and tells Mai that they should go to it. Sayuri agrees and manages to borrow some expensive dresses for herself and Mai while at the same time lending Yuichi a tuxedo for the event. When the dance begins, everything is going fine and it seems people are getting a new look at Mai but soon a demon starts to attack the dance, destroying many of the windows and dance area. After Sayuri is hurt by the demon, Mai cannot control her anger and goes to get her sword. She comes back and starts to fight the monster in front of everyone at the dance. The demon eventually disappears and Mai's reputation becomes even worse than it was before. After this, the student council president Kuze tried to get Mai expelled from school, but after some quick thinking by Jun Kitagawa, she got off the hook. In the anime version by Toei Animation, it was Sayuri that saved her by bribing the student council with her joining.

A few days later, Sayuri tells Yuichi that Mai's birthday is coming up and they decide that a small party between them, including Mai's mother, would be just fine. After buying some presents and getting the food ready, for Mai's birthday, Sayuri phones the Minase house but finds that Yuichi is not there. Knowing that they might be at school, Sayuri goes there to find them but gets attacked by one of the demons. After Sayuri is taken to the hospital, Mai tries to commit suicide but Yuichi stops her just in time and tells her that if she wants to end this, that they should go back to the school and destroy the rest of the monsters. Mai agrees and they go back that same night to finish the job.

Yuichi soon finds out that 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 and Mai manage to destroy them all and as an act of celebration, Mai asks Yuichi to go to buy some beef bowls (Mai's favorite food) for them to eat. At this point in the original visual novel before he left, Mai's H-scene occurs in one of the classrooms. When he comes back, he discovers that Mai is no where to be found and suspects that Mai must have wanted him to leave because there was one more demon left to kill. Upon running into the hall to find her, Yuichi is confronted by this demon, though 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 affect that she created from this power were the "demons" that she said were attacking the field of barley ten years ago when Yuichi was about to leave the town again. The reason that she was getting hurt after destroying them is because she was killing off parts of her own self. Yuichi tells her that he came back a year later and went to the barley field, but couldn't find her. Eventually the high school where Yuichi attends was built where that field once was, which is why Mai fought the demons there. 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 he 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 she 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.

Supporting characters

Akiko Minase

Akiko Minase (水瀬 秋子, Minase Akiko)

Voiced by: Yūko Minaguchi (Japanese); Joanne Bonasso (English)

Akiko is Nayuki Minase's mother and Yuichi Aizawa's aunt whose main role is in Nayuki's story. She works at an unspecified job and takes care of the house, cooking various types of food, most of which is good except for her infamous "special" homemade jam which she alone enjoys the taste of. She appears to not realize exactly what is going on around her, taking in strays such as Makoto Sawatari and assuming lame excuses for her behavior. She may just realize that Makoto is a good person and can be cured of her anger, which is true. Akiko certainly exhibits more knowledge of the situation than Yuichi as far as the origins of Ayu Tsukimiya and Makoto are concerned, hinting that she is familiar with the supernatural goings-on in the town and how they apply to Yuichi. Akiko is very important to Nayuki since she does not have a father.

Akiko is known to be very easy-going and is constantly smiling. She will not even resort to stern lectures, such as when Makoto spends money on herself that Akiko gave her to buy food. Akiko can be assertive, though she never has once raised her voice in anger or otherwise. She will often give responses to questions within one second of being asked, the answer almost always marking approval.

Akiko has some indirect involvement with Makoto Sawatari's and Ayu Tsukimiya's arcs. After Yuichi brought Makoto home for the first time, Akiko shows not intentions of throwing her out or handing her over to the police. She decided to house Makoto for the time being until they could find her parents or until she remembered something. With Ayu, Akiko asked her to stay at their house upon discovering that both of Ayu's parents were out of town.

Akiko's main involvement is with her daughter Nayuki's arc. From when Nayuki was very young, Akiko raised her daughter alone; no information is given about Nayuki's father or what happened to him after Nayuki's birth. As such, Akiko and Nayuki are very close and never get in fights with each other. In Nayuki's story, Akiko gets critically injured in an indirect car accident which causes her to go into intensive care in the hospital. Nayuki, blaming herself because Akiko was out buying a small strawberry cake for her, goes into depression and pushes Yuichi away from her. Akiko is miraculously healed near the end of the story.

Sayuri Kurata

Sayuri Kurata (倉田 佐祐理, Kurata Sayuri)

Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami (Japanese); Natalie Arneson (English)

Sayuri is Mai Kawasumi's only friend before she meets Yuichi, and thus her biggest part is in Mai's story. She is the daughter of a wealthy family, and always tries to smile and help others. She uses more formal Japanese honorifics for Yuichi when she addresses him, even when they become close friends. Sayuri cares very deeply about Mai, as it shows since they not only hang out together constantly, but Sayuri will get worried if Mai is in trouble; she also never forgets Mai's birthday. Initially, she is completely ignorant about the demons but even though some begin to target her near the end of Mai's story, she stubbornly stays by Mai's side. Sayuri, as with Ayu and Makoto, has a cute quirk; when she laughs, she voices a distinct Ahaha. Sayuri always addresses herself in the third person due to an event in her past.

Despite Sayuri being a supporting character, she gets some back story to explain some of her current situation and how she came to become such good friends with Mai. Sayuri's story begins many years ago when Sayuri was still a young girl. She had been raised primarily by her father who did not spoil her, so she grew up with manners. When her younger brother Kazuya was born, Sayuri decided to be rather strict with him as her father had been with her so that he would grow up to be a better person. In her heart, she really wanted to console him when he was crying or scared, but Sayuri believed that it was for Kazuya's sake that she was strict. Kazuya himself was slow to develop and did not talk even after entering kindergarten; he hardly ever laughed. Kazuya was always alone; he had a weak body so Sayuri would walk him to and from kindergarten.

Kazuya eventually starts to get more sick and weak and is admitted to the hospital. For the first time in Sayuri's life, she decided to go against being strict with Kazuya and went out buying many toys and junk food which she brought to Kazuya's hospital room. Soon after that time, Kazuya died, which completely changed Sayuri's attitude and personality. After he died, Sayuri began to address herself in the third person. Sayuri explained that she could only see herself from a third-person point of view from then on; she did not smile either until after she met Mai.

Sayuri first met Mai in their first year of high school. They were in different classes so the two did not know each other at first. One day, there was a dog scaring some people in front of the school and Mai managed to scare it away with a shovel. Later, Sayuri found Mai feeding the dog her lunch and Sayuri offered to give her lunch to the dog as well. After that point, Sayuri and Mai started to hang out and soon became best friends. Sayuri believes that Mai saved her and has been a much larger help in her life than what Sayuri has been able to do for Mai since they met.

Sayuri's main involvement is during her best friend Mai's arc. Yuichi first meets her the day after he ran into Mai at the school at night for the first time. Sayuri asks Yuichi if he would like to have lunch with them, and Yuichi agrees. Upon discovering that Sayuri's food is very delicious, and because now Mai will have one more friend, Yuichi starts to eat lunch with the two third year girls every day for the rest of Mai's story. For the dance party, Sayuri lends Mai an expensive dress that she got from a friend; Sayuri also lends Yuichi a tuxedo for the event. When the demons attack the party, Sayuri is one of the people that get hurt which sets Mai's temper off, leading her to wield her sword in front of everyone, an event which almost gets her expelled.

When Sayuri begins to notice that Yuichi and Mai are spending more time alone, Sayuri starts to suspect something is going and tries to prove herself to Mai that she is able to help too. This attempt fails miserably, and Mai attempts to drive her away by telling her she is in the way in order to protect her from subsequent attacks from the demons. A few days before Mai's birthday, Sayuri meets with Yuichi where they decide what they are going to go for her birthday. They decide that a small party between the three of them and Mai's mother would be sufficient. The night of Mai's birthday, Sayuri phones the Minase house to discover that Yuichi is not there. Knowing that he and Mai were most likely at school, Sayuri heads there with the food and presents she brought for Mai's birthday. Unfortunately, soon after entering the school, Sayuri is seriously attacked by one of the demons which gets her admitted into the hospital with a head injury. This event causes Mai to attempt suicide, but Yuichi saves her before she can go on with it, convincing her that if she wants to end this, then they should go back to the school and destroy the rest of the demons. At the end of the story, Sayuri graduates high school with Mai.

Kaori Misaka

Kaori Misaka (美坂 香里, Misaka Kaori)

Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese); Caitlin Glass (English)

Kaori is mainly in Shiori's story, but is regularly seen due to her being Nayuki's best friend and Yuichi's and Nayuki's classmate; she is also their class representative. She is very smart and knows a lot about the schoolmates and townspeople, but doesn't appear to be aware of any of the supernatural things that happen, even after Yuichi's caring saves someone close to her. Her surname and appearance indicate that she is Shiori's sister, and Shiori affirms this, but Kaori vehemently denies it. Jun Kitagawa once commented how she started to act differently since they entered their second year in high school.

Kaori's main involvement in the story is during her younger sister Shiori's arc. When Yuichi starts to spend more time with Shiori away from school, Kaori asks Yuichi to meet one late night at school to tell him something. At their meeting, Kaori informs Yuichi that Shiori does not have very long left to live and by her next birthday in another week or so, Shiori may die. Kaori tells him that the reason she does not want to get close with Shiori is that she does not want to feel the intense pain after her younger sister dies. Kaori breaks down after saying this, crying on Yuichi and asking why Shiori was even born if it was going to be this way.

After this point, Kaori starts to avoid Shiori even more than usual. When confronted by Yuichi about how she has been acting, Kaori tells him that she has no younger sister. For Shiori's birthday, Yuichi decides to throw a birthday party at a local café with several people invited including Ayu Tsukimiya, Nayuki Minase, Jun Kitagawa, and even Kaori herself among others. At the beginning of the party, Kaori is not there, though shows up later. The mood at the party instantly grows cold as Kaori still resists acknowledging Shiori's existence or situation. After the party, however, Kaori finally accepts Shiori as her younger sister and as she is walking away to leave Yuichi and Shiori alone for the rest of the day, she tells Shiori that they should talk later to catch up on things. This rightfully so makes Shiori very happy, and she thanks Yuichi for all he has done. She manages to stay by Shiori's side after this even though the chances of her recovering are very slim. In the end, when Shiori does not die, Kaori does not change and continues to stay by her sister's side.

Mishio Amano

Mishio Amano (天野 美汐, Amano Mishio)

Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese); Colleen Clinkenbeard (English)

Mishio is a key player near the end of Makoto Sawatari's story; she does not appear so much in this story as the other characters in this section. She mysteriously warns Yuichi to stay away from Makoto when Makoto's health begins to fail. That is because Mishio knows the mysterious and magical workings of the town, and she has experienced the loss that comes from asking for a miracle first hand. Due to this experience, she has shifted her personality and thus does not show much emotion or even smile, much like Mai. Mishio has shown herself to have a wild and girly imagination, as noted by Yuichi. She can immediately tell when someone is not normal or not even human.

Yuichi first meets Mishio the day after the incident where Makoto dropped Piro off a bridge. He had been trying to ask Mai how she knew that Makoto may be at Monomi Hill where he eventually found her, though Mai simply tells him that Mishio may be of some help. Mishio approaches him and gives him some subtle hints as to Makoto's true origins, though disappears before she can tell him much. A couple of days later, Yuichi introduces himself to Mishio and asks her if she would consider being Makoto's friend because she does not know many people and he thought that Mishio might be able to help her. Mishio vehemently rejects Yuichi's proposal, saying that she will never befriend Makoto. As the conversation goes on, Yuichi discovers that Mishio knows more than she is telling, though before she can tell him anymore, he stops her. A few days after that, Yuichi meets with Mishio again where she finally explains that Makoto is indeed not a human being. Mishio goes on to explain that Makoto's only reason for trading her memories and her life was to meet with Yuichi again, even if it would only be for a short time. She goes on to explain that Makoto does not have much longer to live and will begin to get weaker while hospitals or doctors will not be of any help. At the conclusion of their conversation, Mishio asks Yuichi not to pull her into the situation any longer.

Mishio's attitude towards Makoto's situation stems from a similar experience in her past much like the one Yuichi had to go through with Makoto. She simply does not want to feel the pain that she felt in the past over losing another loved one. Due to this event in Mishio's past, she stopped showing outward emotion and thus came off as a cold person hence forth.

Although Mishio initially wanted not to get involved any further, Yuichi meets with Mishio a few more times over the course of Makoto's story to discuss how the situation is progressing. Near the end of Makoto's story, Mishio finally concedes to becoming friends with Makoto, though this is very short-lived as soon after Makoto dies.

Minor characters

Jun Kitagawa

Jun Kitagawa (北川 潤, Kitagawa Jun)

Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki (Japanese); Greg Ayres (English)

Jun is a friend of Yuichi's who sits behind him in high school. Before long they even start making odd jokes, such as the fact that they always wear the same clothes to school due to the dress code. Viewers do not see a lot of him in the first anime adaptation. Jun has a crush on Kaori Misaka and will often follow her around despite Kaori's dismissal of his romantic affections. He is seemingly there for little more than character development, as well as being one of the male characters with a name.

Jun's main involvement in the story is in Mai Kawasumi's arc after the event at the ballroom dance. The student council president, Kuze, wanted to expel Mai from the school for what happened at the dance despite her not being the direct cause of the damages. Jun, who was on the council that organized the dance, makes it seem that he knew all along that Mai would put on her "show" for the other students, though had no idea that it would get out of hand. This puts most of the blame on him, and thus Mai gets off the hook. While Kuze does not really believe this, he concedes to this single defeat, though does not want to easily back down from the situation.

Another small direct involvement related to Jun is at the beginning of Kanon's story when he is the one that first spots Shiori Misaka standing outside in the snow during school.

Kuze

Kuze (久瀬)

Voiced by: Hiroshi Kamiya (2002 anime/drama CD), Kenji Nojima (2006 anime), Jay Hickman (English)

Kuze is the student council president at Yuichi's school. He tends to be very full of himself and enjoys talking down to people such as Mai Kawasumi due to his standing in the school. He has a rather small role in the story, appearing during Mai's story in order to warn her not to do anything to wreck the dance party she attended with Yuichi and Sayuri Kurata. Kuze has shown himself to have an angry temper, as he did not hesitate to yell at Mai at the end of the dance party when most of the inside of the building had been destroyed, despite her not being the main cause of the trouble.

Kuze's main involvement in the story is during Mai Kawasumi's arc. He first appears at the ballroom dance party where he warns Mai that if she does anything out of line that he will find some way to expel her for sure. Unfortunately for Mai, one of the demons attack the dance party early on, and Kuze immediately tries to get her expelled for what transpired, despite her not being the main cause of the damage. After Jun Kitagawa gets Mai off the hook, Kuze does not easily want to back down, and tries to threaten Sayuri Kurata, telling her that the next time Mai causes trouble, Sayuri will not go unpenalized for covering for Mai. Before he can finish, however, Mai tells him that she will never forgive him if he harms Sayuri in anyway. Kuze gets intimidated by Mai, and leaves. He does not appear in the story after this point.

Piro

Piro (ピロ)

Piro is a stray Siamese cat that Nayuki finds first and, despite her allergies, adores. Makoto, after an incident where she feels that keeping a pet is cruel because the pet always gets abandoned, loses the cat on purpose and then promptly searches until she finds it, having felt sorry for what she did. Makoto finally takes the cat home to the Minase house. After Yuichi jokes about calling it "Nikuman" because of Makoto's fondness for meat buns, Nayuki decides that a food name is a great idea, and Yuichi suggests "Piroshiki", a transliteration of the Russian word for meat bun. Makoto calls the cat "Piro" for short, even though she does not know the true meaning of the word. When Piro is with Makoto, the cat usually rests on Makoto's head. After Piro is lost near the end of Makoto's story, it comes back to the Minase house.

References

• "Key's website on the Kanon characters' information" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2007-11-30.