Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto – Kanna Sakyounosuke
4 July 2007
After an extraordinarily long debate with myself, since no one else saw Iroha, over whether I liked Kanna or Akizuki best, I decided that it was Kanna. The verdict was based mainly on the fact that Akizuki was the main character and, although it’s completely incoherent, I recognize all the characters of Kanna’s name in Chinese.
Kanna the Man Kanna Sakyounosuke(神無左京之介), simply put, is very complicated. He’s half Japanese, half British, his mother being a tayuu from the famous Yoshiwara red light district of Edo, and his father a vice-admiral in the British Navy. His weapons of choice are two Remington New Model Army pistols, used predominantly in the American Civil War. Despite being blind in one eyes he’s an uncannily skilled gunman. Since he is of both Japanese and British descent, kids made fun of him and threw rocks at him. His childhood abandonment by his mother influenced his actions greatly throughout the series.
Kanna and Women To start there are three important women in his life: his mother, Kakunojou who reminds him of his mother, and Queen, one of the soldiers he works with. It’s an apparent trend in Kanna’s life for women to constantly abandon him, for whatever the reason, and it’s the main source of his bitterness towards life.
Kanna and His Mother It all started with his mother who, for reasons unknown, abandoned him one rainy night in London. Pulling away in her carriage she glances mournfully back at her son, running desperately after them. Her husband, the naval vice-admiral, draws the curtains blocking the window and turns her away. A stray rock sent flying by the wheels of the carriage strikes and blinds his right eye, causing him to stop. Not only did his mother ditch him, her carriage also knocked out of his eyes. However, Kanna doesn’t harbor any hatred towards his mother. He keeps her picture in a pocket watch and is constantly haunted by his own memories of her.
Kanna and Kakunojou All of this leads to Kakunojou, who (although I personal do not see it) resembles his mother. Every time he sees his mother he sees Kakunojou, every time he sees Kakunojou, he sees his mother. It doesn’t help him any that every time he sees Kakunojou she’s always clinging onto Akizuki or showing some sort of affection for him. In a sense, he probably feels that Kakunojou is abandoning him as well. I don’t perceive his actions and feelings towards Kakunojou as romantic, but simply as a reminder of his mother and he somehow he wants to find comfort and cannot.
Kanna and Queen Queen, until episode twenty three, was a cameo, reoccurring character that I never paid much attention to. When Kanna starts talking to her on the ship, I was hoping so badly for arelationship between the two and seeing how it’s implied that the two did it halfway through the episode, I was obscenely happy. Then, then! Then, the evil, bastard of demonic power wielding head has to go and wreck everything. So, trying to take revenge for her dead brother, Queen goes to kill Enomoto, who is possessed by the head. Evidently she fails, breaks her weapon and suffering a mental breakdown, flees in terror. Kanna sees this as being abandoned, yet again. And after being influenced by the power of the head, proceeds to shoot her, metaphorically his own mother. After realizing what he’s done, he breaks down as well and tries to kill himself. Kakunojou, who at this point is on the bad guy’s side, save him and recruit him to their side.
The Point!? Alright, so what, in my mind, it all winds down to is that all Kanna ever truly wanted was some love from his mother. I’m serious. At the root of everything, being abandoned by his mother, Kakunojou, Queen, even the country he swore loyalty to, none of them showed him any love. After being saved by Kakunojou, during his battled with Akizuki, he declares that everything is alright, because he had her love. He was just a guy who was dealt a completely fubar hand.
Why Why do I like him? I found his character to be such a delicate, gentle and complex character. It was painfully real and yet at the same time had that melodramatic quality. The fact that he died broke my poor fangirl heart. Not only is Kanna totally abused by everyone, the one person (Queen) that might’ve given him some form of consolation, he was forced to kill. The world has is out to get him, every single thing that happens to this poor man is horrible. From being ditched by his mother, loosing an eye, almost killed by his son of a bitch commanding officer, killing his the girl he had a one night stand with, Kakunojou going off with Akizuki, every single thing, every single goddamn thing is evil! Nothing good, at all happened to him this entire time. And then he dies. He just sat down in a hair, took one last look at his mother, smiled and died.
Honestly, I think he was just lonely. He just wanted his mother. And the really crazy thing is, his character had nothing to do with the storyline. All of this trauma he was subjected too, all of this crap that happened to him, in the end amounted to very little. He failed at retrieving the head, failed at assassinating Enomoto, and just died.
To quote from Iwa ni Hana’s Iroha blog:
Kanna may turn out to be a pointless blond bishounen. At least Maximilien in Chevalier is a crucial key to something. I am not sure whether Kanna will amount to anything besides being a half-crazed desperado.
Kanna, Pure Eye Candy…? Okay, okay, confession time: the other thing that drove me crazy about Kanna was hot and gorgeous his character looked. I mean, the characters from Iroha were beautifully designed. Akizuki was the reason I watched it, I just fell in love with his eyes and that silly haircut of his. However, his character was too stereotypical and somewhat bland. And then, enter Kanna. He’s blonde, makes frills look good on men and carries two pistols and looks damn good shooting people. Episode 8, where Akizuki and Kanna are trying to kill each other, in one of the most well coordinated fights I’ve seen in anime, was simply orgasmic. I’m sorry, two hot males trying to kill other. God.
His eyes, despite having only one, were such a beautiful color. His shoulder length blonde hair, those eyes, the stupid frills…This is why being a fangirl is great…
Kanna the Pointless Bishounen Yeah, that sums it up. His character was completely unnecessary but it made Iroha so much more interesting that he was there. The dramatic back story, the emotional depth of his character and all the agony he put me through watching him made Iroha worth it.