YU-NO: A Girl who Chants Love at the Bound of this World (Visual Novel): The Kanna Route

Our look at the visual novel of YU-NO: A Girl who Chants Love at the Bound of this World continues! We have reached the final route before the epilogue. It’s been a long ride full of ups and downs (though thankfully far more ups) and I’ve enjoyed every second of it. Let’s not waste anytime, join me after the cut as we delve into the final pre-epilogue route of the story: The Kanna Route.

*bites knuckles in not trying to shout out the reveal*

In a way I feel like I should have given my thoughts on Kanna and Kaori’s arc at the same time, because like I said before, this is the point in the story where the developers of this story clearly started cutting corners to save time. Just like I said last time, almost 80% of the events that happen on this route are shared both in Kanna and Kaori’s story, with the only changes being the last hour or so that dive directly into each of the respective characters, and that’s a shame. While it was bearable for Kaori’s route, because her character has the least amount of connection and importance to the overall plot, Kanna, who is second only to Ayumi in terms of her importance, feels like she got the short end of the stick. The good news is, that even though the events are repeated, Kanna’s story and character are some of the best that YU-NO has to offer.

Kanna’s story is one of tragedy and sadness, all wrapped up in an air of other worldliness and mystery, all of which is connected heavily to the events of the epilogue. Like Ayumi, she represents the feelings of loneliness and a despair from the loss of a love one. Yet while Ayumi struggles to find love again, Kanna instead suffers from the loss of her mother, and unlike Ayumi she doesn’t bury herself in her job to cope with this feeling, she instead buries herself in…men.

It’s a trope done before, but Kanna who is a fish out of water, does it well.

During my time with the anime, I was absolutely floored when the series started dropping hints, then confirming that Kanna, the quiet walking mystery girl, was pretty much whoring herself out to any man who had an interest in her. Like with Ayumi’s fate in some of her endings, I was thrown through a loop when I realized that Kanna’s character would be going down this path, especially since her roll before this reveal seemed to be the walking tease for the bigger plot of YU-NO as a whole. I was really hoping that when I got to her route in the VN, the reasons why would be expanded upon and thankfully I wasn’t let down in the slightest. What did surprise me though was where that extra layer of depth came from: Takuya.

Takuya’s relationship with Kanna is different from all of the other girls pre-epilogue. While there are some similarities with Mitsuki in that both Takuya and Kanna are trying to fill a void in their lives, Takuya’s feelings for Kanna seem to reach deeper than just the physical needs he shared with Mitsuki, which is ironic considering that both Kanna and Takuya are quite open about their sex lives. It is clear about halfway through the route that Takuya has very deep feelings towards Kanna, feelings of love that are different from the sexual tensions he has with Ayumi, Mitsuki and Kaori, or the almost obligation he has towards Mio. Takuya struggles to understand what exactly he feels for Kanna, and how those feelings are probably more important and significant than anything he’s ever felt before.

Takuya and Kanna have that romantic chemistry that was totally absent from the Mio Route.

Coupled with the fact that Takuya, the walking libido doesn’t take the chance to sleep with Kanna, even though she gives him the greenest of green lights, speaks a lot to his character. He is a bit of a playboy sure, and a man who clearly enjoys the female body, but he is also still human and his feelings towards Kanna, right from the start are more then just trying to get pussy.  Kanna in turn, is completely thrown through a loop when Takuya, who she would expect would be THE FIRST person to try and get in her pants shows such respect and restraint in their conversations. The talks that they have, as Takuya tries to uncover the mystery of Kanna and her connection to her father are extremely interesting, and again helps show that Takuya is a man of honor, even when the rest of the school and society start to turn on Kanna when she is revealed to be ‘the school slut.’ By the time the route is over, Kanna has fallen so in love with Takuya that you can’t help but be happy that she has finally found another real human connection to share again, that her long nightmare of suffering is at an end.

The sex scene (or the aftermath) is extremely sweet, and shows a side of Kanna that is well earned.

The Kanna Route of YU-NO: A Girl who Chants Love at the Bound of this World is on the whole, probably the second strongest route of the first half of the game. Yet I do admit that I favor the Mitsuki route just a little bit more, because I found the overall story to be a bit tightly told, and not suffering from being slapped together with the Kaori route. If I had to rank them in terms of importance to the story it would go: Ayumi, Kanna, Mio, Mitsuki and Kaori. But if I ranked them according to my personal enjoyment, it would be: Ayumi, Mitsuki, Kanna, Mio, and Kaori. Overall I found the Kanna story to be enthralling an enjoyable, though I do wish I had played it BEFORE I did the Kaori one, because I did find it at times a little annoying to go over a lot of the same story beats, as good as they were. Still, I loved my time with it, and can’t recommend this one enough.

So that’s it for all the routes of the first part of YU-NO: A Girl who Chants Love at the Bound of this World. There is just one final route to see, and it’s the one I’m looking forward to the most. Yet I have feeling it’s going to be so long, that I’ll have to divide it up into two parts. So join me next time as I take a look at the first half of the final story of YU-NO: The Sayless Route!

And YES, I will address this before the story is done.