Canaan (anime)

Canaan
North American cover of the Blu-ray release featuring Alphard (left) and Canaan (right)
カナン (Kanan)
Genre	Action, Adventure, Drama
Anime television series
Directed by	Masahiro Ando
Produced by	Jin Kawamura Jirō Ishii Kei Fukura Kenji Horikawa Shigeru Saitō Takayuki Mizutani Yasushi Ōshima
Written by	Mari Okada
Music by	Hikaru Nanase
Studio	P.A.Works
Licensed by	AUS Siren Visual NA Sentai Filmworks UK MVM Films
Original network	Tokyo MX, TVS, CTC, tvk, KTV, THK, AT-X
Original run	July 4, 2009 – September 26, 2009
Episodes	13 (List of episodes)
Manga
Written by	Type-Moon
Illustrated by	Akira Ishida
Published by	Kadokawa Shoten
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Comp Ace
Original run	August 2009 – March 2011
Volumes	3
Light novel
Written by	Tomonori Sugihara
Illustrated by	Kanami Sekiguchi
Published by	Kadokawa Shoten
Demographic	Male
Imprint	Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko
Original run	January 1, 2010 – March 1, 2010
Volumes	2
Manga
Canaan Sfill
Written by	Chunsoft
Illustrated by	Jun Sasameyuki
Published by	Bandai Visual
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Comic Gekkin
Published	March 1, 2010
Volumes	2

Canaan is a 13-episode anime television series, conceptualized by Type-Moon co-founders Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi, based on the scenario that they created for the Nintendo Wii visual novel 428: Fūsa Sareta Shibuya de, which is noted for being one of the few games to have been awarded a perfect score by games publication Famitsu. The series spawned manga and light novel adaptations.

A sequel to the 428: Fūsa Sareta Shibuya de game, it centers on three women and their connections to one-another and an upcoming anti-terrorism summit in Shanghai, China. One of them is Canaan, a Middle Eastern assassin and mercenary. Another is Alphard, Canaan's rival and also a skilled assassin and mercenary who heads a terrorist organization called Snake. The final girl is Maria Ōsawa, a victim of an attempted biological terrorist attack in the streets of Shibuya two years previous. Their encounters lead to armed interventions between Canaan and Alphard with a deep and tragic history in common.

Two years after the events of 428: Fūsa Sareta Shibuya de, Maria Ōsawa and Minoru Minorikawa are dispatched as reporters to Shanghai in order to cover the upcoming Shanghai NBCR International Anti-Terrorist Conference. Prior to their current assignment, both Maria and Minoru were survivors of the Shibuya bio-terrorism incident, where Maria was kidnapped by terrorists and was infected by the Ua virus but was cured by her scientist father using an experimental anti-Ua virus vaccine. On her first day in Shanghai, Maria is targeted by masked assassins but saved by a Middle Eastern girl named Canaan, whom she befriended in the Middle East prior to the events of 428: Fūsa Sareta Shibuya de and her Shanghai trip.

Their presence in the city is being overshadowed by a mysterious event being planned by Alphard, Canaan's rival. Unknown to the two, Alphard is preparing a big plot related to the anti-terrorist summit after being rescued by Cummings and Liang Qi, a pair of mercenaries and Alphard's allies. Maria's life was placed in danger once more when Snake assassins were dispatched to harm her, placing Canaan at the forefront of it all in order to protect her friend. Minoru investigates a strange purple mark that he spotted from one of the assassins Canaan had killed recently, tying it back to the events in Shibuya.