It's been a while since I saw an anime that hides its gold so deep.
First 3 episodes of Konohana Kitan feel like a patience challenge.
Reminds me of some Buddhist stories where a monk would let the aspiring
student stand outside the temple for a couple weeks in the cold and
heavy rain in order to test his resolve. Except here you have to endure
the first 3 episodes that are guaranteed to push a lot of people away.
Especially if you have something else to do. Characters just kinda fuss
about with no plot and acting terribly generic. It gives every possible
sign this is going to be completely forgetable. The first 3 episodes are
trying to tell you it's a group of cute fox girls working at an inn for
the gods. Just one more excuse to look at cute characters, please move
on. Well, too bad, Ms. Tsubaki, I stood there and you had to let me in.
Then it gets good. The fourth episode really gives you the
opportunity to look under the sweetness of these charming foxes. And if
you sit there and connect some dots at leisure, it gets really
interesting. So, these fantastic creatures are pretty much playing
around with human emotions. They live so long that to them, human lives
feel like a short dream, and they see no problem deluding humans because
they have a hard time even seeing the difference. It makes sense. They
must feel like it's OK to give people a nice dream instead of reality,
after all, a human lasts as long as a soap bubble to them. Of course
this idea of fantasy as a tool is what iyashikei itself is about in many
ways.
Each episode we get a person in need to escape reality. An abandoned
child, an workaholic, a suicidal. All darkness of reality must be
destroyed. There's a very funny and profoundly revealing moment in the
8th episode where Yuzu meets a compulsive liar who ends up isolated from
people. She lies because she finds life crushingly insipid. Yuzu, being
a fox, can't understand what she's talking about, so to cheer the liar
up she responds that her fox life is actually great! I had to pause
right there and give a hollow laugh. There's such a gap between these
creatures and humans it's almost a cruelty to be able to converse with
them. It's like talking to a demi-god able to do all these amazing
things and being close to one makes you more aware of your shortcomings.
The story ends with the girl disappearing and going back to her own
world. Her problems, to Yuzu, was nothing but a short walk on the beach.
The second part of the episode deals with people who don't want to go
back to reality. Again, hard not to make a connection of yourself
watching Konohana.
Like I said, all darkness must be destroyed and this includes the
complete destruction of my second favorite character (first being Sakura
of course), Okiku. See, Okiku is a curse doll but she doesn't look like
one. She looks pretty much like an Ichimatsu doll with the beautiful
red kimono and the long black hair. I really like those dolls and here
there is one, but not for long. They find her look too bleak and decide
to mutilate her into a maid with silly purple hair. I suppose it could
be worse. Then Sakura spent a good chunk of her time making Okiku fear
for her life. Why is it that Yuzu doesn't pay more attention to this
particular situation? That wasn't fair.
Everything I said is not really on the surface of the show but if
you think too much about these I think you'll end up seeing it, too.
Still, very emotional, cute stories all around with kindhearted
characters and bittersweet endings. I feel like the manga must be a lot
more interesting because it can deal with creepy cute effects of a gods'
inn. It did show up here and there in the anime and it's probably
coming from the manga. Also the author herself escapes to her own
fantasy all the time. She's everywhere, wearing a fox mask. She knows
what's up. She really does.
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