Publisher: NIS America (USA)Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 24 Episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2008
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes
This show was (like a lot of discs I purchase) a blind buy. Afterwards I had read in a couple of forums that the show wasn’t all that great. Luckily I generally ignore fandom now days. This show was a big surprise. I was expecting it to be rather lacklustre and full of the usual tropes. Yes, it does have a lot of clichéd characters and situations, however the show is (almost) never dull. The setup is that primary school aged boy, Toru, begins to be targeted by yokai (monsters) because of the Yin in his blood. To combat this, his grandmother, who seems to be a sort of priestess, awakens a sealed fox deity called Kugen Tenko (or just plain Ku as Toru calls him) to defend Toru and the family. The family’s ancestors sealed the deity many centuries ago because he played tricks on the humans. It takes a while to convince the deity to help, however it is reminded of its friendship with Toru’s deceased mother many years ago.
The family guardian who has trained with grandma, a young woman named Ko who looks a lot like a Shinto priestess, is also sent to look after Toru and his elder brother Noboru. From there it becomes part slice of life show and part super natural action show, though it is more heavily weighted towards the former. Most of the yokai are benign or have no real malicious intent even though their actions could harm or kill people. The fox deity can transform into either a good looking blonde woman or man and naturally the deity turns heads where ever he goes. There was the usual trope of both Ku and Ko not knowing how modern devices or modern day Japanese society works, however this was dealt with in a gentle manner. It wasn’t forced or felt terribly clichéd or groan worthy like a lot of anime series make this situation.
Most of the characters, both primary and secondary, are well fleshed out and were very likable. In particular I liked Misaki Sakura, Noboru’s female friend at high school. She has a crush on him but has an overactive imagination and dreams up scenarios where Ku and Ko are his lovers and she feels threated by this. Of course Misaki wears her feelings on her sleeve, but Noboru never notices. Her love sick paranoid delusions are just hilarious to watch. Toru and Noboru’s father was also quite interesting for me. While he is probably the least developed character in the show, I found it rather amusing that he never blinked an eyelid at any of the supernatural beings which live in the house or show up on his doorstep. Maybe this has to do with deceased wife being a priestess like her mother. Ku has to be the best character in the show. While he/she is very laid back to the point of being lazy, the fox deity truly cares for the two brothers and the family, despite being sealed away centuries ago by the family’s ancestors. She (well it’s a female most of the time) has a fantastic personality that is upbeat and with an undertone of sarcasm underneath.
Overall this series was pretty damn good. It is quite funny in many parts (a really underplayed kind of humour a lot of the time) and almost obligatory action sequences that crop up once an episode are great. The action and character designs are really good too. While most of the episodes are self-contained, a few towards the end of the series are double or triple parters. The series sort of loses focus at the end with a couple of stories being a little substandard (or to be more frank, crappy) compared to earlier ones. The final episode didn’t have much punch and was frankly anticlimactic when compared to the two mini arcs which preceded it. The show is based on a still ongoing light novel series, so that may explain the somewhat lacklustre ending. Also disappointing was the underutilisation of Gyokuyo (Tama), Ku’s “brethren”, another fox deity with silver fur. More could have been made of this and I think the screenwriters could have made a really exciting conclusion exploiting the somewhat uneasy relationship between the two. Alas this was not to be. NIS’ release of this show was up to their usual standards; by far the best packaging of any anime currently in the US market. The hardcover artbooks are just beautiful, even though they aren’t filled with liner note or interviews like Nozomi sets. It’s all about pretty pictures I guess and not information. I’m cool with that though. This series gets a solid 7 out of 10 from me.
Remaining Backlog: 24 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).
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