Tuesday, October 28, 2014

GUGURE! KOKKURI-SAN #1 -- Special Review

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So imagine you’re a tiny girl who lives alone in a traditional Japanese manor. You eat nothing but instant noodles. One day you get so lonely you draw your own Ouija board and perform a ritual to summon a spirit. The spirit takes pity on you immediately and more or less adopts you. You respond with violence.

Well, that’s the plot of GUGURE! KOKKURI-SAN. By the way, it’s a comedy. And it’s a good one. A surreal and strange one, but definitely a good one.

== TEASER ==

The strangeness starts with Kohina, the protagonist, who attempts to rationalize away her loneliness by declaring that she’s some sort of biomechanical doll with no heart, and therefore incapable of feelings. This is showcased by Kohina being depicted – most of the time anyway – as a superdeformed, coin slot-eyed waif.

Screwing with your perceptions seems to be a principle factor here. You’ll often find yourself asking “wait, is she actually a robot?” despite knowing to the contrary. This is expounded by the fact that Kokkuri-san (the fox ghost Kohina summons in her game) seems to have two forms: a handsome man and an adorable, chibi fox. Kokkuri-san will be joined by several other supernatural creatures, including a tanuki and dog ghost.

Also, an alien.

If I were to compare this to any other show I feel it has the most in common with last season’s HOZUKI NO REITETSU. There’s an element of the supernatural, but it usually only serves as background for madcap character interaction. The gags are amusing, and clearly owe a lot to the material’s 4coma roots. GUGURE! KOKKOURI-SAN is surreal, it’s adorable, it’s oddball humor, and it’s definitely on my watch list.

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