Kanokon

Title:Kanokon
Kanokon - The Girl Who Cried Fox
かのこん (Japanese)
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Xebec
Oyamada Kouta is a new first-year high school student who has just moved from the country to the city and thus transfers to Kunpō High School. On his first day at his new school, he meets a beautiful second-year female student named Minamoto Chizuru who wants to be his close friend. Later she asks him to meet her alone in the music room. When he arrives, she reveals that she is in fact a ↗Kitsune or a fox deity and that she is in love with him. But she is not alone in her feelings for Kouta. Nozomu is another first year female student at their school, who is both a wolf spirit and a rival for Kouta's affections.

[TV series, 2008, 12 normal episodes (25 min) plus 6 DVD specials (variable time length); Animation by XEBEC. See also the two episode OVA - Kanokon: Manatsu no Daishanikusai, and 2nd season - Kanokon (S2)]


1:45 Opening sequence - YouTube Video
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 10 10 10 10 10 10 Anonymous #3176 [series:1790#3176]
Actually I am not so strong Anime fan have away-end to the series of School Days stopped, then I saw and switched the series off coincidental, then read I saw more trailer I and was rather impressive. I saw myself all 12 episodes with the two OVA" s, and says it to you must this series you absolutely look at

One of the best Ecchi Anime than I ever seen

Last updated Wednesday, November 25 2009. Created Wednesday, November 25 2009.
Buy Xenoknight [series:1790#2967]
review coming after I rewatch the anime...

Check out my award list to see some of the best anime titles in the world!

Never forget Xenosaga.

Last updated Monday, December 08 2008. Created Monday, December 08 2008.
Watch 8 8 7 6 6 6 Dreamer [series:1790#2279]
The first thing I noticed is the animation and art. The artwork is very "cutesy". However, I think Kouta is a bit too cutesy and somewhat loli.... male loli. Chizuru on the other hand is quite "yummy" and super echi... to the point where it would almost seem perverse. Still, you can't help but like her... and her ass-ets, if you know what I mean.

The music is nothing special, in fact, can't even remember any of it. As for the episodes, nothing special either. Lot's of fillers if you ask me and characters that come and go all too quickly. As each episode progresses it seems it get's more echi too. Humor was slim but when it was there, it was funny; especially episode 9 when chizuru lost her upper "womanly figure"... sorta funny.

As for Chizuru being a fox, there was really no point. She hardly turned into one, and even when she did, she didn't do anything in that form. It was pretty much irrelevant to the plot. Plot? Did I mention plot? There was no plot. I thought the least, her "fox" form would have to "do" something or "save the world", or something, anything special at the end, but........ nothing.

Overall, this series barely held my interest and the only reason I kept watching was because I picked it up to begin with. Oh well.

Last updated Monday, July 28 2008. Created Monday, July 28 2008.
Watch 6 7 6 8 4 5 Devil Doll [series:1790#752]
[Score: 60% = Watch. Similar series: Girls Bravo, Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun, Hanaukyo Maid Tai]
  • Drama: Low (not too much story, really)
  • Comedy: Med (well, what's left when you subtract all the perversion)
  • Action: Low (the usual silly-funny beating up scenes)
  • SciFi: Med (a lot is related to supernatural beings, at least during the first half of the show)
  • Ecchi: Softcore (smothering, licking... well, what would you expect from a fox in heat?)
Choosing this series as "lite watch" interlude between two very serious series, I was praying this won't be too perverted. But in fact it is as much as Eiken - actually even more explicit in terms of erotic acts (and the final episode "Are we finally doing it?" goes to the extreme in that). Is having sex really a required ingredient for tagging a show as "hentai"? Watching this thingy here I have my doubts about this; for me this show is beyond "ecchi" already, and Episode Story suffers considerably due to this. Just look at the image above - are these really high school students? Even more so as Kouta pretty much acts like an 11-year-old during the whole series.

But the main problem of this series is that for most of the show it has neither Story nor Characters. Kouta is a spineless whimp, Chizuru is nothing but a letch and Nozomu is permanently hugging the boy and not even giving him (or the audience) any explanation for this. Both girls permanently ridiculing each other for their big boobs resp. being flat-chested is getting old very soon; these animal spirits are simply acting out their animal drives... which may be realistic but totally boring as well. During the first half the whole show has little more content than a full-scale hentai. Hanaukyo Maid Tai was not as explicit and had significantly better characters (most notably a less spineless male lead); Gosyusho-sama Ninomiya-kun had a quite similar scenario (of two supernatural girls just battling it about for the boy without any explanation) but was far less explicit, more charming and even had a decent story in the end. Compared to these two, Kanokon lacks a lot. Over time, there is a little bit of character development and even vague hints of something that one might call a story; perversion aside, this series isn't that much worse than Girls Bravo, mostly because the sidekicks have funny scenes (and even get some romance in the end).

The last quarter of this series is surprisingly different from the rest. Episode 10's "military interlude" (seems to be the attempt to add some background story to this series) is a total loss because it isn't continued in any way during this series (does the manga explain what's going on here?) - just adding a battle for making use of all the magic abilities of this series' characters is kind of stupid methinks. But in episode 11 (the beach episode) Chizuru starts to become likable (while Nozomu more and more degenerates to a hoggish pet), and the final episode has more character development than the complete rest of this series.

Technical attributes: Art looks kind of boring, Animation is okay - but Music, i. e. the wonderful ED song "Koi no Honoo" by Sakakibara Yui (that I like more with every episode I'm watching it) plus these fine last two episodes made me upgrade this series from borderline "Avoid" to an average "Watch". All's well that ends well - and I've seen endings that were a lot more flawed than this one. For an ecchi comedy it works, and I didn't expect anything more than this.

Last updated Monday, July 11 2011. Created Thursday, June 12 2008.
Rent chibi [series:1790#2380]
Definitely low-brow, but I had fun watching it. But if you find ecchi and lots of skin distracting, then you probably won't. Not much series plot, but the characters are interesting and are played off each other pretty well by the episode stories.

I think 'Kanokon' comes from an amalgam of 'Kanojo', girlfriend, and 'Kon', the bark of a fox.

Last updated Tuesday, March 31 2009. Created Thursday, May 22 2008.
Watch Stretch [series:1790#628]
(All episodes and two specials watched):

Maybe I should stop having high hopes for certain new series, because they often times don’t live up to my expectations. This leaves me disappointed and frustrated, and my reviews are liable to be not altogether objective as a result. This is likely what happened with Kanokon. Shizuru has an unheard of habit of pressing her bust against Kouta every chance she gets; well, unheard of in the real world, perfectly common in anime. But it is done wholesale here, without any particularly clever dialogue, to the extent that Kanokon as a whole seems like little more than an excuse for ecchi—as if ecchi was funny in and of itself. I detected nothing really original here, in fact the show seemed kind of boring to me. I was impatient for it to end so that I could watch something else.

I thought episode three represented a marked improvement. Like Jan-chan I had gotten into the habit of watching Kanokon not for the laughs so much as out of curiousity about how suggestive it would dare to get. But I found this episode to be fairly funny, believe it or not; almost as good as To LOVE-Ru, which I generally consider somewhat superior. The "flag" jokes were good, thanks in part to the fansubbers' explanation of what the term meant.

What do you do when the hot chick who is practically leg humping you is actually a deity of awesome power? As of episode ten, I really hoped that either Shizuru would suddenly reveals a "soft" side to herself, with understandable motivations for all the perversion she had heaped upon Kouta, or he would just (tactfully) tell her to go to hell. I was disturbed by signs that he was coming to like her--after all, isn't it obvious that Nozomu would be an infinitely preferable mate? Her personality is better in every way, all she lacks are titanic boobs. Sadly, the message we seem to be getting is that it's the latter that really count.

The Kanokon "specials" are no more than three minutes long. I could only find the raw versions, but that's not much of a disadvantage since I only counted one line of dialogue in each anyway! The bulk of number one basically consists of topless pinup photos of Shizuru. Number two is even more suggestive, as suggestive as it can be without actually showing the characters having sex, then ends without so much as a joke or anything--"uh... okay and that's it?" I said to myself at the end. I felt dirty and embarassed after watching these.

And finally Kouta gives up and accepts the sex maniac Shizuru for what she is--no big surprise, though I couldn't help wishing that for once this would be harem anime with a pleasing surprise twist at the end. In all, my impression of Kanokon as a whole is of fanservice galore, and stretching the envelope of what's acceptable on TV (though it may reach the point of being more grotesque than titilating). But if you're not watching for that, there is just enough amusement to make watching each episode narrowly worthwhile, and little longterm plot or character development.

Above average fanservice, below average comedy and plot.

Last updated Saturday, July 05 2008. Created Tuesday, April 08 2008.
Watch Forbin [series:1790#1573]
Analysis : 12 Episodes and 2 Specials watched.

  • Drama : Low
  • Comedy : Med
  • Action : Low
  • SciFi : Med
  • Ecchi : HIGH / Hentai (If you watch the specials).
What started as a cute little comedy like Girls Bravo turned into something just bleh. Chiziru could've been something good. All the girls were too one tracked. We learned a teeny bit about the mom. I wanted to know more about the loli that was chasing the protagonist.

Alas, the series ended without much change except the boy says the magic Daisuke!

Watch out for the specials, they feature an hentai level scene.

Last updated Wednesday, June 25 2008. Created Saturday, April 05 2008.
Rent Jan-Chan [series:1790#967]
OMG !! This is perhaps one of the most ecchi, perverted and cheesy series since.. perhaps.. Eiken? But still, I do find myself to be darkly charmed and fascinated, if only to see just how sleazy it will get.

Kouta Oyamada, the main character in this series is a smallish shy and unassertive first year high school student who moves from the countryside into the city to attend a good high school. Unbeknownst to him, the school is hiding the knowledge that it is also the chosen school for a number of magical spirits. Also hiding in the student body and staff are spirit hunters and Yōkai (wiki) (or deamons).

On the fist day of school, Kouta is 'called out' by a buxom pretty 2nd year student named Chizuru, who proclaims her love for him, pushes him down and then tries to take off his clothes. Kouta is surprised to learn that Chizuru is a 400-year-old Fox-Spirit with strong magical powers. (Pls don’t ask what she is doing in high school.) But despite her age, she comes across more as a teenaged fox-girl in heat! Chizuru takes a serious delight in shoving her boobies into Kouta’s face, sneaking into his bed in the morning, showing him her panties or doing almost anything to do the hootchi-cootchi with her boy.

On the 2nd day of school, Kouta meets a girl in the market in town and helps her out. It only the next day that he learns that Nozomu is another first year transfer student who has just moved from Hokkaidō, who is also to a magical-spirit from the rival wolf-clan. And she happens to like Kouta too!

Set against a backdrop of an apparently ‘normal’ high school, Kouta finds himself caught up in antics of the girl’s attempts to seduce him and lots of strangeness from all of their other magical friends and rivals.

Short summary of the episodes -

  • Kouta & Chizuro - Expect some good laughs in the first episode, but just be prepared for lots of fanservice and over-the-top perverted fox-girl action.
  • Kouta & Chizuro & Nozomu - The 2nd episode introduces the lolicon wolf-girl character and sets the tone for the rivalry between Nozomu and Chizuru for Kouta's affections.
  • The Dangerous Spices of Love - The 3rd episode has Nozomu and Chizuru launching a lunchtime bento box assault in hopes of winning over Kouta's adorations.
  • The Possessed Bunny Suit - In the 4th episode, Chizuru finds a magically-possessed bunny girl costume which she is certain will allow her to seduce Kouta - resulting in a comical and mindless 20minute cosplay & fanservice romp.
  • Nozomu’s Brother Interferes! - Episode 5 has Ezomori Saku, Nozomu’s older brother casting a curse on Kouta to prevent him from seeing Chizuro and he then makes a play for Chizuru's attentions.
  • A Cold New Year’s Day (Ep 6) – To help Kouta celebrate the Japanese New Year, Chizuro teaches him an eroge board game to help ward off the winter chill, before they all head out to a local temple for prayers.
  • A Ninja Snow Princess’ Visit (Ep 7) – Chizuro’s mother sends a powerful snow-spirit to test and affirm the bond between her and Kouta-dono. (And Chizuro plays with pasties as a fashion accessory.)
  • Chizuro’s Family Hot Springs (Ep8) - Chizuro’s nine-tailed spirit-fox mother insists that she, Kouta and the high school gang all visit the family hot springs for a day of mischief and trouble.
  • Two Demon-hunters target Chizuro - A stranger hires two demon-hunters to attack Chizuro, but their attempt at poisoning her has an even worse result.
The Chinese Zodiac might call 2008 the year of the Rat or Mouse, but for anime fandom - this is the year of cute-n-sexy fox-girls. So if Horo from Ookami to Koushinryou is the sexy and sultry mature wolf-girl, and Ku-chan from Wagaya no Oinari-sama is the transgender older-sister(?) fox-girl character, then Chizuru Minamoto from this series is the sexy, perverted and impish fox-girl. And if the fixated magic-girl harem series, Rosario + Vampire can be faulted for being a pantsu-fest, then this series can only be considered a PANTSU AND BOOBY-FEST!!
The manga books have been R1/USA licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment with the first volume to be released in Oct '08, but there appears to be a grassroots movement demanding that this company be boycotted for their decision to license & release the manga for the lolicon series Kodomo no Jikan.

Last updated Thursday, December 11 2008. Created Saturday, April 05 2008.

Other Sites
NameURL
Japanese Language Series Web Site http://www.kanokon.com/
English Language - Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanokon
good description of the characters that appear in both the manga and anime

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