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[series:4904#628] | ||||||
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(All episodes watched): This animal is, of course, almost certainly a Tanuki, a racoon-like creature with a reputation for cleverness and trickery in Japanese folklore at or beyond the human level. This one doesn't seem to have any malicious intentions, it just wants a home and free food. While Fuji is a probing writer who muses about subjects like where we come from and where we're going, she just assumes this is a dog (even though it always has a small leaf on it's forehead, a trademark of the Tanuki) and leaves it at that. Another givewaway is when the Tanuki writes that his line of work is 'making masks with leaves'. In episode one several people see that she has gotten it wrong but no one cares to make it clear to her. One of my first thoughts as the premise was laid out was that I hoped this show would have a plot of some sort and not be just an animated 4-koma comic. After an episode, I'm left wondering where this can possibly go from here. How much humor (the best laugh I got was the logic a guy in the park used to demonstrate that this was not a cat) can possibly be squeezed out of this odd premise, much less plot? In episode three Fuji is visited by two old high school friends of hers (one of which notes than this creature looks like a Tanuki). Later Fuji and the Tanuki pay a visit to the beach. If I'm not imagining things, this show seems to have a dramatic, almost tragic, tone at times. We get to know Fuji in part by the fact that she prefered to go to the beach without her friends, even though they had invited her. She seems to be an introvert. Indeed, this show may be powered more by drama than by comedy, since there weren't any really LOL jokes as far as I could tell. In episode four Fuji takes Tanuki to a fireworks show and something touching happens. In episode five Fuji is offered a job writing the plot of a manga—it can be virtually anything she pleases, which is odd—and there is disagreement about whether the creature is a tanuki, a racoon, or a dog. In episode six Fuji agrees to care for a friend's cat for awhile, and the cat and tanuki struggle to get along. I had been under the impression that in Japan tanuki were considered mischievous, annoying, troublesome and in general bad, but not in this case. I wish the jokes were a little funnier, however. This show sometimes struggles to be worth my time. In episode seven Fuji struggles with writer's block and regrets taking on this new project. I bet at some point she'll realize that in Tanuki she has a unique story waiting to be converted into a novel. In episode eight Fuji and Tanuki observe ducks on a park lake then she meets her two high school friends again. This show strikes me as an odd mix of the touching and the boring, perhaps because there's not a whole lot of truly funny stuff. In episode nine Fuji seems to be dodging the question of how her new novel is coming along. She spends the first half of the episode with Kii-chan, the little girl who lives next door, rather than Tanuki. In episode ten Fuji finally seems to break out of her writer's block, but exactly why was not clear to me. I initially skipped this episode, and considered giving up the series altogether, but changed my mind later. In episode 11 Fuji finally completes the plot--it turns out that it is being made into an anime, and she goes to the premiiere. Then her old friends visit again as she offers to give them all sorts of stuff she doesn't need. The show seems to have a silly tone to it, never LOL funny, but modestly amusing (Did I say this show had a 'tragic' tone at one point?). In episode 12 Fuji and friends go bowling and the plot muses on why Fuji likes rain. And, I assume, it's over. I guess the touching bits (like why Tanuki also likes rain) were the strong point of this show. A very laid back show which neither tried to be uproariously funny nor tell much of a complete story. Last updated Saturday, October 04 2025. Created Sunday, July 06 2025. | ||||||||
