Konohana Kitan

Episode 8

While it's never been a secret that Konohanatei is a veritable hotbed of supernatural activity, the exact nature of Konohana Kitan's setting has remained somewhat ambiguous until now. Nature spirits, grieving parents, wayward souls, haunted dolls, and all manner of living creatures have made the halls of this hotel their home at one point or another, so it's obviously a special place even for a supernatural series like this. This week, Konohana Kitan makes its subtext into text, and through some absolutely masterful writing, we finally come to learn exactly how important Konohanatei is to not only its staff, but its guests as well.

The episode's first segment is the more slight of the two, thought still excellent in its own right. Functionally, all it has to do is deliver the episode's main point of world-building, establishing that Konohanatei (and the entire world of Konohana Kitan) exists on a plane separate from our world, but that the spirits of the living can cross over to it when they are near death. True to form, Konohana Kitan uses this opportunity to deliver a small story that is no less powerful for its brevity. The young girl that Yuzu befriends may have a fairly simplistic dilemma (she lies too much and is bored by the real world), but the show is so good at developing effective characters in a short span of time that her frustration and ambivalence toward her life feel absolutely real. With the understated implication that she attempted suicide, this story uses the girl's brief friendship with Yuzu to cement an important point for the episode's next segment; the people who find themselves at Konohanatei are lost in one way or another, and our lovely little fox girls are just the ones to help them find their way home.

In retrospect, this is the theme of nearly every episode of the show up to now, but this week's second vignette might be the best example yet of Konohana Kitan putting its themes and deft storytelling skills to work. The story starts out simply enough, with the girls reigning in a rambunctious young boy named Kaito who has wandered into Konohana Kitan's world uninvited, but it slowly evolves into something truly special. The introduction of the grumpy old man in the middle of Kaito's sad story initially struck me as an odd intrusion, especially since the two characters seemed so unrelated: Kaito was a young boy (presumably a ghost) who was fleeing his life as a “chosen child”, while the old man was a working class guy clinging to life in a hospital bed, hiding away in the hotel in the spirit world because he was afraid to face life as a burden to his family. However, the two characters' stories eventually intertwined perfectly in a reveal that was so unexpectedly moving that it left me an ugly, sobbing mess.

I'll admit, I probably should have seen Kaito's true nature coming. His cute little snaggletooth and the off-color tufts in his hair are dead giveaways in retrospect, and I knew that his plotline couldn't make sense in our world if he was actually a human child. By the time he showed back up to greet Yuzu as a full-grown man after only a short time had passed, I was already guessing some kind of shenanigans were afoot, but for whatever reason I was still unprepared for the cuteness bomb of Kaito being a literal puppy dog in our world. The real sucker punch was the second reveal that he had trained to become a loyal and loving guide dog, and that his owner was none other than the blinded old man he bonded with at Konohanatei.

Now is this twist an utterly cheesy, blatant act of emotional manipulation? Absolutely. Is it also the perfect end to another shockingly effective work of yarn-spinning from Konohana Kitan? You bet your fluffy fox tail it is! This episode is just another reminder that Konohana Kitan is the best hidden gem of the season. If its colorful visual aesthetic and charming cast of cute and shippable foxes haven't been enough to convince you, then episodes like this are sure to do the trick. This show has some of the most gently powerful and downright beautiful writing I've encountered all season. Anybody who loves heartfelt storytelling owes it to themselves to give this series a chance.

Rating: A

Konohana Kitan is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is an English teacher who has loved anime his entire life, and he spends way too much time on Twitter and his blog.