Gugure! Kokkuri-san – 05

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G! K-s certainly gets full points for absurdity.

This episode didn’t make too much of an impression on me, so I don’t have a whole lot to say.  It was perfectly amusing and entertaining, but not nearly as interesting – or intermittently hilarious – as last week’s gem.  I’d have to say I’m still nominally on the bubble here, and I hoped this would be the ep that pushed me off of it – but still leaning towards covering the rest of the series.

The main job of the first chapter was to introduce the character we saw at the very end of last week’s episode, this little girl (Kanemoto Hisako).  I don’t know her real name but Kohina dubs her Jimeko – “Little Bully” – and that seems to be what everyone refers to her as now.  The joke here seems to be that Jimeko – an extreme “shy tsundere” transfer student – wants to bully Kohina but demonstrates that she’s very, very bad at it by using a daily vase of flowers as her ijime weapon of choice.  The truth is that she wants to be friends but can’t just come right out and try to do that, which ties into the absurd-sad combo that’s this series’ stock and trade, but if there’s a deeper (or supernatural) meaning behind her weirdness it’s not immediately apparent.  Jimeko is fine, but not especially a hilarious addition, at least so far.

The next chapter is better, featuring a couple of respectable comedic highs surrounding Kokkuri and Inugami’s decision to become “transfer students” themselves.  Kokkuri-san presents a note (a shapeshifted leaf, natch) describing himself as a “teenaged shota” as his excuse for entering school, but the actual kids (apart from the girls smitten with Kokkuri-kun) seem to be well aware that these two aren’t grade schoolers.

The best comic moments here again involve Yamamoto-kun, who’s suitably freaked out when Inugami spontaneously changes gender and sprouts inumimi.  The spectacle of an alien shota breathlessly pointing out the absurdity of an androgynous inugami is pretty hilarious just for how utterly random it is, and Kokkuri’s decision to try and cover for the whole thing via spontaneous human combustion is the cherry on top.  None of this is top-shelf material by this show’s standard, but there’s enough effective humor here to keep things entertaining for the most part.  Still, I haven’t completely shed my doubts as to whether there’s enough gas in this premise to drive it for 12 episodes.

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2 comments

  1. A

    Funniest part for me was reading "teenage shota" on the entrance papers. I'm just weak against visual gags. Second place goes to that one kid by the end who deduces anyone near Kohina will catch fire spontaneously. Third place goes to Jimeko doing a one man show and some random kid cheering for her off-screen.

    This show has its off episodes, but I think it's still pretty consistent so far. God knows how long the source lasted, but hopefully it can manage 12 episodes before running out of jokes.

  2. R

    Like Athos, I quite enjoy this show. It's not hilarious all the time but at most times, and it's a nice little show to add to the mix.

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