Inari Kon Kon – Review

Time for another show review! This time we’ve got Inari Kon Kon, which was… a show, I guess? It was watchable, but not much more – this one felt very overtly and almost awkwardly like a direct advertisement for the original manga, given its adaptation made zero use of anime as a medium and basically all the conflicts resolved in “go read the manga, available at a location near you.” That said, it was pretty much a harmless experience all around, and there were some cute moments between the central characters. It flopped as a romance or drama, but did reasonably well in depicting some friendships.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

Inari Kon Kon

Episode 1

Lovely backgrounds. Good color palettes

Very low-key OP

Not much animation

“There go the sparkles again”

Inari Fushimi’s the MC

Tanbabashi is her crush

The humor isn’t particularly funny, it’s just harmless

“Maybe I should try upping our romance quotient in some flag event first” that’s two self-aware otaku jokes

Just lots of cutesy shoujo gags

This MC is likable though

This show’s pacing seems kinda frantic, and the gags are a bit louder than they need to be

Uh oh, her crush has a crush

Another pretty background

This is a show about very tiny problems. They’re not even treated that seriously by the narrative

Yeah, this forest around the shrine is lovely

The articulation of the fox gods is also nice

The god Inari

“I want to be Sumizome!” oh boy

Keiko’s the blue-haired friend

Being Sumizome doesn’t change things, of course

The wolves whispering about Inari not appreciating her stupid wish

Mistress Uka is playing a dating sim, lol

And it’s her transformed wolves

So now she can transform into anyone

“Now palm-sized for your convenience!” I’m liking the irreverent way this show is treating its own variables

Touka’s her brother

“Is he sick? But what about the big game tomorrow?” Lol, these tiny little problems

Episode 2

Uka derping out with more dating sims

Inari transforms into Tanbabashi’s friend to visit him, chaos ensues

The show’s got solid expression work across Inari’s various characters. It’s nice seeing how the show expresses her across different people

Sparkly shoujo flashbacks

Inari’s headed to the Celestial Plain

The Celestial Plain’s a weird, kinda intentionally flat array of buildings. It’s got its own style, but it’s not particularly impressive-looking

Mistress Amaterasu

Inari can’t transform for a day, and Uka’s going to be married off

This feels a little early for this kind of challenge

Sumizome and Inari head to the game together

“Where’s all the love-triangle drama, for heaven’s sake!”

So they send a bunch of absurd test interference

Another pretty ridiculous dilemma

Learning your crush’s crush is a really nice person. It’s awkward!

This CG train sure doesn’t look great

They pass the test, of course

Tanbabashi was actually just asking Sumizome to be the basketball manager

Episode 3

Touka doesn’t like Uka!

“He’s going through that dramatic teenager phase”

“I can transform into someone else, but it doesn’t change who I am.” Learning to like yourself. A pleasant, easygoing message for a pleasant, easygoing show

Touka’s been able to see Uka for a long time

Inari gets confronted by some boy who can also transform

This silly stock transformation footage

Oh my god, her assistant principal expressions

Silly shoujo gags

Oh my god, this net gag with Touka and Uka

Ah, it’s Uka’s big brother

It’s friggin’ Dio

And he’s a siscon. Great

Uka getting distracted by the Wii games

This show has some weird, kinda stilted pacing. There’s rarely much sense of momentum

A lot of the jokes aren’t that good

Another god, Miya

Jeez, this absurd shoujo setup with Touka and Uka

A dreamy flashback about Uka getting hooked on dating sims. Lol

Yeah, the pacing’s pretty stilted

“Where’s the logic in pairing me with this nut?” More self-aware jokes

Figuring out how to give back Uka’s powers

Episode 4

Touka trying to be taken seriously by his parents, failing

Now he’s keeping an eye on Inari since he suspects she has powers

This show’s most base-level conflict, the powers thing, isn’t even a real problem

Some good Inari faces

Inari and Sumizome geeking out about manga

Toshi, Uka’s brother, being a perv

Sumizome falling for Inari’s friend

Sanjou’s the friend

Sumizome figures out Inari likes Tanbabashi pretty much immediately

A lot of this feels like direct translations of manga panels. Very little is done to visually elevate the material. There’s also very little music, mostly just wacky sound effects

Shoujo sparkles moment

There’s also no real chemistry between these two, or well, any of the couples. There’s just awkward shoujo moments – it’s the non-romance romance

Uka’s running out of divine power

Uka lying to Touka about Inari’s powers

“We want to look in on their happiness, if only for a moment”

Episode 5

Some nice “serious dude-manga” faces

Beach episode time

Wow, bad train tunnel CG

Some really slow scenes here

Man, this show’s animation is such garbage

Trying to hook up Sumizome and Keiko

Woop, Touka and Uka again

Inari hanging out with her other friend, Maru

“I don’t think I like Sumizome very much”

This is nice! Grounded friendship issues

Sumizome envious of Inari for a talent Inari can’t see

Shoujo sparkles for Inari-Keiko saving Shimozome

Maru’s worries are understandable. Fine little conflict

Uh oh, Inari fucks up the relationship between Shimozome and Keiko

Yep, this all makes Shimozome feel super insecure

Uh oh, Shimozome wishes she were Inari, and Inari’s powers activate

Episode 6

Inari’s learned, and realizes changing Shimozome won’t solve anything

“I never noticed from far away, but she’s a totally normal girl”

Oh my god these dramatic strings for their friendship moment

Just light flutes and strings now

Friendship

Oh wow, friggin’ great how they transition from “let’s take a bath together” to panning up the dad’s body

Touka and Uka are kinda cute, but I don’t know why anyone would be into Touka

I guess he’s the standoffish shoujo archetype

Shimozome admits her feelings!

Asking Inari for help in getting close to her. Good friendship stuff!

Vacation montage

Yeah, Touka’s just not likable

Touka blush

“We were just thinking how big your hands are” lol

I mean, he’s understandable. He’s a sullen teenager

Inari declines to tell Uka about the divine power episode

Episode 7

Inari got the part of Tanbabashi’s lover in the cultural festival play

Silly Uka faces as she contemplates dating

A kissing scene!!1

Uka runs into Touka! Oh no!

Uka telling Touka about the situation. This might be their first good conversation!

I also like how much honesty this show features

And just as I say that, this conversation ends in dumb bravado from both of them

Uh oh. Turns out it was Inari’s power that got her the role she wanted

Inari getting all kinds of insecure. Tanbabashi misunderstands, and then she misunderstands in turn

Oh thank god, Keiko shows up

She decides to quit the play ono drama

Sumizome on the warpath for Inari! Great stuff

Ooh, pretty background on the rooftop

Ono, wind takes away the other girl’s letter!

I like Inari’s special powers being an unconscious expression of her uncharitable feelings

So she confesses as the other girl

This actually turns out to be a pretty cute scene!

Nice piano version of the OP here

Tanbabashi admits he likes Inari to himself

Inari and Uka each avoiding their problems with the other

“Your hands are sooo big, Touka” omg this comic

Touka learns the truth about Inari!

And then Uka leaves unintentionally. Woops

Episode 8

Man, a bunch of the backgrounds in this show are not great. The indoor scenes, a bunch of the architecture… it’s all really bland

Touka and Inari coming to visit Uka

Uka’s caught up in some political rivalry of her mother’s

Man, some of these gags are lame

And so is this Touka drama

Good Uka faces

Inari changes into Uka, which I’m sure is a good idea

Some more solid expressions with Inari-Uka

Uka runs into Touka, of course

“Chuunibyou” is translated as “teenage drama,” which is a pretty awkward translation

Aw, cute Touka-Uka moment

Touka’s doing good work in this scene

Inari runs into Uka’s father, who is ridiculous

This show is actually equally strong in the small normal stuff and the god stuff, which is unusual

Oh my god, this asshole charming dad

Aw, Uka and Inari are such good friends

“Uka has gotten too close to humans”

Episode 9

What even is the issue with Uka growing close to humans?

Wow, they are pulling out some BS drama with the girl with the love letter

This show often can’t resist going for the easy drama bait

Touka’s test results apparently suck

He takes it out on Inari, cuz he’s a shithead

Maru and Inari bantering. Kinda nice

Inari’s classmates ignoring her and Maru. Apparently the rumor of her messing with the other girl’s love letter is getting around

Maru defends Inari!

ono, Inari’s god-pissed

Uka somehow breaks through to Inari

wuh oh, Uka’s disappearing

This group of four end up being a really strong group of friends

The foxes start howling, and the various shrine statues form a gateway to Uka

Episode 10

This show repeats a decent amount of footage

Ugh, this CG…

Random insert song

Bunch of awkward fox images heading up the shrine gates

This is such an arbitrary conflict. Why is anyone stopping Inari from helping Uka? Why are the gods locking her up? What is the point of any of this?

They all push the door open

“Why didn’t you tell me you were fading away? That’s pretty important!”

And it just kinda ends

OVA

Flashbacks, I guess

Kon wants to learn how to become a better familiar

Tanbabashi’s brother ran away

Kon and Inari fighting is pretty good. I like having Kon be big enough to actually challenge Inari on her crap decisions

This episode kinda sucks. Tanbabashi’s brother is just a brat, there’s no drama here