12 Days of Anime Christmas - Day 11

Day 11 – Gugure! Kokkuri-san

Gugure Kokkuri-san is about a fox demon who finds a little girl who has emotionally isolated herself, acting like a doll and consuming only instant ramen. The fox takes pity on her and decides to become her guardian, feeding her home cooked meals and trying to make her becomes more human, instead of the doll like she acts. Eventually a cursed dog spirit who is in love with the little girl shows up, and hates everything in the world except for the girl, creepily worshiping her, and a tanuki spirit, who drinks, gambles and hits on woman at the drop of a hat. Together the four characters make a pretty great comedy filled with good references, decent gags, and some very stupid humor. The show is also one of the most heartfelt shows I have seen all year.

Gugure Kokkuri-san is built to be classic gag comedy. But underneath its comedy, it has a really great and sometimes just sad heart. Throughout the show, since the first episode even, they have peppered in these moments of honest pain, sadness, and even joy. The first episode had this beautiful moment of Kohina, the little girl, at first runs Kokkuri-san, the fox, out of her house, but then realizes just how lonely she truly is. The animation was amazing, and really helped express the internal pain this lonely girl is going through, even though all she was saying is that she was a doll, who doesn’t need anyone. It was actually surprisingly dark too, just this overwhelming sadness from this child, who won’t admit her own sadness. Or later, when we find out what Shigaraki, the tanuki spirit, does in his spare time. We see that he takes care of orphaned children, donating much of his winnings from gambling’s to these children, whose lives he has also ruined but we only find that out at the end. Or this beautiful and sad story of a ghost who is waiting for her lover by sitting under this tree with odd red leaves throughout the year. Her name has the same meaning as red leaves, and he promised that the first thing he will say to her is his name. And then we learn that the man she is waiting for died in war, and asked to be reincarnated as a tree, whose leaves are always red. So the tree she has been waiting under is actually the spirit of her lover, and his leaves are his greeting. It is honestly beautiful. This show, from start to end, is this amazing of honestly beautiful scenes and some truly great comedy. This anime is one that needs to be see, and I know it will end up as a much more underground, or lesser known show, which is a shame. Go watch this show, if you have a chance. 

Gugure Kokkuri-san is definitely one of the most surprisingly shows I have seen this year. I went in expecting comedy that I have seen before, and instead got this amazing mix of honestly funny and dark gag comedy and just beautiful dramatic scenes full of heart and emotion. Tomorrow is the last day of the 12 days of anime Christmas. So until then, have fun watching.