Its a tale as old as time:
Boy meets girl, girl falls for boy, boy begins falling for girl, girl turns out to be a 400 year old spirit fox. And thus begins a tale of mythological Japanese animals living alongside, and falling in love with, humans, and discovering themselves all while trying to get through High School.
Kanokon exists as a novel series, a manga, and a anime and each have their own merits. I am most familiar with the anime and manga so I will stick to them. In acknowledgment of several reviewer's request (I rarely come here and so it has taken this long to edit), I will attempt to more accurately explain what comments refer to what series (the anime vs. the manga).
The plot of Kanokon is quite often little more than an excuse for ecchi comedy and developing the main couple's relationship. However, as the series continues and more about the character's, their pasts and their families comes to light, some deeper elements emerge. However, the main theme remains to have a fun ride as the strange couple learns how to love each other better. The manga is a better example of this as the anime often (though not always) favors over-the-top ecchi scenes to character and story development.
The characters of Kanokon are in some ways quite generic. Chizuru is the gorgeous, sexy female lead, Kouta is the small, shy male lead. They are surrounded by the typical assortment of zany characters, the strict, the sweet, the tough, the mean, the cool etc. complete with rival love interests for both characters.
In its execution though Kanokon diverges a bit from what is typical of series of this kind. Unlike most shy male leads, Kouta gets, and gladly accepts, a good deal of physical affection from Chizuru, mainly objecting only when she gets too touchy-feely in public. And unlike the typical female lead of series like this Chizuru is very difficult for Kouta to offend. Indeed she could be said to be as lustful as any "pervert" male in anime/manga, albeit she limits her affection to one man only. This exception to the rules does not extend to her dealings with other characters however, especially her younger brother who is frequently the target of her temper.
On the anime and manga it should be noted that in my view Kouta comes out as far more childish in looks and actions in the anime compared to the manga. This is in part due to his extremely feminine voice (the voice actor is female of course).
On the note of edits, let it be pointed out that my numbered ratings in this review will now always refer to the anime version as the manga has yet to end and relatively few chapters have been translated, and thus I cannot fully judge it. For most of the ratings though you can assume that my rating for the manga version currently would be a few points higher (if applicable).
In this case where I rate the anime story as a 6, I would currently rate the manga as a 7 or 8.
Rating:
The art style of the Kanokon manga is colorful (when in color), beautiful, fanciful and above all extremely cute. This is even more true in the anime where the majority of the characters positively boil over with cuteness.
As for art quality the anime can't compete with things like Ghost in the Shell, but it doesn't really need to. Its art matches the story's lighthearted manner. It also is favorable to me personally due to the crisp, clear art and attractive characters.
More specifically the manga art projects more maturity and sophistication to it. The anime, on the other hand, has the characters drawn as more "bouncy" and "soft" (no, no ecchi subtext was intended there). This helps project the different feelings, and perhaps audiences, the the anime and manga are made for. This and other elements, are also reasons why many fans favor the manga when it comes to quality while those who like the anime are likely to care more about laughs than art quality.
In this case where I rate the anime art as 7 I'd rate the manga as at least 8.
Rating:
As the voice actors are speaking Japanese its hard to judge their quality and is somewhat subjective. As said earlier Kouta's voice makes his character seem younger than he is. However, in general the voice actors (particularly Chizuru's) seem to display an amount of energy and passion appropriate for their roles. This is the most important element I think for any series that uses voice actors.
The music is light and cute and pleasing to the ear, for me at least. However, I must admit to not knowing a great deal about judging the quality of such things. Still, there is nothing about it that will truly blow your mind.
Rating:
Kanokon is in many ways a typical ecchi romance comedy, except it kicks the borderline material up to about as high as it can possibly go without actually being hentai. And it does so in such a sweet and hilarious manner that it hardly even seems dirty. The love between Chizuru and Kouta is as sweet a thing as you could hope to find and a welcome respite from typical manga/anime stories where the couples dance around even admitting their feelings for years of chapters on end.
Overall both the manga and anime have a strange charm about them that makes them quite enjoyable to follow. This charm to me is in how you can come to like the fictional characters and be eager to see what happens to them next. In addition it is in watching a story that is not meant to be taken overly seriously, allowing you to relax and simply laugh at the jokes or coo at the sweet moments.
Albeit the anime can be said to be over the top when it comes to suggestive material. It is so to the point that many who like the manga vehemently dislike the anime. To me it depends simply on what you're looking for. The anime is a mindless distraction with some genuine heart in it, while the manga has much more quality overall. And of course the anime currently has the advantage of having more material available to english speakers than the manga.
In this case I'd rate the manga at a 9, due largely to how it explains a lot more than the anime does and this is important for overall presentation.
Rating:
6.6667 (above average)
Reviewed by Ryodraco, May 06, 2008
Hm, not sure I've seen an anime and a manga reviewed concurrently. You most certainly are a competent enough writer, I was able to see that in your opening section, but I think that you simply need to beef up your last three sections. It just seems hard to get that picture painted with the art or sound sections with only a few sentences to go on.
Just gotta let this whole manga and anime review thing set in for a bit. You have made me think outside of the box and I do not approve.
Your review is very straight to the point yet I don't see it as enough to justify the Final Rating of 8. As sho pointed out, you need to juice-up your review.
you should elaborate more on the strange charm and how is it so..as well as the sounds section
erm..you might wanna change a bit of your structure in some bits.
overall..you manage to show what the main idea is about..that is a good thing :)
Given how different the two are, I think they should have been reviewed separately.
The manga's alright. Yeah, it's your typical boy-meets-girl setup, which doesn't really make it a whole lot better nor worse than many of the other stories of similar type. But in the eight chapters I've read so far, it's been set up rather nicely, telling the reader who's who and what's what. And it's not THAT perverted.
At least not compared to the anime, which is a huge, fucking pile of shit. The anime proceeds to flip the manga elements the finger and proceed with the lamest, shittiest jokes most other shows of the same genre would rather not touch with a ten foot pole. It's so goddamn beaten to death, I'm surprised it even got past the drawing board. It has NOTHING TO OFFER WHATSOEVER but the fanservice. Nothing! It's one of the most worthless shows in existance, because even if you're in it for the fanservice, there are lots and lots of better shows out there.
What's worse, in the anime, Kouta looks like a little boy. (Shota-kun?) And I don't need to tell anyone the implications of that, right? And fuck it, Chizuru looks horrible as well. It's borderline Eiken, but with some featureless face designs that make her look like she's been botox-ing her entire head, a look she actually shares with Shota-kun.
Not that I want to tell you how to rate your reviews, but yeesh.... the rating of ten for presentation aside, I can agree with most of your review as far as the manga goes. But when it comes to the anime, I disagree and I disagree vehemently.
Good review.
Thanks for the review!
merged: 10-31-2009 ~ 09:02pm
Thanks for the review!
tnx for review
Thanks
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