Gugure! Kokkuri-san (2014) User Reviews

A 'doll' and three spirits

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 30 December 2014]

Young Kohina Ichimatsu is a strange little girl; she lives alone, eats nothing but cheap instant noodles and strangest of all she is convinced that she is a doll! One day she plays 'Kokkuri' and summons Kokkuri-san; a fox-spirit. Seeing how she lives he takes it upon himself to act as her guardian and look after her. They are soon joined by too further spirits; Inugami, who is a dog spirit who can switch gender at will and Shigaraki, an old tanuki spirit who likes to drink and do as little work as possible. Over the course of the series the spirits regularly argue with each other but they all want to help Kohina.

This series is rather funny in both senses of the word; there are plenty of laugh out loud moments but it is also rather strange… in a good way. The characters are fun to watch; given that she is an 'emotionless doll' Kohina is particularly entertaining; her dead pan delivery is great. The various spirits; both the main three and more minor characters are good too. The animation is solid enough and the characters designs are good. Once the main characters are introduced each episode tells its own story leading to a finale that leaves things open although I have no reason to believe there will be more. Overall a fun little series which I enjoyed more than I expected.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

Mostly silly fun-not for the young.

[Xyler852 · 7/10 · 20 July 2018]

Living alone, somehow, a young child who claims she is a doll and refers to herself in third person, summons a fox spirit named Kokkuri. When Kokkuri actually arrives, she kicks him out. Eventually the girl, Kohina, lets him stay even though he takes away her beloved cup of noodles. Kokkuri tries to get Kohina to be less of a doll and more of a regular girl. His efforts have mixed results. Eventually other spirits arrive causing more mischief and comedy. Unfortunately as happens too often in Japanese anime, there are pedophile characters who make various inappropriate remarks and suggestions though the little girl is not harmed. Still, I wish that sort of humor would go away.

Enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

[erikacunanan29 · 7/10 · 24 September 2020]

I honestly didn't expect I'd enjoy this as much as I did. I was only going to watch six episodes, but I ended up finishing it in one sitting. I came here for the handsome fox spirit, but I stayed for the bond. Don't expect much story from this. The only focus of the anime was the random shenanigans that happened in the life of Kokkuri and Kohina. The familial bond developed between the characters were so sweet and funny to watch. I like the type of humor used and the savage dialogues. It was just a light watch. I'll try reading the manga in the future since it's complete because I want to see more of Kokkuri and Kohina.

In terms of art, I found it adorable. Kohina is usually in doll mode, and the others typically switch between their human-form and animal form. The human-forms are good-looking, while the animal-forms are so cute. I usually have a crush on fox-spirit characters, so that's a bonus.

In terms of the characters, I liked Kohina and Kokkuri. Kohina is such a mood in her coping mechanism. You can see how much she doesn't want to acknowledge her feelings because she's scared to explore new territories. On the other hand, Kokkuri is such a wonderful fox spirit. There were times where he was a bit weird, but you can feel how much he cares for Kohina. I love their bond. Inugami was a bit too weird, but there were rare times where I liked him. Shiragaki is hiding his personality - he is adorable. The other characters weren't that necessary, and they don't contribute much to the plot except for comic reliefs. There isn't much progress to the development of the characters, but I guess you can't expect much from a twelve-episode anime.

NOTE: If you don't want to stick for the whole twelve episodes, only watch the first and last ones. They were the best, and I enjoyed watching it a lot. If you want something light, heartwarming, and your type of humor involves savage dialogues, stupid interactions, green jokes, then you should watch it.

Would I watch again: I probably might, but I would skip some episodes.

Highly Disturbing and Alarming.......

[random_r · 1/10 · 10 November 2019]

I'm not sure what's more disturbing and alarming. This anime has a group of great characters that end up being ruined by the disgusting nature of the jokes mostly consisting of pedophiliac undertones. I found myself watching to the end of the anime to see just how far these jokes would be taken. I think this is a good example of how we've become too comfortable with anime, and some of the disturbing elements that are hidden in these animations. It literally triggered a friend of mine.