Author: Todo Izumi
Genre: Action, Supernatural, Fantasy
Episodes: 10
Production Studio: Toei Animation
Introduction
I’d come to know about Kyousougiga through various friend recommendations and it seemed to be regarded highly. At first glance, it seemed like an anime about an adventurous brother and sister with cool powers and such, the artstyle looked pretty nice too so I thought I’d give it a watch. This article will contain mild spoilers.
Storyline premise
To summarize this, a high priest, namely Myoue, who owns a dog and has the ability to create anything by just drawing them draws an entirely new dimension where no one is born and no one dies. He then draws a rabbit and names it Koto, placing it in charge of his said dimension. The rabbit eventually develops feelings for Myoue and is offered to borrow a Bodhisattva’s body until her love for Myoue was requited.
She hides this fact from Myoue and they eventually fall in love. Myoue brings a dead boy home and declares his intention of adopting the boy who had killed himself after the massacre of his family. Myoue and Koto bring him back to life and the boy tries to kill himself again and ultimately failing to die, he eventually comes to terms that he cannot die and has been adopted by his new family. His name being Yakushimaru.
Myoue then draws two elder siblings to accompany his adoptive son. One called Kurama, who is forever tiny, and the other called Yase, who is a demon. Kurama being the eldest among the three, followed by Yase and finally Yakushimaru. Myoue does not consider Kurama to be human despite looking like one. I personally don’t know what Kurama is even after completing the anime.
Myoue and his creations seem to bother the rest of the high priests so Koto suggests escaping to his dimension, otherwise known as the Looking Glass City. The family of five then leave for their new home in the Looking Glass City, leaving no trace of them behind. The city is then divided amongst the children, their own little huge playgrounds all to themselves. Anything broken immediately being fixed all on it’s own.
Koto then dreams of the destruction of the city and relates it to not keeping her promise to the Bodhisattva and so she and Myoue leave the dimension but Myoue leaves his DNA to Yakushimaru, making him the new Myoue. The children are then left to their own devices to rule the Looking Glass City.
Time passes and Kurama is suddenly a tiny geezer who is a high priest and Yase is an upperclass demon who likes tea parties. The new Myoue grows up to look relatively close to the old Myoue but is stagnant and lazing around until a girl also named Koto and her familiars appear out of seemingly nowhere and that’s when the story really begins.
The pacing really throws me off. The scenes don’t seem to match up and even in the end, not much seemed to fall into place. The concept is strange but good.
Verdict: The pacing of the anime is fairly confusing, I personally couldn’t catch up to what the plot was all about.
Animation and Art
The animation really reminds me of the Monogatari series’ way of visualising the scenes. Sometimes it’ll zoom into the face or pan downwards. I think it’s really cool how the emphasis is distributed. Somehow, I still feel the animation is lacking. The art is great, I personally like it a lot but sometimes the facial expressions don’t seem to fit the emotions that are supposed to be portrayed by the character.
Verdict: I like the art and I think that the animation could be better.
Sound and Music
The OP, Koko by Tamurapan, and ED, Shissou Ginga by Teppan, are really upbeat. The tune is almost addicting to listen to in my opinion. The voice acting is also pretty good.
Characterization and Powers
The second Koto cried a lot in her younger days earning her the term cry baby by her bullies. She eventually got stronger over the years and a disciple of Inari, the fox mask wearer. She has two familiars named A and Un, they switch from cat-like electrical beings to humans throughout the series. Koto owns a huge weapon that is portrayed as a colourful hammer.
Yakushimaru is an orphaned boy who was brought back to life by Myoue. He seems to have quite a temper as he’s angered by most things. He is now known as Myoue and he uses his prayer beads as a weapon, refusing to let go of them even if they bring him bad memories. He lives quietly, his girlfriend visiting once in a while, until the second Koto appears.
Verdict: I’m not stating why this is the verdict because there are a ton of spoilers that will come with it. The characters are very complicated and the role of protagonist and antagonist become incredibly confusing.
Conclusion
Overall, the plot is confusing but when pieced together right, it comes into place. It’s like a puzzle to watch and I have to admit, most of my time watching Kyousougiga was spent replaying and asking myself what exactly happened but I did like the anime a lot. The animation was, like I said previously, kinda lacking but nothing too big. I really liked the music and the characters are surprisingly complicated. If you haven’t watched it yet, do give it a watch! Once you’ve finished it, you’ll understand why those who have seen it like it so much!
