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Kon Kon Kokon Volume 1

Familiarity with a certain creator oftentime leads to an expectation of what that creator does with each release. Shirow Masamune? You’re expecting a GITS, Appleseed or similar work. CLAMP? If you are a real die hard fan of the best all female manga team in Japan you know what you’re expecting. And the list goes on and on. An expectation that once a creator establishes themselves in a set genre or style, regardless of the style, that said creator would stick to it without fail.

This is not a good thing, especially when that creator wants to branch out and do something different.
If we learned nothing from Koge-Donbo’s experimental trip into Yoki Koto Kiku, we learned that (yes, to paraphrase Star Trek VI : The Undiscovered Country) “Only Nixon can go to China”.
(“Only Fred Perry can do Gold Digger”, “Only Broccoli Books can publish Galaxy Angel mangas”, “Only Nintendo Can Release Animal Crossing 2”… etc, etc, etc.)

If you know his works (be it Di Gi Charat, Pitaten, or some of his other series) then you have come to expect a certain style and a certain way for his work to play out… that didn’t come out in his experimental phase in Yoki Koto Kiku from Broccoli Books, but it does in full spades in Kon Kon Kokon Volume 1.

Instead of delving into the unsuccessful dark side of humor, Koge-Donbo does what he does best and gives it a bit of a supernatural taint in it’s flavor (which works this time out rather well).

Ren wants to believe… oh god does he want to believe!
An obsessed “otaku” of all things monsters, Ren has been brainwashed by his countryside pals into reinventing himself into a “Cool” dude and all but suppressing his natural otaku instincts towards monsters while in his new school in the big city. Sure, if this was a normal world then he should have no problem being totally cool and totally repressive since it’s not like monsters and supernatural beings will hunt him down and impose themselves into his life… that is until the day wee little Kokon bursts into his classroom and proudly proclaims she has to repay a debt to him… yeah, this can’t be good.
Sure, it might not seem as much a hassle… until you find out (along with Ren) that Kokon is, in fact, a spirit fox that has come to repay Ren because of an act of kindness he did for her.

Sadly, however, she is not too acclimated towards life with humans (or one human, Ren, in particular) which leads to some rather awkward (yet fun) moments. Also she might not have told Ren EVERYTHING about her as it seems a fellow spirit fox named Hinonishi has suddenly shown up to take Kokon back home. Seems she was supposed to have been the God(dess) of the Mountain (chosen once every so often) and she off and skipped out of it just to pay Ren back… which quickly becomes a contest of errors as she challenges him only to discover (to her horror) that he is in way better health and far more agile than she’ll ever be… also throwing spirits at him don’t work since he would collect them if he could (like Mulder collects porn).

The situation only gets worst (or better) when a Tenchi harem situation develops when Hinonishi suddenly becomes enamored with Ren and decides that she also has to stay with Ren. It won’t get better when he helps out a water dwelling demon (who promptly moves in to add to the demonic residents in Ren’s bachelor pad of the damned) and finds out there’s a little more to Kokon’s offer of “repayment” than he could ever have imagined… hint : it’s a form of repayment we could have Mr. Dunn come in and explain to all of you, because he talked about it in Ninja High School abit concerning his first main leading man.
Breakdown. Quickly.

After that experimental mess that was Yoki Koto Kiku, going back to the tride and true Koge-Donbo style is a refreshing bit of nice. It’s Donbo at his level best, with a whole new seemingly normal guy stuck in a most not-normal situation that (this time out) has that bit of supernatural twist which provides for the most interesting scenario, filled with engaging characters that you find yourself quite sympathetic towards, with a story that will hit it off with you just right drawn well and nicely done all about (and while some of it may seem like been there done that it still does it well and, well, it‘s not like it‘s a genre you‘ll ever get tired of so why not one more time). For his return to what he does best, a score that reflects my positive feeling over this. Kon Kon Kokon Volume 1 gets a solid 5 Yokai roommates out of 5.

Kon Kon Kokon Highly recommended

Kon Kon Kokon Reviews

Kon Kon Kokon Volume 1