English Dub Review: Konohana Kitan “A God’s Day Off”

Someone get me a bucket for all these tears.

Overview (Spoiler’s Below)

The episode this week begins as a stranger arrives at the inn who we learn from Kiri is a regular who comes around to see Sakura. Kiri explains that the man enjoys the kind of care only Sakura can provide, and tells Yuzu to go help Ren with her regulars. Ren’s regulars turn out to a pair of flamboyant entertainment gods who proceed to lament about how hard it is to be a god now; waxing away about the “good old days” where everyone came out to worship them. The gods trounce away, and Yuzu runs into Natsume, who, upon learning that Sakura’s mysterious client has arrived, get excited to learn kendo from the client, who is an old battle god. Just like the entertainment gods, the war god has retired to spending time at the inn, using his katana by carving magical children’s toys for Sakura to enjoy. A heartwarming scene.

Later that night, the inn is alive with partying and feasting by its residents. Another mysterious client remarks to Yuzu that this too reminds her of the good old days. Konohonatei used to be a-hopping’ joint for the supernatural but is much quieter these days with the advent of the modern world. The next morning, the old battle god departs the inn as the staff says goodbye. Then, to finish the story, the last mysterious client at the party reveals she’s the master of Konohonatei, much to everyone’s surprise.

In the second story of the episode, Okiku is bored and decides to go see what the foxes running Konohanatei are up to. We see that Okiku feels like the others at the inn don’t care about her, so she goes into town to explore the outside world. As she rides through town, she stumbles upon a discarded doll in an alleyway. Okiku takes the doll back to the inn and revives her with intent to make the thrown-away toy her new friend.

Okiku resolves to make fix her new doll up with the help of the Konohonatei foxes. But Okiku finds getting the foxes’ help is harder than she thought; they’re all busy trying to take care of clients. Despite reservation about her being a klutz, Okiku manages to recruit Yuzu to her cause, just in time to help her escape from Sakura, who is a menace to dolls. The new doll is confused by this; after all, they’re toys and toys should bring joy to humans. Okiku protests that she hates humans and the new doll soon realizes that no one has ever played with Okiku before. The doll takes pride in how beat up she is, seeing those scuffs as precious memories with her owner, but Okiku is totally clean. The doll explains that her owner grew up, and that’s why she was thrown away, for that is when a doll dies. She says she has to go and dissolves into a white light before ascending to the afterlife, lamenting that she can’t be Okiku’s friend. The snow falls, and Okiku is once again alone. But, in a sweet-hearted turn, Ren presents Okiku with her new year present, a new dress. Okiku sobs in joy at the gesture, showing that she really did have people she was close to. The episode ends as we see, back in the real world, the doll’s grown-up owner fishing her out of the trash and deciding to buy her some new clothes.

Our Take:

It’s hard to find a good tearjerker episode in an anime, but sometimes an episode comes up that breaks your heart and shows us just how powerful anime can be. The first story of this episode is a pretty good piece about nostalgia and growing old, but the second pulls at your emotional center and takes you back to your childhood a la Toy Story. It’s a great episode, entertaining, cute, warm, and funny, and one of the best this show has had so far.