English Dub Review: Konohana Kitan “The Transient Guest”

Children, dogs, and mermaids, oh my!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

A human girl has washed up on the beach, and Yuzu finds her there passed out. As one might expect, the girl freaks out at Yuzu and chases her across the beach. After she calms down a bit, the girl reveals she’s a mermaid, and Yuzu, bless her sweetheart, offers to help the girl find her mermaid friends. After they search for a bit and the girl finds out Yuzu is a fox girl, the girl reveals that actually, she was lying about being a mermaid and that she’s something of a pathological liar who doesn’t have any friends. She reveals that she’s a bit depressed, and her life doesn’t have a lot of meaning.

The two talk on the beach, and at Yuzu’s prompting, the girl remembers that she used to like drawing, but laments that she might have to live a boring day to day life, which is why she likes to lie. She tries to walk off and apologize for deceiving Yuzu. But Yuzu insists that she shouldn’t be sorry since the girl hadn’t used her lying to take advantage of Yuzu. The girl comes to terms with how she likes to tell her lies, her “stories”, to make life more interesting, and after affirming her life’s meaning and the importance of friendship with Yuzu, she fades away and wakes up again on another beach. She’s awoken (In the real world) by Tanabe, her classmate, who tells us the girl’s name is Matsumoto. Turns out, Matsumoto had jumped off a cliff into the sea, and Tanabe went to find her since she was worried. The tale ends with Tanabe and Matsumoto walking off together, as friends.

In the next story this episode presents, we are introduced to a human boy who wandered into Konohanatei and starts causing trouble. The attendants try to scorn him, but the boy, named Kaito, tells them his parents and a man named “Mr. Takahashi” believe he’s special. Thus, he believes he’s above the rules. Yuzu uses her incredible kindness to make the boy say he’s sorry, and he runs back home to his parents. In a sad twist, we see that Kaito’s “destiny” is not what we thought. Mr. Takahashi takes him away to some kind of special school, and it turns out those people he loved weren’t his real parents. He comes back to Konohanatei, crying because he can’t go back home. Meanwhile, a middle-aged man wakes up in Konohanatei and believes himself to be dead, to which Kiri corrects him. Learning that he’s caught somewhere in-between, he too laments that he doesn’t want to go back. The two trade stories with each other, and we learn the man was a successful truck driver who got into a car accident.

The two bond over their “families,” Kaito’s adopted parents and the man’s stepdaughter. The man tells Kaito he can’t go back, knowing that with his post-accident injuries, he’ll be a burden on his family. But Kiri convinces him that his family loves him and that he shouldn’t be afraid of letting them support him. Seeing the man’s dedication to his family, Kaito goes back to the real world as well, and peace is restored to these two’s lives. We end the episode on a happy note, as an older Kaito comes back and thanks Yuzu for taking care of him when he was younger. Then, back in the real world, there’s a twist! In reality, the old man lost his eyesight in his accident, and Kaito was actually a dog trained at a special facility to be Kaito’s seeing-eye dog. The two walk off into the day together, friends.

Our Take:

Konohana Kitan is a truly unique anime, appealing to a combination of reality and spirituality that seems to elude most anime. They do a good job of creating a world that feels real and becomes richer and richer with each episode. Though both of the stories in this episode I felt a bit lacking. The story with the girl on the beach was too short to be significant, and I very much enjoyed the story of the man and the boy until the big reveal at the end. Something about that twist seemed a little too weird for me, and I felt their story was more emotional and interesting when I believed they were both humans. Still, not bad, but I would like the show to go to some more interesting places.

Score
7/10