Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha – 07
Easy come, easy go.
Romantic drama abound in this episode of Inari Konkon. It’s a bit tiresome watching the characters stumble as much as they do here, but at the end of the day you know things are sure to be resolved.
Inari and Kouji
Kouji finally understands his feelings.
The show has more or less narrowed down to two main relationships of interest. The first is obviously Inari and Kouji. I’ll admit I found the gratuitous amounts of misunderstandings and angst to be rather aggravating, as it was so deliberately set up to put a damper on any progress between the two. Nevertheless, things did take a step forward thanks to Kouji realizing that he loves Inari. Previously we’ve seen that he’s very friendly around her, and I guessed that he might have feelings for the heroine. Well, turns out this is sort of right but sort of wrong. Because while the feelings Kouji had for Inari were technically that of love, he just didn’t understand what love is. So that was his problem, and now that’s sorted.
Inari begins to hate her powers.
Inari, on the other hand, is dealing with some more serious issues. The biggest one being her unconscious use of Uka-sama’s divine powers to manipulate things in her favor. I understand moping around because she feels she’s cheated her way into getting closer to the guy she likes. But really, instead of self-loathing and being depressed, Inari needs to work on bringing those powers into check. It’s the least she can do to make up for the “cheating” she’s already done. Nothing you can do to take it back, so just make sure it never happens again. Unless, of course, her next course of action is to attempt to use said powers to take back her previous use of them. Which would just be opening up a can of worms. Even given the show’s penchant for such aggravating developments though, I don’t think it will take things that far.
Touka and Uka-sama
An awkward pair.
The other relationship that’s starting to take the spotlight (I know I’ve been talking about its possibility for a while now) is that of Touka and Uka-sama. Basically it’s painfully obvious now that Touka is tsundere for the Goddess. And on the other hand, Uka-sama is starting to recognize that Touka is her only “male friend.” Now she just needs to take that a step further and realize that he’s more than just a “friend” that she hangs out with often because it’s fun. I actually thought that the whole marriage meeting thing being forced upon Uka-sama would be a good driving force to do just that. But instead it turns out Touka’s excessive tsun drives them apart at least for now. Gah. Talk about annoying hurdles. The guy needs to start being more honest to himself and to Uka-sama.
Touka overhears the truth.
Unfortunately, it looks like the chances of the relationship coming to fruition are looking rather slim thanks to the latest turn of events. Uka-sama had previously hidden the fact that she gave Inari her powers. And now that’s coming back to bite her as this revelation upsets the ever overprotective Touka. Not to mention, Uka-sama is whisked away to said marriage meeting before she can even attempt to explain the circumstances. Talk about bad timing. Anyway, obviously the proper course of action that needs to happen is the two (perhaps without Inari) need to sit down and talk things over so that Touka can understand that Uka-sama has done nothing harmful to Inari. Which, might actually be a bit of a problem since Inari is only just now getting over her bout of depression from “exploiting” said powers to her advantage.
This episode makes it painfully apparent that Inari Konkon doesn’t hold back on making things as painfully dramatic as possible. I’d be fed up with the show if it weren’t just so good. That said, Inari Konkon is really more of a light-hearted show so we can be sure that there will be a happy ending. So now that we have hopefully experienced the lowest of lows, we can look forward to things only getting better from there. I fully expect Inari and Kouji to make their mutual feelings official soon enough. And as for Touka and Uka-sama, well, maybe they just need a gaming session or two to help smoothe things over.
Can Uka-sama make things right?
About Sumairii
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 167 comments
needs to photoshop that fist image to make Tanabashi-kun sniffing panties.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
They did get a bit slippery in using the supernatural as metaphor for human agency in this one; something they really aren’t strangers to.
Touka’s tsun nature was actually quite expected, and I would have been upset had they not played it that way. It really was a series of tropes from that point, to the arranged marriage, to the revelation, but I think they are putting their own unique stamp on them; the best thing a stroyteller can do.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
It was because of that little fox being careless that things went so awry for Inari. The situation would have been handled better if she found out the truth after the play was over. Inari needs to be careful with her transformations. It would have been a serious problem if the real person she was impersonating happened to be right in the same area.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Uka hadn’t just hidden the fact that Inari had Divine Power, she flat-out lied and said she didn’t. I think that’s why Touka was more angry (and he’s an angry guy to begin with).
It’s nice to see a couple on the way together that is mutually interested, and is making the progress toward getting together. It was nice to have some time from Kouji’s point of view where they made it clear that he’s confused by his feelings and that he thinks he likes Inari. Hopefully Inari can get over her Divine Power making things easier for her, because that’s just what life is like. When you are a favorite of the gods, you will enjoy some benefit. Unfortunately, I see the next hurdle being “My Divine Power made it so that Tanbabashi-kun likes me, so I can’t date him because it’s unfair!” Piffle on that! Go for it, Inari! 頑張って!
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I’m usually one for pedantic semantics, but I don’t think it matters too much whether or not I stress the fact that she told a lie to keep the Divine Power business hidden. At the end of the day, she kept it from Touka and that’s why he’s upset.