Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha – 09-10 [END]
Another heroine with child-bearing hips.
Even though it left so much open-ended, this was a perfect ending for Inari Konkon.
Last Hurrah
Making up.
I was wondering how Inari Konkon would wrap things up given that it only has 10 episodes instead of the usual 12 or 13, but it seems that didn’t turn out to be an issue. Episode 9 found the time for one last hurrah with love troubles; Inari botching Minami’s love letter came back to haunt her. Fortunately, things didn’t become excessively dramatic and the whole case was resolved mostly without incident. I can see there being some concern with the speedy and easy resolution, but I think this was very much in line with the tone of the show. It’s not about the dark and ugly side of humans, but rather about our strengths and our ability to overcome difficulties. In this case, the ability to reach a peaceful understanding helped put to rest a misdirected sense of justice. Note also that the girls who attempted to isolate Inari and friends were thinking only of their own friend, Minami, instead of using her as an excuse to be bullies. Anyway, all of this was very well done and left us with a good feeling about human nature, as I’m sure it was intended to do.
Rushing to Uka-sama’s aid.
Moving on, it became apparent that the brief quarrel actually served as exposition to direct us to the final challenge in the finale. That is, preventing Uka-sama from fading away. This too was achieved with relative ease thanks to the help of Uka-sama’s fox familiars, her brother (of all people), and Amaterasu relenting slightly. I admit I did find the whole situation of Amaterasu locking Uka-sama up a bit silly. Did the sun goddess really think now was a good time to teach Uka-sama a lesson about being too friendly with humans? I would have thought a better use of their time would be to approach Inari and have the girl return the goddess’s divine powers. It also didn’t help that at the end of it all, Amaterasu didn’t make an ultimatum on human-deity contact and essentially let Uka-sama continue mingling with humans. So the whole thing basically didn’t even have a point. But anyway, I understand there wouldn’t have been nearly as much impact without the situation so I suppose we can forgive this questionable development for the sake of story-telling.
Final Thoughts
Inari’s determination.
So now Inari Konkon is over, and where does it leave us? Inari is no longer capable of seeing or speaking with Uka-sama and life goes on. This is sort of a bitter-sweet ending, but I think it’s the right way to wrap things up. Inari has had her fun with divine powers, and more importantly she’s learned an important lesson that one doesn’t need supernatural abilities to interact with others. All you need is to speak frankly and muster the courage to be open with each other. Now, this is obviously a bit of a naïve idealization, but this I believe is the real message that the show tries to convey. And it does so while simultaneously presenting a mostly calming and pleasant story that can only be described as leaving us with a good feeling. This is a nice change of pace from most of the other more action-packed, drama-filled, or even laughter-inducing shows that we usually have no shortage of. And Inari Konkon isn’t even classified as a slice of life!
This is not goodbye.
Admittedly, there are a few things left unanswered, such as Touka’s relationship with Uka-sama and Inari’s relationship with Kouji. But even though these very central matters remain unresolved, I’m somehow not upset. Sure, I would definitely be pleased to see some closure like Touka reaffirming that he will be there for Uka-sama and possibly Inari finally confessing to Kouji. But in hindsight, I don’t know how much more such developments would really add to the story. Touka and Uka-sama are already more or less a thing, and it’s plain as day to us and even the other characters that Inari and Kouji are on their way similarly. So I guess this really is one of those rare moments where an open-ended conclusion works out well.
Wrapping up, I must say that Inari Konkon is a very satisfying watch. Despite being only 10 episodes, it has managed to become one of the more pleasing experiences I’ve had with a slightly out of the ordinary school romance setup. In fact, it might even be deceptive to classify the show as such since so much more focus is given to the friendship between Inari and Uka-sama and the implications their friendship has on the relationship between humans and deities. In any case, I would definitely recommend the show to anyone for a short and relaxing watch in some spare time.
7/10
A great ending to a nice show.
About Sumairii
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
This was an awesome show. Awesome in ways that you just don’t think of a SoL type/like show being. It had great pacing, good writing, solid characters, and such a clean lovely palette of color.
I hope more shows like this come along. Well, with Touka still being able to interact with Uka-sama, I hope another cour comes along sooner rather than later.
Thanks, Sum.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I was a little disappointed in the finale, because it spent soooo much time on 1) getting Inari to the cave, 2) getting Inari into the cave, and 3) giving back Uka’s Divine Power. They could have cut all three of those things back by half and given us more with Kouji, more with Maru, Keiko, and Sumizome, or more of Inari or Touka reflecting on their life moving forward. Instead, we got 4 minutes of “Se… NO! Se… NO!”
Plus, there were some contradictions I was hoping for more clarity on. Why could Touka see Uka? Why could Inari see Uka in the first episode without Divine Power, but not after that? I liked that Uka told Amaterasu basically where to stick it, so let’s go more with that.
POWUH: iLurker with 5 comments
They didn’t go out of their way to further develop relationships, bring any closure or address any unanswered questions because the story isn’t over yet.
This series ended on something like chapter 24 of the manga and they’re up to 39 I think. The rest of the story is way too much to cram into a single season which is likely why they decided to stop the series short at a point that seems like an ending but is actually just another beginning.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Just because there’s more of a manga or other source material doesn’t mean there will ever be more anime. And that doesn’t change that I still think they wasted time in the finale that could have been better used for other things.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
This was a very nice series to pass some extra time (A notch better than Gingitsune) and Inari is a cute, adorable lead with understandable life problems. The finale felt open ended so if there is another season, something will definitely happen for Inari to see Uka again. It would be a shame for them to not be able to continue their friendship. At least Inari knows Uka is still watching over her.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I dunno, I think I like Gingitsune a little better overall, but they’re definitely trying to do different things. This was a lot more magical reality than Gingitsune was, where they had some magical things (like Gin’s divinations), but the show didn’t really turn on that. And it was quite a bit more slice of life than this was. Inari KonKon was much more plot driven.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
You all should go read the manga. Start from the beginning, so you can pick up all the characterization and development and depth that the anime cut out (really, that stuff makes everything that happens feel much mroe meaningful), and when you get to this point you’ll see what really happened here, because while Inari did give Uka’s powers back, it didn’t happen like this at all.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 71 comments
This. Inari giving back Uka’s powers weren’t preceded by an action-packed segment AT ALL. Just a message from Mia, Inari realizing that keeping Uka’s powers was a bane rather than a boon, then her instantly being teleported to Uka’s side in the cave for a short heart-to-heart.
It’s all over in about five pages, and then Inari’s returned back to the shed, just in time for Sumizome to bring Momoyama, the latter of whom quickly tells off her friends for doing something so thoughtless.
POWUH: iLurker with 11 comments
As a manga reader, my opinion is this anime has pacing issues which bogged down the overall quality of the show. And both of the male love interests don’t feel like characters at all. Oh well, there’s always hope for a season 2.