IT’S SO CUTE, SO PRECIOUS, SO… wait, why am I crying?
Eva’s First Impression
I knew I had to Fukigen na Mononokean a whirl after watching its adorable promo videos, but I certainly didn’t expect to be crying while watching this show. Don’t worry, I laughed, and laughed a whole lot, but also I cried this episode because they kept on pulling my darn heart-strings (and sometimes I was laughing while crying because of the preciousness overload). What an incredibly charming premiere, they have me hooked.
It starts off with Ashiya Hanae who had unknowingly had an encounter with an adorable fuzzy yokai whom he thought was a stuff-animal. But much to his surprise it is very much alive and it has been glued to him ever since. However the cost of having the adorable thing perched to him was his health and energy as it has been unintentionally absorbing it from him, causing him to miss the entire first week of school due to collapsing before he could even reach the classroom. After almost a week of this Hanae loses his patience and by chance finds a flyer regarding an exorcist (Abeno Haruitsuki) and quickly calls him up for some assistance. However Haruitsuki was looking for an assistant to employ, and if Hanae was going to want an exorcism, he would have to wait ten days – that is until he said his name. Haruitsuki appears to be familiar with his family’s name so I am curious to learn about what made him make Hanae his priority- unless he knows something about the Ashiya family that Hanae doesn’t know about, and that is why he wanted to find a way to make him his assistant by trapping him under the fee costing a million ‘en’ – in Underworld Currency. It also turns out he is in his class, but I am not entirely sure if the rest of the class can see him, we will find out about that next week!
I had a feeling from the get-go that the Fuzzy Yokai had no bad intentions, and just wanted to be with Hanae. I choked up quite a bit when Haruitsuki told him how sometimes there are animals who lived with people who became yokai after they died and even after becoming a yokai they would still keep their playful traits and behavior. But eventually, they would realize no one’s looking at them. I guess it’s because all I could think of are my previously pets who are no longer with me, especially the one who died young. So it was an incredibly bittersweet moment when Hanae learned the Fuzzy Yokai was lonely in this world, so he was happy to see someone had noticed him and wanted to play. 
In the end, I wasn’t sure if Hanae going to let Fuzzy go, he almost didn’t want to after understanding him properly and playing with him for five hours. But alas, it was for the best, and Fuzzy said its thanks and is happy to be able to return to the Underworld where he can make friends. That being said, I sincerely hope this won’t be the last we see of Fuzzy, he is too darn precious to never see again!!!!!!
Overall I really enjoyed the first episode of Fukigen na Mononokean. It sounds like it will be a charming and fun story of the mishaps and adventures with yokai. The animation quality is very nice, in fact I was really surprised to see they used a bit of CGI for Fluffy. They blended it in so well, I didn’t notice until half way through the episode, so I am eager to see how well the CGI will turn out whenever they use it. It really all comes down to meshing the colors to blend with the characters and the backgrounds. The OP and ED themes and sequences were also very good, the OP in particular stood out to me immediately. Fukigen na Mononokean looks like a promising light-hearted, supernatural comedy and I eagerly anticipate the adventures ahead! As for blogging, right now it is hard for me to say whether or not I will be able to cover this show because comedy is likely to be the main theme. Regardless of the fact I will probably struggle, I really want to try and see if I can do it because this show looks like it is too good to pass.
Possibility of Blogging: Moderate – Will try covering at least three episodes!
Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed
