The end of the year approaches in the third volume of Sakuya Amano’s Konohana Kitan manga series. The foxes are as busy as ever, but they are able to find some time to celebrate the new year.
This volume contains four chapters.
Front cover of the third volume of Konohana Kitan, featuring Ren and Okiku
It’s wintertime at Konohanatei, which means all the foxes at the inn are getting ready to celebrate the new year holiday together! But when Yuzu accidentally gets separated from Satsuki and her other friends on the way to the shrine, she finds herself somewhere completely different… and surrounded by strange foxes! Are these the foxes who take care of New Year’s wishes? Making new friends is great, but there has to be a way home… right?
This volume of Konohana Kitan kicks off with some of the regular guests visiting Konohanatei, which means Yuzu has some new faces to familiarise herself with. The most fascinating thing to come out of this particular chapter, though, has to be Okami – it is amazing what some makeup can do.
Okiku gets a chapter devoted to her, in which she meets a doll who had a very different life from what she experienced before coming to Konohanatei. Okiku may be a doll, but it becomes pretty clear that she is capable of human emotions.
The New Year’s shrine visit is pretty much a staple when it comes to anime and manga, and Konohana Kitan is no exception to that rule. It does, however, certainly change things up from the norm: Yuzu ends up getting lost, and in quite a spectacular fashion. This particular chapter gives something of an insight into how Konohanatei came about.
All kinds of strange things can happen when deities are involved…
The synopsis may focus on the shrine visit, but the highlight of this volume of Konohana Kitan is arguably the chapter that focuses on Ren and Natsume. A guest spends quite a bit of time around Natsume, leading to feelings of jealousy for Ren.
Ren does try to talk to Yuzu about the situation, claiming its about ‘her friend’. It’s plainly obvious who Ren is talking about, and even Yuzu can see that.
Sakuya Amano continues to craft some wonderful tales in Konohana Kitan. With deities involved, some really interesting stuff gets explored. This manga series is a really wonderful read, with all its characters being compelling, and some really nice relationships between the fox ladies of Konohanatei.
Rory Muses 