Gugure! Kokkuri-san: Kohina, the Cyclops, and Shigaraki!

November 12, 2014 4:22 PM - Season 1, Episode 6

Kohina begins seeing small demons and spirits, and Kokkuri and Shigaraki begin to worry. Later, Kokkuri and Inugami have a heart to heart talk.
posted by ardgedee (11 comments total)

It's always satisfying to watch Kohina standing up to the yokai.
posted by ardgedee at 4:25 PM on November 12, 2014

This post catches us up with the already-broadcast shows. From now on there will be only one new episode a week: I'll make a new post each Monday unless somebody wants to discuss it on Sunday night.
posted by ardgedee at 5:17 AM on November 13, 2014

The little winged eyeballs ate evidently a thing, though I haven't been able to find them in my mythology reference (which isn't to say they aren't there). I first recall seeing them in an old manga from the 90s where the spiritualist main character summoned a bunch of them to clean his apartment.
posted by happyroach at 8:54 AM on November 13, 2014

So the tanuki wasn't a complete scumbag after all. And I'm impressed that Kohina made Shigaraki feel guilty about taking her money ("10 yen coins … saved for 5 years …").

I've noticed Kokkuri is the only one who calls Kohina just by her name. She's Kohina-sama to Inugami and ojou-chan to Shigaraki. Inugami also refers to Kokkuri as Kokkuri-dono, but I can't recall if he/she uses a honorific for Shigaraki, too.
posted by needled at 9:39 AM on November 13, 2014

IIRC, that's about the equivalent of $50.00 she saved up...in dimes. Shades of Noragami, where the protagonist god of calamity is saving up to buy a temple...one 5 yen coin at a time.
posted by happyroach at 4:33 PM on November 13, 2014

Hmm---I admit Kohina does seem be fairly fearless when she meets all the other (evil) spirits. I don't mind tanuki's new form at all but it's still amusing his personality doesn't really suit it too.

BTW: I just noticed Inugami is wearing funeral attire and not just a business suit. Somehow this makes his character even creepier.
posted by chrono_rabbit at 9:08 PM on November 13, 2014

The process for creating inugami is horrific:

the head of a starved dog must be cut off (often this was accomplished by chaining a dog up just out of reach of some food, or else burying it up to its neck, so that it would go berserk out of desperate hunger and its head could be cut off at the point of greatest desperation). Then, the severed head is buried in the street — usually a crossroads where many people pass. The trampling of hundreds or thousands of people over this buried head would add to its stress and cause the animal’s spirit to transform into an onryō (a powerful maleficent spirit).

This article on tsukimono ("the possessing thing") seems relevant to what's going on with Kohina:

One strange aspect of kitsune-tsukai is that—along with the dog-possession called inugami—it is thought to be hereditary. Becoming a kitsune-tsukai taints your entire line, and from that time forward invisible foxes will hang around the houses of your ancestors. You are now part of a tsukimono-tsuji, a witch clan.

posted by needled at 7:03 AM on November 14, 2014

True, Inugami really were quite horrible curses. I'm mostly familiar w/JP lore from other manga/anime, books, and SMT games. I guess, that more or less explains why he's so creepily devoted to Kohina. I do feel bad for Kokkuri-san as he does seem to want to help her out the most.
posted by chrono_rabbit at 9:42 AM on November 14, 2014

One of the characters, Shiguraki I think, points out in the fourth episode that Kohina is now tsukimono. Interesting how much of the series is taken from actual folklore while still clowning around so much.
posted by ardgedee at 3:27 PM on November 14, 2014

True, it makes me wish more JP folklore was translated overseas apart from a few library books.
posted by chrono_rabbit at 8:50 AM on November 15, 2014

By the way, what was with all the JoJo posing in this episode?
posted by needled at 11:01 AM on November 15, 2014