Review:

Kon Kon Kokon is the latest creation by the popular manga-ka Koge-Donbo, known for such series as Pita-Ten and Digi Charat. That much is obvious upon first sight of the heroine, a deity among the fox demons named Kokon, whose small face dominated by glossy eyes and framed by a large coif that towers high above them define Koge-Donbo's unmistakable, adorable style.

As always, she has succeeded in creating characters so cute and so sweet, they rot your teeth. Koge-Donbo does, however, seem to have some issues with perspective and foreshortening when it comes to drawing outstretched hands; but that may just have been a two-time blunder in this particular manga.

There is, however, a limit to how cutesy something can get while still being taken seriously. Kokon comes dangerously close to skirting that limit. Despite the seemingly endless string of "kawaii" (there's honestly no other word to describe it), the story does have a couple of saving graces: first is the incorporation of Japanese mythology in an otherwise unoriginal harem story (there's even a mini-encyclopedia about supernatural beings at the end) and second is the unorthodox leading boy, Ren Hinonishi.

Very much unlike his awkward-yet-well-meaning counterparts from such plot lines as Love Hina and Tenchi Muyo, Ren is a confident intellectual with major insecurities when it comes to fitting in and being admired by his fellow classmates. But despite his cool facade, he is a boy of the mountains through and through, excellent at swimming, climbing, and running (even besting the demon Kitsuneko in a test of speed) and proud of the titles "The Amazing Monkey Boy" and "The Amazing Trout Boy" that he held back home in his mountain village before coming to study in the city. Perhaps the most interesting about him is his total apathy towards the fact that he has adorable girls living in his house and cooking for him - he's far more interested in the fact that these girls are actually demons and is ecstatically happy to even catch sight of them in their true (less attractive) demon forms. His obsessive love for Japanese monster lore creates an almost split persona in Ren, one side desperate to be the coolest kid in school and the other unable to control the nerdy fanboy within.

What's truly unfortunate is that, in many manga I have encountered, there is a tendency to use captivating characters as a crutch for what is ultimately unoriginal story-telling. No story is 100% original, but at some point you've got to wonder whether or not the redundancy is intentional. Kokon has intrigued me enough to earn a gander at its second volume - but just barely.