Kyouran Kazoku Nikki

Midarezaki Ouka is used to having strange things happen to him -after all, he is the head of the Great Japanese Empire Paranormal Phenomena Bureau of Measures. But when he catches a small cat girl in the shopping district stealing apples, his whole life rearranges to fit a new operation...

OPERATION COZY FAMILY.

Thousands of years ago, Enka the God of Destruction, was killed. However, with a dying breath it claimed that its child would appear and destroy humanity. Now in futuristic Japan, all of the potential children of Enka have been found and placed into a haphazard family.

Teika the lion, Gekka the jellyfish, Yuuka the oni, Ginka the cross-dressing mafia son, and Hyouka the bioweapon--along with their parents Ouka and Kyouka (the ruler of a demon underworld)--all live under one roof in a family frenzy.

Midarezaki, Kyouka Main

Fujimura, Ayumi Japanese

Midarezaki, Hyouka Main

Hirohashi, Ryou Japanese

Midarezaki, Yuuka Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Midarezaki, Ginka Main

Fujita, Yoshinori Japanese

Midarezaki, Gekka Main

Satou, Rina Japanese

Midarezaki, Chika Main

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Midarezaki, Teika Main

Yasumoto, Hiroki Japanese

Midarezaki, Ouka Main

Kondou, Takayuki Japanese

Shinigami III Supporting

Morinaga, Rika Japanese

Hiratsuka, Raichou Supporting

Gotou, Yuuko Japanese

Nagatani, Takayuki Producer

Satomi, Tetsurou Producer

Suzuki, Kenta Producer

Kido, Kensuke Producer

Reviews

Jan 4, 2010

Uthred

Recommended

The basic construction of this series is a little odd. One get's used to seeing mainstream entertainment stick to fairly similar genre patterns, sometimes subverting these tropes and sometimes sprinkling some flavour from a complimentary genre (e.g. action comedy). However KKN is odd in that it attempts to blend an impressive range of genre's that one doesn’t often see together. Now sometime's when you mix lots of colours together you get brown, but in this case it's done and works surprisingly well. It makes for an engaging viewing experience as the show moves from slapstick comedy to heavy drama seamlessly. The pace of the plot ... and these rapid changes of emotion make for an extremely entertaining show.

All of the characters, while generally fairly outré, are well characterised and appealing. None more so than Kyouka, the main protagonist or at least the common focal point of the show. As I said above it contains a number of elements all of which are well executed and integrated. The comedy in particular is extremely funny, while some of it does rely on being passably familiar with other anime or Japanese culture the majority of it should be accessible and amusing for any audience.

While the humour alone would be enough for me to recommend it the action and in particular the drama are also great. The drama in particular is rife with pathos. It deals with some pretty heavy elements in a pretty competent way. Though now that I write that I begin to wonder; are these things actually well done? Is it really good at invoking pathos or have I become emotionally unstable? Sometimes the latter seems more probable as I find myself reacting strongly to material which I objectively feel shouldn’t really be eliciting the responses it does.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 26, 2020

LysUltima

Mixed Feelings

If you are looking for something that will amaze you, you're wasting your time.
I rate this anime a 5 because it is a very average anime. You won't regret watching this; for an episodic comedy anime with some serious elements, it isn't bad by any means.
This is an episodic comedy anime about a group of people who've lost their family/had no family to start out with learn to live, love, and accept each other as true siblings.
However, Gintama fits the exact same "episodic comedy anime with some serious elements," has hundreds of episodes, and has many people scrambling over how good it is.
The ... other main theme of this anime, family bonds, is again done better in different anime. My Roommate Is a Cat is an objectively better anime featuring a cuter cat as the main heroine with the same family-oriented theme. Summer Pockets (will get an anime soon) also focuses on family bonds in a supernatural modern setting, but it's actually a very good visual novel and not just a mediocre anime.
Again, this is an average anime that is neither bad nor good, though there were some aspects that were better than others.
The story is what you'd expect from an episodic comedy anime; not very present. What else would you expect? Nobody watches Gintama for the plot either. However, I did actually enjoy most of the episode/arc plots. The ending was often surprisingly touching or surprisingly funny.
The art is pretty standard for its time period. I have no comments on it.
The OP and most of the EDs are not to my taste, but you can just skip them. I actually liked the soundtrack, the actual music you can't skip, and I think that's the most important part. Keep in mind that "like" does not mean "Yuki Kajiura level." It's good, but not that good.
The comedy was average. I laughed sometimes. It makes use of a lot of randomness, which I guess I laugh to.
The characters, while unique, I felt weren't given enough attention. It is the anime adaption of a light novel, which probably cut out most of the interpersonal interactions that really define a character. I felt that many of the characters were either sidelined or fall into simple tropes when not in their own character arcs, including the main characters. This is quite common in anime, movie, and comic adaptions of novels, so I can't fault the anime too much here. There's just too little time to spread around eight different characters.
And now we get to the setting, which I feel is too ridiculous for most people. I agree, the setting is stupid if you think about it. The answer is to not think about it. Gintama's setting is stupid. Through the Looking-Glass' (the novel) setting is stupid. Frankenstein's (the novel) setting is also stupid. The setting literally does not affect the enjoyment of this anime whatsoever.
And thus ends my review. This is an average anime, but you could do so much worse.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Feb 25, 2017

LIQfilms

Not Recommended

What do you get when you take a Jellyfish, an oni, a lion, a cyborg, a cross dressing mafia member and a cat with a serious God complex? You get one of the strangest comedy anime of all time. For such a long time whilst watching this show I couldn't pinpoint what exactly it was trying to achieve nor what it wanted to be. It constantly jumped between comedy and random shenanigans to tragic backstories and drama at the drop of a hat, all of which made the show incredibly jarring and confusing to watch, resulting in some of the worst tonal shifts I have ... seen for any anime. Now, before I actually get into that, let me talk more about the plot for this show.

Enka, the God of destruction died one thousand years ago but upon dying, proclaimed that one of his children will carry on his will to destroy the world. Now, in modern Japan, all of the possible children of Enka have been gathered together and are joined as a family in an attempt to prevent the destruction of the Earth by showing them how wonderful and beautiful human life is. The possible children of the God Enka, include Teika the lion, Gekka the Jellyfish and even a biological weapon, Hyouka. Each of the main characters are both unique in terms of design and personalities, and have decent chemistry with each other, as well as lengthy backstories and tragic past. And that's it for narrative really. Nothing really happens of much significance and all the events that do happen in the show feel random and intrusive rather than a natural progression from arc to arc. While the show does attempt to create comedy, and for the most part, the comedy could make me smile and even laugh a couple of times, it's ultimately ruined by the abrupt and strange tonal shifts that change so frequently, which ruins the dramatic tensions of the show. One moment they're throwing out some random gag and the immediate next one we are watching the backstories of a young girl who is being whipped by her evil family. It feels jarring; clunky.

Some of the most entertaining episodes of the show are just when they are sticking to comedy and random hijinks and if the show was more like this in its entirety I would've had a lot more fun as a result. It's just that they chuck so much in with so many random characters that it begins to feel tiresome and the show begins to drag mid-way through. While, as I said, the characters can have decent chemistry with each other, their backstories are forced in and are so boring that I lose interest right away. Even when the show does introduce a more central and focused narrative for the final four or so episodes, it still feels rather awkward and confusing as well since the characters keep jumping from one place to the next without reason and characters are introduced which go nowhere. The show as a whole is just rather inconsistent with no rhyme or reason to any of the events that are happening.

And it's not like the show is completely devoid of any interesting ideas or themes, it's just that the ideas are executed so poorly or never expanded enough on to feel worthwhile in the end. Most notably, when one of the arcs focuses on the mistreatment of animals and how they should be the ones to control society and not humans, but not enough time is spent on fleshing it out enough.

The characters themselves could provide a joke here and there that made me smile but that was the most I ever got out of them. Kyouka, the cat with a serious God complex is both selfish and annoying and easily my least favorite thing about the show. While they do try and present her as being full of insecurities, justifying her behaviour, not nearly enough time was spent on fleshing it out nor developing it. Ouka, the father of this jumbled family, was rather plain and flat and hardly memorable in the slightest. The other characters of the family are a little more interesting in terms of personality but their backstories felt trite and forced, used as a cheap way to make us sympathise and connect with the character rather than building them up as people. There are a plethora of other characters but they're so forgettable, that's it hardly worth the time speaking about them.

The animation was fairly consistent but there are not really all too many moments of great art or movement. The art style works in the shows favour and conveys the goofy and silly nature of the show rather well, in the same vein as Konasuba does with its animation and art. I liked most of the soundtrack for the show, albeit it, if it is pretty forgettable but the opening is catchy as hell.

In conclusion, I really did want to enjoy myself with this show, I really did. It had a good set-up, a nice main cast, all of which with different gimmicks and personalities that could have bounced off each other very well but the constant shifts in tone and the forced tragic backstories as well as melodrama are what kept me back from having a good time. It's a shame too, since this show did have some things going for it at the very least...

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Kyouran Kazoku Nikki Episode 20 Discussion cyruz - Sep 18, 2008	36 replies	by YJB »» Sep 12, 1:56 PM
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	Poll: Kyouran Kazoku Nikki Episode 24 Discussion cyruz - Oct 3, 2008	16 replies	by RafaelDeJongh »» May 26, 2014 7:31 PM