Kinoko Inu

Grief-stricken over the death of his last family member, his dog Hanako, picture book writer Hotaru Yuuyami suffers from writer's block for nearly two months. Despite his childhood friend and editor Tsubaki Uehara's best efforts, nothing seems to alleviate his pain. But all of this changes one day with the sudden apparition of Kinoko Inu, a mysterious mushroom from his garden that turns into a dog-shaped animal. Much to the great dismay of Tsubaki, Hotaru hastily invites the creature into his abode.

Days after Hotaru and Kinoko Inu start living together, the strange mushroom-dog decides to burn the last of Hanako's personal belongings in order to alleviate Hotaru's depression. However, the cohabitation between the overworked writer and his mischievous guest proves more difficult than expected, and Hotaru must let go of his grief if he wants to properly take care of Kinoko Inu.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kinoko Inu Main

Kobayashi, Daiki Japanese

Yuuyami, Hotaru Main

Uemura, Yuuto Japanese

Plum Supporting

Kuno, Misaki Japanese

Amano, Ayumi Supporting

Hatano, Wataru Japanese

Uehara, Tsubaki Supporting

Senbongi, Sayaka Japanese

Uehara, Anzu Supporting

Hinano Japanese

Amano, Komako Supporting

Nagase, Anna Japanese

Yara, Itsuki Supporting

Terashima, Takuma Japanese

Asano, Kagetoshi Director

Yoshida, Kouhei Sound Director

IBERIs& Theme Song Performance

HY Theme Song Performance

Reviews

Dec 19, 2024

KANLen09

Recommended

Kinokoinu: Mushroom Pup — A dog that can disguise itself as a mushroom? What gives of this shenanigan's premise?

Let me keep this short, plain, and simple: the niche topics have always been the shows that people ventured "less the road travelled," and their predictability from start to finish depends on how you feel about the series as a whole. And this Fall, besides the more palpable and digestible Tsuma, Shougakusei ni Naru. a.k.a If My Wife Becomes an Elementary School Student., there is yet another show that flies even lower than the radar, though its seemingly cute nature will turn more people off and not ... appreciate how different it is in the sea of the never-ending wash, rinse, repeat cycle of Isekai and fantasy shows. My friends, that show is this one — mangaka Kimama Aoboshi's lone work of Kinoko Inu: Mushroom Pup (which its 74 chapters in 15 volumes that took 12 years of publication, is quite the long run).

Pretty much like Tsuma, Shougakusei ni Naru., Kinoko Inu's plot is one and the same of dealing with life's grievances and learning to move on to better things ahead in the same lifeline. And this story involves a human and his beloved dog, once the best adage of "man's best friend" to old age, so much that said human cannot easily forget how much it meant to him. This is the tale of Hotaru Yuyami, living his keep as an author, and how his beloved pet friend of Hanako's natural passing enables one rather supernatural walk in the form of a pink mushroom, being an observer...to the pup that acts on its own accord and gives no second thought to the people around it.

First of all, who comes up with this weird premise, and yet finds a way to make this all work? Not if you get into the mind of its eccentric author, that's what. Kinoko Inu is quite the supernatural anomaly of a pet in a rather slice-of-life, Iyashikei world, being surrounded by regular humans that find it all the more intriguing, from being offered melon breads to takoyaki, and also just being the goofball that it is, the mushroom pup is such an emotional delight of a trip for its owner, who has to slowly acknowledge that with or without Hanako, Hotaru must inevitably move on, emotionally and physically, with his usual unexpressive, depressive mood. Thankfully, he's not alone in this regard alongside his childhood friend-cum-editor of Komako Amano, as well as the eccentric mushroom researcher of Itsuki Yara (who seemingly has a gay reflection on Hotaru), before being joined by the unlikeliest of people with the Ueharas of daughter Anzu and mother Tsubaki (who just so happened to be yet another childhood friend of Hotaru and Amano), with their yet another mushroom pup, this time a purple one they call Plum. Of course, the selling of the premise of how and why Kinoko Inu exists is one of intrigue, being a story as far as time would allow since Hotaru's existence from young and essentially growing up and not heeding any regard to it, until its importance rears its head into this weaving story of life, death, and learning to experience joy unspeakable. All in all, the heartwarming experience sells its soul here so that we feeble humans can soak in the emotional feels; that's all for the right reasons.

Being a C-Station anime, having the studio produce yet another slice-of-life, Iyashikei show, this is right under its wheelhouse, having produced the now bigger-than-life series that is Yuru Camp. And I guess this shouldn't be a surprise when Kinoko Inu is done by most of the in-house staff team coming from the franchise itself: storyboarder Kagetoshi Asano serving his directorial debut, scriptwriter-cum-series composer Jin Tanaka, music composer Akiyuki Tateyama, and many more. It's simple on the eyes with minimalist animation, but overall, it gets the job done.

With Akiyuki Tateyama's touch on the music, while every show or series that he did was hit-and-miss to some degree, it's the Yuru Camp feels that he brings to the table for Kinoko Inu. And given his work on the Bananya series, the show excels at its use of musical tones to good effect, and it shows. Even both HY's OP and Iberis&'s ED are lively and poppy songs, though I'd say that the OP is much more musically fitting and the better of the two since it's composed specifically for the anime. Still good marks around.

Kinoko Inu: Mushroom Pup is a criminally underrated hidden gem, in every sense of the word. It's just made so for the purpose of differentiating in the sea of never-ending tropes, and it's the perfect match for times like these to experience something out of the usual comfort zone. In contrast to the veteran series that is Natsume Yuujinchou a.k.a Natsume: Book of Friends (that's airing its 7th season), alongside this show, it still remains that SoL/Iyashikei series are just not for everyone, and this is quite the shame for an industry so focused on the predictable nowadays.

At least I can say that I've enjoyed this lil' show that is a blip in the ever-evolving seasonal chart, and it made its mark in an adorable manner.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Oct 31, 2024

moozooh

Recommended

Preliminary (3/12 eps)

I wasn't planning on writing any reviews for this season, but Kinoko Inu surprised me. Twice, in fact: once when its first episode turned out to be the most emotionally striking premiere of the season (if not the entire year), and then once more when I saw its rating stabilizing in the criminal range of the low 6s—which it did not deserve AT ALL. The first surprise was a happy one; the second, not so much.

So what are we dealing with here with Kinoko Inu? I assume that most people would look at the poster and think this is another lighthearted kids' show like Bananya ... or Chi's Sweet Home. Let's just say it's anything but, and the manga it's based on is published in a seinen magazine alongside Monster Musume (yes, *that* Monster Musume). It deals with pretty heavy themes, and perhaps more so than making you smile, it's prone to making you cry. The fact that it maintains a positive outlook and uplifting tone doesn't change the fact that some of scenes it shows are emotionally devastating and cut very deep for everyone who has experienced the death of a loved one.

Kinoko Inu opens with our protagonist Hotaru, a writer in his early twenties, finding himself stuck in a debilitating, self-perpetuating loop of grieving over the loss of his beloved dog Hanako, his only remaining family member throughout most of his life. That is when the eponymous Mushroom Pup suddenly sprouts in his backyard and tries to help Hotaru move on from the tragedy—sometimes using very... unconventional methods. It's a heartwarming and occasionally funny story about family and processing loss, and there aren't many of those coming out these days that focus on such heavy subject matter with the nuance and delicacy it deserves.

The first episode came out of the left field and completely blew me away, and I was naturally afraid that the rest of the show wouldn't be able to live up to it. Thankfully, episodes 2 and 3 just kept hitting me in the feels, so it looks like it might keep up this momentum to emerge as one of the true hidden gems of the season. It's doubly impressive that, so far, it manages to beat Natsume's Book of Friends at its own game while airing alongside it, but somehow, here we are. So move aside, Nyanko-Sensei: you are only the second-best adorably round pet character this time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 28, 2024

PixelB

Not Recommended

Preliminary (3/12 eps)

"A strange mushroom in my garden grew into some weird mushroom dog creature." How long did you think it took the anime to show this to the viewer? Around half an episode. I think that's enough said for how much the show loves dragging its feet for seemingly no reason at all. You might be thinking that there's some context, character building, and so on in those first twelve minutes. You'd be --sort of-- right.

However, I completely just disagree with how characters are being built up. I get it. The main character is grieving over his dead dog that he loved with all his heart. ... You really didn't need to showcase flashbacks of that though. It's already being shown in present day that the main character hurts over it, and then you're just randomly adding flashback sequences to show things that the viewer already inherently understands through the simple story and dialogue that's been shown so far. Again, is this flashback simulator or is there going to be any actual character interaction?

The first few episodes are such nothingburgers. The main character is boring as hell, the mushroom dog can't carry the show entirely, and the paltry side characters are nothing to write home about. I don't really find the healing or slice of life to be particularly well executed, and it just feels like this should have been a show with 4 minute episodes instead of 24.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Kinoko Inu Episode 12 Discussion KANLen09 - Dec 19, 2024	16 replies	by ExistentialUFO »» Jan 19, 10:50 PM
	Poll: Kinoko Inu Episode 2 Discussion Serafos - Oct 10, 2024	21 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Dec 26, 2024 8:09 PM
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	Poll: Kinoko Inu Episode 11 Discussion Serafos - Dec 12, 2024	4 replies	by FutoiOtaku »» Dec 16, 2024 5:19 PM
	Poll: Kinoko Inu Episode 10 Discussion Serafos - Dec 5, 2024	5 replies	by KANLen09 »» Dec 16, 2024 6:33 AM