Anime: Wagaya no Oinari-sama 2r3v5l

Wagaya is about a mystical fox that protects the Mizuchi family clan. Some episodes are plot-focused but the majority of the episodes are comedic based slice-of-life.

It's a fairly well rounded series that showed great potential early on but failed to deliver a intriguing plotline.

If you want a decent slice of life series with a little drama and a little action, this is your show. If you want a serious romance/drama or an action series, this is not your pick.

Animation:
The animation quality is fairly good for a modern show. It isn't outstanding in detail but the overall color palette is pleasing and the characters are drawn nicely. Kugen's fur looks verrrry soft...

Sound:
The OP/ED are above average but not enough so that I'll be dying to get the soundtrack. The BGM is also very well balanced and changes well with the mood of the show. The VAs are also good for the most part. Special props to Kugen's VA (Tessa from FMP!).

Story:
The story takes pilace in a modern-looking world with various "gods", "demons" and humans. Each zone is controled by a local "god", of which we see two of in the show.

Basically there is a fox named Kugen who has traditionally protected the Mizuchi clan since Noburo's mother, and thus is quite old. She has been locked behind a barrier for a long time as punishment for her mischievous past behavior.

Apparently, many strange demon are after Toru, Noboru's brother, and the only way to ensure his safety was to summon Kugen. Kugen has the ability to take on the form of a human (male or female) and thus acts as Toru and Noboru's guardian.

As the beginning of the show, Kugen is shown as a reluctant and cold character but becomes a very outlandish and upbeat character by the end of the series as she warms up to her new housemates (I say "she" because she takes on the female form for the majority of the show).

There isn't a real main story behind everything and nothing much happens at the end of the show to give a sense of conclusion. If anything, the majority of the fun of the series was seeing Sakura (a ing female character with a huge crush on Noboru) being delusional over the fact that her love interest is living with two other girls.

Character:
The main character, Noboru, is a nice guy. He cooks, clean, balances the budget, and takes care of the place. He is now suddenly charged with taking care of two huge troublemakers: Kugen, whom always causes random trouble and is always bouncing around looking for something to do, and Ko, the Mizuchi Sentinel (a powerful water-spell caster sent by the main clan to protect the head family ) whom seems unable to do anything due to impossibly poor coordination. The majority of the series focuses on how the family deals with these new .

Noboru also has a younger brother, Toru, (who is also too nice). He trusts others way too much and thus always ends up needing to be saved by Kugen.

But enough about those. The real interesting characters are Sakura and Miyabe, two of Noboru's classmates. These characters, are in my opinion, underused and could definitely have made the series more interesting.

Sakura has a crush on Noboru but as usual Noboru doesn't notice. She also apparently watched way too many soap operas as she is always fantasizing about a future with him or about possible occurrences since Noburo is living with two other females (Ko and Kugen). Her behavior alone amounts to three quarters of the humor in the series.

Second, Miyabe is a minor character who eventually becomes a main character for a minor arc in the story. She later also develops a crush on Noboru but is really given no airtime after her arc finishes.

The characters are interesting but most of them are static and didn't really grow on the viewer.

Value:
The show did make for a few good laughs but it isn't a very exciting show overall. It's more of a slice of life series with an occasional action or comedic scene. Good to watch once in a while but the plot line isn't intense enough that there are cliff hangers everywhere.

Wagaya no Oinari-sama is originally a light novel series by Jin Shibamura and is converted to manga and an anime tv series. First, I thought this tv show would be a more serious orientated anime show, but to my amazement it turns out to be a comedy show (I was actually searching for a show with more horror with a more serious tone). Lets see what score the anime of Wagaya no Oinairi-sama will get from me?


Animation=7; the animations in this anime is okay/good, but nothing spectacular. Some in-between animations are so-so, in my opinion some fightscenes look quite choppy due to too few in-between frames for a particular move, attack (e.g. flame or thunder etc.). But again some fightscenes (between youkais) are well done, yet not spectacular enough and these scenes are mostly very short.


Sound=6; The soundeffects in this anime is okay, but nothing stand out. The ambient or background music is very pleasant to hear. In my opinion the voice-acting by the Japanese seiyus is good. I think in this kind of show we won't hear some excellent voice-acting, since there are no drama/tragedy in the show with some good and serious lines/dialogues and play between the (voice)-actors.

As for the songs used for this show, the OP is "KI-ZU-NA ~Haruka Naru Mono e 「KI-ZU-NA 〜遥かなる者へ」" by Hitomi Sora; it's an okay song with a typical asian melody/tune, but not "catchy" enough.

The first ED is "Kaze ga Nanika wo Iou to Shiteiru 「風がなにかを言おうとしている」" by Saori Hayami, which is a much slower song than the OP; it sounds in my opinion quite "old-fashioned" or very '90's; the song is nice and the tune is quite memorable and "flows" quite well, therefore it's better than the OP song.

There's a second ED which comes in quite late (the 2nd ED is in episodes 19 - 24); the 2nd ED song "Shiawase no Kotodama 「シアワセの言霊」" by Yukana, Hayami Saori, Takahashi Mikako is a more fast paced song; nothing special or memorable, but it sounds okay; I like the funny chibi version of the anime characters and dancing in the ED.


Story=6; At first the show begins somewhat serious with protecting the two Takagami siblings by releasing the fox deity, Tenko Kūgen, to protect them against threats by other demons etc.. The story is quite simple, many episodes are about protecting the Takagami siblings, but later on the episodes feels like fillers since there are no evident developments. I was quite dissapointed by this, but in my opinion the comedy part of the show saves this anime. Even the socalled "filler"-episodes are very funny and very enjoyable.

There's also a nice message in this anime, it's even revealed in the latest episode (ep. 24): family is very important (or being part of the family). Actually the message is mentioned in several other episodes of the anime, e.g. Tōru Takagami (the younger brother) asked Shiro-chan to be part of the family in episode 15 (he ask himself whether this sounds more like a proposal and feels embarassed). In episode 24 Kuu-chan (the protagonist fox deity) ask Tama-chan (silver fox) to be part of the family.

There are some references to Japanese myths/legends, if you like Japanese myths/legends and comedy, I think you will like this show.

Although I like the show very much, but the last episode feels unfinished and feels something is missing. I hope there will be some OVA releases to fix this "unfinished feeling".


Character=9; I really like the characters design of Wagaya no Oinari-sama. I particularly like the character Kō, the Sentinel, who is so serious at times which mostly results in funny situations; she is also very clumsy and not good at all at cooking etc.. and breaks every dishes the family have. Obviously, she does not have practical experience in daily chores etc..

The other character I like is Sakura Misaki, the girl-friend wannabe of Takagami Noboru (the older brother; she is a very imaginative girl and often thinks about Noboru, but she is quite shy at times and feels embarrassed after daydreaming about Noboru and her. I am quite happy that there are even several episodes specifically about her.

The last character I really like is Takagami Miyako, the deceased mother of Tōru and Noboru, although she does not have much screentime and we got to see her in flashbacks or as ghost via the help of the fox deity Kuu; she is a very bright and funny character, especially in the scenes of the first meeting with Kuu-chan (fox deity) and her first meeting with her future husband and dad of Tōru and Noboru in the past, which is very cute and funny.

As for character development, there's some, although not very evident. Throughout the series you can see that the deity fox, Kuu, and other characters integrate in the family of the Takagami brothers. They care each other very much and can't live without each other which you can see in the last episode, but in my opinion it's not very well executed in the anime.

Also the brothers are at first very afraid of the phenomenon of youkais and demons (very evident in episode 1), but later on in the series they are not afraid of them and want even to be friends with them if they are good-hearted.


Value=9; Some episodes are so funny, I really want to rewatch those, especially the ones with Sakura (imagining about her rivalry), Kō (being clumsy in the kitchen and during the part-time job) and Miyako (in the flashbacks).


Enjoyment=9; This anime is so funny. At first I thought this show would be a somewhat serious show, but it turns out to be a very good comedy which is quite a nice surprise. It's not perfect, especially the ending is lacking, but I can forgive it because the good comedy in the anime. This show really makes me smile and laugh so much.


Overall, Wagaya no Oinari-sama is a very nice comedy, but if you are searching for a serious show with youkais and demons you will be dissapointed, especially when the ending feels lacking/ unsatisfying. But if you like comedy, then Wagaya no Oinari-sama is a very nice one.

The first thing I can think about is how I didn't even know this series was over till I came on anidb and found out it was done. So really what did the anime accomplish and conclude? Nothing really.... It just started and ended with a series of unimportant events. The next question would be what made it worth finishing. I'm not sure if they will have another season, but because nothing really mattered it made for quite and easy watch. You can honestly say in this anime, what is that crazy fox going to do next....

The premise is quite simple, the two main male characters are part of a family with special powers and are sought after by evil monsters. During a visit to the "head" house they release a sealed fox who decides to protect them and begin life living at there house along with another guardian sent by the head house. Most of the anime consists of high school drama coupled with monster of the week or save the helpless main character of the week setting.

Animation
Its animated like any average anime is expected to be. That is acceptable character sets with the occasional distortion between angles. Mediocre fight scenes that tend to repeat if fights last longer then a few minutes. Either that or fight scenes that use angles or cheesy effects to "try" and make it more exciting. The only interesting part of the animation is when the monsters or magical beings disguise themselves as human. For instances Kugen who is a fox can take the form of a male or female. One part of the animation that confused me was the clothing. Kou who is the guardian always wears the same clothes while Kugen changes quite consistently. I think they got lazy in Kou's case but for Kugen they don't really explain where he/she gets the clothes from. Your either assuming the clothes get made up when "it" changes form or "it" borrows its clothes from somewhere....

Sound
It could of not existed and I wouldn't of noticed it much either way. I never sat through to listen to the opening or ending so I'm not sure how great they are. The overall OST did not prove to be anything special. The voice acting was ok but annoying in many cases. The anime was never serious enough and you could that in the voice acting alone. No matter what you get quite "cute" voices that always overlook every situation even if they are TRYING to be serious. I guess for the context it worked but that also meant the anime would never achieve anything more then mediocre.

Story
As I mentioned at the beginning I didn't even know that the anime ended when it did. I mean honestly there was no goal in this anime and so at almost any point it could just end and you would think nothing of it. Usually when you think of great stories once they end you always want more, but this its just nothing when I realized it ended all I thought was oh... It ended great? Other then the lack of a main plot the small episode or few episode stories were ok. They were always random and had small twists here and there, but nothing that crosses the boundaries for younger audience. Thus it also became mindless entertainment for the most part.

Character
Just as the story didn't move anywhere same as the characters, they really don't move anywhere either. The stories are more involved with how they deal with situations rather then how they change overtime. The only character that makes the anime remotely entertaining is Kugen. This is because she is the most unpredictable character in the series and thus does some random fun things.

Value and Enjoyment
Is there a message in this anime? The only thing I can think of is that if you were an immortal and got locked up for 100 years you would somehow learn to not hate those who locked you up and end up serving them? Yeah... very believable indeed. So really no message or actual value in watching this series. I would never rewatch this series since it has nothing to come back to. Even though it was quite pointless for some reason i didn't mind watching it all that much. Of course some of the conversations and situations were annoying and frustrating to watch, but sometimes you need that stupid show to mix in with the rest. I won't recommend this but if you decide to watch it because your bored then hope you enjoy it.