Kyousogiga TV – 10 [End]

I have escaped holiday family bonding time for a bit so thought I’d finally get this last Kyousogiga post finally written – it’s been bubbling about the back of my mind for the past week!  However I have been drinking so I can not guarantee quality….or coherency.

There was a whole lot of stuff in this final episode and I can’t honestly profess to understanding it all completely.  I think I understood most of the important bits and I wasn’t left scratching my head in confusion thankfully, but there was quite a lot of information fired out all at one.  However it all boils down to one point which Koto neatly sums up;

Being together is what love is!

Kyousogiga is all about bringing a fragmented family back together again, (and helping one very misguided creator god understand some very basic human emotions), and while things got a bit convoluted, it manages to do just that.

This final episode finally gave us some insight into Inari/Myoue, a character who has been central to this entire series and yet rather difficult to understand.  Finally at the end of it all we do get to know how Inari feels – he truly does love his family, but his conflicted feelings over the very nature of his being led to him making some very self-destructive choices.  Basically the fella has had a rather severe existential crisis and dragged all his family members along for the ride.  His conversation with Lady Koto where he all but begs her to use her powers as a Buddha to give some validation to his existence is probably Inari at his most honest, and it was quite a moving scene.

I think Inari’s character could have been more evenly developed throughout the series rather than confining all the world shaking revelations to the final quarter.  However saying that I am still rather impressed at how Kyousogiga managed to craft so many satisfying characters in only 10 episodes, so I won’t complain too much.

Still all that strange trippy stuff in the middle where Koto and Myoue meet the avatars of Inari’s father (the god of gods?) and have a random chit-chat about the fabric of the universe and what it means to be a god, was rather difficult to understand.  Visually it looked pretty damn cool, but I still don’t really entirely get the entire point of it all.  What I did like was that the monkey, rabbit & frog trio we’ve seen throughout this entire series actually do have a meaning – as the representation of the omniscient god of this series, I really love how they’ve been there throughout everything.  The father really did watch over his wayward son and his family – Inari has never been alone.  Also Inari clearly takes after his father – he’s also incredibly flippant about everything too.

But ultimately Kyousogiga was about Myoue and Koto and how they fixed the mess their father made of the universe and got their family back together.  Yes it was all quite convenient how Myoue used Inari’s prayer beads & power of creation, along with Koto’s ability to rend the very fabric of the universe, to basically whack a big old reset button on the cosmos so it would accept the Mirror Capital.  But really the upheaval in the world setting ran secondary to the nuclear family at the centre of the show, so I won’t complain (plus I enjoyed the trippy visuals).

Myoue’s character arc had really run it’s course by the end of the previous episode, and with him being encouraged to continue living by his new little sister, this episode really belonged to Koto.  Koto’s straightforward and decisive manner is such a breath of fresh air – she never dances around the issues, just charges in there and beats her way through them…..often literally.  It was satisfying to see her be the one to beat some sense into Inari, simply because Koto is usually pretty indulgent of her father’s whims.  Having her flip out on him has much more impact than if Myoue did it – because Myoue has had conflicted feelings about Inari from day one. When Koto is serious, you know you’re in trouble.

Final Thoughts: So Kyousogiga ends with all being right with the world – it is a suitably upbeat and heartwarming ending to a show that has been all about family warmth.  I have really, really enjoyed this series and am so glad the OVA got this expansion.  It has been clear throughout this show that Kyousogiga was a labour of love for the Toei team working on it.  I really hope they get a chance to spread their wings like this again, because if we get more things this attractive and interesting to watch it can only be a wonderful thing.

I can only hope there is something next season that appeals to me just as much.  Until then, hope you’ve had a wonderful Christmas!