top of page

Anime Review: Kiitarou Shounen no Youkai Enikki


Common Name: Kiitarou Shounen no Youkai Enikki

Alternative Names: Kiitaro's yokai picture diary, Young Kiitarou and His Youkai Picture Diary

Score: 6/10, 3/5

Length: 12 Short form episodes

Genre: Supernatural, Comedy, Ecchi

Summary: After the young Kiitarou broke into a forbidden room in his family's main house, he was sent to a small untended home out in the forest. To his surprise he wasn't the home's only tenant. Now Kiitarou must learn to get alone with the house's guardian Zashiki Warashi named Suzu and all the other youkai who are drawn to his spiritual power.

Review: Kiitari Enikki is a short and simple show that, as the English name implies, functions as a kind of diary for Kiitarou's various adventures with the youkai he considers his friends. Well, I say friends but it's be more accurate to call them people that he's occasionally nice to that love to mess with him.

Like I said, he's only occasionally nice to them.

Among these friends are the Zashiki Warashi (house spirit) Suzu, a trickster fox spirit, a young Yuki Onna (Yukimusume) and her sharp-tongued mother (Yukihaha). While there are several other flavor-of-the-day youkai in the series, none of them are could be considered characters since they're just representative of the kind of youkai they are. The ones I named though actively break from their literary counterparts. For example, Suzu is more content beating on Kiitarou for his occasional harassment. The fox girl functions like party girl who just enjoys making Kiitarou's life difficult. The Yukimusume doesn't melt from people's kindness, but instead functions as a love interest along with Suzu. Lastly, her mother doesn't freeze people but is rather emotionally cold--a pun on the term "ice queen."

Of course, that doesn't mean Yukimusume can't be cruel like her mom.

With all these characters to work with, the show focuses on gags that involve several other youkai as well as the team of five just goofing around. With this small a cast though there's only so much that could be done. You can only make so many jokes you can tell about a jerk kid hanging out with a few of the more humanoid youkai. At least the show acknowledges this fact and only runs long enough to not be a nuisance while also making the characters mildly endearing. It's short, sweet n' sour, and worth a few good laughs. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but it's definitely not a bad show.

Related Posts
bottom of page