Kusunoki’s Garden of Gods – Episode 1

What’s it about? Minato Kusunoki was born into a family that could see spirits and ward off evil. He inherited a family home that was once cursed until his powers cleansed the place and now spirits from all over the mountains come to his home to spend time with him.  

Sometimes as an anime viewer you just need a cozy show to get through an otherwise hectic premiere season. I’m an absolute sucker for shows about Japanese spirits and how they interact with the human world. I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Natsume’s Book of Friends since it hits me on such a deep emotional level and truly examines how devastating it is to live in isolation. I don’t think Kusunoki’s Garden of Gods is going to be groundbreaking, but it certainly has such a nice and cozy vibe that is difficult to ignore since the premise is extremely lackluster.  

Despite the warm atmosphere, Minato isn’t all that interesting of a person. He simply can see all forms of spirits around him and that’s basically his only character trait. While seeing spirits seems to run in his family, it looks like he wasn’t trained on how to use his powers and he doesn’t understand why he’s able to ward off evil spirits. That could lead to an interesting character arc for him to learn more about his family history and why he can do things that surprises other people. I hope it goes in that direction because otherwise, following Minato’s journey is going to be boring. Minato isn’t a bad guy, but it’s obvious he’s just an average person who just happens to have a really cool ability. 

What really saves this premiere is his relationship with the mountain god named Yamagami. He’s such a big and fluffy wolf spirit that just wants to be fed some yummy snacks and worshipped. To be honest, anything that reminds me of my beloved Amaterasu from Okami is a win in my book, but aside from the great character design, it’s obvious the animation budget is tight for this series. For example, there’s a group of onmyouji (spiritual practitioners) that fight evil spirits, but action sequences are so obviously constrained it ends as quickly as it started. Frankly, it mostly feels like an unwanted subplot to an overall chill story. It’s seriously hilarious how quickly any tension dies the minute Minato shows up anywhere and the show just wants the audience to focus on the silly spirits visiting his home. It’s not a terrible show, but when you are competing with a beautiful story like Natsume’s Book of Friends it just feels narratively empty. 

I don’t think I’ll continue watching this since there’s plenty of great shows out this season, but for folks that want something easy to watch might end up liking this series, especially if they are fans of stories of humans interacting with the spiritual world.