Literature / Kanokon

Left to right: Chizuru, Kôta, and Nozomu.

Kanokon is a Light Novel series written by Katsumi Nishino and illustrated by Koin, which was published under the MF Bunko J imprint from 2005 to 2010 for 15 volumes. It revolves around young exchange student Kôta Oyamada, who starts at a new school, only to be approached by the most attractive girl on campus almost immediately. Chizuru Minamoto lures him to an empty classroom and immediately attempts to force herself on him, only stopped by the appearance of her ears and tail.

Yes, ears and tail — Chizuru is, in reality, a 400-year-old kitsune who's going to school to learn about the modern world. Attracted to Kôta because of his childish innocence and scent of the countryside on him, she spends her days attempting to seduce him in more and more over the top ways. Later, other non-humans show up, including a wolf-spirit named Nozomu, who immediately attempts to beat Chizuru at her own game, several assassins, a teacher or two, etc. Meanwhile, poor Kôta has to put up with having the extremely busty Chizuru and the small and cute Nozomu, each competing to find more and more ways to take his virginity.

The series has been adapted into a manga illustrated by Rin Yamaki, which was serialized in Monthly Comic Alive from 2006 to 2010, and a 12-Episode Anime that aired in 2008. The anime later got a two-part OVA in 2009 taking place in the summer months, as well as a wide variety of fanservicey extras on the DVDs.

Compare with Venus to Mamoru!.

This page is only about the light novel and manga versions.

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Kanokon provides examples of:

• Above the Influence: In the manga, it is averted. Kôta admits that he likes Chizuru and is not above doing perverted things with her in private, although he does need some coaxing.
• Accidental Misnaming: Kôta gains the name "Great Erotic King" due to his classmates misunderstanding the situations he ends up in. Amusingly in the manga, when Nozomu leaves his classmates apologize for calling him that, since she left citing that Kôta would only ever really love Chizuru. The next page, When Nozomu comes back, saying she's going to be his mistress in a threesome with him and Chizuru, they give up and go back to calling him that again. Apparently this is a form of foreshadowing, as recent developments in the manga from Saku hint that Kôta was some form of king.
• Accidental Pervert: Kôta, a.k.a. "The Great Erotic King". Pretty much how he got the nickname.
• The Alcatraz: Surprisingly enough, Kôta's school: in chapter 8 of the manga, the scary Knight Templar-like, wooden sword wielding teacher Yatsuka points out the school Kôta's going for is an inverted Extranormal Institute — it exists as a school for yôkai having difficulty learning to adapt to human society to be imprisoned at until they learn how to fit in. And if they mess up school life they go to the actual prison for demons. The school is more of baby Alcatraz.
• Ambiguously Bi:
  • Chizuru's interest in Kouta is indicative of her being attracted to males. However, in Chapter 34, the ninja twins got to suck on Chizuru's breasts. As they indulge themselves, she comments, "It's been a while... since a girl did this to me..." Then Kouta asks, "Been a while!?" in response and she awkwardly laughs a bit nervously. The "ambiguously" comes from that it's not certain if she's truly a bisexual or a heterosexual who previously experienced a bi-curious "phase" that ended when she acted on her bicuriosity.
  • Nozomu doesn't seem opposed to threesomes as long as they involve Kouta, and engages in one with him and Natsumi Tataraya in Chapter 45.
• Ambiguously Gay: The Nanao twins, Ren and Ai, seem to be this if their affection for Chizuru's breasts is any hint. Unless it is a case of Single-Target Sexuality.
• Artificial Human: Minori is revealed to be a partially succesful attempt to create a vessel for Susanoo. Kôta was the successful vessel.
• Babies Ever After: Chizuru and Kôta have a daughter at the end of Chapter 47.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Very noticeable during Chizuru's Shower Scene. Also noticeable in the manga, which would be very, very explicit if not for this trope.
• Barely-There Swimwear: The original crowner for the page was Nozomu's outfit in the Beach Episode — which was literally three band-aids. Oblivious as to why the other girls object to it, she (or rather Chizuru) is eventually forced to purchase a more normal swimsuit at said beach.
• Big Bad: Minori Mitama, who called Kôta "onii-chan" and can perform a Fusion Dance with her servant to transform into a male bat-winged demon, appears to be this, although she is only a pawn for the Eight Houses of Kuzunoha's leader, Shiki Mitama.
• Big Eater: Don't let Nozomu's petite figure fool you. She has quite the ability to wolf down large quantities of food. The first time we see her, she's gorging on meat, and in one of the OVA's, she eats a whole watermelon by herself.
• Black Comedy Rape: Many, many times (basically the plot of the anime), although Kôta isn't entirely unwilling, and it's usually not played up as seriously as it could be. Chizuru's constant, aggressive attention labels Kôta as a huge pervert at school: at one point, Chizuru decides to have sex with him in the middle of the street and takes off her clothes, only to have her barrier shattered. She goes furthest on the last episode: tired of waiting for a confession, she abducts and sets out to rape him in an empty classroom, while the helpless, almost-crying Kôta covers his face and begs her to stop (which she does at the last minute, when his rejection finally hits home). She means well; she just doesn't know the meaning of restraint.
• Body Sushi: Chizuru gets into a body-sized sushi boat naked in attempt to hit on Kôta.
• Bound and Gagged: Happens enough to the girls on this show. Played for laughs (and fetish fuel) mostly.
• Brought Down to Normal: When Chizuru loses her large breasts.
• Butt-Monkey: Tayura, the eternal errand boy and subject for slapstick humor.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Akane (in the manga), who returns Tayura's feelings but is too shy to say anything. (This is dropped from the Anime for time.)
• Cerebus Syndrome: The manga gets hit with this HARD during the final arc.
• Chocolate of Romance: In an OVA DVD, Chizuru is trying to figure out what kind of chocolate to get for Kôta for Valentines day, her various ideas being a chocolate bar wedged inbetween her breasts, chocolate molds of her breasts, and finally, a chocolate bikini, which Kôta is to eat off of her. She just ends up giving him a traditional box of chocolates.
• Class Representative: Akane; despite her best efforts, she doesn't enforce the school rules as well as she'd like to. One can thank this on her being unable to hold her liquor.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Chizuru, and it seems Nozomu enjoys provoking her into this trope.
• Compulsory School Age: Almost all yôkai are more than a hundred years old. Then again, they certainly do not behave as such...
• Defeat Means Friendship: After the ninja twin's various attempts to get rid of Chizuru fail, they get invited to dinner with the main cast. Also subverted in that the main cast has no idea they're responsible for the current trouble.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Usually on Kôta, sometimes Tayura. It seems that Kôta gets blamed and subsequent flak for alleged molestation even though Chizuru and Nozomu are the ones who initiate it, and usually prevent him from being able to escape by mounting top of him, or pinning him down with a hug.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Mio, a frog-spirit, has oils that are basically a cure-all. Several times Chizuru and others need her to give up some. How do they do so? Get her to dress in a School Swimsuit and squat in a old metal tub until they... get their oil. Actually a reference to a Japanese old-wives' tale (Akira Kurosawa mentions it in his autobiography). There was indeed a frog whose secretions were used as medicine, and the best way anyone had found to get the stuff was to put the frog in a box with mirrors on all sides; as the theory went, the embarrassment and horror of seeing its own reflection would cause it to perspire profusely.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male:
  • Kôta get nailed with a metal trash can. To be fair, Chizuru meant to throw it at Nozomu who was clinging to him at the time, but she managed to dodge it.
  • Tayura is on the receiving end of a lot of Chizuru's attacks.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Whenever Chizuru and Kôta are caught in a compromising position, which happens at least Once per Episode, Kôta is the one who gets blamed even though Chizuru is the one who started it and Kôta was constantly saying "No" and "Stop".

• Emergency Transformation: In a pinch, Kôta and Chizuru can merge, turning Kôta into a male kitsune with absurd power, temporarily. Fortunately, it's not permanent. Although Kôta is gaining kitsune powers while human, which leads Chizuru to think that their merging will eventually turn him into a yôkai. It turns out that the "kitsune" powers Kôta manifests are actually those of the Yamata no Orochi, which is why his tails tend to appear as serpentine heads.
• Emotionless Girl: Nozomu, although she does seem quite capable of love and lust. In the manga, which shows her alone at times, it reveals that she isn't emotionless — but only when she's in her yôkai form. Or when she's alone. Or maybe her emotions cause her yôkai form to pop out. Or... something.

• First-Name Basis: Played with: Nozomu calls everyone by their first name (without even honorifics) right off the bat, even if she just met them. That just underlines that she is pretty carefree with politeness conventions… And of course, Kôta starts calling Chizuru by her first name (on her demand) within the first chapter. But she is a bit pissed that he uses such a formal honorific as -san, which reminds her she's quite a bit older than he is.
• Flash Step: Kôta can move with inhuman speed when necessary to dodge Chizuru's more overt advances. The way she'll attempt a Marshmallow Hell Attack on him, only to grab thin air as he instantly appears behind her, is strangely reminescent of Dragon Ball Z-style combat...
• Foxy Vixen: Horny doesn't begin to describe Chizuru, a kitsune. And judging by her reputation, her mother seems even worse, which is saying a lot.
• Fundoshi: Ren and Ai, in their Ninja garb.
• Fusion Dance: If a yôkai and human are willing, they can temporarily fuse...mostly for fireball-throwing. Strangely enough, this is insinuated to require a deep emotional bond between the two, whereas Kôta and Chizuru can do it almost immediately upon meeting each other.
  • Romantic Fusion: The two gradually become closer lovers, leading to the fusion being stronger. The romance subtext is explicitly implied when Chizuru is happy being in Kouta's body, though thankfully she doesn't utilize her usual lecherous antics to do anything other than defeat enemies.
• Gender Bender: Minori changes from a young girl to a teenage boy when fused to the Nue.

• Guilty Pleasures: Does this series even need an explanation?
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each title is phrased so it sounds like a come-on or sexual innuendo of some kind, albeit one hinting at what happens in the episode.
• The Jailer: Yatsuka-sensei and the job of the other yôkai is to make sure the nonhuman students stay put and don't break the Masquerade until they've figured out how to fit in with humans.
• Kinky Spanking: An episode end with erotic spanking happening between Kôta and Chizuru. Kôta was the one delivering the spanking and Chizuru is the one who tricked him into doing it.
• Late for School: Subverted with Nozomu acting out this and the New Transfer Student trope, even though she technically joined in the previous episode. Doubly subverted as she continues speaking in her monotone voice and ignores what Kôta is saying, in lieu of responding with her half of the trope regardlessly, all while kidnapping Kôta from Chizuru.
• Lethal Chef:
  • Chizuru hilariously captures some students, ties them up, and forces them to taste test some food for her. Interestingly, while the three female students pass out, apparently the two ninja girls enjoy the food.
  • Subverted in the beach chapters: Tamamo is skilled enough in cooking but for some obscure reason she tries very hard to make the dishes of her beach shop tasteless.
  • Nozomu doesn't seem to be much of a cook either, as Kôta passes out after eating hers and Chizuru's.
• Love at First Sight: Chizuru claims this about Kôta. Saku, and other events, suggest something less simple and idealistic is behind their swift connection. In the manga it is also suggested that Kôta's hidden power or something else super natural may have something to do with this.
• Love Triangle: Nozomu is in love with Kôta, Chizuru is in love with Kôta, and Kôta, while truly in love with Chizuru, would much rather get his homework done and not be forever stigmatized as a huge pervert, thanks. Kôta doesn't like to rush things and would rather not be so affectionate in public places as Chizuru would like. Nozomu is straight up told by him at one point in the manga that Chiziuru is who he likes, but this doesn't stop her from trying to gain his affections afterward.
• Lovable Sex Maniac:
  • Chizuru's a rare female example of this trope. In addition, Nozomu's quite willing to join in if it means outfoxing Chizuru. Her lust is supported by Japanese mythology though, where fox yôkai were noted for, among other things, their beauty and desire to seduce humans. Chizuru of course reserves all of her sex mania for Kôta. Being a centuries old virgin probably adds to her sexual frustrations.
  • Kôta actually gets into this too. In chapter 41, after trying to deprive himself of ecchi behavior to study for a test, saw a girl grab Chizuru's breasts and... well... And because he didn't get enough sexy time, he started generating a mighty aura that knocked out all the males around the school and managed to make every girl in the school want his body.
• Magic Skirt: Averted, most notably in a particular scene with Ai and Ren.
• Magical Girlfriend: Two magical girlfriends for Kôta, in fact.
• Marry Them All: The manga starting in the middle of volume 3. Although Kôta at first asks Chizuru to become his wife, Nozomu later becomes Kôta's mistress, what's more Chizuru no longer seems to be bothered and Kôta seems to be all for a threesome.
• Marshmallow Hell: Within the first five minutes, no less! Chizuru even lampshades this by demanding Kôta beg to be spoiled when she does it after a certain point. As the series goes on it actually becomes Marshmallow Heaven for Kôta, and she uses it to relieve him from his stress. To the point that in chapter 41, one week after he decided not to do anything sexual with Chizuru until the exams, he jumps with a mad expression and bloodshot eyes when he's teased a bit too much with Chizuru's breasts. Yes, he's literally addicted to them!
  "BREAAAAAAASTS!!!"
• The Masquerade: There are enough non-humans in Kôta's school to fill up most of a classroom at least, but they are all masquerading in plain sight. One even graduates, only to turn around and re-enter the school as a Freshman again next year. Shown beyond a doubt in episode 10, when they all shapechange to defend the school. Even more obvious in the manga, where it's pointed out the school is a Boarding School for delinquent yôkai.
• Meaningful Name: Kumada is exactly what his name says. Also, Ren and Ai are both words meaning "love".
• Megaton Punch: Tayura is on the receiving end of these a lot, usually from Chizuru.
• Naked People Are Funny:
  • Scene getting boring? No worries, because Chizuru will probably strip soon, just in time for Kôta to get blamed for it. Unless he doesn't, in which case Nozomu will show up, already naked, right afterwards.
  • Despite living in an expensive penthouse apartment, Nozomu Sleeps in the Nude on the floor.
• Ninja: Yukihana, and later Ren & Ai.
• Naughty Nurse Outfit:
  • Lampshaded in chapter 12 of the manga, when Chizuru wears a nurse outfit out of nowhere.
    Tayura: Wait a sec. Why was there a nurse's outfit conveniently handy?
    Chizuru: That's a girl's secret.
  • We get to see Asahina in a "nurse's outfit" (read: cosplay-style) in Episode 4. She's not too happy about it.
  • Yukihana's job as the new school nurse!
• Nose Bleed: Kôta suffers from these a lot, thanks to Chizuru and Nozomu constantly fighting over him, usually while stripped down.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Kôta starts out completely unwilling to join in with Chizuru's (and Nozomu's) antics, but has faltered a few times — once, when she conned him into spanking her, and enough times with her Marshmallow Hell routine that she and him now have a pet word for it, asking to be "spoiled". Kôta is reluctant to initiate things and doesn't want it done in public, but otherwise he is surprisingly willing for a character of his type. At least twice he is mentally telling himself he is about to have sex with Chizuru only for the pair to be interrupted. At one point in the manga, Kôta says specifically that he doesn't want to go all the way only because he wants to wait until they are married and wants to graduate before that happens so he can be a worthy husband for Chiruzu.
  • In the manga, this is Nozomu's defining character trait... Sort of. She constantly, constantly berates and complains about how Chizuru (and, to a lesser extent, Kôta) acts... but all the while she's complaining, she's also joining in and showing that she's at least as, if not even more, perverted as Chizuru. For example, in Chapter 28, she accuses Chizuru and Kôta of smelling like two animals in heat (as a Wolf youkai, she has an enhanced sense of smell) when she interrupts them during a heavy petting session in the bathtub... only to strip naked and go even farther than Chizuru was going (rather openly getting Kôta to perform oral sex on her, when Chizuru was only rubbing up against him).
• One-Hit Kill: In the surprisingly well done action sequences, Kitsune Kôta often does this.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Kôta, weird nickname and weirder girlfriends notwithstanding. Although several of the other students are quick to point out there has to be something special about him to be able to merge with Chizuru so readily, to say nothing about the absurdly powerful foxfires they can create together. Later, Saku goes further, flat out calling him the "Key" (compared to Chizuru's "Door") and calling him a king.
• Orochi: Chizuru is revealed to be the reincarnation of both Kushinada and the Yamata no Orochi, whose power surfaces when Kôta is in danger. Kôta himself is the reincarnation of Susanoo.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: When Chizuru wants to pass for her brother to be in the same class as Kôta, she just dresses like him and puts a leaf on her head, which is the a common depiction of a youkai's ability to another's shape.
• Parental Abandonment: Kôta moved from the country to the big city to go to school and lives alone. This ends up being more than it appears in the manga. In chapter 20, on page 34, Saku the wolf yôkai notes that a clue to the mystery surround Kôta is how he seems to only have a single true relative.
• Parental Substitute: Ai and ren come to see Chizuru as this, they even start calling her Mom.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: Chizuru's constantly removing her clothing in attempts to get Kôta in bed, Nozomu follows suit if she's around. Chizuru, when she possesses Kôta, turns into a spirit, leaving her clothing behind in a pile; when she exits, she's nude.
• Portmanteau Series Nickname: Inverted in this case: Kanokon is the only title used, but the title of the first chapter is "Kanojo ha kawaii "kon" to suru" (she gives a cute "kon" yelp: "kon" being the onomatopeia for, well, a yelp). invoked
• The Power of Love: Chizuru can only hop into Kôta's body because of their deep love for each other, fostered over the 10 whole minutes they knew each other before they did it the first time. Subverted, in that apparently it's Kôta and/or Chizuru's hidden legacy as the Key and Door, not love, that makes them so spiritually compatible.
  
  Though a recent chapter of the manga implies their love may not be as strong as they hoped. Regarding that, the fan translation of the manga seems to imply the possession isn't so much a matter of the presence of love as it is trust or the lowering of emotional/psychological defenses, which does tend to happen in love. Chizuru's over-the-top and apparently genuine affection would no doubt be more than sufficient for her to be made an exception in any healthy male's firewall. It helps that Kôta doesn't seem particularly cynical.
• Pretty Free Loader: While Chizuru doesn't live with Kôta, she doesn't help her brother with anything around the house.
• Really 700 Years Old: Chizuru' 400 years-old, looks like a young adult (16-18ish). Nozomu's of indeterminate age, but looks like she's 13-15.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: Nozomu.
• School of Hard Knocks: Somewhat. Fights between yôkai aren't encouraged, but the teachers don't seem to have a problem with these fights and they do observe/referee the matches. Fights between regular students aren't mentioned.
• Shaking the Rump: In Episode 6, while dressed in a pink kimono, Chizuru very provocatively does this to tease Kôta.
• Shout-Out:
  • In chapter 30, when Chizuru asked Ai and Ren why they didn't tell Akane the truth when she saw them holding on to Kôta's tails when he was fused with Chizuru, they tell her that they thought of them as a hero of justice from fusion while doing the fusion dance pose from Dragon Ball Z.
  • Episode 3 references Neon Genesis Evangelion when Nozomu collides with Kôta in the same manner in which Rei and Shinji collide in the final episode of Eva. The shout-out continues when Kôta falls on top of Nozomu in a pose reminiscent of when Shinji fell on top of Rei in Episode 5. This is made all the more funny by the fact that the whole incident was set up by Nozomu.
  • In chapter 30, Chizuru makes the famous Sailor Moon pose. She even says, "In the name of the fox goddess, I'll punish you!"
  • Then, in Chapter 32, Tayura "explains" to Akane that Kôta and Chizuru were doing Cosplay, and Ai and Ren were also cosplaying. The visual for the twins' supposed cosplay is clearly The Familiar of Zero.
• Single-Minded Twins: The poor Ninja duo of Ai and Ren.
• Sleep Cute: Chizuru, Kôta, and Nozomu do this in chapter 34. It's a very sweet moment between the three of them, especially when you see that both Chizuru and Kôta are holding Nozomu close. Then Akane decides to interrupt.
• Suicide as Comedy: Chizuru tried to hang herself in Episode 9 when her breasts are magically shrunken, and was just about to be talked out of it by Kôta's kind reassurance until Nozomu grabs her chests and cheekily quips "I win!", prompting her to leap to the noose with renewed gutso.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Well, considering Chizuru is Really Four Hundred Years Old it's not too surprising that she's more than fully grown up compared to the teenage-looking Kôta.
• Token Good Teammate: Despite being the head of the Eighth House of Kuzunoha, Natsumi Tataraya equips Kôta with armour and weapons to rescue Chizuru.
• Too Kinky to Torture: In chapter 36, Chizuru's punished for cheating in a game by being tied up, dangling from the ceiling, and blindfolded. She remarks that she thinks she could get used to this.
• Top Wife: The end of the series establishes Chizuru as the Official Couple and girl that will marry Kôta. The Stinger, however, has Nozomu return and state that she'll settle for being The Mistress and Chizuru agrees to it.

• Unwanted Harem: Chizuru and Nozomu are both quite forward, while Kôta has Heroic BSODs every time they come near him — doubly so if they're half naked, which is about 50% of the time. Kôta makes absolutely no attempt to attract the two, since they both go after him on their own for unexplained reasons (although Chizuru mentions he "smells like the forest" at one point).
• Virgin Power: In the manga, during their fight with her ex, Saku, Chizuru reveals that the muffler she gave Kôta has a protective power because of the virgin hair she used in its construction. Saku just stares at her in disbelief:
  Saku: Maiden's hair?
  Chizuru: What? I'm a pure young girl.
  Saku: ...
  Chizuru: What's with that look?! Really, I'm telling the truth!... Probably.

• Weirdness Censor: Chizuru uses a magic barrier in the middle of the street to ensure no one will interrupt her as she attempts to hold Kôta down and have her way with him. Kôta kisses Chizuru with the purpose of intentionally fusing with her. This upsets and saddens Chizuru who at that moment was overjoyed that Kôta had taken the initiative to kiss her, but it provides Kôta an opportunity to explain to her about why he is hesitant about simply randomly having sex.
• Will They or Won't They?: They finally consummate their relationship in Chapter 47.