Britsune Garden title cover
Britsune Garden
is an ongoing original web novel by Corgipon which is part of its namesake soon-to-be web series by the same author.
In a parallel dimension from us, in easternised England, Malorie ventures out into the Buckingham Palace gardens, where she discovers magical and not-so-ordinary creatures. However, a dark force envelops the gardens into a sheet of pure dread, chaos, and shadow, whilst targeting the peaceful creatures and even Malorie's own family: the Royal Family themselves. With the blessings from the goddess Kanako, Malorie, with the help of her adoptive sister Hana and her own grandmother the Queen, as well the magical creatures that inhabit the palace gardens, work together in order to vanquish the shadowy forces that are determined to put the magical realm in peril.
Tropes:
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: The Britsunes and their sister species later on in the story, as well as in their official art. They frequently wear accessories like ribbon collars and tiny tiaras.
- Adopted into Royalty: Hana is Queen Lilie’s adoptive child, but she does not take the title of princess.
- All Myths Are True: The Shadonis and nogitsune were said to come from campfire tales and legends, but they are shown to actually be real.
- Alternative Calendar: Instead of the Gregorian calendar, the UK in this story's dimension uses the Kamitan calendar, which works identically to the real-world Chinese calendar. Each day of the week is named after a certain Kamitan deity (analogous to the real-world Seven Lucky Gods).
- Alternate Universe: This novel takes place in an alternate reality similar to the real world, but with anthropomorphic animals, called gijinka, in the humans’ place and magical creatures being real there. The story takes place in a rather easternized United Kingdom, having Japanese aspects to their culture and an incredibly large Japanese population. Even the British Royal Family is part Japanese, with the Queen being fluent in the language!
- Animesque: The official illustrations of its series look close to a Japanese anime, especially with the large and expressive eyes of the characters.
- Asian Fox Spirit: This story and its respectful series puts a lot of emphasis on the magic of foxes.
- Bamboo Technology: The Igiriko are known to have unique gadgets made out of natural materials.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Queen Lilie is described to have a distinctive set of wide hips and a large bosom (basically a Silver Fox), but at the same time has a plump stomach, as shown in official art.
- Bilingual Bonus:
- Hanabira means "flower petal" in Japanese.
- Book Ends: The story’s beginning takes place at Buckingham Palace, and the end is planned to take place at the same place.
- British Stuffiness: Averted for Malorie, Hana, and not surprisingly, Queen Lilie.
- British Teeth: The gijinka characters have been designed to avoid this stereotype, even if they have animalistic sharp canine teeth (However, Malorie is said to wear braces, but they are barely noticeable).
- Cool Gate: That is, if you count the multiple torii gates throughout Hanabira Meadow.
- Cool Mask: Queen Lilie has a whole collection of Japanese masks, ranging from Kitsune to Noh-style.
- Cool Old Lady: This and Silver Fox are the two primary tropes relating to Queen Lilie. She’s just that awesome.
- Cute Glasses Girl: Subverted for Lilie. She doesn't wear her reading glasses all the time, but it comes to show that Her Majesty looks absolutely adorable when wearing them.note
- Dark Is Not Evil: Akane. Although she has a dark gray coat, she is not on the Shadonis’ side.
- Disappeared Dad: Malorie's father, Duke James, rarely makes appearances, though he is alive.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Shadonis themselves. They are mentioned in various folktales according to the lore and the Book of Unordinary Creatures that Lilie reads, but the story shows that they are actually real.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Some of the chapters' names.
- Evil Counterpart Race: The Shadonis to the Britsunes, Floralies, etc.
- The Fair Folk: The Igiriko in a nutshell.
- Fanservice: This is done with Queen Lilie, as she is the most popular character of the entire series, both in a suggestive and non-suggestive way.
- Fantasy Counterpart Religion: Kami-Shinjin. However, this fictional religion takes inspiration from real-life ones such as Shinto (Torii gates, talismans, style of worshipping, and overall aesthetic), Buddhism (Religious holidays), and Paganism (Amulets, talismans, and spells such as protection spells).
- Fantasy Pantheon: The polytheistic deities of Kami-Shinjin. They are somewhat analogous to the real-world Shinto pantheon, except that some of the Kami-Shinjin deities are gender-swapped (Hiteru and Amaterasu, Tsukimi and Tsukuyomi, etc).
- Feeling Their Age: In Chapter 5 Lilie starts to feel back pain as she took a stretch. Malorie whispers to the other characters that more of her old age is kicking in and that it’s because of those huge knockers of hers.
- Feudal Japan: Although not taking place in Japan let alone said time period, this story features various items originating from feudalism and the palace garden even has the aesthetic. Also, the Kamitan heaven is said to resemble Edo-period Japan.
- Four-Fingered Hands: The anthropomorphic characters are designed to have four fingers in each hand instead of five. This is because canines and felines in real life have four toes in each paw with the exception of the dewclaw.
- Fun Size: All the Igiriko's true forms, as they share a similar height range of being up to 3 feet tall. However, there is said to be a mutation where some of them end up growing over the 3-foot mark.
- Furry Female Mane: Subverted. Both male and female gijinka characters have human hair.
- Generic Cuteness: All the characters, including the Shadonis, are designed to give off a cute look.
- Good Parents: Both of Malorie’s parents: Princess Valerie and Prince James. Even though Malorie is currently being raised by her grandmother Lilie due to tradition, her parents are known to have taken good care of her prior to the events of the story.
- The High Queen: Queen Lilie of the parallel-dimensional United Kingdom is a queen, but she is kind, caring, and tends to get overly affectionate at times.
- Hime Cut: Subverted. Malorie has straight hair and sidelocks, but hers is dark brown rather than black, and she doesn't sport bangs. However, she is referencing this cut both by her hair being straight and being fond of Japanese culture rather than her own country's.
- Hitodama Light: Since this story’s universe features a whole lot of references to Japanese mythology despite taking place in the UK, these have even made appearances.
- Improbably Female Cast: Over 75 percent of the characters featured in this story are female.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Hasu. She is initially very egotistical, outspoken, and boastful, but later on she would show kindness and care to her fellow Britsunes.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Lilie is an owner of two Tonkinese cats, Takara and Tama.
- Limited Wardrobe: Averted with all the royal gijinka characters (they are literally shown to have hundreds of different outfits according to the artwork), played straight with the Igiriko.
- Matriarchy: The main bloodline of the Reiwa-Windsors is all-female, with Princess Valerie being the heir apparent and her daughter Malorie being next in line after her.
- Meaningful Name: Many characters have meanings behind their names.
- Lilie’s full name is Liliana, which pays homage to her real-life inspiration’s childhood nickname “Lilibet”. It may also refer to how she loves lilies.
- Hana means “flower” in Japanese, which is connected to how Hana “blooms” as Lilie raises her.
- Missing Mom: Just like her father in the trope above, Malorie's mother, Princess Valerie, rarely makes an appearance in the series, though it is confirmed that she and the father are alive, just leaving Malorie to be taken care of by her grandmother due to tradition.
- Modest Royalty: Malorie, Lilie, and the rest of the royal family appear and are described to be dressed in simple but fashionable clothing. They don’t need no crowns!
- Mythopoeia: Although this story’s universe has some of its mythology’s aspects being identical to that of real world Japan’s, it indeed has its own myths, and its own pantheon.
- National Animal Stereotypes: Britsune Garden follows the UK’s (and Japan’s) animal stereotypes well.
- The Reiwa-Windsors are all corgi gijinkas.
- The Britsunes resemble foxes, hence the “kitsune” (meaning “fox” in Japanese) part of the portmanteau.
- Instead of a lion like in real life, the animal representing England in the coat of arms is said to be a crowned, four-tailed, white fox with red markings, presumably a kitsune, which has closed eyes. It is possibly connected with Kami Kanako.
- Oh, Crap!: In Chapter 3, when Lilie finds out that the Shadonis raided her entire garden.
- Ojou Ringlets: Lilie has coiffed sidelocks, being of Royal Blood and all.
- Otaku: Malorie is a literal otaku (or perhaps a weeb) even though she’s a British royal.
- Parental Substitute: Lilie is Hana’s parental figure, as the latter was an orphan who was adopted by the former after being found unconscious in the palace gardens.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: All the characters literally have eyes in a permanent state of this, both in artwork and in In-Universe descriptions.
- Punny Name: The titular species Britsune is a portmanteau of either “Brit” or “British” and “kitsune”, the Japanese word for “fox” or referring to the youkai that makes an appearance in this story.
- Really 700 Years Old: Hinata and the other Kamitsu are said to be hundreds of years old yet they all look youthful in appearance.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Queen Lilie. She is kind and patient with both Malorie and Hana, and raises both of them as if they were her children (that is, since Malorie is her granddaughter and Hana is technically her adoptive daughter). At the same time, she has a great sense of responsibility for members of her palace staff as well.
- Regal Ringlets: Of course, since Lilie is royal, she happens to sport this hairstyle.
- Religion is Magic: Kamitism involves some form of magic, which is said to be used by both the divine and mortals who have mastered the arts of magic spells (Though Kamitism is actually less of a religion and more of “the way of life”).
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Britsunes and their sister species in a nutshell.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: This is pretty obvious in the story as it’s royal-centric with members of royalty as main characters.
- Ruler Protagonist: Queen Lilie is one of the main characters, and at the same time is the queen regnant of the United Kingdom.
- Shapeshifting: The power that all Igiriko are known for having.
- Shout-Out:
- Queen Elizabeth II is referenced in both Queen Lilie’s striking appearance and when she is accidentally called Queen Elizabeth by one of the Britsunes.
- Lilie reads the folktale Momotarō in Chapter 5.
- Shrines and Temples: There are said to be several of these throughout the setting, either dedicated to kami or Kamitsu. Westminster Abbey even transformed into Westminster Shrine.
- Silver Vixen: Queen Lilie herself. Despite being elderly, she is described as and appears to have a curvy and busty figure, in narrations and official artwork of this story. Especially the busty part, which is usually intended for suggestively comedic purposes.
- Slice of Life: Downplayed. That is, if you count the non-magical shenanigans the British royals do in the story. The series mainly focuses on how the British royals are involved in the Igiriko's shenanigans, which involves magic.
- Talking Animal: The Britsunes and their sister species are capable of speech.
- Unconventional Wedding Dress: According to the lore of this story’s universe, the Reiwa-Windsors’ royal weddings are almost exactly like the real-life Shinto ceremonies, attire and all. Lilie is said to have worn a white-and-red kimono to hers. This is because of the author’s dislike of the stereotypical fairytale weddings.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: The gijinka characters are said to have a different outfit in each "day", though sometimes they repeat outfits.
- Vague Age: Subverted. The author has confirmed the ages of some of the gijinka characters, but not the Igiriko.
- Malorie is 13, but somewhere in the series she would turn 14. Though sometimes she would act a bit childish.
- Queen Lilie is 71, though at first it seemed as if it was hard to pinpoint because of her Silver Vixen appearance.
- Hana is 11.
- However, the Igiriko's "ages" are implied by their life stages.
- Glaze is a kit, while Bliss, Maneko, Chie, Akane, Hasu, and Lottie are adults.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Queen Lilie and Princess Valerie, though the latter is already a middle-aged adult.
- Will-o'-the-Wisp: According to the lore, there are many kinds of will o’ the wisps. Also see Hitodama Light.
- Small wisps that are summoned by Britsunes are called kitsunebi (meaning “fox fire” in Japanese). They have different purposes, depending on their wielder.
- Larger wisps of lights with long, streaky tails are one of the two forms of deceased spirits, the other being their true form, which can have differing appearances depending on if they’re a heavenly or earthen spirit.
- You Mean "Xmas": Instead of Christmas, the universe Britsune Garden is set in has a rather traditional Japanese version, Fuyu-Matsuri (though the festival also has some western influences).
- Youkai: The Igiriko are a group of youkai completely made up by the author and do not originate from mythology. However, various other youkai such as the kitsune are mentioned.
