Kyousou Giga Review: Spiritual guidance

Creativity is not dead.

I can always appreciate a creative work that sets itself apart with an interesting visual design. I often reminisce about Katanagatari and recommend it to readers and friends. The story was a fresh breeze and the visual design really stood on its own. Kyousou Giga is treading on its footsteps.

Kyousou Giga takes place in a parallel world where a God and a Buddha fall in love. The world is drawn by a God who can create worlds and people with his magic drawings, making the most creative of worlds.

Koto, the child of the God and Buddha, breaks into the mirror world in search of her mother. She discovers she has siblings in a parallel world. In her quest to find her mother she is thrown into a mischievous plot of multiple parties. Those from her own world and the parallel one.

I’m often very hesitant about shows that jump on the spiritual bandwagon, especially since I’m not the domestic audience and relating to the topic can be quite difficult. Kyousou Giga manages to engage me from the beginning with its fluent narrative.

Koto is a very good viewpoint that makes the topic at hand very accessible. Unlike her father who talks in riddle like sentences, which makes him distant, perhaps also on purpose. Making the God and father figure distant, gives the Kyousou Giga context for why certain events occur and don’t occur. Koto on the other hand makes it simple, breaks down the illogical and takes the viewer along with her quest.

Myoue, one of Koto’s parallel world siblings, is her trusted guide. Whereas the two drawn created siblings try to only benefit themselves, using Koto as a tool to bring back their parents. This brings an extra layer to the story and give Koto a reason to emotionally develop as a character. The extra layer gives Kyousou Giga debt and a narrative to bond its characters.

Kyousou Giga definitely stands out with its visual design. It has hints of studio Trigger with its over the top movement and flamboyant color scheme. The relation to trigger is most apparent when Koto uses her magical hammer and everything falls to bits and pieces.

The mirror world has a rather sketchy design which is a reference to the world drawn by God. It’s not perfect, but it works. The overall character design isn’t really noteworthy, although it works as culture reference.

One of the most notable other elements, besides the visual design, is the very strong soundtrack. Right off the bat, Kyousou Giga uses a great music to create emotional context for the viewer. It’s a soundtrack that can even be enjoyed outside the series. Music is done by Go Shiina(God Eater, Gyo), which doesn’t necessarily resonate with many, at least not with me.

Kyousou Giga proves that creativity is not dead and that even abstract themes can be an enjoyable watch. I rate Kyousou Giga a 9 out of 10 for its willful approach and breaking down the norms within the heavily standardized seasonal approach within anime we’ve seen the last couple of years.