Kanokon Specials
かのこん
- Ecchi
- Harem
- Mythology
- School
- Episodes
- 12
- Duration
- 2 min per ep
- Aired
- Jun 25, 2008 to Nov 21, 2008
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
*Kanokon Specials* presents a set of brief, uncensored DVD bonus shorts, each running about two minutes. Designed as extra content alongside *Kanokon*, these mini-episodes lean into the title’s ecchi appeal in a compact format.
Otaku Consensus
Kanokon Specials works when treated as an extraction of the parent series’ most marketable parts: brisk DVD-short pacing, Xebec’s noticeably smooth animation, and a shameless school-mythology harem setup that prioritizes comic timing over continuity. The verdict is sharply niche: fans who wanted uncensored Chizuru and Nozomu material got exactly the concentrated fanservice they asked for, while the most repeated criticism is that the specials sit so close to soft-core porn that character writing and narrative purpose effectively disappear.
Why You Should Watch
Watch Kanokon Specials if you want the DVD-extra version of ecchi: no tournament padding, no emotional reset episodes, just rapid-fire setups built around the main trio’s chemistry and the franchise’s fox-spirit harem energy. It scratches the same unapologetic fanservice itch as To Love-Ru or the racier corners of High School DxD, but in a much more compressed, sketch-comedy form; every segment is short enough to function like a visual gag with a punchline. The appeal is not lore, romance progression, or a hidden “better than it looks” story. It is the novelty of seeing Xebec package uncensored material with surprisingly smooth animation and a degree of shamelessness that made even positive reviewers describe it as 0% plot and 100% “plot.” If you want ecchi without pretending it is anything else, this is the cleanest use case.
Key Characters
- NNozomu Ezomori(VA: Miyu Takeuchi)
Nozomu is the quieter harem presence, and positive fan commentary singled her out as part of the specials’ unusual attention to less-endowed girls rather than only the franchise’s most obvious fanservice icon.
- CChizuru Minamoto(VA: Ayako Kawasumi)
Chizuru is the dominant ecchi engine of Kanokon, a fox-mythology heroine whose forwardness defines the specials’ reputation as one of the franchise’s least coy releases.
- KKouta Oyamada(VA: Mamiko Noto)
Kouta functions less as an active lead here than as the harem fulcrum, with Mamiko Noto’s performance giving the timid boy a softer register than the genre’s standard male-protagonist template.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
The release is structured as 12 roughly two-minute DVD bonus shorts, a format that strips away the TV series’ connective tissue and turns each installment into a single concentrated fanservice or comedy beat.
- 2
Xebec produced the specials, and even negative critical reactions singled out the animation as unusually smooth for material built almost entirely around nudity and provocation.
- 3
The fanservice is not coy: AniList tags Nudity at 80%, and multiple user reviews frame the release as sitting on the border between ecchi and hentai rather than conventional romantic comedy.
- 4
Its reception footprint is distinctly cult rather than broadly acclaimed: MAL lists a 6.38 score from 15,405 votes, while AniList records a lower 57/100 but still shows 68 favourites.
- 5
Unlike many harem extras that spotlight only the central bombshell heroine, at least one highly positive user review praised these shorts for giving attention to smaller-chested girls, a specific appeal point within ecchi fandom.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- The specials completed their 12-episode run between June 25 and November 21, 2008, placing them squarely in the DVD-bonus cycle rather than as a later nostalgia revival.
- Fun fact 2
- The credited franchise creatives include original creator Katsumi Nishino and original character designer Koin, tying the shorts back to Kanokon’s source-material identity even though the format is pure bonus-content compression.
- Fun fact 3
- The listed main cast keeps the parent series’ central trio intact: Ayako Kawasumi as Chizuru, Mamiko Noto as Kouta, and Miyu Takeuchi as Nozomu.
- Fun fact 4
- A recurring fan debate around the specials is genre taxonomy itself; one mixed review explicitly asks where ecchi ends and hentai begins, reflecting how far the uncensored DVD material pushes beyond standard TV fanservice.
- Fun fact 5
- The gap between MAL popularity #4425 and rank #8748 captures the title’s profile well: plenty of ecchi viewers sampled it, but the average critical response remained lukewarm.
Studios
- Xebec
