Kanokon: The Great Midsummer Carnival
かのこん ～真夏の大謝肉祭～ (Kanokon: Manatsu no Dai Shanikusai)
- Ecchi
- Romance
- Harem
- Love Polygon
- School
- Episodes
- 2
- Duration
- 25 min per ep
- Aired
- Oct 5, 2009 to Oct 12, 2009
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
Summer break settles in, and Chizuru, Kota, and their friends drift through the heat at an easy pace. Chizuru keeps turning up the flirting, leaving Kota flustered as Nozomu repeatedly butts in and complicates the moment.
Elsewhere, Tayura’s feelings for Akane only grow stronger, while Akane firmly pushes back. The familiar balance of their relationships shifts now that the fox has finally caught her “prey,” yet the playful, boy-meets-girl spark continues through the midsummer carnival atmosphere.
Otaku Consensus
The Great Midsummer Carnival lands as a niche, efficiently paced bonus round for viewers already tuned to Kanokon's late-2000s ecchi-comedy frequency. Its best asset is that Xebec compresses the franchise's AT-X fanservice appeal into two quick installments, with Ayako Kawasumi and Mamiko Noto carrying the familiar romantic tension, while the recurring criticism is that the animation can feel stiff and the harem character writing too repetitive or uncomfortable on rewatch, reflected in its modest 6.52 MAL score and 60/100 AniList score.
Why You Should Watch
Kanokon: The Great Midsummer Carnival is for viewers who want late-2000s AT-X ecchi without the runway of a full cour: two episodes, minimal setup, maximum teasing, and no pretense that the appeal is anything other than heightened romantic chaos. It scratches the same itch as the saucier side of To LOVE-Ru or the monster-girl flirtation that later became mainstream, but in a tighter OVA format built for existing Kanokon viewers. The draw is the specific chemistry of Ayako Kawasumi's aggressive Chizuru and Mamiko Noto's soft-spoken Kouta, plus Xebec's willingness to lean into kemonomimi, nudity-tagged fanservice, and harem interruption gags. Choose it when you want a short franchise dessert, not a reinvention or a balanced ensemble drama.
Key Characters
- CChizuru Minamoto(VA: Ayako Kawasumi)
A 400-year-old fox deity disguised as a student, Chizuru is the OVA's clearest fanservice engine, and Ayako Kawasumi plays her pursuit of romance with a boldness that defines Kanokon's reputation.
- KKouta Oyamada(VA: Mamiko Noto)
Kouta's appeal comes from the contrast between Mamiko Noto's gentle vocal presence and the character's role as the overwhelmed center of a very forward supernatural harem dynamic.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
The format is unusually compact: only two OVA episodes, airing in October 2009, which makes it more of a concentrated franchise encore than a new seasonal reset.
- 2
Studio Xebec handled the production, and Tomoaki Takase is credited with key animation on both episodes, giving the OVA a tight, small-scale production footprint compared with a full TV cour.
- 3
Director Atsushi Ootsuki also storyboarded episode 1, so the first half's visual rhythm and fanservice staging are tied directly to the series director rather than handed off entirely.
- 4
AniList's tag profile is unusually explicit about the viewing contract: Nudity at 80%, Kemonomimi at 79%, Female Harem at 73%, and Monster Girl, Kuudere, and Shounen each at 60%.
- 5
The audio-side credits place Toshihiko Nakajima as sound director and Yui Sakakibara on opening theme performance, keeping the OVA's presentation aligned with the polished character-song energy of 2000s ecchi releases.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- The Japanese title, Kanokon: Manatsu no Dai Shanikusai, is commonly rendered as Kanokon: The Great Midsummer Carnival, with the title framing the release as a special-event OVA rather than a second TV season.
- Fun fact 2
- After its AT-X broadcast in October 2009, the two episodes were released on DVD in Japan by Media Factory between November 25 and December 22, 2009.
- Fun fact 3
- Media Blasters licensed the OVA in North America, matching its handling of the Kanokon anime, and released it on DVD on June 21, 2011.
- Fun fact 4
- The source-side credits retain Katsumi Nishino as original creator and Koin for original character design, anchoring the OVA to the franchise's light-novel identity rather than treating it as a loose spin-off.
- Fun fact 5
- Its audience profile is small but persistent: MAL lists 22,509 votes with a 6.52 score, while AniList records 85 favourites alongside a 60/100 score.
Studios
- Xebec
