DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyKaya-chan wa Kowakunai

REVIEWS

• 

  HeartbreakRebel

  76/100
  An interesting horror show with one questionable character

  My Review of "Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary"!

  

  ---

  Let’s please protect Kaya she doesn’t deserve this :(

  ____Story____

  Kaya Satou is a kindergartener at Hanamugi Kindergarten. Because of her family, she is blessed with the ability to see and exterminate spirits that ruin other people's lives. She’s often seen as scary because of the way she presents herself, but she’s just misunderstood. Her teacher, Chie, is able to see this misunderstanding and helps her in her school life. As the story progressed, this involvement of Chie would evolve to her regular life as she learns more and more about Kaya’s family and the problems that go on in their family.

  ____The Good____

  The story of this anime really had me invested. The evolution of the plot was satisfying to watch and every new twist or problem introduced added on to the major conflict of the show. It was well paced and slowly built it up for the more serious sections of the story. Most of the characters were enjoyable too. Kaya is a character worth protecting and Chie’s an amazing and compassionate caretaker for understanding Kaya and knowing that she’s not always the one in the wrong. I was also sort of a fan of the ED. It felt very similar to some songs that I’ve heard before and the visuals as well as the OP having the perspective between seeing spirits and no spirits was cool in my opinion. The animation wasn’t that bad either. I didn’t really see any problems with the visuals and I liked seeing the spirits disintegrate when Kaya threw a single punch at them. Kaya’s the Saitama of spirits- a wholesome but deadly force with a questionable family.

  ____The Bad____

  I think we need to address the major elephant in the room: Osamu Mobu was so badly presented in this anime. They try to justify his actions by showing his backstory which, for a bit, made sense, but they kept constantly portraying this dude as some weird pervert pedo that keeps taking pictures of children from the shadows, which I just can’t ignore. He even takes photos of Kaya doing cute things just for fun, which would be fine if he was maybe her father or grandpa since it would literally be their child, but this is some rando that stalks Kaya. His mannerisms and the way he talks doesn’t help either. I understand that he’s supposed to be misunderstood, but the point of being misunderstood is that there’s still some sort of redeeming quality about him, but there’s nothing that can really redeem him except the fact that he knows everything about Kaya and her family, which is still very weird since he’s not a family member. Apart from that, I also felt like the ending could’ve been executed better. I heard that the ending for this anime is an original ending that wraps up the story while the manga goes further without the ending and I can kind of tell. I think they could’ve written the ending better in a way that didn’t feel too rushed or unrealistic, but I mean it could’ve been worse.

  ____The Downright Ugly____

  This story was ugly, but not in terms of quality, so there’s nothing downright ugly in this anime.

  ____Is It Worth The Watch?____

  If you can get past the pervy man stalking the girl, then you’ll be greeted with a well-written and interesting slice of life horror story that I found worth the watch. Ignoring Mob, all of the characters were enjoyable and seeing Kaya’s plot slowly develop from just some ordinary exterminating spirits in a kindergarten daycare to a whole family conflict about revenge and monsters was certainly something that I liked.

  Thank you for taking the time to read my review. I hope this helped you with your decision on whether to watch this anime or not! If you already have watched it, I hope that you can agree with me with some of the points I made. If you enjoyed this review, I would greatly appreciate a follow too! ^^

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• 

  Sinankooesa

  70/100
  A good show that lost some of the horror of its great manga

  I'll start this review right off by saying that I am coming towards this show as someone who read and loved the manga and I will review it through that lense. While certainly nothing groundbreaking or special when it comes to horror manga, the Kaya-chan manga still manages to be creepy and effective...and in-between all the murder ghosts add some more realness. ESPECIALLY with stuff regarding young children someone like a parent might fear.

  

  And this show still manages to contain some of that like in the example above or the swimming pool episode...but for some reason, halfway, starting with episode 6, decides to just rush its story and leave a lot of chapters on the cutting room floor.

  

  This part essentially being the beginning of it, as they skipped over the field trip to the forest except for this one drawing. Now to me it makes sense as I have read the manga and I know what its referencing, but to someone else they might not now, that that actually happened. And this is one of my biggest problems with the anime as someone who read the manga.

  The manga does have a lot of self-contained chapters and starting from that point on, if a chapter isn't relevant to the reveals or the overarching story revolving Kayas family, it doesn't get adapted. Now one could argue that thats better since there's less "filler". But I think that because of that, we are missing on some great and horrifying moments (the "Be Quiet" or the Umbrella Ghost chapter being some of my favourites that I would have loved to see animated). A big part of the story being Kaya slowly being accepted by the other children in the Kindergarten. But it really comes the most through through these self-contained chapters, even if the anime still tries to show it happening.

  

  Not to mention...part of what made the mystery so compelling is, we slowly got glimpses and hints and reveals to Kayas family. The way its done in the anime, you get hit over and over again quickly, with barely any time for the viewer to really give much thought to it. Now I can't say if its because they only had 12 episodes and/or if they weren't planning on making more seasons for this show...but this approach certainly hurt the show.

  Now to be positive, the chapters it does adapt are all done mostly faithfully. Certainly the show doesn't have the best animation quality or anything like that, but personally it still manages to adapt all of the creepier aspects of the manga and the panels really well. The music is also really well done too, being able to have this child like sound to it...before, just like the ghosts, slowly revealing something creepier underneath it. Same goes for the voice acting, with all the actors sounding like how I imagined them.

  So overall, what can I say? I still liked the anime very much. The first half was pretty good (even if its limited in animation) and the 2nd half at least build up to a big finale. But I feel like it either needed more episodes or even a 2nd season, because the way it starts rushing towards its finale just means, it lost a lot of what made the manga so great in my opinion.

  But overall, I still enjoyed my time with the show very much and if you are looking for some nice horror and haven't read the manga, this show still will provide you with a fun time!

  
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• 

  yayami520

  78/100
  Gentle Redemption in the Supernatural World

  

  "Kaya-chan Isn't Scary" uses a kindergarten as its setting, cleverly blending supernatural horror with childlike innocence and healing to create a unique narrative charm. Knowing that the manga's author was a kindergarten teacher makes it easier to understand the delicate childlike perspective and gentle undertones in the work, making the emotions and details of the entire piece even more convincing.

  The most touching aspect of the work lies in its precise capture of the inner world of children. The protagonist, Kaya-chan, may seem mischievous and rebellious, but she silently protects her companions with her innocent body. Her loneliness from being misunderstood, her courage in facing the supernatural, and her pure desire to protect others are all portrayed realistically. The author's long-term experience interacting with young children makes their words, actions, emotions, and logic exceptionally vivid, avoiding both forced adultification and childish shallowness, allowing childlike innocence to become a force against darkness.

  In terms of atmosphere creation, the work strikes a good balance, avoiding reliance on gore and sensationalism, instead using everyday details to build suspense. Warm school interactions are interspersed within tense supernatural events, with horror and healing alternating in a well-paced rhythm. The story, cloaked in the guise of ghost stories, revolves around the themes of understanding, companionship, and redemption. It portrays the purity and vulnerability of the childlike world while also reflecting the prejudice and indifference of the adult world, offering both entertainment and food for thought.

  However, the work also has noticeable shortcomings: the early episodic episodes are somewhat slow-paced, the world-building and ability settings are only briefly explained, and the supporting characters are relatively underdeveloped, leaving room for improvement in overall quality. But these flaws do not detract from its merits. The author, with the patience and empathy of an educator, imbues the characters with warmth and soul, giving the horror story a healing power.

  In conclusion, Kaya-chan Isn't Scary is a distinctive and emotionally sincere work. Through the unique perspective of a kindergarten teacher, the author combines childlike innocence with ghost stories, conveying themes of protection and acceptance within a supernatural narrative. It is not only an entertaining fantasy story but also a gentle response to growth and loneliness, worthy of careful appreciation.

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