Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san is a deeply dystopian anime, in which the only way to even alleviate the stress and worries build up by Japan’s horrifying work culture is to have a cute little fox goddess willing to serve as your house wife:
Yes, this is a feel good series about an ordinary, overworked salary man coming home to find out a friendly kitsune fox goddess has adopted him to pamper like an indulgent grandmother would. The first episode is basically him adjusting to this, after first worrying she was a cosplaying neighbourhood kid who snuck in his apartment. Doga Koba, the studio responsible, has made its niche by adapting this sort of cute, fluffy slice of life manga and this was done with their usual quality. I do think though that the manga’s art style doesn’t translate to anime well, it falls a bit flat at times. The pacing is a bit off too. What are quick one/two panel sequences in the original here are dragged out a bit too long, receiving undue emphasis. What in the manga was a one panel gag about him panicking finding a cosplay wearing little girl in his house in the anime becomes a scene where he imagines himself being led away by police as a pedophile, complete with responses by his co-worker and family. It kills the joke and undermines its own premise to fill up screen time.
Because unlike the worries Vrai Kaiser put in their review over at Anime Feminist, I don’t think Senko the fox goddess is meant as a girlfriend to our overworked protagonist. Rather, she comes across to me as an indulgent granny wanting to spoil a favourite grandson. The episode isn’t particularly subtle about this either, what with several flashbacks to Nakano’s actual grandmother. Senko is there to comfort Nakano, not sexually gratify him, but the scenes Vrai Kaiser complains about, do reinforce the idea that this is one of those series.
But despite these missteps, the fantasy that Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san wants to indulge in isn’t sexual. Rather, it’s the fantasy of going back to childhood, to simpler times without the responsibilities and stress of an adult in a job that overworks you. To have somebody waiting for you, cook you dinner, pamper you. To not have to face life alone when you’re only living to work, rather than working to live. Somebody there to selflessly love you without expecting anything in return. That fits a grandmother more than it fits a lover. It’s still a very male fantasy of course, to have this no questions asked love and devotion magically appear in your life.
It’s a fitting fantasy for those salary men who have no option but to overwork themselves, trapped in the exploitative, dead end work culture of Japan. Only the interference of a benevolent fox goddes can bring them any relief and even then only temporary because tomorrow they still have to go back to work.
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