Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san

Such a great show to watch. I remember how relaxing and comfortable this show can be. I think this show is worth a shot and if you are a slice of life watcher you will definitely like this show. The story is very understanding and there are moments you probably wouldn't expect which adds to this overall anime. I very much recommend this show and the characters all have they're moments too! Give this show a watch because even if you are on the fence with slice of life I believe this show will not disappoint! All of this show can be watched quickly so ... I recommend watching one a day cause this show is truly wonderful to see for the first time.

tl;dr: An anime that’s very relaxing, though at time too much to the point it’s kind of boring.

This anime is one that’s purely slice of life centered around being relaxing. There’s a bit of light drama here and there, but there isn’t really much substance to it, at least as far as the anime gets. There’s some romance too, but that too is pretty minimal with nothing like relationship development beyond setting up the initial premise. There’s comedy throughout as well, though surprisingly I felt this aspect too wasn’t all that common, and thus I don’t really consider this a comedy anime either.

And thus we’re ... left with the slice of life aspect. There are other characters that have some presence, but the anime is very heavily centered around Nakano, an office worker who has a job so terrible that the stress from it is causing some sort of dark miasma to develop around him, and Senko, a fox deity that has come to pamper him in order to diminish his stress. There’s some variety to how this goes, such as in that it may involve other characters or there may be some event that initiates things, but in the end it usually comes down to Senko taking care of Nakano in various wholesome ways, ranging from cooking for him, giving him a massage, playing games with him, etc. Nakano himself is pretty much a blank slate self insert character for those feeling the weight of the daily white collar job grind who never really does anything of note and is thus hard to get invested in, but him being such a character allows Senko’s bright personality and kindness to shine through well so the overall dynamic is solid.

Ultimately, I would say that it does what it’s trying to do well, in that it does have a very relaxing feel. But at the same time, I felt that just that wasn’t enough to hold up the anime, and it overall started feeling like too much of the same thing. If there was a bit more of an overarching plot, if Nakano had more of a personality, if there were more characters and they had more of an impact, if there was more variety and quantity with the comedy, and/or if the show was just paced faster overall, then I think the good aspects of this anime would have shined through a lot better. However, that isn’t the case, and thus the anime overall felt pretty slow, even straight up dull at times.

The art and animation were pretty solid but not particularly exceptional. The character designs were also good for the three fox deities, though it wasn’t particularly good at using all of them as it was overtly focused on Senko. Designs outside of that weren’t particularly notable. The OP and ED were both solid in terms of audio and visuals and fit the anime well. The soundtrack also fit well, having tracks that were both relaxing and fit the fantasy related themes, though no single track was particularly memorable.

The premise is as straightforward as this sort of thing can be. Kuroto Nakano is a single, depressed Japanese office worker perpetually stressed out by his job. Still, seeing as he lives alone, he has no choice but to struggle and push forward to sustain himself. According to the show's supernatural conceit, all of that stress, sleep deprivation, and depression inevitably takes the form of a darkness residing within the body, and once it surpasses containment level, it manifests itself externally as a sort of black smog, which not only negatively affects the people around one's self, but will also bring one's life to ruin.

Thankfully, ... the demigod servants of the Shinto gods, fox deities, always keep a watchful eye over humans. They can physically see the darkness caused by anguish and suffering and it is their duty to help people and alleviate their burdens - to save them before it's too late. As such, Senko, an 800-year-old loli foxgirl volunteers to live with Kuroto and pamper him in every way imaginable so as to relieve the tension in his weary soul.

Having aired in the spring of 2019, Senko-san is a Doga Kobo production. In terms of what they are known for, I hesitate to say they are known at all, period, but for what it's worth, they seem to generally specialize in cutesy loli shit. They're the studio being Umaru-chan, Yuru Yuri, and most notably Gabriel DropOut. While nothing stands out about Senko-san's production value, neither in terms of audio, nor in terms of video, it does its best to feel as warm and welcoming as possible. By and large, it succeeds.

In principle, Senko-san is simply meant as a wish-fulfillment show for single, older, working (mostly) men who have a hard time coping and finding a reason to keep going. It satiates a deep-seated need by providing a Tinkerbell-type substitute for a housewife in the form of an adorable foxgirl with an outlandishly fluffy tail. For the most part, that's exactly what it is.

Now that's all fine and dandy. Alas, if you've seen the poster or a trailer, you already fucking know what my problem with the show is. Alarm bells might have been ringing in your head ever since I mentioned the term "loli". You might be thinking: "Hold up, hold the fucking phone. What are you telling me here? Setting aside the supernatural trappings about 800 years and tails and what not, you're essentially saying this is a story about a 12-year-old-looking little girl moving in to live with a grown ass single man and having all sorts of physical contact with him?" Well... yes. That's exactly what it is. I mean, one can imagine a world in which this show wouldn't really be that offensive, a version of this show in which she only cooks and cleans for him, say, and otherwise just entertains him with conversation. That still wouldn't address some of the fundamental ethical concerns, but it would be a damn sight better.

Unfortunately, we do not live in that universe and we don't have that version of the show. No, we have the actual show where she has him lay his head on her lap to clean his ears, lays in the bed next to him to spoon him and help him fall asleep, changes clothing in his line of sight (though he has the decency to look away in horror - har har), they give each other massages, and they even end up bathing together, they wash each other's backs and everything.

Whenever they do have physical contact, be it her washing his back or giving him a massage, or when doing either of those to her in turn, his constant emphasis on how small her back and hands are really doesn't help.

Yeah, no, it's just as fucked up and indefensible as you think it is. Thing is, if this were real life and a fox deity that looked like a child, but was really supernatural and 800 years old and all that jazz showed up on your doorstep, yeah, fine, whatever. Let her take care of you. It is what it is. That said, this isn't real life. It's fiction. That means that as this universe's omnipotent god, Rimukoro, the manga's (yes, this is a manga adaptation - I was surprised, too) author made a conscious choice to make her be a 12-year-old girl. "Uhm, ackshually, she's 800 years ol-"; Shut up! What sane grown ass man would make the conscious choice to have their housewife substitute be a small 12-year-old girl? Why? Rimukoro had the option to make her anything he wanted. Why, then, did she turn out to be a 12-year-old girl? Be honest here, as a guy, if you had the option to be personally and closely pampered by a small, frail child versus a grown, voluptuous woman, which would you choose? Hell, I'm not even suggesting that she would have to have an anime bimbo physique. Make her flat-chested for all I care. Make her be Sakura from Naruto Shippuuden. I give two fucks. But why the fuck a child? Why the fuck not an adult?

Why is this a story about a grown ass man having inappropriate physical contact with a child? Why is this a story about a child who is not that grown ass man's daughter getting naked and changing in the same room as him? Why is anime so fucking full of this cancer? Doga Kobo's other production I'm familiar with, Gabriel DropOut, had the same problem. Despite being an infinitely better and hilarious show, it still insisted on sexualizing its main cast of 4 extremely young girls by dressing them up in all manner of suggestive clothing that you can't have me pretend isn't exactly what it is.

As if to make my point, the one thing that Kuroto really finds fascinating and attractive about Senko is her fluffy tail and ears. Well, judging by the way she reacts when he touches and fondles them, they are, to put it as bluntly as I can, such an obviously a paper-thin metaphor for genitalia, that not even the innocent mind of a child could miss that something illicit is going on. Particularly, when he fondles her ears and accidentally slips his fingers inside them and she gets mad, like, bro... could you possibly be any more transparent with your anal sex metaphor? Yeah, dude, we weren't born yesterday. We've all heard "wrong hole" jokes before. This isn't some obscure symbolism whose secrets have yet to be divined.

For what it's worth, if you manage to look past the degenerate aspects, Senko-san is a genuinely pleasant, and at times, really funny slice-of-life show. Nothing much happens, but then again, nothing needs to happen. The whole point of the anime is taking it easy and relaxing. Alas, I wouldn't call this a binge-worthy show. The novelty of the R&R wears off after a couple of episodes and the rest becomes a bit of a slog to get through.

Besides, every single episode ends on a short PoV segment where Kuroto disappears as a character and the idea is that you get to see what it's like to be him, to have Senko take care of you and talk to you. She speaks directly into the camera and reacts to silent answers the viewer is presumably giving her, like in Dora the Explorer. The camera even shakes left-right or up-down to simulate you, the viewer, shaking or nodding your head in response to Senko's queries and prompts. Ugh, I fucking hate that sort of thing with a passion. No matter how funny or pleasant each episode was, those segments always left a sour taste in my mouth at the end.

The one technical aspect of the show I feel compelled to note is that the protagonist is voiced by my favorite voice actor of all time, Junichi Suwabe. He is the voice of Grimmjow from Bleach, Greed from the original Fullmetal Alchemist, Daiki Aomine from Kuroko no Basket, Takashi Komuro from High School of the Dead, Emiya Archer from Fate, Siegfriend also from Fate, Eraserhead from My Hero Academia, etc. I won't pretend not to be disappointed to see him play a central role in a show like... this, but what can I say, Suwabe goodness is still Suwabe goodness. Alas, Kuroto admittedly doesn't have the aggressive quality of characters like Grimmjow or Aomine that Suwabe brings to life so well, so all in all, this is in no way an outstanding performance.