Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san

Senko-san is a heartwarming and cozy slice-of-life anime that is perfect for anyone looking to unwind and relax after a long day. The show follows the daily life of a hardworking salaryman named Nakano, who is visited by a fox spirit named Senko-san. Senko-san is tasked with taking care of Nakano and making sure he's happy and comfortable.

What I love about Senko-san is how it manages to strike a perfect balance between humor, relaxation, and emotional depth. The show's gentle humor and lighthearted moments are a great way to unwind, while the more emotional scenes provide a touching look at the relationship between Nakano and ... Senko-san.

The animation and art style of Senko-san are also top-notch, with beautiful backgrounds and character designs that help to create the show's cozy and comforting atmosphere.

Overall, I highly recommend Senko-san to anyone looking for a relaxing and heartwarming anime experience. And like many fans, I hope that the show will get a second season soon so we can continue to enjoy the charming adventures of Nakano and Senko-san.

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 manga's artistic style is fine, but if I had to choose between the manga and the anime...
I would pick the anime's style over the manga on the account of how much cleaner it looks.

Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san is NOT a manga or anime I would recommend.
Why? Because there is an extremely problematic element regarding Nakano and Senko's relationship and (by extension) most of the relationships in this story with exception to maybe his friendship with Koenji: pedophilia.

You can tell me over and over again until you're blue in the face that Senko is 800+ years old and when it comes to the culture ... of the gods, pedophilia might not be an issue, but that doesn't change the fact that the creators of this story thought it was a good idea to have the waifu in this look like a LITTLE GIRL. In fact, it's admitted in both the manga and the anime (when they first meet Koenji) that (as far as Senko goes) she's BOTH the WIFE AND THE MOTHER.

If I didn't know any better, I'd strongly believe that this was a male's fantasy story to an extent (which I can believe if you look at the artist's notes): coming home from a hard day at work and bringing in the bread to his wife who's not only beautiful and (dangerously) young, but is pampering him to his heart's content. With as young as Senko LOOKS (NOT IS), there is a disturbing implication: a child bride/wife.

Add the fact that all of the girls are young in some degree with the fact on how (at least two) of them dress, and it's only adding fuel to the fire. Sure, I've seen it common in stories from Japan to use sexiness as a joke, but when girls under the age of consent are seducing older men (in this case, Nakano) for any reason, you've got a problem.

I used to love this series for the hurt/comfort element and how sweet it was Senko just wanting to do something nice: on reflection, hurt/comfort one of my favorite genres. However, the underlying pedophilia ruins this series for me, and that sucks because Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san could've been something better.