The Helpful Fox Senko-san

The Helpful Fox Senko-san

The Helpful Fox Senko-san anime series cover
The Helpful Fox Senko-san

Overview

The Helpful Fox Senko-san (Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san / 世話やきキツネの仙狐さん) is a slice of life anime series based on a web manga. And, surprisingly, it’s not a short form series. The episodes are actually the full 23 minutes.

As for the basic plot, there are fox spirits who occasionally come down to Earth in order to pamper humans who are overworked. In this case, Senko is the fox who comes to pamper a salary-man by the name of Kuroto Nakano.

Senko pampers Kuroto by cooking for him and cleaning his apartment while he’s at work. She also sometimes allows him to play with her ears or tail. However, later on in the series it’s implied that this sort of wholesome pampering isn’t actually how the fox spirits are supposed to relieve the stress of humans.

Senko-san making dinner from the anime series The Helpful Fox Senko-san
Senko-san making dinner

The series takes place over a roughly two-year time period and shows the daily life of Senko, Kuroto, and their few friends. Don’t expect much of a plot from this series. It really is just wholesome slice of life scenes with a small amount of drama sprinkled on top towards the end.

It even comes with a special segment after the end credits of each episode known as Super Senko Time. These segments are from a first-person perspective and allow the viewer to be pampered by Senko in a similar fashion to how Kuroto was in the episode.

Unfortunately, I don’t know if the more pure version of slice of life this series is going for works all that well. Yes, it’s still also a comedy and includes some romantic aspects, but as I mentioned, it’s mostly wholesome scenes of Senko and Kuroto living together.

Without any sort of plot or constant stream of comedy I didn’t find it to be all that engaging. This is the kind of series I wouldn’t sit down and focus all my attention on while watching. Instead, I’d watch it between rounds of games, while playing Fate/Grand Order, or while using Discord.

Characters

Senko, or Senko-san, is the focus of the series despite the fact that Kuroto is the protagonist. Think of it like how Haruhi is the focus of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, but Kyon is the protagonist. While we usually see things from Kuroto’s perspective, what we’re seeing is often Senko.

She’s an 800-year-old fox spirit who has a particular fascination with Kuroto. The reasons for this are eventually explained as the series progresses, but they don’t really matter all that much. All you really need to know is that Senko will do whatever it takes to de-stress Kuroto, even if it means letting him play with her tail.

Kuroto Nakano seems to be in his 30s and works in an office. The exact nature of his job is unknown, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that he works long hours, is constantly being asked to put in more time, and goes home to his small apartment where he lives alone at the end of the day.

That is, until Senko arrives. Kuroto has trouble allowing himself to be pampered by Senko, and always feels like he doesn’t have time to relax because work is so important. However, he always makes time if Senko allows him to touch her ears or tail.

Senko-san and Shiro-sama at the beach from the anime series The Helpful Fox Senko-san
Senko-san and Shiro-sama at the beach

Shiro, or Shiro-sama as she refers to herself, is another fox spirit who has been Senko’s friend for hundreds of years. I’m not actually sure if her age was ever revealed, but I’m fairly sure she’s either roughly the same age as Senko or a bit younger (by bit I mean 100 – 200 years younger).

Shiro is also my pick for best fox of the series. She’s more outgoing and generally more fun-loving than Senko. However, this also means she isn’t as serious (which isn’t a bad thing). Shiro is more likely to request to be pampered than to be the one doing the pampering, but somehow even this is a form of stress relief for humans.

The other human in this anime is Yasuko Koenji, a college student, mangaka, and otaku who lives in the apartment next to Kuroto. Yasuko is originally annoyed by the noise Kuroto and Senko make, but once she meet Senko her opinion of them changes.

Senko then occasionally helps Yasuko out by cleaning her apartment, something she doesn’t do herself. And, even Shiro becomes Yasuko’s friend as well. However, Yasuko doesn’t know the true nature of Senko and Shiro. She believes Senko is Kuroto’s wife and that she and Shiro are cosplayers.

The fifth and final character of the anime is Yozora, Yozora-sama, who is the head fox spirit. She’s over 1,000 years old and serves as Senko and Shiro’s boss who send them out on their missions to pamper humans. While Shiro is fine with Yozora, probably because she can’t read the room, Senko views her as evil.

However, it’s not that Yozora is actually evil. Senko just doesn’t like her because she attempts to seduce men, including Kuroto, with her four tails and large breasts. How can Senko compare to that? The answer, she can’t. Like Shiro, Yozora is also a higher-tier fox spirit than Senko.

Conclusion

Overall I gave The Helpful Fox Senko-san a 5/10. The characters were pretty decent and the anime was definitely visually appealing. But as previously mentioned, it wasn’t all that engaging. I never felt like I really had a reason to pay attention to it while watching it.

As for the OP and ED, while they were both good, I wouldn’t call them anything special. I think I prefer the OP over the ED though. It’s sung by both Senko and Shiro while the ED is only sung by Senko, so that’s already reason enough for my choice.

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