Fox Mask – Top Foxes in Anime
Animals hold a special role in anime. From anthropomorphic side characters in Dragon Ball who pretty much seemed like needed a bit of explanation to Anbu of Naruto who seem to wear fox masks as part of their uniform. In this article, we are going to talk about the latter, the fox and its most popular depictions in anime.
Before anything else, here is a little backstory about the fox. If you have been to Japan then you might have noticed a few statues of the fox in temples beside big red gates. These are depictions of the Inari foxes who are said to protect food from the evil fox counterpart, the kitsune. How the fox became so popular in Japanese role continue to puzzle most scholars. But one thing is for sure, their influence and popularity cannot be denied. The fox shows up on food names, on fox masks in plays, and even in the recent urban legends.
Without any further ado, here are the most famous foxes in anime.
Fox Mask Tales – Rukawa from Slam Dunk
Rukawa is the sworn rival of the main protagonist Sakuragi in the popular sports anime Slam Dunk. Though never directly depicted as such, Rukawa would often be imagined, and identified, by Sakuragi as a fox with ears and a tail. Sakuragi has good reason to hate Rukawa, from their play on the court to love, they have always been at odds with each other. And Rukawa, much to the annoyance of Sakuragi, would always win.
Kitsune, the evil fox, is a famous fox in Japanese folklore known for its propensity to trick humans in order to do bad things to them. Sakuragi might be likening Rukawa to this fox as he might not be able to believe in Rukawa’s ability except that he might be a trickster. How else is he able to sway the Sakuragi’s love interest, and beat him so easily in the game of basketball. The proud eyes of Sakuragi could only come up with one explanation. Rukawa must be cheating like Kitsune who is so fond of mischief.
Fox Mask Tales – Kitsune from xxxHolic
Without even any attempt to mask his name, Kitsune is one of the depicted fox spirits in the ghost hunting series xxxHolic. He is one of the two foxes that are prominent in the series. The other one is the fox which is taking charge of the Fox Oden Cart. Kitsune looks like a normal fox forced inside human clothes. He is also seen wearing kimono, in the series, under a black apron. And to round up his look, he wears granny glasses to look like the fox John Lennon.
His fur color is a shade of orange and covers the entire body except the tip of his tale which is colored white. Part of his mystique in the series is selling Oden but only to people that can actually see his shop. Being a spiritual creature, rarely does he have any customers but always seem ready to serve the main character whenever he stumbles upon the cart. He is a close acquaintance of Yuko and had served him Oden.
Fox Mask Tales – Nora Gitsune from One Piece
Nora Gitsune, or can also be spelled Kitsune is a character with fox-like traits in One Piece. The weird looking fox, attributed to its curly mustache and the top hat he wears has been taken in by the Fake Straw Hats crew as a pet. He was supposed to be the counterpart to Tony Tony Chopper, the doctor aboard the main characters’ ship. Little did the fake crew know that aside from mistaking the kind of animal they are taking in, which is a fox, while Chopper is a dear, they also did not realize the ability of Chopper or Nora Gitsune himself.
Nora Gitsune is has been seen biting people a lot and was working with fake Robin.
Fox Mask Tales – Yukikaze Panettone from Dog Days
The cute fox girl of the Dog Days series is named Yukikaze Panettone. She is often seen working with Brioche d’Arquien. As a member of the Biscotti Knights Secret Squad, she is part of the Bisciotti Army.
Her name, Yukikaze Panettone, as random as it seems actually perfectly depicts the character. Yukikaze means snowy winds where the snow can mean the perfect fair skin of the character and the wind can be attributed to how quick she is in combat. Panettone is a kind of sweet bread that she is fond of in the series.
She is a very good soldier too and has displayed amazing dexterity with the bow and arrow along with several other weapons. She has been seen to fight bare fist and uses her quickness to her advantage at several situations.
Yukikaze has been portrayed as a beautiful blond with deep blue eyes. Her fox-like features are seen as fox ears and tail. She is a revered soldier and is put in high regard by her comrades in battle.
Fox Mask Tales – Tomoe from Kamisama Kiss
This lovely story is centered around the main protagonist Nanami Momozono. She has been so unlucky and is left complete debts by his father who is a constant gambler. While she has lost most of her home without a penny to her name, Nanami is determined not to remain crying.
This allowed her to wait out the rising tide and meet a very mysterious man named Mikage. The man, seeing the girl’s predicament offered the girl his home. Nanami Could not believe her luck and rushed to the location only to find a small shrine there. She thought it was all a prank, Tomoe appears in front of him complete with fox ears and tail which could mean that he is actually a fox spirit tasked to guard the shrine. Tomoe is a former familiar of Mikage.
The rest of the series depicted Nanami as she tries to cope living out his highschool days as both a student and the new Land God. She gets to know Tomoe much better throughout the series.
Tomoe is the perfect picture of a fox demon. He is pretty, cunning and a bit mischievous. His charms easily sway the women of the series though she remains dutiful and bound to his god, Nanami. It was later revealed how he starts to accept Nanami as he starts breaking down his walls to let her in.
Fox Mask Tales – Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files
The ghost fighter series is one of the first series to successfully capture the hearts and minds of kids in depicting the world of the yokai – or demons. It revolves around the story of a young delinquent – Yuusuke Urameshi. In the first few episodes, he is seen trying to save a boy from being hit in the car. Though he is able to save the child, he himself was about to die. This did not sit well with the gods who believe that such a selfless act would be completely out of character for him. Thus, they did what any logical god would do, offer him his life in exchange for a few impossible tasks.
Yuusuke is joined by fellow delinquent Kazuma Kuwabara and the spirits Hiei and Kurama. As the heading suggests, we are going to focus on Kurama which is told in the series to be the fusion between man and the Kitsune spirit. Kurama is seen to be quite beautiful even for a boy. He has delicate features that would make one easily mistake him for a woman as Kazuma would attest to. Like most of the foxes depicted in anime, he is like the others – cunning, sly and charming.
As a depiction of a mainly forest spirit, his powers are seen to be centered around the same idea as well. He wields a whip made of thorns and can turn into the fox god himself if needed be. He is affectionate and becomes a very powerful member of the team and one trusted completely by Yuusuke.
Fox Mask Tales – Shippo from InuYasha
The story of InuYasha revolves around Kagome, a highschooler who has been dragged down the rabbit hole to find the weird world where InuYasha resides. Because Kagome holds the Shikon jewel which has the ability to grant any wish, she finds herself in a whole lot of ever since stepping into the magical world. Earlier in the series, this jewel shatters and it is then up to the crew she assembled to retrieve each one of the shard pieces. The party includes InuYasha, Kagome, a perverted monk, a demon slayer and of course, Kitsune, and as the name suggests, is the proverbial yokai.
Shippo is the first member of the group after Kagome and InuYasha. His father has been killed by the evil that is after Kagome and as such decides to take their side in a mission for revenge. Shippo has the abilities of Kitsune from the japanese folklore – mainly the ability to shape shift.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
