Love-sick shapeshifting fox Kitsune returns, with another plan to woo Shinobu.

This time the diminutive critter views a film (at the fox cinema) in which a fox turns a human woman into a fox for a night when she eats a magic nut. So Kitsune sets out to feed Shinobu the very same nut. However he’s forgotten where she lives. So he turns into Sakura to get Onsen-Mark to tell him the way to her house. Onsen-Mark is very drunk and very love-sick himself and actually thinks the tiny, fox-eared Sakura he sees before him is Sakura. He soon passes out though, and fter burying the unconscious Onsen-Mark under a pile of leaves, the dogs appear that were attacking him when Sakura saved him, and chase Kitsune. This time though, it is Kotatsu Neko makes the save, but Kitsune accidentally leaves his magic nuts behind.

TROUBLE.

As you may have guessed, if you’ve been following these episode write ups, these nuts are going end up eaten by everyone… Cunningly “disguised” as Shinobu, Kitsune gets Lum and Ataru to take him to Shinobu’s house claiming “I’ve forgotten where I live”. Shinobu is pleased to see Kitsune, but discovers he’s lost he nuts. It also becomes clear at this point that Kitsune can only talk to humans when disguised as one, as he turns into Lum and Ataru to tell them the fox as lost his nuts.

To Ataru’s surprise, even after learning that the nuts will turn her into a fox, Shinobu agrees to help look for them. However their search is in vain, until they run across Kotatsu Neko and Cherry making a stew… Everyone tucks in and soon, Shinobu, Lum, Ataru, Cherry and Kotatsu Neko have all turned into foxes and start floating away. Then as the smell of the stew spreads across Tomobiki everyone starts to grow fox ears & tails and start to frolic under the full moon.

Then we see Kitsune waking up in front of the cinema screen. Was it all a dream???

Another fantastic script from Michiru Shimada, who had also written Kitsune’s last appearance. Yuichi Endo also brings the same strong visuals, and what seems like the first time in ages the dream-like quality associated with the peak of the Oshii years.

—

Screenplay: Michiru Shimada
Storyboard: Naoyuki Yoshinaga
Director: Naoyuki Yoshinaga
Animation Director: Yuichi Endo

Related posts:

1. Lum-A-Day 122 – The Fox’s Unrequited Love
2. Lum-A-Day 127 – Where is Love’s Home? Kuriko and Chojuro
3. Lum-A-Day 074 – Ghost Story! Old Man Willow!

This is an unbelievably sweet episode. And it introduces a new recurring character.

When Shinobu saves a fox from being beaten up by some dogs (she does this by swing a telegraph pole at them), the fox develops a huge crush on her, seeing her as the heroine in an action film he once saw. So he tries to find her and pay her back for her kindness. However it doesn’t quite go right. When Shinobu can’t afford the make-up she wants, the fox puts the make up in her bag as a present, but only ends up getting her accused of shoplifting.

He does manage to get her umbrella back to her when she leaves it at the shop. And when she throws the flowers she was taking to class in order to beat up Soban, he recovers them and puts them in a vase on Onsen-Mark’s desk. However he’s also left little fox foot prints everywhere.

But that’s OK, because “Ataru” appears to clean them up. For this fox has shape-changing powers, unfortunately they are a little incomplete as he remains the same size, and retains his fox ears, tail and his little dot eyes and nose. So this little Ataru tries to clean up the footprints but keeps leaving more. When other class members arrive, they are so shocked they fetch Onsen-Mark. Who is also shocked as this Ataru is so polite.

Then the Headmaster arrives, and for reasons unknown cannot find his glasses (Kotatsu Neko is wearing them). He thinks this is the real Ataru and compliments Onsen-Mark on turning him into a model student. Eventually the real Ataru arrives and the truth is revealed, but Shinobu points out that the fox is just trying to pay her back. She thanks him and he goes off, his debt paid, never to be seen again…

Until a tiny fox-eared Onsen-Mark arrives to teach the class!

This may be a perfect Urusei Yatsura episode. The first half captures the melancholic, nostalgic sweetness at the heart of the anime, and the second half in the class is full of the escalating insanity that comes from the manga. It also helps that it looks fantastic, lots of great shots and a trademark crazy running sequence when Soban appears.

The fox, Kitsune is voiced by Masako Sugaya, who also voiced the very similar character, O-shima, in episode 52.

—

Screenplay: Michiru Shimada
Storyboard: Kazuo Yamazaki
Director: Kazuo Yamazaki
Animation Director: Yuichi Endo

Related posts:

1. Lum-A-Day 134 – I Dearly Need You! Return of the Honest Fox!
2. Lum-A-Day 116 – Love and War! Battle of Glove vs. Pants!!
3. Lum-A-Day 075 – And Then There Were None