The Helpful Fox Senko-san

AustinDR Jun 26, 2019

8.5

Another show that provides you with the warm fuzzies. The show revolves around salaryman Nakano and his stressful life. One day, a fox girl named Senko appears in his apartment and for whatever reason, she wanted to pamper him as a means of destroying the darkness that was manifesting. The series starts out with a rather simplistic: Nakano gets stressed, and Nakano gets pampered by Senko. Or, you would have a fellow fox girl Shiro who would often show up to cause mischief. What I can say though is that it is not all the series has to offer. The later episodes get more into why exactly Senko is so devoted to pampering Nakano which stems from some actual trauma on her part. Once you find out what it is, it reevaluates everything that you thought you knew about the show. It stems from that human side of us that wish that we did something differently, we would've gotten different results. So in short, it starts off formulaic, but later becomes more poignant the more you know Senko. The opening and ending themes oozed with warmness and they are also very much of an earworm. It only further adds onto the tone of this being a feel good anime. As for the animation, it also reflects well with the premise. The character designs look soft and cuddly. The backgrounds often look gorgeous, particularly in the remaining episodes. My only complaint is that with the Spirit World that Senko comes from...it could've been more outstanding. It felt lacking in depth aside from there being clouds and screens that would appear whenever Lady Sora or Shiro would be peering through to see how Senko was holding up on Earth. For something like the Spirit World, I felt that the animators could've done more to make it look grand, but otherwise, no complaints on animation. Lastly, characters. Nakano starts off as your typical downtrodden salaryman who gets yelled at by his boss or often is made to sleep in the office whenever he had to work overtime. But despite all of that, he is a good man. When Senko first comes into his life, he was unwilling to allow Senko to pamper him to a degree and later feels that he should do something in return for Senko's service. His relationship with Senko is also adorable. He gradually saw her as important to his overall life, and cares deeply for her. His attraction towards her tail is also hilarious with Senko allowing him to fluff it for a majority of the episodes' runtime. Senko herself is a nice 800 year old fox demigod who volunteers to "cure" Nakano of the darkness due to some tie to his family. She is adorable; doting; and immensely determined. It isn't until later on in the anime where you get more into her reasons for helping Nakano, and it comes off as largely tragic. Just the fact that she wanted nothing in return for all of the care that she showers on Nakano is simply noble.  Other characters such as Shiro and Kouenji also add a nice touch to the story. Shiro is a fox girl who is often self-absorbed because of how she takes great pride in her status and can often be childish and absolutely loves trolling others. But beneath that, Shiro truly does care for others such as with Senko. Kouenji is a university student who is Nakano's neighbor. She also comes off as bubbly and gets adorably excited over subjects that she enjoys. Her relationship with Shiro is odd, but at the same time kind of endearing. There was lastly Lady Sora/Yozora who serves as the two fox demigods' boss, but ironically is probably no bigger or slightly taller than both of them. She is seductive, flirtatious, and has this mysterious aura to her. As the anime reached its end, I was even suspecting her of being the show's main antagonist but in what way, I did not know. The only downside is that she is the least developed out of a relatively small cast, where I felt that there should've been more to her than what we had gotten. Overall, The Helpful Fox Senko-san is one of those shows that while lacking in an overarching story nevertheless makes up for it by objectively being a cute show that anyone can watch when they're feeling down. 

TornRose Aug 2, 2019

9.5

It's not very often that an anime or any piece of art pulls at my heart like Senko-san. Just the fact that in 12 episodes this anime was able to make me fall for every character shows exactly what I mean. Typically in a SOL there isn't that much of a story, usually each episode provides a new story in the characters life. While that is true here, you could tell from the very first few moments that this is more than just your stereotypical fan service slice of life anime. Instead every episode provides something new to the ending conflict, which resolves in a very beautiful but expected way. Even then for the first time in years when approaching the ending I got filled with that "what if?" There was one other thing that caught my attention. Besides the few people introduced at Nakano's work as well as his mother, father, and grandmother, we only know five characters. Nakano and Koenji are the two humans, meanwhile Senko, Shiro, and Yozora are the three foxes. This works perfect for a 12 episode anime. You're not constantly introduced to new characters every episode and when the three not introduced in episode one come in, you already have an idea who they are. Overall this anime makes you really feel like apart of the universe. You feel for each character. Nakano and Koenji are very relatable characters to the average anime fan, and that really helps make the viewer feel apart of the world.  For a slice of life, the story is great, but somewhat expected. 8/10 There isn't really any points where the animation can show off its capabilities. Shiro opening the gate in front of Nakano as well as the ear and tail movements shows how great the animation truly is. 9/10 The sound is very beautiful and the music helps portray exactly what emotion should be felt. The happy upbeat music also gave me a DDLC vibe, even though the two are completely unrelated. Also the voice actors really gave the characters justice, both the the sub and the dub were done with such emotion to give each character their own personality. 10/10 for sound and characters. Overall 9.5/10 This is by far the best SOL I've ever seen (I may be a little bias towards the kitsunes) and I felt like I was constantly comparing it to the likes of Koboyashi. While that anime is dragons instead of foxes it has the same premise and feel as senko. Both are amazing anime, but I feel like this beats out koboyashi but not by much.

viper1z2z3z Sep 2, 2019

7

The story-play is quite fast and doesnt make much sence unless you follow along perfectly however it does provide plenty of good feels. Its fast story keeps the viewer intrigued and constatly watching or they might miss something while at the same time providing a fairly decent story in the background. The character where pretty well made with thier emotions and thier sence of "being" but the characters are sexalized quite a bit expecially when its uneeded.