kilrazan

This is one of those feel-good shows that has very little in the way of substance, and is entirely just centered around being a relaxing and enjoyable moment. It fits into a similar role as shows like "How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?", where the story is secondary to the main goal of encouraging people who might be leading sedentary and/or stressful lifestyles. As such, every episode ends with a clip wherein the viewer is addressed directly.

Story: As I said, there's really not much to go with here as a primary story focus. The Main Character is a down-trodden salaryman who works far too much and far too hard, and is stressed to the point of breaking. Senko is a deity-like Kitsune girl - one of 3 shown over the series - who decides to step down from the Kitsune-girls' heavenly realm into the mortal world and pamper the MC by cooking his meals and letting him relax. We follow his daily life with her as he goes through various struggles and seasonal events, and we also get to see a relationship build with his neighbor and the other two Kitsune-deities. Overall, this is very much an episodic slice-of-life type story where, aside from the first and last episodes, basically anything in the middle can be watched out of order as their own encapsulated stories rarely involve a previous episode beyond surface-level references. 6/10; Absolutely not bad at all... just not really much of an actual story to tell.

Animation: The visual style is clearly designed to reflect the intended mood of the show - everything feels soft and playfully colorful, as if vaguely hinting at a more child-oriented audience as a way of letting the viewer know this is absolutely a no-serious-business zone. There's nothing that stands out as particularly spectacular, and many episodes have long sequences where the characters don't move much, but that's not a bad thing - again, it fits the theme perfectly. 8/10; I want to fluff the tail, too.

Sound: While the opening is an earworm in its own right, nothing about this OST stands out as particularly interesting, and I feel that it's intentional in the same way as the Animation category. Everything is just supposed to encourage the mood and calm the viewer, so having a standout musical piece that draws attention to itself would be counterproductive. 8/10; Very much one of those "If you've done something right, nobody will notice you've done anything at all" situations.

Characters: The obvious focus of the show, and a clear standout category. Each character is memorable, has an interesting and unique design (aside from the MC, who is clearly intended to be bland so the viewer can use him as a stand-in), and they all have clearly defined motives and desires. As stated, the MC is about as standard as they come in terms of visual design, but despite this, he is able to present a clear personality and does an excellent job of setting the tone for the situations he gets into. No funny business with this character means no confusion for the viewer - this is a show about relaxing and letting go of the stress of work, no ecchi or hyperactive nonsense. Senko serves as an excellent caricature for allowing the MC to let go of his stress; she is just childish enough to be fun and playful and pull off the innocent/cute aesthetic, but is clearly non-sexualized and serves a more motherly role than anything else. 9/10; Absolutely perfect for this type of show

Overall: This isn't a drama that will make you feel heavy emotions. This isn't an epic story that you will remember for the rest of your life. This isn't even a playful and up-tempo mood booster. What this is, is a show you watch to de-stress after a hard day. A show you watch right before bed to get yourself wound down and fall asleep thinking happy thoughts. And in that context, it's a damn-near perfect presentation of that role. 8/10; I need a Senko-san of my own.