Kitsune in popular culture

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The following is a list of appearances made by kitsune (Japanese foxes) in various works of popular fiction. For information on kitsune in traditional Japanese culture, please see the main article.

Embedded in popular folklore as they are, kitsune have made appearances in many contemporary Japanese works. A few Western authors have also made use of the kitsune legends. In anime, kitsune are often depicted as kemonomimi, usually as female, seductive, and fond of alcohol. Specific depictions of kitsune include:

Contents

[edit] Kitsune in television and radio

  • An episode of The X-Files is titled Kitsunegari, which is Japanese for "fox-hunt"(referring to Fox Mulder), and is discussed in that episode.

[edit] Kitsune in animation and comics

  • Shuichi Minamino — the human alias of Kurama, a main character of Yu Yu Hakusho — is the reincarnation of a kitsune thief named Yōko Kurama.
  • In xxxHolic, Watanuki eventually acquires the Kudakitsune (pipe-fox-spirit) which first appears as a furry serpent but later morphs into a more traditional Kitsune (with nine-tails). In earlier arcs, he also meets two Kitsune who sell Kitsune Oden (Oden with fried tofu) to him in exchange for a lucky arrow.
  • The series Crescent Moon by Haruko Iida and Stuart Hazleton has a demon fox named Misoka Asagi as the unofficial leader of the Moonlight Bandits.
  • The digimon Renamon and her Digivolved forms from the third season of the Digimon anime (known in Japan as Digimon Tamers) were inspired by the kitsune.
  • Shippo from InuYasha. As a nod to the shapeshifting abilities sometimes attributed to kitsune, Shippo is capable of taking many forms through use of a green leaf on his head, in the manner of the tanuki. He also has difficulty concealing his tail, as young fox-spirits often do in legends, and makes use of foxfire and illusions. Although Shippo has a human body only with fox tail and paws his deceased father had the usual appearance of the nine-tailed fox.
  • Ryutarō and his show girls from Pom Poko.
  • A shapeshifting kyūbi no kitsune named Sakura Bokuseiinmonzeninari is one of the main characters of the anime/manga series Hyper Police. Technically, she only has eight and a half tails.
  • The spirit of a kyūbi no kitsune, called the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, was sealed within Naruto Uzumaki, the main character of anime/manga Naruto. Naruto has lines that suggest fox-like whiskers on his face and has a prankster personality.
  • A kitsune named Yōko (a common Japanese feminine name, but also another word for a kitsune) is one of the main characters of the anime and manga Tactics.
  • Konno Mitsune of Love Hina is almost exclusively referred to as "Kitsune" due to her sly prankster nature, her fondness for alcohol, and her almost always closed eyes, which make her appear fox-like.
  • In Rurouni Kenshin, Takani Megumi is nicknamed "Kitsune" and even portrayed as one in some episodes by Goro Fujita (Hajime Saitou).
  • In the series Angel Tails (Tenshi no Shippo) there are two kitsune: Akane is a young benevolent guardian spirit, while her mother seeks to become a nine-tail fox and throw humans into a pit of fear.
  • The Pokémon known as Vulpix (Rokon in Japanese) and Ninetales (Kyukon) are based on the Kitsune legend. The "evolution" of Vulpix into Ninetales is a direct parallel to the change in color and abilities when a fox gains its ninth tail after a thousand years. In episode 234 (US name: Just Waiting On A Friend) in the Pokémon anime, a 200 year old Ninetales is featured which gained supernatural powers (primarily of creating illusions) by growing old.
  • One of the key allies in the anime/manga Hell Teacher Nūbē is the kitsune known as Tamamo, who has many aspects of his abilities, such as his illusion abilities and fire capabilities, similar to the classic fox creatures.
  • In the anime Cardcaptor Sakura, the spirit of the Dash Card, one of the many Clow Cards, almost resembles a one-tailed kitsune.
  • In the manga series Soul Hunter, the character So Dakki is a charmingly amusing but vapid bimbo. Her Valley Girl behavior is a cover for her true nature as an incredibly intelligent and horrendously evil fox spirit.
  • In Inukami!, Yoko, initially introduced as an Inukami (dog spirit), is actually a kitsune.

[edit] Kitsune in computer and videogames

  • In Animal Crossing: Wild World Crazy Redd, the shop-keeper of a black market in the game, is the subject of a glitch were after a while his tail splits, for a brief period of time, into two tails suggesting he was a kitsune.
  • Additionally the Pokémon Eevee and its evolutions also possess Kitsune traits of different elements.
  • In Mega Man Zero 3, there is an enemy named Kyuubit Foxtar, who is a perfect portrait of one of kitsune's trickeries; He is male (officially stated by Capcom and Inti creates, the companies that make Mega Man Zero series), but appears so feminine that people formerly mistook him as female, and even until today some people still refuse to call him a 'he'.
  • In Namco x Capcom, a crossover game of Namco and Capcom, two of the original characters, Xiaomu and Saya, are known as werefoxes, known for possessing fox ears. Xiaomu also shows the personality traits of a kitsune, as she loves alcohol, and can be portrayed as a trickster, as for Saya being rather seductive. While Xiaomu is not seductive, she portrays a flirty nature towards Reiji. It is also hinted that the two werefoxes can transform, as Benkei, a villain in the crossover, has stated that Xiaomu has chosen to take the form of a young girl to hide her age (of which, she is 765 years old).
  • In Ragnarok Online, the kitsune is featured as a powerful monster called a Ninetails and as a boss named Moonlight Flower. Also featured in Ragnarok Online is a head gear known as the Kitsune Mask.
  • Miles "Tails" Prower, the best friend and sidekick of Sonic the Hedgehog, is a two-tailed fox with the ability to fly, using his twin tails as a sort of propeller. However, beyond having multiple tails, he has none of the traditional characteristics of a kitsune.
  • In Bioware's game Jade Empire, Fox Demons such as the Forest Shadow have multiple tails and are acknowledged as notorious tricksters
  • In the Touhou series of games, Ran Yakumo, a nine-tailed fox, is the extremely powerful boss of Perfect Cherry Blossom's Extra stage, and also one of Yukari Yakumo's shikigami.
  • In Ōkami, by Clover Studio, one of the creatures under Yami is a golden fox demon called Ninetails, with the afformentioned number of tails. Ninetails killed and took the form of a human priestess and used her body to manipulate an entire nation to its near-downfall. The deception was so perfect that Ninetails even fooled the Sun God Amaterasu (the main character).
  • In the game Tales of Symphonia, Corrine, one of the many Summon Spirits, closely resembles a kitsune.
  • In the 1989 adventure game Quest for Glory I, a Kitsune caught in a bear trap appears in the forest. Upon freeing it, the main character is told sage advice which proves useful later in the game.
  • In the 2007 MMORPG Vanguard (Sigil/SOE), the Raki, are a playable Humanoid Fox race, About 3-4ft high, good spell casters, healers, Palidans, and Rouges.

[edit] Kitsune in comics and graphic novels

  • One of the two main characters of Andi Watson's comic Skeleton Key is a transplanted kitsune with a sweet tooth named Kitsune.
  • Lorelei and Issac in the webcomic Black Tapestries webcomic appear as anthropomorphic foxes (Lorelei being a werefox) and both often behave as tricksters. Lorelei is also fond of alcohol and has many personality similarities to the modern depiction of Kitsune. Kitsune are mentioned as an explanation or how Lorelei briefly ended up in our universe, as drunken student occultists try to summon a Kitsune and summon the were-fox Lorelei instead (much to her confusion and rage). It should be noticed that neither Lorelei nor Issac are "Kitsune" as they are merely anthropomorphic foxes (Lorelei not full time).
  • An issue of the Psycho Circus comic book, starring the members of the band KISS as cosmic beings, featured a story where a feudal-era samurai is trapped in a traveling circus populated by kitsune.
  • In one of Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo color specials, Usagi becomes mystically enthralled by a villainous Kitsune while Tomoe Ame realizes the situation and tries to free him. The series later features a female fox character with the stage name "Kitsune", who is simply a mortal trickster and master thief.
  • In the Perigrinations of Jadyn Tzeki, one of the main characters, Tarioshi Kitanaka, is a Kitsune.

[edit] Kitsune in film and literature

  • The story of the nine-tailed fox is told by Shuri Kurogane in Ran, Akira Kurosawa's epic retelling of King Lear. Kurogane, appalled at an order to behead Lady Sué, instead throws a stone fox head at his lord Jiro's feet and likens his manipulation by Lady Kaede to the mischief caused by a legendary Kitsune. Kurosawa's Dreams contains a segment, Sunshine through the Rain, about a boy who witnesses a kitsune wedding and thereby angers them.
  • Fantasy author Mercedes Lackey introduced kitsune characters into her SERRAted Edge novels, with the novel The Chrome Circle dealing wholly on the novel's protagonist Tannim's entanglement into the politics of a kitsune/dragon family feud. Also there is a refrence to one in her series The Five Hundred Kindoms book the Fortune's Fool
  • Larissa Lai's When Fox is a Thousand includes a marvelous retelling of the kitsune legend from the fox's point of view.
  • Hoa Pham's Vixen also tells the kitsune legend from the fox's point of view, dealing with the fox's journey from Vietnam to Australia and back again.

[edit] Kitsune in roleplaying and card games

  • In "Skinchangers", a book from White Wolf Game Studio's newer World of Darkness setting, Kitsune are again seen. They appear as a collection of varieties of different fox spirits renowned for their talents as tricksters. They are separated into the obedient servants of Inari who only trick those who deserve it (Inari Seha) and the cruel tricksters who defy their patron (Inari Kihar). There are four varieties of kitsune: kitsune ka (which remain in fox form), kitsune unu (which take on humanoid form), kitsune sedu (spirits that Claim mortals in similar manner of other spirits, and are almost invariably Inari Kihar), and siten uzu. The siten uzu are notable in that they do not possess mortals but still reside in a human's body. Almost always Inari Seha, they 'hide out' in a human for some reason (usually to escape pursuers) for the length of the mortal's lifespan. As compensation, the human is allowed to draw upon a measure of the kitsune's power. The book provides rules for siten uzu as player characters.
  • There are multiple references to Kitsune in D20 System supplements. Initially, such appearances were in creature supplements for settings inspired by East Asian folklore such as Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts by Green Ronin Publishing and Creatures of Rokugan by Alderac Entertainment Group. In 2006, the D20 System Publisher Dog Soul Publishing published Kitsunemori , a fantasy setting in which the Kitsune take center stage, including complete character generation rules for Kitsune and character classes specific to Kitsune.
  • There is a Kitsune in the Collectible Miniatures Game, Dreamblade.

[edit] Kitsune in music

  • Kitsuné Music is the name of a French record label focusing on electronic music. It is part of the Kitsuné Fashion Label created by Gildas Loaëc (Roulé) and Masaya Kuroki.
  • The Kitsune Ensemble is a group that performs music inspired by Japanese culture and history.
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