English Dub Review: The Helpful Fox Senko-San “I’ve Got A Tail Too You Know?”

Is it still a catfight if they’re both foxes?

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Nanako completes another long day of work at his computer programming job. On the train home, he idly wonders what Senko has cooked him for dinner, as well as dreaming about touching her fuzzy tail again that evening. When Nanako arrives home, however, Senko’s rival Shiro is sitting in the kitchen awaiting Nanako’s return from work. The three of them sit down for a meal, and Shiro begins by complimenting Senko’s cooking, but she quickly pivots to her true intention: to take over Sekno’s pampering duties. Nanako tries to tell her that Senko is doing a good job, but she doesn’t listen.

Shiro casts a spell on Nanako that requires him to reveal his deepest desires. It turns out that he wants to play with Shiro’s tail the same way he plays with Senko’s. This makes Senko jealous, and it makes Shiro very scared. She does not want her tail played with under any circumstances. Using her magic, she phases through the wall that connects Nanako’s apartment to Kouenji’s. Nanako’s neighbor is overworked, however, and believes that Shiro’s intrusion is first her favorite anime character and then a figment of her imagination. Shiro leaves, and Senko’s duties are hers once again.

She decides to take advantage of this victory by taking a bath with Nanako. While Nanako seems to be creeped out by this idea at first, it doesn’t take much convincing for him to agree to it. Senko begins by washing Nanako’s back, something that he very much enjoys. Then, Nanako returns the favor, but he is freaked out when he sees Senko’s waterlogged tail. The two then get in the tub together and relax. Nanako once again impresses Senko with a quotidian human trick. He squirts water at her, and the two engage in a splash fight.

After Nanako is declared the winner of the water-based battle, the pair dry off. Nanako is worried that Senko’s tail is going to be limp for good, but she comes out with an appendage as bushy as ever and he is satisfied for the time being. Senko lets him know that he is very glad that the two of them found each other, and she enjoys his company. Nanako agrees with her, and the two of them drift off to bed in each other’s arms.

Our Take

It’s official, Nanako is a tail fetishist. This entire series has been dedicated to watching Nanako get with underage fox girls for the purposes of “floofing” their tails, but it has never been so focused on until this week. With the same shaking desperation that might usually surround a foot or BDSM (or more likely the breasts vs. posterior debate straight men have been having for time immemorial), Nanako can’t keep his mind off of these tails. He has even begun to get bored with the single magical quasi-sex outlet he has and has begun to covet anyone he can find.

It is then, too, convenient all of the different opportunities that have to put Senko and Nanako in romantic situations. First, the bed only a few episodes ago, and now we are in the bath. I am sure it is merely a coincidence that showing where Senko’s tail originates (a fixation of Nanako’s this week) also affords the audience a long look at Senko’s hindquarters. I said last week that the show was getting too obvious in its loli ogling, but I have certainly spoken too soon. After this, though, I feel they have done most of the things that an anime usually does to show off their female characters in a sexual manner… oh, this means they’re going to the beach in the next couple of episodes, doesn’t it?

All of this cheap sexuality is a poor cover for the fact that they really don’t have much in the way of the story on this show. If I could be said to be looking forward to anything on this show, it’s how Senko interacts with an entire dimension of fox gods, but if they can be dispatched with the relative ease that they were this week, remind me why I’m not still reading Ranma 1/2. It’s certainly more old-school than this, but the idea of suitors being turned away by the lover’s idiosyncrasies is just a little too old a trope for me to see played this straight.

The true tragedy is that this could have been an entire episode. I’ve received no new information about fox dimension, and all I’ve learned from a character perspective is that a) Nanako is a weird sex guy (already knew that), b) Senko has the ability to get jealous (most of the last few episodes have gone out of their way to illustrate the “Born Sexy Yesterday” trope, and this comes part and parcel with that), and c) Shiro gives up incredibly easily. I don’t think we got to even see her be better at Senko at anything. What kind of conflict is created if we know that Nanako is just going to choose Senko because we have been given literally no reason to root against her?

The real problem in this episode, though, is a lack of Kouenji. She is the most interesting character on the show, and if the anime isn’t interested in interrogating its own deep lore, then the least it can do is have at least one non-woefully dependent character actually do something. Senko isn’t going to stand up for herself, she even referred to herself as a mom figure to Nanak (that plus the tail fetishism raises some decidedly Oedipal red flags).

At the end of all of this, it’s more of the perpetuation of female stereotypes, leaning on Jezebels that steal your man and the idea that women are not able to be friends. I’ve heard this song quite a few times before. I know the words, I know the steps, so I’m looking for anything that is going to set this narrative apart. With the exception of fox ears on little girls, I got nothing.