Gingitsune, like last week’s entry of Kamichu!, is a slice-of-life show focused on a high-school girl, which is sometimes described as “Shinto propaganda”. In specific, this one is focused on Makoto Saeki, currently the shrine maiden of a modest Inari shrine that’s been around since the Edo period, and the heir to the shrine-keeping family’s ability to see the heralds of the Gods. In her case, the Herald that lives at the shrine is Gintarou, a fox spirit who loves mikans and is often described as “lazy”. This is their story.
Compared to Kamichu!, Gingitsune actually has more in the way of a plot. Roughly, you could say it’s arranged into four arcs of three episodes each, though the third “arc” is just a trio of slice-of-life one-shots.
The first arc involves getting Makoto some friends. Thanks to Gintarou, she’s able to do a little fortune telling, though the results of such ceremonies are dependent on how well she relates what she’s told and how well the one receiving wisdom listens.
This causes her to botch a reading for Yumi Ikegami, who initially appears to be the show’s trashy mean girl bully. Makoto makes up with Gin after they have a little fight, and helps find a lost cat who turns out to be in Yumi’s care, revealing that she might have a softer side.
Not that such a softer side stops some bullying. After Yumi starts to get cozy with Makoto, she also fights with student council member Hiwako Funabashi. To be fair, Hiwako is excessively harsh and straight-laced (perhaps the product of a rigid and frigid home life that we see), but some of Yumi’s friends or cronies (later revealed to be more just acquaintances) start bullying Hiwako pretty badly, which only stops when Makoto happens on them, in the bathroom, getting ready to beat Hiwako up, and gets put in the line of fire for her trouble.
Which is when Yumi comes in, disowns her “friends”, and pulls Hiwako and Makoto out. The three girls have a sleep-over at the shrine, during which they work out their differences, learn to see a little more eye-to-eye, and actually become the good friends they’ll be for the rest of the show.
This shot is from a later episode. Left to right is Hiwako, Yumi, Makoto for once in her life not giving the sunniest smile in the world, and finally Satoru.
The second arc involves a new character, Satoru Kamio. He’s the same age as Makoto and pals and the heir to a different Inari shrine, but due to complicated circumstances where his family is either dead or abusive, he’ll be staying with the Saeki family for the time being.
Initially, Satoru is aloof and distant, due to his traumatic past. It’s not helped by the fact that he’s brought another guest: a small, high-strung, fox spirit Herald called Haru. She won’t go home because she’s very attached to Satoru, but she seems inclined to make trouble on his behalf (without thinking about what that really means) at the drop of a hat.
Convincing Satoru to stay rather than wandering the earth and taking on part-time jobs to pay a way that’s already been paid by his legal guardians takes an episode, with the full three being used to get emotional catharsis for both Satoru and Haru so that they’ll be comfortable in their new (if still arguably temporary) home.
Oddly enough, there’s not really any romance between Satoru and Makoto. Most shows would be pretty eager to have them hook up, or at least make doe eyes at each other for the running time, but in Gingitsune it doesn’t seem like that’s really their chemistry, at least not yet. A few adults suggest it, but Makoto seems less interested in Satoru than most of her female classmates, and Satoru has way too much baggage just being a functioning human to start picking up teen relationship drama baggage as well.
Oh, did I mention classmates? Yeah, he plays the mysterious transfer student card.
Once Satoru is settled in, we get the lower deck episodes that don’t really connect, but are at least engaging in their own right. One focuses on the gang visiting the Buddhist Temple that Yumi’s boyfriend lives at, resolving that it’s apparent haunting is due to some mischievous monkey spirit Heralds from a small shrine on the grounds that, due to being upkept by Buddhist monks for the sake of its history, has no priest who can see and communicate with them. Another is Haru’s Big Adventure, where after some kids make a mess of the Shrine and she chases them, she gets a little lost in the city.
Between those two is a lower deck episode for Hiwako, her driver (who might be falling for her, especially dangerous given that Hiwako seems to have a thing for older men), and the pest student council president who clearly has his sights set on Hiwako but to whom she does not want to give the time of day. The less said about that twerp the better, but since this is a full spoiler review I’ll say he’s a little like if you took Miyuki Shirogane, sucked out every last drop of charm and likability, and replaced all that with bull-headed arrogance. Which is to say, they only look kinda similar and are student council presidents.
In any case, once we’re done with diversions, the final arc focuses on the Summer Purification Ceremony that will be held at the shrine. It essentially consists of an episode for Satoru where his senpai in the Kendo club convinces him by force to have a friend or two and not give up on everything as easily as he does, and one for Makoto where she questions what it is that she really wants to do with her life, given that her family shrine is kind of small and wouldn’t normally have a full-time Shrine Maiden. No full answer is given, but by the end of the final episode, Makoto has at least gotten through her emotional low on the topic.
The final episode is mostly the ceremony itself. All the friends help out, all the townsfolk show up, and a good time is had by all.
And that’s where Gingitsune decides to stop. It’s a decent break point, I guess. Most of our characters have resolved their most major issues and the future is looking pretty rosy. All’s well that ends well.
And so… most of the things I said about Kamichu! also apply to Gingitsune. It’s a slice of life. It’s mostly low-key, and while the supernatural element is always present, the human element is what gets all the focus.
But I appreciate that Gingitsune has more meat on its bones. It feels more relatable as slice of life because it takes place in a believable fantasy world where miracles are small affairs and you could really imagine this going on in Earth as we know it without folks noticing provable acts of god(s). The side characters feel like they get a little more work here too. They have real issues, and address them in a realistic way. It’s a little heavier, but not so heavy that it can’t also be the sort of warm smile affair Kamichu! was.
On the whole, this means Gingitsune gets a B+ from me. It’s better, but not transcendentally better. I’ll still recommend both shows, but if you only want to watch one and you’re a little on the fence I guess I’d give the nod to Gingitsune as the stronger and more engaging overall product.