Love-sick shapeshifting fox Kitsune returns, with another plan to woo Shinobu.
This time the diminutive critter views a film (at the fox cinema) in which a fox turns a human woman into a fox for a night when she eats a magic nut. So Kitsune sets out to feed Shinobu the very same nut. However he’s forgotten where she lives. So he turns into Sakura to get Onsen-Mark to tell him the way to her house. Onsen-Mark is very drunk and very love-sick himself and actually thinks the tiny, fox-eared Sakura he sees before him is Sakura. He soon passes out though, and fter burying the unconscious Onsen-Mark under a pile of leaves, the dogs appear that were attacking him when Sakura saved him, and chase Kitsune. This time though, it is Kotatsu Neko makes the save, but Kitsune accidentally leaves his magic nuts behind.
TROUBLE.
As you may have guessed, if you’ve been following these episode write ups, these nuts are going end up eaten by everyone… Cunningly “disguised” as Shinobu, Kitsune gets Lum and Ataru to take him to Shinobu’s house claiming “I’ve forgotten where I live”. Shinobu is pleased to see Kitsune, but discovers he’s lost he nuts. It also becomes clear at this point that Kitsune can only talk to humans when disguised as one, as he turns into Lum and Ataru to tell them the fox as lost his nuts.
To Ataru’s surprise, even after learning that the nuts will turn her into a fox, Shinobu agrees to help look for them. However their search is in vain, until they run across Kotatsu Neko and Cherry making a stew… Everyone tucks in and soon, Shinobu, Lum, Ataru, Cherry and Kotatsu Neko have all turned into foxes and start floating away. Then as the smell of the stew spreads across Tomobiki everyone starts to grow fox ears & tails and start to frolic under the full moon.
Then we see Kitsune waking up in front of the cinema screen. Was it all a dream???
Another fantastic script from Michiru Shimada, who had also written Kitsune’s last appearance. Yuichi Endo also brings the same strong visuals, and what seems like the first time in ages the dream-like quality associated with the peak of the Oshii years.
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Screenplay: Michiru Shimada
Storyboard: Naoyuki Yoshinaga
Director: Naoyuki Yoshinaga
Animation Director: Yuichi Endo