Japanese Mythology in Popular Culture - Kitsune

Kitsune

  • Sakura from the anime Hyper Police.
  • Kitsune is the name of a woman/legendary figure in The Veil trilogy by Christopher Golden. Kitsune usually takes the guise of a beautiful Japanese woman who wears a foxfur cloak, but is able to transform herself into a fox when the occasion calls for it. At turns Kitsune is enamored by, and adversarial of, the main character of the series, Oliver Bascombe.
  • The Pokémon Vulpix, Zorua, and the Digimon Renamon, as well as their evolutions, are based on kitsune and similar fox legends.
  • The InuYasha character Shippo is a kitsune demon. The same manga artist's (Rumiko Takahashi) earlier work Urusei Yatsura also features a fox spirit named Kitsune who becomes a loyal companion to one of the series leads, Shinobu Miyake, and can transform into "chibi" versions (with fox ears) of the other characters from the series.
  • Ran Yakumo from Touhou, Yukari Yakumo's shikigami, is also a kitsune.
  • Youko Kurama from YuYu Hakusho is a kitsune spirit living in a human body.
  • In the manga Naruto, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox Kurama, sealed within the main character Naruto Uzumaki is based on the kitsune and named after the above character. Due to becoming the fox's host since infancy, Naruto developed facial markings that resemble fox whiskers and is often mischievous. When enraged, prior to the events of the Fourth Shinobi War arc, Naruto takes on fox-like traits based on the number of tails on the fox-shaped aura that manifests over him.
  • Wagaya no Oinari-sama is an anime about a mischievous guardian kitsune, Kugen Tenko.
  • The series Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai contains a recurring female thief and friend of Usagi named Kitsune.
  • In Ken Akamatsu's manga series Love Hina, the character Mitsune Konno is nicknamed "Kitsune" due to her having fox-like eyes.
  • In the Star Fox video game series, the main character Fox McCloud was partially inspired by a kitsune.
  • Chizuru Minamoto from the light novel/anime/manga series Kanokon is a kitsune who falls in love with the main character Kouta Oyamada. Her brother Tayura and her adoptive mother Tamamo are also kitsune, the latter being based on Tamamo-no-Mae, the golden, white-faced nine-tailed fox of Japanese myth.
  • In The Legend of Zelda video game series, the Keaton race is based on kitsune.
  • In Kelley Armstrong's short story collection, Men of the Otherworld, the story "Kitsunegari" features several kitsune and a part-kitsune werewolf.
  • In Ljane Smith's The Vampire Diaries - The Return, Nightfall, the main antagonists is a couple of cruel and malevolent kitsune twins, Shinichi and Misao, who are bent on destroying the entire town for their own amusement
  • In the video game series Animal Crossing Tom Nook's shopkeeper rival, Crazy Redd, is a kitsune (opposingly as Nook himself is a tanuki). Redd is known as a trickster in the game, operating the Black Market; he will often sell the player plain objects at inflated prices.
  • In Fighting Foodons, Rose Marinade's true form is a two-tailed Kitsune.
  • A Kitsune appears in Hellboy: Sword of Storms voiced by Gwendoline Yeo. It acts as Hellboy's guide in the Japanese Mythology world.
  • In the video game Namco x Capcom, the female protagontist, Xiaomu, is a 765-year-old kitsune.
  • The PS2 & Wii game Ōkami incorporates many aspects of the Kitsune legends during the second arc of the game, including Nine-tails, fox-fire, transformation, god-like appearance of white fur, and mischievous abilities (like division and interfering during the celestial brush mode). The myth of Tamamo-no-Mae is also referenced.
  • In AdventureQuest Worlds, the 4th Lord of Chaos is named Kitsune. Kitsune is shown as an anthropomorphic fox whose desire to not have outsiders on Yokai Island. This had led Drakath into Chaorrupting him into an armored Yokai Shogun.
  • In the video game Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Kitsune are seen in the form of women carrying either a lantern or an umbrella and are spotted by the save points.
  • In Rosario + Vampire, Kuyo, the head of the Student Police (and final opponent of the first story arc), is a four-tailed Kitsune.
  • A Kitsune is featured as the "Monster of the Week" in the Super Sentai series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. It was adapted as Katastrophe, the monster form of Katherine Hillard in Season 3 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
  • In the manga/anime series Omamori Himari, the character Tama is based on the myth of Tamamo-no-Mae.
  • In the Dark Swan Series by Richelle Mead, the character Kiyo is a kitsune.

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