Gingitsune is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Sayori Ochiai. The manga's story is about Makoto Saeki, the daughter of a shrine priest who can see the shrine's messenger, Gintaro. It follows the everyday lives of the two as a go-between for the gods and humans. The manga was first serialized in Shueisha's Ultra Jump magazine in June 2009 and has been compiled into 14 volumes. A sound novel of the manga has been released by Pony Canyon in Japan in 2010 and an Anime adaptation was released by Diomedéa on October 6, 2013.
Plot
Makoto Saeki is the daughter of a shrine priest in a small InariShinto shrine dedicated to the God Ukanomitama. When she was 4 years old, her mother died and she inherited an unusual gift called The Sight, allowing her to see the Shrine's Heralds. She met the messenger of the god Inari, an anthropomorphic fox named Gintaro, during the funeral, and he declared her as the fifteenth generation heiress. Gintaro can see a short glimpse into the future and can find lost things despite being rude and unmotivated, but still develops a good friendship with Makoto. As she is the only girl who can see the spirit, both of them decide to be a go-between for the gods and humans as they try to help those who come to the shrine.
The Manga was first published as a one-shot manga by Sayori Ochiai back in March 2008 to June 2008 in Shueisha's Ultra Jump magazine. It was then green-lit into a full manga series by the author with its first chapter published in June 2009, compiling it into 14 volumes.
Light novels
Audio drama
An audio drama of the manga is released in collaboration with Shueisha and Pony Canyon in 2010 under the VOMIC label. The voices of the drama includes Kanae Itō as Makoto and Toshihiko Seki as Gintarō.
Anime
The May issue of Shueisha's Ultra Jump officially announced the anime adaptation of the manga which was released on October 6, 2013. Diomedéa animated the series with Shin Misawa serving as the director, Hiroshi Yamaguchi as the series writer and both Mayuko Matsumoto and Naomi Ide as the character designers. Tatsuya Katou composes the music for the anime adaptation. The opening theme song "tiny lamp" is performed by Fhána and the ending theme song "Gekkou Story" is sung by Screen Mode. The opening single was released on November 23, 2013. Video streaming site Crunchyroll also announced that they will stream the anime under the name Gingitsune: Messenger Fox of the Gods. The anime has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks.
Episode list
Reception
Stig Høgset from THEM Anime Reviews praised the series' character designs for being "well-designed and well-animated" and for tackling serious topics outside of its lackadaisical tone, despite the conflicts being "overreactions made for dramatic purposes rather than realistic drama." He concluded by putting it alongside Natsume's Book of Friends as a good companion piece, calling it "relatively light and enjoyable entertainment with enough substance to not just be empty calories, and an appropriately sweet ending episode that leaves a possibility and a desire for more." Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network reviewed the complete anime series in 2015. While finding criticism in the awkward character animations, misplaced musical score in places and lack of cultural notes about shrines, Silverman praised the series for its charming and believable characters, elegant backgrounds with distinctive shrine designs and for being informative on Shintoism, concluding that "Gingitsune is a charming gem of a show. It isn't action-packed or even particularly continuous in terms of plot, but it is warm and cozy and worth a visit to the Saeki Shrine."
