Shinano (Wataya Miho) works as a character designer for a Japanese animation company. Miserable and disconnected, she worries she has been possessed by a fox spirit. Not simply any spirit either, but Koyami: a mocking and excessively critical character that she designed herself. As she slips further into depression and loneliness, Shinano begins to be overwhelmed by the characters she created coming to life around her.

Foxing: Kitsuné-tsuki is a 14-minute anime short directed by Shinozuka Takeru. Despite the production backing of industry giant Toei Animation, it remains an intimate and very personal-feeling work. There is a sketchy, hand-drawn aesthetic to the animation that belies current trends for computer-generated and enhanced imagery, and it is precisely that personal style that allows the fit to hit its desired emotional beats.

Shot by shot the film is shrouded by an ever-encroaching darkness, which is a visual technique that I do not recall seeing before and is remarkably effective. It casts a claustrophobic blanket over Shinano’s emotional crisis, and transforms her colourful fantasy creations into bleak, rather menacing monsters. Shinozuka uses these visual techniques to hone in effectively on the film’s allegorical themes of depression. Or are they entirely allegorical? Shinano’s encounters with her own creations step maybe a little further than a symbolic representation would, and there is a tantalising suggestion of something a little more fantastical. Of course this is a short film with limited space for story; in this case a taste of something greater is all we get.

Particularly effective is the film’s conclusion, which reaches something much closer to acceptance than escape. As someone who has managed clinical depression issues for much of my life, it is an ending that resonates powerfully. It has a welcome ring of truth.

I am incredibly fond of anime short films, because most often they are an avenue for experimentation: a testing-out of artistic and narrative ideas, produced in a safe format that does not have to be concerned with commercial popularity or popular success. Foxing: Kitsuné-tsuki explores such ideas, and brings with it strong voice acting by Wataya – a 12-year veteran of the anime scene – and a quiet, evocative musical score by Sakaguchi Daisuke. It all suggests interesting things from Shinozuka Takeru in the future.

Foxing: Kitsuné-tsuki screened at the Fantasia Film Festival on Saturday 18 July 2026. For more information, click here.