狐(きつね)(Foxes) are…foxes. Yep, it’s that simple.
However…Japan has this thing. This thing where regular animals become Youkai for some reason. The foxes became their own category of Youkai…and the word for fox made its way to the West to refer to just the mythological/folkloric creature.
Among Japanese mythological creatures, the kitsune are probably my favorite. This is mostly because, in the primary world, I like foxes…but their stories area also quite funny.

I don’t remember very well, but I think there’s something similar to the Kitsune in Mieruko-chan.

I’ll have to check again later.

• Some choice links from Youkai.com
  • Sesshō seki
  • Ōji no kitsune - The story here is personally one of my favorites.
  • Yōko
• At some point I connected the Kitsune to the succubi due to a few superficial similarities. To be fair, I’ve connected Sirens to them as well.
• I checked the Encyclopedia of Japanese mythology to see what was written about them and, to my surprise…there isn’t actually that much. In fact, Tamamo-no-Mae doesn’t have her own entry despite…y’know, rock.