Foxing: Kitsuné-tsuki

Shinano is a character designer drifting through a monotonous routine. In the studio, her work is absorbed into a system driven by commercial value, where personal expression quietly fades into the background. On social media, she searches for connections but finds no place to belong. Her loneliness grows—not loudly, but persistently. A presence begins to linger beside her, Koyami, a fox-masked character born long ago from her casual doodles, appears before her. It teases and provokes Shinano, touching something tender beneath the surface. Its presence elicits feelings she has consciously suppressed for a long time. Soon, other abandoned characters—creations once dismissed as failures—emerge as well, gently disturbing the rhythm of her everyday life. As these figures gather, the boundary between Shinano’s creative world and reality slowly dissolves. She is drawn inward, into a labyrinth of her own mind—a space shaped by unspoken feelings and suppressed solitude. Wandering through this inner maze, she finally encounters Koyami again, alone in a small room. In that moment, she understands it is not separate from her, but a fragment of herself, a face of her loneliness. When Shinano finds her way out of the labyrinth, she makes a choice. Rather than rejecting these characters, she accepts them as part of her inner landscape. It is not an act of resignation, but a gentle resolve—to continue creating while carrying her loneliness with her. By embracing what she once tried to discard, Shinano steps forward once more, accompanied by her creations. “Foxing: Kitsuné-tsuki “is a poetic exploration of creation, isolation, and the quiet courage it takes to face one’s inner world.