“The Fox’s Modern Makeover”

The nine-tailed fox started as a beast said to eat people. Today she cooks dinner for tired office workers, rules a fox kingdom, and falls in love across lifetimes. This episode auditions three modern fox roles from Korean drama, Japanese anime, and Chinese romance and animation, then keeps a ledger for each: what the makeover keeps from the old fox, what it drops, and what it adds. It asks one question of every retelling: who is hiring the fox this time? Episode 16 of an animated series exploring East Asian fox legends, with the sources checked.