The hero in this love-comedy slice-of-life anime is Satomi Koutarou, an eccentric young man who finally found an apartment to stay in… and for cheap! With a monthly rental fee of 5000 yen (around 45-50 US bucks), the small and seemingly ordinary room 106 of Corona House is just perfect for a high school student like Koutarou. But as with any anime story, things go crazy really fast when room 106 is haunted by ghost Higashihongan Sanae, claiming she owns the room. And it gets worse! Magical girl Nijino Yurika appears in the same room saying she’s here to protect room 106 from evil magic users. And, of course, things get weirder when Kurano Kiriha, a miko from the Earth People, pops out from under the floor, laying claim to the room and planning to turn it into a shrine to stage an all-out assault against the surface-dwellers! But wait, there’s more fuel to the chaos! An extraterrestrial and princess of the Fortorthe Empire, Theiamillis Gre Fortorthe appears in room 106 as part of a trial to ascend to the throne! Koutarou, Sanae, Yurika, Kiriha, and Theiamillis are not going to surrender the room without a fight, so be it winning card games or school events, everyone is doing whatever they can to have full ownership of room 106!

As dangerous as it may sound, everyone in Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? isn’t out for blood (well, save for that attempt at blowing up the entire planet), but they have to win ownership of the room through peaceful means, or otherwise they’ll get an earful from landlady Kasagi Shizuka.

The similarities between Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? and Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san are quite subtle: The MC is living with a supernatural being and a potential romantic partner. Nakano is your average stressed out salaryman making ends meet, and his life changes for the better upon meeting Senko and there are hints in the anime showing Senko liking the idea of her being Nakano’s wife. Koutarou’s life is more hectic with him dealing with supernatural and extraterrestrial girls fighting over his room. Koutarou has allied himself with the ghost Sanae, and they eventually get along together. There are no explicit supernatural beings from Japanese folklore in Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? (maybe the depiction of ghosts like Sanae), but give Japan a few hundred years and magical girls will be part of Japanese folklore as fox girls!

Momozono Nanami is very unlucky—her father, raking in debt after debt after debt, abandons her out of nowhere and their one and only home gets taken away by loan sharks. Homeless and hungry, Nanami tries to get things sorted and her luck changes for the better after she saves a stranger from an angry dog. After hearing Nanami’s story, this mysterious man offers a home as a thank-you for saving him. With nothing much else to lose, Nanami goes to the address but finds out the place is a rundown shrine. Spirits and a fox familiar appear before her and think their master has returned. It turns out the man Nanami saved was Mikage, the land god of the shrine and he has transferred ownership of the shrine and given the role of land god to Nanami through a seal on her forehead. With her newfound power and role as a local goddess, Nanami juggles her school life, responsibilities of the shrine, and keeping her powers a secret to everyone, human or spirit.

Kamisama Hajimemashita is an adaptation of the shoujo manga of the same name, with a clumsy yet capable female lead character and a cast of beautiful men taking the role of various Japanese folklore spirits of crows, snakes and, of course, foxes. As the familiar of Nanami, Tomoe’s role is to protect his land god from evil spirits wanting to consume her powers. Apart from protecting his mistress, Tomoe provides everything for Nanami, from doing the chores and offering advice to cooking. And for a familiar with a bloody past, Tomoe can really cook delicious meals and keep the shrine clean as a whistle. Nakano may not be homeless or have problems keeping a roof over his head, but Senko fills in the same role as Tomoe. Senko can cook, gladly does any chores, and provides comfort for Nakano every time he comes home from another tiresome day at the office. And, of course, both Tomoe and Senko are the main love interest of their human companions. There’s really something about kitsune being good at almost everything, huh?

High school student Fuyuzora Kogarashi travels to the resort town Yukemori to jumpstart his way of living. From a homeless bum living in the woods to a more productive high school student, Kogarashi moves into Yuragi-sou, a resort inn complete with hot springs and beautiful scenery, and goes back to school. The good news is, the rent is cheap. The bad news? Yuragi-sou is haunted by a vengeful ghost. Thankfully, Kogarashi is a psychic and has the ability to punch spirits straight to Heaven. Upon encountering this ghost, Kogarashi was shocked to see that the ghost is a beautiful girl who is bound to the inn. The ghost girl Yuuna is a clumsy girl and not vengeful at all and the two get along just fine, and as an added bonus, they get to stay in the same room. The fun doesn’t stop there, Yuragi-sou has other beautiful tenants as well and while they’re not ghosts, each of them has supernatural powers like Kogarashi. One guy with an innate ability to lose his balance and grab girls by their panties, and an entire cast of women with supernatural powers, Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san is one fun, ecchi and bizarre harem anime.

Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san is essentially a guy living together with a bunch of hot girls with supernatural powers, and some these girls are closely based on Japanese folklore, just like Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san. Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san has ninjas, ghosts, cat deities, dragon gods, and demons. Ninjas fight evil spirits, cat deities cause mischief, dragon gods control the elements and the weather. The variety of spirits and deities in Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san is limited to fox girls, but the fox girls/kitsune are closely similar to the stories of the kitsune taking on human form and becoming wives, lovers, or even friends of humans. Senko is a helpful fox spirit who helps Nakano balance out his soul with positive energies by cooking delicious meals, cleaning his room, and offering stress relief by letting Nakano cuddle up on Senko’s fluffy tail and ears.

Fushimi Inari, by anime standard, is your average shy middle school girl who can’t build up the courage to express her feelings, especially to her crush Tanbabashi Kouji. One day, Inari takes a shortcut to school through the local shrine and saves a puppy from drowning. Her good deed does not go unnoticed and the fox deity that lives in the shrine, Uka-no-Mitama-no-Kami, expresses her gratitude for saving the puppy—it turns out to be one of her fox familiars—by granting Inari one wish. Uka-sama, more or less, took Inari’s wish very literally by transforming Inari into the girl her crush Kouji admires. Uka-sama can’t undo the wish she granted to Inari, but as a compromise, Uka-sama gives Inari a part of her divine powers so Inari can transform into anyone at will. Now what kind of adventures will Inari experience with the power of the gods at her fingertips?

As we previously mentioned, the kitsune are shapeshifters and often portrayed as lovers. In the case of Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha., the kitsune possess the power to ward off evil spirits, or serve as guardians of towns where shrines, like the famous Fushimi Inari shrine, protect the townsfolk from bad omens. One such kitsune is Uka-no-Mitama-no-Kami, the local deity in a small town of Fujinokusa in Kyoto. Uka-sama, despite being a deity, is an otaku and Inari has caught her several times reading romance visual novels. One key similarity between Uka-sama and Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san’s Senko is that both develop an attraction to the people they watch over. Uka-sama has a crush on a human boy and throughout the course of the series, the two eventually come to terms with their feelings. Senko is surely heading in that direction after spending time with Nakano, but when that will happen in the anime is still uncertain because, you know, Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san is still airing!

The fox girl Yuzu arrives at the hot springs inn Konohanatei to work as a new attendant. Konohanatei is located in a peaceful town inhabited by human spirits and animal spirits and the inn serves as a restful retreat for the tired souls from the town, or from other realms. Yuzu befriends the fox girl attendants in Konohanatei as they greet, serve, entertain the visitors and help them relax, and sometimes help them with their lingering regrets.

As of this writing, there were 2 fox girls that appeared before the main character Nakano in Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san—Senko and Shiro. Senko is the motherly fox girl and Shiro is the more childish fox girl with a mature side. In Konohana Kitan, the cast is larger, with fox girls of varying personalities like Yuzu as the defacto pure-hearted main character, Satsuki the anti-social fox girl with a complicated past involving her sister, Sakura the fox girl who always lazes around, the dependable and veteran Kiri giving advice to her fox girl coworkers, Ren the tsundere who has a crush on one of the fox girls, and Natsume the token tomboy fox girl. With such a huge cast of fox girls, it’s very easy to find a few favorites and watch them do cute and silly things.

After a long week at the office, Kobayashi lets off some steam by drinking the night away. One time, she gets so wasted that she gets off at the wrong train station and ends up in the countryside. Not giving a crap and still enjoying her bottle of drink, she accidentally encounters a wounded dragon in the woods. With too much alcohol in her brain, she doesn’t recognize the threat of a HUGE DRAGON in front of her and helps the dragon instead. The next day, Kobayashi almost dies of shock when the dragon she saved the night before appears on her doorstep as her new maid. Tooru, the dragon, gladly accepted Kobayashi’s offer to be her maid as a way of showing gratitude, and Kobayashi is one of the few humans to actually talks to a dragon and survive to tell the tale.

If you’re looking for a 1:1 similarity of story concept of Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san, then look no further than Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon. Main character is a stressed out overworked employee? Check. Main character’s life slowly improves after a supernatural being stays in their apartment taking care of the chores, cooking hot meals and providing emotional and romantic support? Double check. Main character doesn’t have a surname? Triple check! Kobayashi may not be stressed to the point of emitting a black aura like Nakano does, but both are your stereotypical overworked Japanese office workers who just want a stress-free life. Of course, there are moments of respite where Kobayashi and Nakano spend their time on their hobbies—Kobayashi’s maid fetish and Nakano’s interests in video games. Senko is a kitsune and Tohru is a dragon, and they’re both supernatural beings that have taken human form and act as the significant other.