Ji Hetian Archives | 100 Word Anime

Singing, Lies, Rumours, and Social Media – You’re Always On Stage

Voice of Fox is one of those short anime that comes out that very few people seemed to pay attention to. And it kind of makes sense. The Autumn anime season was full of some amazing titles and you can’t watch everything. A short anime that adapts a Chinese Manhwa about a kid wearing a fox mask and wanting to make it as a singer probably isn’t high on people’s watching priority list. Still, there was something about the first episode that drew me in and I’m really glad I strapped in for the ride. While Voice of Fox isn’t a ground breaking masterpiece that must be watched, it is a solid effort at telling a reasonably interesting story in a fairly short run time given episodes are only around ten minutes long.

Where Voice of Fox works is the tight focus on a very small pool of characters who interact within a larger social setting. With idols and stars making up a large part of the cast, social media and the internet play a huge part in this story as public perception sways and changes with events, rumours, apologies, and performances. While at times the public opinion seems to veer far too strongly too quickly, it is a good look at the pressure of anyone living in the public view and who relies upon fans and an audience for their livelihood. Hu Li also explored the idea of being independent or being part of an agency and the difficulties in getting yourself out there alone vs what a large company can achieve.

Where it falls down is that too many of these characters are either good people with poor luck getting trod on by an uncaring system or they are ruthlessly ambitious with very little in the way of actual human emotions. The characters who are set up as the antagonists don’t get to be anything other than star hungry and while the anime does attempt to give Kong Que (the guy who Hu Li is the ghost singer for) some sort of angsty back-story, it is one of the moments that is a bit rushed and the emotional impact is minimal. It also is quickly forgotten when you realise that despite what has happened to Kong Que he is still pretty ready to throw Hu Li or anyone else under a bus for just a scrap of fame so he’s not exactly a nuanced character.

The story largely focuses on the events around a reality idol show searching for the Rising Star of China, at least for the first half. The filming is rocked by scandals as singers get sick, power outages occur mid-performance and Kong Que is revealed as a fake and Hu Li as the real voice. This section of the story is really quite focused and driven and while there are some comedy moments that don’t quite stick their landing, by and large it is highly entertaining.

The second half, where we explore the characters and their motivations a bit more and wait for their final decisions, is a little less well handled. It does come back to the competition and we do get a satisfying ending, but there’s a little loss of momentum in the second half.

There’s also a lot of singing in this. I really enjoyed the music including the OP and ED but I also really just liked the performances. If the music doesn’t work for you, that is possibly going to be a deal breaker because all of these characters are on stage at some point and singing.

I’d recommend giving this one a go. It was one of those pleasant surprises of the Autumn season and I really wish more people had watched it because it would have been fun to discuss it more each week. Not a perfect show by any means, but one that I could definitely get lost in and just go along for the ride.

Voice of Fox Episode 12 Review

Voice of Fox has simply come to an end (or rather it concluded the current crisis and then gave a potential tease at the end for more of Hu Li’s journey but honestly I’m happy enough with this as an ending). Hu Li and Ji Hetian finally face off in the Rising Star of China competition. Everyone watches with some of the more villainous characters of the season smirking to themselves about how they are going to be the next big thing anyway, and everyone else being reduced to tears by a song. It’s a little bit overly simplistic but it fits the story up to this point and to be honest it was kind of nice seeing Hu Li have his moment.

Less nice was realising Hu Li hadn’t figured out who Sky was. Really? I kind of thought that had already been resolved and now I’m convinced Hu Li is actually an idiot. Great singer, nice guy, but complete idiot. And actually that makes a lot of his choices earlier in the season make more sense. He definitely needs a manager to help him make better choices.

Voice of Fox Episode 12 Hu Li and his brother

The singing was nice, the story is drawn to a close, but really I can’t help but feel that this episode didn’t quite bring the emotions and drama of earlier ones. It really did feel like it was going through the motions and while all the elements were there for a solid emotional conclusion I just didn’t really feel it. Which is a shame given this anime has been one that I’ve consistently enjoyed because of the emotional drama it has carried through.

Anyway, for a short anime, it has done what it needed to do and I really had fun with it. I’ll get to a series review of it and hopefully a few more people will give this one a go. While it isn’t perfect it is certainly a fun watch.