YMMV / Shadow of the Fox

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Was Oni no Mikoto just bored and looking for talented swordsmen to test his skills against when he went around challenging people? Or, since he stated his "victims" could have refused a duel without loss of honor anytime and went into it willingly, was he also trying to give overconfident samurai what they deserved?
  • Hakaimono. Did he really end up aiding Tatsumi, offering him and Yumeko a fighting chance, saving his life, and later unmerging their souls when he lay dying because it benefitted him, like he insisted? Or did he actually wind up caring and simply refused to admit it?
• Complete Monster: Lady Satomi is a sadistic Blood Witch in service to the Master of Demons, Genno. A childish psychopath, Satomi regularly kills her serving girls for fun and pleasure. To serve Genno, Satomi has an entire village of hundreds of innocents torn to pieces by demons as a mass sacrifice to summon the demon Yaburama, and uses him to massacre a group of monks guarding the scroll containing a wish her master requires. Revealed to be plotting to use the wish to usurp and betray Genno, Satomi admits she knows he intends to cause mass destruction and death upon his return and is fine with it if it gives her a chance at godhood itself.
• Ho Yay: In spades between Daisuke and Okame in Soul of the Sword. Near the end of the book, they take a Relationship Upgrade, pulling them out of this and into Official Couple territory.
• Like You Would Really Do It:
  • Of course Okame didn't die in that collapsing watchtower.
  • Even before you get to The Reveal that it was all an illusion, it's obvious that Hakaimono killing the entire main cast—including Yumeko—can't have been real.
  • Of course Tatsumi wouldn't have died from Genno's betrayal.
  • Obviously Yumeko wasn't killed by the umibozu early into the third book; this overlaps with Spoiled by the Format. Subverted for the rest of the book, however.
• Nightmare Fuel: The gaki are plenty creepy, but the Path of Shadows is even creepier. Walking between the worlds of the living and the dead on a narrow path, with dead souls constantly trying to lure you off it and make you join them? Pretending to be your deceased loved ones, no less? Definitely creepy.
• The Woobie:
  • Poor Tatsumi. First he was chosen as the bearer of a demon-possessed weapon as a child, raised to be an emotionless killing machine, shunned by everyone, and frequently abused all his life, with the threat of demonic possession constantly hanging over his head. Then, after he has finally seen a glimpse of happiness and love through Yumeko's friendship, Hakaimono takes advantage of his feelings and possesses him, and he is Forced to Watch as the demon uses his body to slaughter at will, including his own clan. Talk about a major Trauma Conga Line.
    • And if that wasn't enough, he escapes from Demonic Possession at the price of being merged with an oni, has a brief glimpse of joy with Yumeko, survives all the way through the battle with Genno, only to be killed by Seigetsu in a last I Surrender, Suckers move. He actually needs to be reincarnated to have a chance at lasting happiness.
  • Tsuki Kiyomi. She was married off into an Arranged Marriage at fourteen, had an okay but distant and childless marriage, then finally got the love and attention from her husband that she wished for, fell in love and got pregnant—only for her "husband" to turn out to be a yokai impostor who ran off with her newborn baby while she was in a postpartum delirium and both disappeared from her life without a trace for sixteen years.
  • By the end of the story, Yumeko herself qualifies. She's the Sole Survivor of the massacre at the Silent Winds temple, deals with Survivor Guilt that makes her fear seeing any more of her companions killed, to the point where she'd rather hand Genno the scrolls than have him slaughter her friends—and then she has to watch them die one by one anyway while battling Genno's demons, including the boy she loves, after they already thought they won—twice. Ouch.