of paint. The episode's title, "Kitsunegari" (狐狩り) is a Japanese term meaning "fox hunting". The series hired two Japanese translators to produce the proper Japanese translation of the phrase and its associated Kanji glyph, due to the fact that "fox hunting" is not a pre-existing term in the Japanese language. Reception "Kitsunegari" premiered on the Fox network in the United States on January 4, 1998. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 11.6, with a 17 share, meaning that roughly 11.6 percent of all television-equipped households, and 17 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 19.75 million viewers. The episode received mixed reviews from television critics. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode three-and-a-half stars out of five. The two wrote that, while "it lacks Vince Gilligan's trademark wit", the episode takes the plot threads started in "Pusher" to their "logical conclusions". Shearman and Pearson explained that the episode's acting, most notably that of Robert Wisden and Diana Scarwid, "helps raise 'Kitsunegari' above the average." Zack Handlen from The A.V. Club gave the episode a mixed review and awarded it a C+. He wrote that, despite his love for "Pusher", "'Kitsunegari' isn't anywhere near as good as its predecessor". Handlen cited the change in Modell's personality, his lack of a desire to kill, and Scully's portrayal as a "humorless scold who only sees the truth when required to for narrative convenience" as reasons why the episode was weak. He concluded that "Kitsunegari" was "not very well put together". Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a mixed review and awarded it two stars out of four. She called the entry "tame" compared to its original, although she understood the show's desire to write a sequel. Vitaris also criticized the fact that Modell never murdered anyone and called the episode's basic plot "cheesy". She did, however, compliment several of the episode's set pieces, such as "Nathan Bowman covered in cerulean blue paint"—which she called "striking"—and the scene wherein "Linda stops the heart of the suffering Modell", calling the latter "sensately performed." Critic A.J. Black compared the fate of Modell to that of writer Vince Gilligan's later characters, Walter White and Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, noting: "“You won her game,” his