The Anime That Caused Japan's Raccoon Infestation
Vložit
- čas přidán 13. 04. 2022
- Rascal the Raccoon (Araiguma Rascal) is adapted from an American children's book set in Wisconsin, had a massive impact on Japanese ecology by way of inspiring an unfortunate import pet boom, and recently started getting fansubbed.
Find more of my writing on goldenwitch.substack.com
Subscribe for bonus articles and podcasts!
Support me on Patreon: / goldenwitchfire
Music reviews: / @asepresentsmusic
Find me @goldenwitchfire on instagram, twitter, tiktok, venmo, & cashapp.
Find my music by searching Trial of the Golden Witch on spotify/apple/youtube/soundcloud/bandcamp.
Rascal's website: www.araiguma-rascal.com/
Ishikawa Mai's page: ishikawamai.com/
Ishikawa Mai's insta: ishikawa.ma...
Buy something on Amazon after clicking this link and they will give me money: amzn.to/3iQljny
Music from the Eureka Seven OST. - Krátké a kreslené filmy
I grew up and still currently live in Edgerton wisconsin. The place where the book and everything take place. Rascal is our schools Mascot. He's basically the only thing we are known for
The creator of Gundam caused an animal infestation? Damn, that's wild.
Araiguma Rascal's biggest claim to fame outside of Japan is that its opening was "borrowed" to create the main theme of the 1981 arcade version of Frogger. The licensing issues surrounding that are why all rereleases of the original Frogger have reworked music to this day.
That’s what happens when you copy from success
It also took music from Perrine, Heidi and Hana no Ko Lun-Lun.
The main theme from another one of Konami's games, Amidar, was also taken from a really old anime from the 60s called Bouken Gabotenjima.
@@aphronadeshiko holy shit!
Japan has had a number of strange and intense pet fads over the years, of which I think racoons are maybe one of the less baffling. The mildly surreal story of a Colorado pest control company which developed a gigantic vacuum to (humanely) remove prairie dogs from their burrows selling them to Tokyo pet shops in the '90s is one which has always stuck in my mind, but more people are probably familiar with the axolotl craze which, by way of a popular nonsense slogan, gave the Pokémon Wooper its name.
Sounds like Southern California. There's a like a dozen species of exotic birds that have gone feral there, including golden pheasants and egyptian geese.
I was wondering why Raccoon characters were starting to appear a lot in anime/manga alongside tanuki characters.
I guess we can thank this ecological disaster for Raphtalia.
It's still not clear to me if she's a raccoon or a tanuki
This explains something I've been wondering. There is a classic Swedish children's book from 1906 called Nils Holgersson, about a kid traveling throughout the whole country on a goose, which was basically meant to teach Swedish geography. For some reason they made an anime version of this in 1980 called Nirusu no fushigi na tabi. It's honestly surprisingly good, and a lot of the depictions are strangely realistic, but there are also some weird inaccuracies. One such thing is that they encounter racoons. There are no racoons in Sweden. I've been thinking like, how could they get that wrong?? Makes a lot more sense now that I know of Rascal and its influence.
love this current wave of videos, especially discussions about older anime, feels even better than the pre-2019 era of this channel
This recent blast of videos has been awesome!
No joke.
The I love the little giggle / laugh Trixie sometimes does while explaining something, like when she said credit card, it’s just so cute and makes me smile every time it happens during a video.
This content is high quality and unique across Anitube. I hope it keeps coming
As a kid, Rascal was one of my favorite books, and one of the few times I was reading something age appropriate instead of something out of my Dad's collection. It was many years later that learned that Japan got a whole animated series out of that book. In general, I'm surprised that World Masterpiece Theater series is so little known outside of Japan. As adaptations of Western kids literature, it seems like this would be a natural to license out as "educational content" for PBS or the CBC. I guess the Japanese TV execs running the franchise weren't the ones with export connections. Thanks for the video
The Heidi series is actually incredibly popular in Austria, with it taking place in the alps and that basically being my country's whole thing. I'm pretty sure every young adult over here is familiar with it. I even remember visiting a skiing hotel that was entirely themed after the show.
oh, the series was definitely popular outside japan.
In France, as a child/early teen, I knew of Heidi, Tom sawyer, and princess Sarah, even though I probably wasn't alive for most of their appearence on French tv. They had left enough of an impression to still be mentioned in television more than a decade after we foolishly stopped airing anything from japan except pokemon and similar stuff.
World Masterpiece Theater is actually well-known in several countries in Europe, Middle East and Asia and US itself has some of its entries aired there back in the 80s. They're also the reason why many people started to have interest in watching anime. I think the reason why WMT doesn't felt its presence much in the West is because of strict policies of some Western distributors when it comes to anime there. Many of its entries are pretty good and some of them become popular.
@@maineclayton2419in Asia,only Philippines and some Arab countries are aware of world masterpiece theatre.
@@shiningstone6771 Not really. Some countries in Asia were aware about WMT because they were aired there. When some people in those countries talk about that series, they usually do that in their native language and they hardly show up on the Internet. Some countries there have their own WMT merchandise and theme parks inside the malls.
I first found out about this little guy because of SaltyBet. I saw a cute raccoon doing hyper bombs and wondered who that was. I had no idea he was a Japanese icon who inadvertently caused a massive increase in Japan's raccoon population! Thanks for the history lesson!
Rascalex has entered the ring. Fire up the dunk counter.
Always bet Rascalex
Rascal the Raccoon caused a raccoon infestation in Japan, Yuru Camp caused a massive fire in Mexico, anime is literally going to be the end of humanity.
Reminds me of Doubutsu no Oisha-san. That manga/live-action TV series led to a husky boom in Japan. Then they found out Huskies can be pretty hard to properly look after and abandoned them in droves.
I appreciate the vid opening up with some Eureka Seven ost. I'm really getting hyped for that anime alphabet now.
This sounds kind of similar to the havoc that grey squirrels caused when they were introduced to the UK from the US in the late 19th and early 20th century, out-competing the native red squirrel and now outnumbering the native species by about 2.5 million. In my life I've never seen the actual native species in the wild, but seeing the grey is a very common occurrence. They're too widespread to do anything about at this point. I wonder if Japan would be more into racoon-culling if they posed more of a threat to the tanuki population.
I lived in the UK when I was little, and it never occurred to me that grey squirrels were brought over from the US. Due to a lack of scientific data, raccoon extermination in Japan is still out of control and worsening every year.
@@tykep1009 raccoons be crazy it’ll be hard to pull a eradication of the raccoons because they spread so much. Japan has to get used to it
you used the 90s version of Dog of Flanders by TMS instead of the 70s Nippon Animation version, which looks more like Dutch rather than Belgian like the former. In the 2000s there was also an effort to sub into English the Spanish dub of Rascal. I also have the German DVD that used its own different soundtrack, relying more on synths than orchestral music, by a German composer. Sounds more melancholic.
This series was never aired in the USA unfortunately. Disney holds the distribution rights because of a 50s movie they produced. Animators visited Wisconsin to gather material for the settings too
As a Filipina Rascal fan since 1998, I have to say that "Rascal" was/is never popular in the Philippines. It wasn't aired until 2006, and despite its cuteness, it never achieved the same level of fame as it did in some other Asian countries. I have a Rascal tattoo and people would always ask who is that cute little creature on my arm.
There are actually two Tagalog versions of this anime. The first one is shoddily translated from German because GMA Network got the German copy. It also had a more modern vernacular language which doesn't fit well into the 1910s setting. The second version by ABS-CBN, which was released around 2015, has a more accurate and better translation because it is taken from the original Japanese copy. That's also the version that can be found on YT.
Another note: two versions of "A Dog of Flanders" were aired in the country. ABS-CBN first aired that non-WMT version in 1995. GMA aired the WMT version in 2006 (also from the German copy).
Now this is the kind of obscure encyclopedic content I for one am looking for, will have to add you to my subscriptions!
This is probably one of my favorite videos you've put out as of late, and that's staying something because your output has been excellent these past couple of months. I just hope you're not burning yourself out.
Anyway, as generic-looking as rascal is, I think he is absolutely adorable and very appealing to me, and I love some of the redesigns that were on display on some of the websites you showed. I might give the raws a watch to dabble in my Japanese inmersion again.
Reminds me of how a similar thing happened here in Brazil, but with a type of snail of all things.
If I had a nickel for every time a country waged a war against an entire animal species and lost I'd have 2 nickels, which isn't much but it's weird that it happened twice.
to think a humble animation such as this could have such an impact or that the laws in japan were so loose that you could just import a foreign animal
I love obscure anime history videos. It’s not like the main thing I enjoy from you most but it’s always cool.
Never thought there’d be an anime set in my home state Wisconsin
commenting for the algorithm boost
anyway It's nice too see you make short video on an old obscure anime.
It's funny how i just searched the background of this story yesterday and have read all this
I watched Rascal the anime as a kid in Asia, and always thought of raccoons as adorable animals. (I guess like many I conveniently forgot why the boy had to release him back to the wild) It's only after coming to the US that I realized that raccoons are not as beloved as I imagined them to be.
I'm glad I rang the bell so I can get random/weird anime knowledge like this delivered hot and fresh to my door step while I go about my day. It's like an uber eats for you mind.
well i don't know much about rascal in is original source but i do know that he was in the peter pan anime and from what i remember he was a cute little mascot in the show he didn't do that much in the show but when he did do something it was a delight ^w^
I used to joke with my brother back then that rascal got Reincarnated in Peter Pan after the rascal the raccoon ended broadcasting in our country and was replaced with Peter pan. now I just realized that they put him there since it was made by world Masterpiece theater
I know this one since it's one of the last TV shows Miyazaki worked on (key animation) before Nausicaa
I grew up in Mexico in the early 90s and this show, along with Heidi, The Secret Garden and a few other shows like these would come on all the time. Damn, what a throwback
I'm curious of how you where able to watch it in Mexico. Was it an all anime channel or was it a mixed with novellas and cartoons shows
@@skullcandy14785 it was on the local channel 5 (Canal Cinco) and they would have cartoons and anime blocks throughout the day mixed in with the news, novelas and other programing.
@@skullcandy14785 they would also air Dragon Ball, Dr.Slump, Sailor Moon, Ranma 1/2, Captain Tsubasa and Saint Saiya.
Now this is some quality surprise content
If there’s one video that has the change to get randomly blessed by the algorithm, it’s this one.
This video is criminally underrated deserves a lot more views
So many videos! I’m happy.
I've reading just the first 20 pages or so of Rascal and I already recognize several events from the book in this video!
World masterpiece theatre is quite popular and well known in the west, especial in Europe but unfortunately no one in India is aware of it except Heidi, since Heidi used to be telecasted here in the 90's.
Romeo no aoi sora and Perrine monogatari have a special place in my heart.
Wait, now I’m confused, racoons aren’t from japan and they also have no relation with the tanuki?
Did the japanese public just think a racoon would’ve served as a better pet than their native fauna? I wonder if the religious significance of Racoon-dogs there contributed to this breif obsession.
Fun fact: racoon-dogs are more closely related to foxes than to either racoons or dogs
@@vicpc55 And red pandas are more closely related to raccoons than they are to pandas.
Racoons are like crabs: they're not necessarily related to each other, they just come into being out of whatever genetic stock is around to fill a common evolutionary niche.
Also, because they're a terrible infection initially acquired out of love but which quickly became a source of regret. Hehe, sti joke...
The Japanese had romanticized views about raccoons after they see Rascal doing some basic tricks and his appearance look endearing from the show. Many of them got their own pet raccoons from importing them to US. When the show ended, a lot of raccoons were released from their homes after they realized that they become aggressive as they grow up, something that they didn't learn from the show. Today, those racoons are endemic in majority of prefectures in Japan and destroyed many crops and other food supplies that are meant for other animals.
Fun fact: Rascal's appearance was suppose to be look like from the raccoons in real life but the test audience of the show didn't like it so Nippon Animation had to change his looks into yellow and brown one.
What the hell are you doing. Where are all these videos even coming from. How are you publishing so many. I do not have the answers to these questions, but I am enjoying the experience immensely.
The only tanuki I’ve ever seen was a dead on the side of the road. On the other hand, I’ve seen raccoons exclusively in and around garbage bins.
Did know about this one due to my love and experience with the World Masterpiece Theatre era of shows (Ane of Green Gables being my fave, also love Heidi of the Alps, and also for an example of a more eclectic one, the Bush Baby was very aesthetically pleasing one that goes a bit under the radar as a late entry)
Anyway, I adore Rascal and definetely see him as a unique character, that said my love for anime animals in general adds to that I bet! I usually watch an anime when I heard the animal character was cute or even got a journey. And this show is great for that
YES IM SO GLAD YOURE COVERING THIS STORY. It’s one of my fav random facts to tell ppl lmaoo
i was raised (and still live) in edgerton and i feel embarrassed that i’m just finding out about this old fascination japan had with my school mascot.
makes me feel a little better that we’re not just known for tobacco only ig!!!
This is weirdly fascinating.
Were the raccoons affronting the gods, or were they themselves gods?
I'm glad you explained what World Masterpiece Theater was. I've heard about it a million times but never looked it up or knew what it was.
"Rascal the Raccoon" used to air in the Philippines at least few times like the ones you saw on CZcams and there's even a HD version which was aired in a local channel around few years ago. The show itself is pretty good in general but I admit it's not one of my favorite World Masterpiece Theater entries, mostly for being overrated. Aside from the Raccoon infestation controversy in Japan, the show itself is one of the reasons why World Masterpiece Theater doesn't get much popularity outside Japan nowadays. Nippon Animation often relies on its merchandise to keep its company afloat and they're rarely into making animation these days (I heard the son of the company's ex-president there is a businessman so that's why they're playing safe).
Did you know that Rascal's appearance was suppose to be based on real-life counterpart of the raccoons but Nippon Animation changed their minds after they found out it was not appealing? His apperance in the anime is similar to red pandas or tanukis.
Looking back, I think "Rascal" resonates my memories despite how overrated its popularity. It's story is still good and it reminds us that not all animals should be treated as pets, something that many viewers didn't get back then. I also feel sorry for Sterling himself and I understood that he likes to take care of animals to cope from his loneliness.
EYOOO
i stumbled upon rascal the racoon while searching for anime to watch and the first episode made me cry but i don't have time to watch it but without knowing any of this i have some merch i have because i thought it was cute
Rascal the raccoon was on Peterpan Nippon's studio
Damn Trixie how have you been pumping out so many quality videos so quickly?
Where are all these awesome vids coming from?! It's great seeing you on such a roll with all of these. Keep it up!
This was my favorite children's book when I was little!
I watched this in Afrikaans as a child in the early 90s😮 I didn't know it was anime for the longest time I loved this show and Rascal (or Walter the washbear if you translate the Afrikaans) taught me a valuable lesson in respecting wild animals. It will always have a special place in my heart. ❤
"Which consisted of lengthily padded out anime adatations of popular pieces of western literature"
Are there filler lists anywhere for these?
Looking at this, Sterling’s friend Oscar looks to be depicted as mexican rather than a Dutch/german kid.
It's a little strange that you put weight on Tomino's involvement on this show, this was pretty common for him. He storyboarded for all of the takahata and nippon animation meisaku gekijou shows through the 70s, even having some of his episodes for anne broadcast after gundam's tv run had started. Even just in the year rascal came out, he also storyboarded 14 episodes of nagahama tadao's robot anime, and created and directed zanbot 3, personally storyboarding a third of that show's episodes. It's difficult to find complete data on this kind of thing, but some experts have said that Tomino is probably the fastest storyboard artist of all time.
I would put weight on Tomino's name anywhere he shows up (see comments below surprised to hear of his involvement), because it's an attention-grabbing detail that leads people to research (or comment) things like this!
I kinda wonder if some of these series ended up on OG Readmore or Reading Rainbow.
The raccoon dog had already spread to Europe when fur farms in the West of the Soviet Union experienced containment breaches.
Tagalog dub fr makin me want to watch it now lol
great video trixie!
Update: Rascal the Raccoon has their own official Twitter account and there's a dumptruck of merchandise. Japan capitalize everything whenever they look at something fascinating without knowing their darkside.
I am going to Cosplay Sterling from this anime when I visit Lambeau Field out in Green Bay, Wisconsin
Tomino's involvement is very much a surprise. These rascals' destructive power is a surprise. Cuteness of Rascal still holds up, also a surprise. Something about yellow animals really good at spreading their influence. I very much feel bad for Japan on this lol.
Weird af that looking up an old vhs my grandad had when i was like 8(of the oringinal american film of this) would just bring me back to a ygg vid
The world sure is round
Rooooooound
Never heard of it but it sounds adorable. Might have to check it out
raccoons vs tanuki vs red panda
I like how realistic the racoon looks
Me, reading the title of this video: I'm sorry, the WHAT NOW??????????
So this must be the best Tomino anime
I just learned about Rascal from this video but I LOVE HIM WE HAVE TO PROTECT HIM
pretty interesting stuff. I think content like this suits you
Japanese religion: exists.
Some raccoon bois: NOT IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT
They look like little bandits.
whats the source of the clip at 4:49? it's so funny to me idk why
good video sis
As a Filipina Rascal die hard fan, I feel sad that Rascal never got the same level of popularity as it did in some other countries, nor it did with the rest of the World Masterpiece Theater anime that were aired here. The most popular WMT anime in the Philippines is Princess Sara, which spawned into our own live-action movie in 1995 and a slew of memes two decades later, portraying her as a much angstier, feistier and sharper-tongued bitch than she would ever be in the original. (This was inspired by criticisms from some viewers, including me, that Sara was such a pathetic, increasingly unlikeable, "woe is me" wuss.)
There are two Tagalog versions of Rascal. The first one, aired on a GMA channel in 2006, is taken from the German copy and has a very shoddy translation. It also uses a modern vernacular language that doesn't suit the 1910s setting. The second one, aired by ABS-CBN in 2015, uses the original Japanese copy and has a much more accurate translation. This is also the version that's available on CZcams, as mentioned in the video. Despite its YT presence, only a few Filipinos know of this anime. I have a Rascal tattoo and most people would ask me who is that cute little creature on my arm.
Another fun fact: Rascal the Raccoon appears on WMT's "Adventures of Peter Pan" as a recurring-turned-permanent character. The joke was Rascal eventually joined Peter Pan's team after he got bored living in the forest and his relationship with his girlfriend didn't work out.
Thank goodness there are some Filipinos who remembered that there was "Rascal the Raccoon" on QTV back in 2000s. I saw it as well and IIRC it has German opening theme. QTV also used to air "Heidi" and "Dog of Flanders" (not the one from ABS-CBN) in the same decade. "Rascal the Raccoon" was unfornately not popular when it was initially aired in the Philippines back in 2000s because many Filipino viewers are more familiar with some World Masterpiece Theater shows like "Princess Sarah" and "Tom Sawyer" which were aired on ABS-CBN. It's a good thing "Rascal" showed up on the latter's kid channel in HD format and somebody managed to record it.
RASCAL!!! 😍😍😍
So you're saying that Japan is a big Westaboo.
Commenting for the algo gods.
I like stories of little things
what a cute anime Raccoon and a great reminder that anime is a lie
An Anime set in Wisconsin???
The Author of the original story is also from Wisconsin. So my home state fucked Japan over twice, first Marc Mitscher and now this.
Ahhhh yes… I remember world masterpiece theater and I also prefer Perrine Story than Princess Sarah
Raccoons are brilliant and lovely!!!
Japan's failed jihad against raccoons is truly something that I wanted to know about. Something on par with the Great Emu War.
Damn Trixie, you on a roll!
Why is there so much mouth sounds in your new videos?
I mean.............
I can see why Japan would take fancy with raccoons...
I mean, look at em 😅
I was unfortunate to learn about it today. For some reason i decided to google Japanese word for raccoon and find some videos on yt. I was curious if they like them. First video i found was trapped raccoon brutally murdered. And people in the comment section were glad to see it, enjoying it very much (google translate but still). I was shocked. Then I read about it. I understand everything but still, its disgusting, especially posting video (not even 18+) on CZcams and attract maniacs with it.
I understand that raccoon do alot of harm, but im sure there's more humane way to deal with them. Maybe injection or something. It's STUPID PEOPLE fault,raccoons just act they way they should. Stupid people bring them there, they are responsible.
You can just search Japanese word for raccoon on yt and you'll find. those videos immediately.
Sorry for my English.
I think ignorance and lack of reasearch are some of the main reasons why raccoons are common in Japan. The anime was released in 1977 and internet wasn't available to the public back then. Before the show, most Japanese had no idea how dangerous the raccoons are. They realize their mistake after the show is over. The ironic thing is that show teaches that not animals should be taken care as pets and many Japanese who had watch it didn't get the message. While it's true that raccoons are part of nature and deserved to be protected, we can't blame many Japanese why they're forced to hunt and kill them down.
4
Reminding you to neuter your pets!