Rascal shoos off some native species. (via Idea Wiki)
First introduced in the 1963 book, Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era, the impish little trash-eater known as Rascal was a hit from the start. The book, a memoir of author Sterling North’s childhood experience in which he adopted a baby raccoon for a year, was a hit with the youth of the era. It was quickly made into a live-action film by Disney, which depicted Sterling’s adventures with a comedic playfulness that was not quite so apparent in the book. While both of these incarnations met with popular success, it was not until Rascal hit Japanese audiences that his star really rose, for better or worse.
In January of 1977, the Nippon Animation Company released Rascal the Raccoon (Araiguma Rasukaru), a 52-episode anime cartoon series that returned the story to its more dramatic, bucolic roots (and also featured early work by animation pioneer Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli cofounder!). The series aired all year long, and the ongoing adventures of Sterling and Rascal were a massive hit among the Japanese children who instantly took to the story of a young boy and his ever-present animal sidekick, foreshadowing the popularity of such franchises as Pokemon which would take the country by storm decades later.
The Japanese title card (via Wikimedia)
The show proved so popular that Japanese families began importing pet raccoons from their native North America at an alarming rate. For years after the cartoon’s 1977 release, at least 1,500 raccoons a month were hitting Japanese shores so that fans of the show could act out Sterling’s adventures along with him. If only they had finished the series first.
As Sterling discovers at the end of his tale, raccoons are wild animals that make terrible pets. In the end, Sterling is forced to release Rascal into the wilds from whence he came. Back in the real world, many of these new raccoon owners were learning the same lesson Sterling had, as their imported pets began getting into everything, damaging homes and property, and generally being a horrible five-fingered menace. Taking a cue from their favorite show, many families simply released their raccoons into the wild. As resourceful garbage hounds, the newly introduced species had no trouble gaining a foothold on the Japanese mainland.
Your friend to the end. (photograph by Alan Vernon)
Eventually, the Japanese government put a ban on importing the animals, but it was too late, the Curse of Rascal had taken hold. As of 2004, the imported raccoons and their descendants could be found on 42 of the country’s 47 prefectures. Today, they are seen as an invasive menace who destroy crops, and are one of the leading causes of damage done to historic temples. They are known to steal fish and fruit from vendors and worse, are beginning to push out a number of native species. All in all, the little bandits are no longer as cute as they once were.
