I think this could be argued to be the best animated episode so far.
We open with Ataru and Lum on a bike ride, where they come across a crane in snare. Ataru frees the crane, demanding it return the favour some day (a reference to “Tsuru no Ongaeshi“). This all takes place with slightly daydreamy effect, added to by the somewhat prog-rock background music.
The “crane” hears this and sneaks into Ataru’s backpack. Lum and Ataru go and get their dinner when they get home, leaving Ten in Ataru’s room. Ten, coincidentally, is reading Tsuru no Ongaeshi. So when the “crane”, who now looks like a Tanuki (the “Racoon” of the title), pops out the bag looking to return the favour, he reads the book.
We, the viewers, get the story told to us too, with Ataru and Lum cast in the roles of the old couple that the crane returns the favour to. This sets O-shima, the tanuki, off to help Ataru. First by being his housemaid, then by introducing him to a “cute girl”…
…and finally by making him lots of money (which just turns out to be leaves). Upset that he can’t repay the favour, Ten adds to his woes by telling him another fairy tale, again with Lum and Ataru in the roles of an old couple – Kachi-kachi Yama (you know, the one where a tanuki tricks a farmer into eating his own wife…). This horrifies the poor little thing, and is only made worse when they point out he’s a tanuki. He denies this, turning back into the crane and flying away.
First time watching this back in 1999, I think I thought of this as a throw-away episode. It’s a weirdo of the week episode, spends a lot of time on the telling of the fairy tales, not that many of the main cast, but looking at it now, there’s a lot of craft in this episode. It’s a shame there’s been less episodes with both Oshi and Endo on them in the more recent batches as they really did seem to bring out the best in each other.
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Screenplay: Hiroyuki Hoshiyama
Storyboards: Motosuke Takahashi
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Animation Director: Asami Endo
