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My main issue with this short film from 1948 is how terrible it looks. Yes, it is from the 1940s, but films such as Tora-Chan from the previous year, Ari-chan from 1941 or Ahiru Rikusentai from 1940 all have much better, smoother and more expressive animation - and that’s not even mentioning the nicer-looking animations made in the 30s and 20s. This film’s animation is straight-up bad for its time, which is not helped by the genuinely unpleasant, grotesque character designs. The falling leaves are at least nicely animated.

The story is not without its merits, with a couple of funny moments with the bear chasing ... one of the human characters. However, even for its meager length of 10 minutes it feels overlong and boring, in part due to the glacial animation.

The sound at least is entirely fine.

If you’re looking to watch old anime movies, skip this one.

I’ve recently been watching a whole bunch of prewar animations, and while a large amount of them are interesting only as historical artifacts, there are a few legitimate gems in there too. Thus far of the films I’ve watched, Rascal Raccoon is the highlight. It is genuinely funny with some good gags thrown in there, and in particular the animation is fantastic.

The setpiece of the short is a fight scene that is smoothly animated, fast-paced and actually surprisingly reminiscent of something you would find in modern anime: Clever characters thinking on their feet and using their fighting skills and all kinds of tricks to get ... one over on their opponent. And, unlike usually in these very early animations, the animation successfully employs varying angles that make the action feel dynamic and engaging.

I believe reviewing any art has to done while keeping its historical context in mind. Of course this film is fairly basic in every way compared to anime released today or even thirty or forty years ago, but it’s also unfair and frankly absurd to compare it to them. In the context of everything else made during that era of Japanese animation, it’s an excellently fun little ride and well worth watching, unlike a lot of its contemporaries.