Princess Raccoon

Amechiyo (The banished prince) falls in love with Tanukihime (a princess of raccoon dog disguised to human). Amechiyo is being hunted by his father for being too beautiful and as he tries to escape he runs into Princess Raccoon, a raccoon in human form. They fall for each other, but humans and raccoons shouldn't mix, so the raccoon court causes some trouble. She saves his life, then he saves hers by finding the Frog of Paradise on the Sacred Mountain, and so forth, until the tragic finale. —poco loco Trouble begins as the king of the land takes on the "evil stepmother" role from Snow White, desiring to be the fairest in the land. The Virgin Hag prays to Mary and receives word that he is, but shall soon be overtaken by his banished son. So, the king sends a monk to the mountain where his son lives to kill him (incidentally. the mountain where he sent his wife--and she died). The monk drugs the prince and is carrying him through the forest back to the castle when raccoons scare him away. He drops the prince but gets caught in a coon-trap set by peasant hunters. These hunters take the monk home, believing him to be a raccoon ("tanuki") shape changed into a human, and plan to eat the monk as soon as he changes back into a raccoon. In the forest, the prince is found by Princess Raccoon in her human form. She nurses him awake and takes him on a boat ride--but becomes injured in a trap. The Prince gives her foot a flower-mat he found floating down a stream and the romance begins. As they approach Raccoon Palace, the prince is taken prisoner and the princess is returned to her glory. But she can't get her mind off the strange man she met in the woods. The King finds out where his son is and decides to wage war on the palace, despite advice from his Virgin Hag that to kill the Raccoon Princess will bring down some pretty bad karma. And that's just the beginning. —Kathryn