Tanuki

aka: Raccoon Dogs

In case you're wondering, those things down there aren't legs.

"...tanuki seem to exist simultaneously in this world and the otherworld. In folklore, they are tricksters, often portrayed as somewhat bumbling and potbellied, with a penchant for drinking sake, changing shape and impersonating Buddhist monks. One of the tanuki's most famous characteristics is its gargantuan scrotum, which it employs for all sorts of creative shape-shifting—numerous woodblock prints and other images illustrate the powers of this magnificent paraphernalia."

—The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore

Tanuki (commonly transcribed as "tanooki") is the Japanese word for a type of canid that lives in Asia (and now Europe), commonly referred to in English as "raccoon dogs". In Japanese mythology, tanuki are said to have magic powers such as Voluntary Shapeshifting (usually performed with a leaf on their forehead). Pranksters and tricksters, Tanuki spirits are generally fat and jolly, like to drum on their bellies (a sound which has the Japanese onomatopoeia "ponpoko"), and are associated with good luck.

They can also cause certain... problems during localization outside of Japan due to them being characterized with enormous testicles. Another issue is their tendency to be erroneously localized as "raccoons" or "badgers", as raccoon dogs are close to unknown in North America. These errors are less common in Europe, which has a large feral population of tanuki, and there aren't many problems localizing raccoons and badgers into Japanese media, as actual raccoons and badgers are present in Japan. ^note although much of the knowledge (and subsequent introduction) of raccoons in Japan may have been from the cartoon Rascal Raccoon, which became unusually popular in Japan. The titular character was adopted as a pet, but was eventually forced to release him, which many Japanese may have found out the hard way.

Many of the tropes that Americans associate with raccoons also apply to raccoon dogs. Though raccoon dogs are canids and not true raccoons^note Thus making them more closely related to dogs and foxes, which are also members of the same family, they enjoy the same reputation in Japanese folklore that true raccoons share in the Western Hemisphere — both this and their superficial resemblance to raccoons are the reasons this animal is called "raccoon dog" in English.

The eight traits commonly associated with the tanuki:

• A hat, to be ready to protect against trouble or bad weather
• Big eyes, to perceive the environment and help make good decisions
• A sake bottle, representing virtue
• A big tail, providing steadiness and strength until success is achieved
• Oversized testicles (kintama), symbolizing financial luck [since kintama literally means "golden ball(s)); this is an exaggeration of the Real Life raccoon dog's already-large testicles^note Whether this applies to female tanuki as well is highly variable from one depiction to the next. Obviously for the real-life animal it does not. For fictional tanuki however, it sometimes does, while other depictions instead give female tanuki equally large breasts instead.
• A promissory note, representing trust or confidence
• A big belly, for bold and calm decisiveness
• A friendly smile

Tanuki are often paired with Kitsune, usually as rivals with less raw power and ambition but more skill at shapeshifting and trickery - a famous expression is "the fox has seven disguises, but the tanuki has eight." In fact the term kitsune-tanuki (pronounced "kori") exists to refer to them collectively, and can also be used to mean a sly or deceptive person. Likewise the fortunetelling game Kokkuri is written with the characters kitsune-dog-tanuki.^note Either a reference to the ability of dogs to detect shapeshifters, or to Tengu (whose name is written as "heavenly dog").

Tanuki are particularly associated with alcohol in Japan. This may be the result of a story in which a tanuki orders liquor using money that is actually leaves he transformed with his magic; it transforms back into leaves after the tanuki departs. Their statues often are placed outside bars.

Sometimes their large genitals are just there, but in some stories, the tanuki use them for a variety of purposes. You can see some humorous examples here, though they might not be safe for work.

Finally, they're the inspiration for "Tanuki-ese", a grade-schooler code that's roughly the Japanese equivalent of Pig Latin. See, written with different characters, "tanuki" can be interpreted as "ta-nuki" - "without the ta". In other words, remove the "ta" character(s) from a seemingly ordinary sentence to - hopefully - get a completely different message (or, conversely, randomly add the character "ta" between syllables in the sentence you want "coded").

Compare Rascally Raccoon, its Western Hemisphere counterpart and the source of the English-language name "raccoon dog". Can overlap with Heroic Dog if the tanuki is portrayed as more outright heroic.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• A one-episode character in 090 ~ Eko to Issho, which, not having ever mastered the transformation business, would hide by possessing people. Last of His Kind. Is used to cause a Ship Tease and maybe, just maybe, advance the plot.
• Ame to Kimi to, or With You and the Rain, is a Slice of Life manga about a woman taking in a tanuki as a pet. While it doesn't possess many of the traits associated with mythical tanuki, it does have the traditional leaf on its head and is extremely intelligent, able to communicate with humans through writing. It also insists that it's a perfectly normal dog.
• And Yet the Town Moves: Josephine is actually Hotori's dog, but she looks very much like a Tanuki. After her friends make fun the similarity, Hotori has a dream where Josephine informs her that since she's apparently a Tanuki, she's leaving the family to instead live among the other Tanuki's in the mountains.
• Anpanman: Tanuki-Oni. Originally a villain in his debut in the Omusubiman theatrical short, he switched sides when he was introduced in the series. His main motive is to win Batako's heart, as he has a massive crush on her. His most common transformations are a bat (that he uses for transportation outside of his mountain-side cave) and a gigantic ox-like monster (this is his main attack form). His disguises are often given away by his tail, which remains when he transforms.
• The Amanojyaku Labyrinth arc of As the Gods Will features these in statue and symbol form.
• Ayakashi Triangle: Tanumaro is a tanuki ayakashi specifically based on the folk tale Bunbuku Chagama, where a tanuki disguised himself as a tea kettle. However, the tea kettle body is his natural state and it's something his clan, if not all tanuki, share.
• Beast Wars Neo: The Transformer Heinrad transforms into one of these. His corresponding toy prominently features the large testicles (he's got a clock on his stomach. The alarm bells are... lower.) which become the upper legs in robot mode.
• BNA: Brand New Animal: Michiru used to be human, then she suddenly transformed into a tanuki beastman. She initially tries to pass herself off as a raccoon, but it's quickly pointed out her tail doesn't have enough rings. She also has a limited shapeshifting ability to change parts of her body into those of other species, and Rubber Man her arms and tail, though it takes her a while to learn how to re-assume human form (which ordinary beastmen can do).
• The Kemono Hentai manga Build Tiger has a tanuki named Inari as a Villain of the Week. Given the manga's premise, it's not surprising that his balls are his most prominent feature, and he even uses them as his primary means of attack by way of Partial Transformation. Oddly enough the name "Inari" is more associated with Kitsune than tanuki.
• Doraemon: A Running Gag is people mistaking Doraemon for a tanuki when they first meet him since he doesn't have any cat ears. This is a good way to annoy him.
• The Fox & Little Tanuki naturally features one, the eponymous tanuki cub Manpachi. He's a Cheerful Child who has The Gift when it comes to transforming himself or others into this or that, and the "pachi" in his name is spelled with the kanji for "eight".

• Gugure! Kokkuri-san: The tanuki Shigaraki, a prankster who drinks and gambles a lot.
• Hell Teacher Nube: A tanuki once started impersonating Nube, not out of mischief, but simply because it was a regular animal possessed by a trickster spirit. Unfortunately for Nube, it was very fond of wreaking havoc across town, up to and including streaking the school and giving Miss Ritsuko an up-close and personal encounter with a tanuki's pride and joy... while still in Nube's shape.
• In Inazuma Eleven: Ares, Tonegawa Tousen's mascot is a tanuki who can shapeshift into a girl, whose Transformation Trinket appears to be her leg bracelet.
• Inuyasha: Miroku's buddy Hachi is a man-sized tanuki that normally dresses like a human and often uses his shapeshifting to become a kind of giant floating windsock that transports Miroku around. Shippo is a kitsune who angrily corrects when he's sometimes referred to as a tanuki because of his shapeshifting abilities and small stature.
• Kamisama Kiss has a brothel of female Tanuki prostitutes that make various periodical appearances. Tomoe knows them all by name and before Nanami showed up, regularly visited the place.
• The anime Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! includes a tanuki appearing during the Motion Picture Club's first project meeting which distracts Asakusa and Mizusaki. Kanamori openly compares her to a tanuki during production for the Robot Club's promotional short (complete with a brief Cutaway Gag of Asakusa with a tanuki-esque domino mask and a magic leaf on her head◊) and jokingly refers to her as a tanuki after throwing a net over her in Episode 11. Additionally, one piece of merchandise◊ for the show is a plushie of Asakusa in a tanuki kigurumi. This motif is likely due to her overall appearance, since in Japan people with round faces and wide eyes are often described as having "tanuki faces," and is additionally compounded by Asakusa's wide-brimmed hat and genial smile, also traits common among depictions of tanuki in folklore. A degree of Author Appeal also seems to factor into it given that the manga's author frequently retweets clips of tanuki on his Twitter account.
• Kemono Jihen: Kohachi Inugami is a bakedanuki and the proprietor of the Inugami Detective Agency. Despite his casual demeanor, he's a skilled detective and a responsible guardian to the boys under his care. His abilities allow him to transform between a human form and his bake-danuki form at will, turn his skin into metal over time, and create objects out of thin air like a gun.
• The Laughing Salesman: It's heavily implied that Moguro Fukuzou himself is a bakedanuki, given his rotund appearance, trickster nature and his tendency to appear in the place of tanuki statues. One client, high on shrooms, even sees him as a tanuki.
• Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun: Maeno is obsessed with tanuki and is constantly badgering the manga authors working under him to include them in all their works. Since they're very obvious In-Universe Creators Pets, most of the other characters hate them, to the point that the anime's opening shows Sakura and Hori violently destroying one.
• My Hero Academia: A flashback to Kirishima's middle school days features a nameless student who resembles a tanuki and has a Quirk that can temporarily turn leaves into money, referencing various folktales where tanuki turn leaves into money in order to trick people. Some bullies try to force him to make some leaves into money for them until Mina Ashido steps in to defend him.
• My Master Has No Tail is a manga and anime about a Tanuki girl who discovers that people in Taisho-era Osaka no longer fall for the old tricks, and decides to learn Rakugo from a Kitsune, as a new kind of trickery.
• In Naruto, the one-tailed beast Shukaku is an enormous demon in the form of a huge (and somewhat insane) tanuki, though it lacks the oversized testicles. His host Gaara can also create a statue of Shukaku out of sand similar to wayside statues seen in Japan. In reference to the tanuki/kitsune rivalry, Gaara is introduced as an Evil Counterpart to the kitsune-possessed Naruto. While Shukaku is much weaker than Naruto's Nine-Tailed Fox, Gaara is able to physically transform into his Tailed Beast (thus unleashing its full power) long before Naruto can do the same and without the physical injuries Naruto suffers for most of the series.
• The tanukis Omae, Tanuki ni Naranee ka? are looking to bolster their numbers, usually by looking for suicidal person, forcibly transform them into a fellow tanuki and let them experience their new existence. Usually it ends up with their target learning to appreciate life again and regains their will to live.
• One Piece:
  • Tony Tony Chopper is mistaken for a tanuki by nearly every character he encounters outside of the crew. He is a reindeer, but his small and cute appearance leads to confusion. He also happens to have shapeshifting powers.
  • Later, the samurai Kinemon has eaten a Devil Fruit that grants him the tanuki power of shapeshifting/disguising himself and other people if he/they place a leaf (or stone) on their head. For a long time it was unknown what exactly the Devil Fruit is, until the Wano arc, which is named the Fuku Fuku no Mi (known as Garb-Garb Fruit in English).

• Sengoku Choujuu Giga, Tokugawa Ieyasu is represented as a tanuki.
• Shaman King:
  • Ponchi is a Tanuki that makes a pair with Conchi, a fox (or Kitsune), which is another animal regarded with mystical powers of deception in Japanese mythology. The less said about his testicles, the better. Suffice it to say that he inverts the Groin Attack. Fitting with their mischievous sense of humor, both he and Conchi are Captain Ersatzes of Ren & Stimpy.
  • Yoh's father, Mikihisa Asakura, has a more traditional fox/tanuki pair, named Imari and Shiragaki, as his spirit allies.
• Shimoneta: Tanukichi's (no relation to the other Tanukichi^note Tom Nook in the English version) first name is a pun based on the Tanuki. Ayame points out the implications of the name.
• Tamamo-chan’s a Fox!: Mitarai initially appears to be a tanuki, and has the typical powers of shapeshifting and casting illusions on leaves and sticks. However, she's actually a raccoon. But she learned her powers from a real tanuki.
• Episode 28 of Time Bokan features a tanuki robot, complete with shape-shifting.
• Urusei Yatsura:
  • A tanuki named Oshima shows up in a story that is a parody of the classic Japanese fairytale of "The Grateful Crane". He wants to repay Ataru's kindness after Ataru frees him from a tanuki trap whilst he is disguised as a crane, but he can't think of how to do it, until he reads a kid's storybook with the Grateful Crane in it. He attempts to turn into a maid for Ataru... but just looks like himself in a dress. He tries to create money for Ataru from transformed leaves... but can't pull it off. When Ataru gets mad and calls him a stupid tanuki, he borrows from the ending of the Grateful Crane and uses it as an excuse to turn into a crane and leave.
  • A second tanuki, also named Oshima, appears in the third Non-Serial Movie as the slightly bumbly sidekick to the film's antagonist. Colored gray, she is more competent with her magic than her counterpart, and first appears as a cute teenage human girl with a tanuki's ears and tail.
• The Tanuki from the Kincho clan in Shikoku guards the Orb of Gold in Yaiba.
• Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs: Koyuzu Shigaraki is a young female tanuki who usually takes the form of a little girl with tanuki ears and a tail. She can transform herself and others into other people or objects by using leaves. She still isn't very good at shapeshifting herself, which is why she still has her ears and tail in her human form.
• YuYu Hakusho has a one-shot manga-only story early on where Yusuke and Botan encounter one who attempts to help an old man about to pass on.
• In Buichi Terasawa's Takeru, the titular hero's sidekick is a Cartoon Creature who appears to be partially translated into a tea kettle and can fully shift form of a large flying tea kettle which can be ridden on. His name is Bunbuku, and he's clearly a reference to the Bunbuku Chagama tale, and thus seems to be some sort of alien tanuki.

Fan Works

• In the Animal Crossing fic Slice of Heaven, tanukis are a myth in real life but exist in the Mundane Afterlife. Tom and his similar relatives are special residents in Animal Crossing who run general stores.
• Izuku's Quirk in Turning a New Leaf is a mutation quirk that manifests as a pair of animal ears and a raccoon tail. He also capable of shapeshifting, being able to transform into other people and even animals using a leaf. He later finds out that it's not a Quirk - he's an actual youkai.

Film - Animated

• A clan of them feature in Pom Poko. The American dub calls them raccoons (likely to make it easier to translate the numerous songs about them) and refers to their testicles as "pouches".
• In the Japanese localized version of Zootopia, the male newscaster for Zootopia News Network is a raccoon dog named Michael Tanuyama, whose appearance is like the tanuki from Japanese folklore complete with a straw hat and a leaf on his head.

Literature

• InCryptid has the tanuki character Ryan Yukimura, a bartender at the club Verity works at. His species can appear as a human, a raccoon dog, or a giant tanuki monster. They can also temporarily turn parts of themself to stone.
• Villa Incognito by Tom Robbins has several sections about Tanukis as a The Trickster and frequently mentions their giant scrotum.

• The Eccentric Family is a novel about a family of Tanuki living in Kyoto that has been adapted into an anime series.

Live-Action TV

• The Big Bang Theory: Kripke allegedly draws a picture of "a 'raccoon' with an engorged scrotum" on Sheldon's survey. It was quite probably intended to be a tanuki.
• Kamen Rider Geats: Keiwa Sakurai, a.k.a. Kamen Rider Tycoon, one of the rivals of the eponymous protagonist in the Desire Grand Prix, has a Tanuki motif.
• Ninja Sentai Kakuranger had a Tanuki comic book artist as a Monster of the Week. The series calls him a Mujina (which actually refers to a badger youkai, but the name is interchangeable with "Tanuki" in some regions), but his appearance and mannerisms are very much Tanuki, complete with drumming his belly. Renamed Artistmole for Season 3 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

Music

• Tanuki are a common subject of warabe-uta (traditional songs sung to Japanese children).
  • In an instance of cultural translation, one of these songs, whose original words are about a tanuki at the Shojoji temple, has become a song about a raccoon named Shojoji who is always hungry. The Japanese words makeru-na suggested macaroons, so Shojoji craves "macaroons and macaroni, jellybeans and pink spumoni" (or, depending on the version, pink baloney, or pink abalone). A version for the Mickey Mouse Club included both an inset of a woman singing the original Japanese song and a skit with Mousketeers singing the Americanized version.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons has long had the tanuki, or "raccoon dog", as one of the possible breeds of hengeyokai (basically an Asian animal-based Voluntary Shapeshifter). They first appeared in the 1st Edition supplement Oriental Adventures, where they were described as always evil, with enhanced strength but lower than normal wisdom. They later reappeared in 3rd edition's remake of the same sourcebook, where they lost the "Always Evil" aspect. They made their final appearance to date for 4th edition in issue #404 of Dragon, where they lost the wisdom penalty (indeed, wisdom and charisma were the "floating" ability score boosts), and finally gained a climbing speed.
• In Pathfinder, tanuki are monstrous humanoids with the shapeshifter subtype, tend to be Chaotic Neutral, can create items from nothing, supposedly change objects into other objects, and get more powerful when they take a swig of sake. Also, they have a slam attack that they don't need to have their paws free to use.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! has drum-playing baby tanuki (though the English cards call them "raccoons") named Ponpoko and Tantan.
• In Kitsune: Of Foxes and Fools a "Friendly Tanuki" is one of the possible ally cards. They improve the Wit trait by +3.

Video Games

• A blue tanuki is the boss of Waphoon in Go Go! Mile Smile!. It attacks by throwing bottles of sake at Mile and Yard and uses its leaf to warp from platform to platform to avoid being hit himself.
• The Tanooki Suit for Mario in Super Mario Bros. 3 is based on the appearance of a tanuki and named after it (though with the spelling of the name Anglicized), minus the large testicles. When Mario wears it, he has the same abilities as he does as Raccoon Mario while also being able to turn into a statue, which makes him invulnerable to enemy attacks at the cost of movement, making it so enemies pass by Mario without harming him. Since the Japanese name of "Raccoon Mario" was actually "shippo [tail] Mario," it was most likely meant to be a Little Bit Beastly version of a tanuki rather than a raccoon. (For the reason given at the top of this page, it's significant that the powerup which turns Mario into this form is a leaf.)
• Monster Sanctuary contains a rare non-Japanese example. The tanuki is a shapeshifter that can appear disguised as any monster commonly found in the area, it wears a leaf on its head, and uses the elements of wind and earth.
• Of Pokémon, Sentret and Zigzagoon are both designed after the tanuki. Sentret resembles the folklore version, with its round body and round-tipped tail, while Zigzagoon resembles a real-life version. Sentret can spot an enemy from great distances and emits a loud cry as a warning. Though insignificant in battle, with below average statistical abilities and a small pool of moves to learn from, Zigzagoon can be useful as a party member. It is one of the few Pokémon that can have the "Pickup" ability, which will sometimes give you very rare items such as Rare Candy and PP Up, and its evolution, Linoone, can learn most HM moves, which are used to progress through otherwise insurmountable obstacles. Interestingly, in Gold and Silver it seems there was intended to be a tanuki Pokemon referencing the Kachi-Kachi Yama tale, which made it far enough into development to get a graphic◊ but was ultimately cut.
• Shounen Kininden Tsumuji features a tanuki statue made by Tsumuji's father which has all 8 traits.
• Tom Nook from Animal Crossing is a tanuki in the original Japanese versions of the games; the English localizations officially call him a raccoon, but his Punny Name still makes it clear what he really is. Of note is the fact that all furniture items in the games (such as those that Tom Nook sells) are transformed into leaves when put in one's inventory. And, naturally, Nook's nephews Timmy and Tommy are also tanuki, although this is less obvious. Tanuki statues also appear. Prior to New Leaf, he normally wore only an apron, a nod to tanukis' large testicles (though oddly enough, his uniforms for both Nook 'n' Go and Nookington's have him wear a a shirt with no pants). He’s also said to have a rivalry with Crazy Redd, who’s a fox.
• The protagonist of Jitsu Squad is a former human warrior under a curse, who turns him into an andromorphic tanuki. He still retains his fighting skills, however.
• The Kiki Kai Kai series of Cute 'em Up games features a Tanuki named Manuke (translated as Rocky the Raccoon), who was originally the Final Boss from within the original arcade game, but has since became a playable character from within the second entry in the series. Manuke also appears as a boss in Bubble Symphony and Pop n' Pop.
• Tanuki Justice stars a pair of tanuki ninja siblings, out to defeat the forces of darkness.
• Touhou Project has these youkai showing up here and there, but there are two notable ones:
  • Mamizou Futatsuiwa, the Superboss of Touhou Shinreibyou ~ Ten Desires, whose character is based on the tanuki Folk Hero Danzaburou-danuki. Initially hailing from Sado^note a Japanese city-island known for its large tanuki population, she decides to stay in Gensokyo after being called to defeat the Final Boss only to discover that the player character already took care of things. She also plays a prominent role in the manga Touhou Suzunaan ~ Forbidden Scrollery, where she subtly manipulates Kosuzu towards pro-youkai beliefs.
  • The Expanded Universe manga Oriental Sacred Place, chapter 11, featured an unnamed tanuki who almost successfully impersonated Marisa Kirisame.
• Ibuki of Street Fighter III and Super Street Fighter IV has a pet tanuki named Don.
• Ieyasu Tokugawa in Samurai Warriors is associated with the tanuki, in contrast to his rival Mitsunari Ishida, who is associated with the Kitsune.
  • Samurai Warriors 3 has the Murasame Castle Mode, in which one can find 33 tanukis in order to unlock a character.
• Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun includes a realistic-looking one named Kuma. It being a stealth game, as the pet of Takuma◊, Kuma is one of Takuma's gameplay tools. Kuma is able to be ordered around wherever because no one suspects a common raccoon dog, and distract guards by acting adorable.
• In Sengoku Rance, Tokugawa Ieyasu is a tanuki.
• The boss of the alternate fourth stage in Sexy Parodius is a tanuki, whose prominent kintama are a Fake Weakness. The music for the Boss Battle is a medley of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the warabe-uta tune "Genkotsu-yama no Tanuki-san."
• Fox's trainer in the Training Mode of Star Fox 64 and its Nintendo 3DS remake is a tanuki by the name of Yaru de Pon (or DePon).
• The Legend of the Mystical Ninja has a tanuki statue marking checkpoints between action stages. In the Super Famicom sequel Ganbare Goemon 2, the statues mark the Level Goal, and break open to release plenty of koban coins.
• Comic Bakery has a bunch of tanuki trying to eat the bread and generally disrupt things.
• Ponpoko stars a hungry tanuki.
• Mamedanuki from Shin Megami Tensei.
• Dodon Pa from Team Sonic Racing is a mysterious tanuki (and is referred to as such even in translations) who invites the characters to race. Amy and the others know about tanuki stereotypes and don't trust him. He's also described as funny-looking and chubby.
• One of Smite's playable "gods" (which also include non-god heroes and creatures like Hercules, Jormungandr, and Mulan) is Danzaburou-danuki (here just shortened to "Danzaburou"), a Hunter-type character who uses a Bamboo Technology shotgun and rockets.
• In Muramasa: The Demon Blade, the first DLC chapter of the Vita remake has a tanuki disguised as various monsters as the second boss; even the "haunted house" the fight takes place in is part of the disguise. After the fight, he takes on the player character Okoi, a vengeful shapeshifting cat, as a disciple.
• In Musya: The Classic Japanese Tale of Horror, the first boss is a tanuki that first appears disguised as a beautiful girl and breathes fire after taking swigs of sake. The lower part of its sprite was edited for the American release.
• In The Angry Video Game Nerd II: ASSimilation, the Nerd spends a stage riding a tanuki with "fucking flaming tanuki balls". You can smash his huge nads into enemies if you wish. It kills the enemies, too!
• Tanukids, a Maze Game released with one of Compile's PC-98 Disc Station issues, stars a father tanuki who carries around a flask of sake while rescuing the kids and plays his belly like a drum.
• Yo-kai Watch 2 has a tanuki boss named Teastroyer. He disguises himself as Jibanyan and tricks the protagonist into buying him food. After finding him out you fight him and he then he fuses Jibanyan and Komasan into Jibakoma.
• The first Splatoon features a large statue of a tanuki in Inkopolis Plaza, right across from one of a Kitsune. Both statues are decorated during Splatfest celebrations, with the tanuki being decorated in the color of Marie's team. This played into the second Japanese Splatfest, whose theme was Red Fox vs. Green Tanuki.
• In Yam! Yam!?, a 1990 puzzle arcade game, the main characters are tanukis.
• The Arcade/Super Famicom puzzle game Dharma Dojou has tanukis as one of the blocks the character needs to clear. They also show up in the ending.
• In Gourmet Warriors, the second phase of one of the bosses is a robotic tanuki.
• A tanuki shows up as one of the party guests at the end of Psycho Fox.
• Keio Flying Squadron has a tanuki named Dr. Pon as one of the characters. They also show up as statues.
• Hit the wrong bell in Drop Rock Hora Hora/Drop Off for the PC Engine and a tanuki drops onto you.
• The plot of Hana Taaka Daka! for the PC engine is kicked off when a tanuki kidnaps a fox's girlfriend. The enemies also revert into small tanukis when defeated.
• Kirby Super Star has as one of the treasures in the Great Cave Offensive a "Raccoon Doll" that's probably supposed to be a tanuki. Also, there's Pon, who makes his first appearance in Kirby's Dream Land 3 and becomes a recurring character in the Kirby-verse afterward.
• The main character of Batten Tanuki no Daibouken is a tanuki who happens to be a martial arts expert. The cover also features a real tanuki—frankly, that seems to be the most memorable part.
• Mega Man 6 has the Shigaraky who launches...orbs...from between its legs.
• Ninja Baseball Bat Man has them in statue form.
• In Gururin (a Match-Three Game for the Neo Geo), one of your opponents is a drunk tanuki who seems to prefer wine over sake.
• In Musashi no Bouken, a Dragon Quest clone for the NES, you find a tanuki companion almost immediately after starting the game. He operates independently in battle, gaining new skills by collecting certain leaves.
• The Goonies game for Famicom has a tanuki as one of the collectables.
• Sachen's Q Boy, an unlicensed game for the NES, has tanukis as one of the first enemies you encounter.
• Tokyo Afterschool Summoners features two tanuki characters as recruitable allies: Gyobu, a Neighbourhood Friendly Yakuza, and Goemon (whose real name is Shukaku), a Large Ham Kabuki performer. Both of them have the standard chubby body type, amicable personality, and access transformation & illusory magic, and because of the type of game this is, allusions are made to them being generously sized in their nether regions though it's not actually shown. Their names are also taken from popular tanuki folklore.
• Rhythm Heaven has a scrapped Minigame called "Tanuki (or Tanooki) and Monkey", featuring a tanuki instructor named Ponta.
• Kemono Heroes features a ghostly tanuki Samurai as the boss of Stage 2.
• In Gekisha Boy 2, one of the stages has a tanuki statue you can take several pictures of.
• One of the players you can add to your team in Softball Tengoku is a tanuki.
• By entering a code in Waku Waku 7, you can make the win counter a tanuki head.
• Yasu, one of the titular character's assistants in Samurai Kid for the GBC is a tanuki. Interestingly, the other assistant is not a kitsune as might be expected, but a monkey.
• A tanuki statue shows up in Super Bishibashi for arcades, and showed up in the Bishibashi spin-off Steering Champ, but was edited out of the European version of the latter.
• Mario Kart 8 has a "Tanooki Kart'', and is (as you might expect) Tanooki Mario's signature Kart.
• The Battle Cats for Android has a tanuki named Kachi-Kachi.
• The Playstation port of The Last Blade has an exclusive character called "Akari" Ichijou or "Ponta" Akari, who happens to be a tanuki who took the form of the real Akari to mess around.

Visual Novels

• One of the romance options in the Furry H-Game Morenatsu is a tanuki named Kounosuke Kuri, who is fittingly chubby and has an interest in the supernatural. He also has a younger brother named Yukiharu who is much the same.

Webcomics

• Housepets!: Itsuki Kitamura is a tanuki who works as an auto mechanic with the main characters' father. While he has the right body type for a stock tanuki character and wears a groin-covering fundoshi in possible reference to kintama, he subverts the stock personality by being The Comically Serious, and is less a representative of the traditional tanuki as he is an Affectionate Parody of a young Japanese person entering the workforce.
• Outsider: The Tenuki, one of the Umiak client species, are short, round and furry bipeds with bushy tails and feisty natures.
• The Not Safe for Work Animesque Furry Webcomic Red Hot Party features Hoshi, a tanuki who debuts as a Villain of the Week but joins the protagonists after they defeat him and free him from the mind control the Big Bad put him under. Appearance-wise he borrows heavily from the traditional depiction, being big & fat with the hat and gourd of sake in some appearances, and this comic being what it is, he has a huge set of balls that he can make even bigger and often uses in combat. Side comics introduce his brother Dai who is even more stereotypical, having all the same abilities in addition to using leaves for transformations, and being The Trickster and perverted (but non-villainous) in contrast to Hoshi's Straight Man.
• Tribal Circumstances (also known as A School of Humans and Kemonos in the English translation) is a Slice of Life Ecchi web manga that focuses on a school populated by students who range from normal human to Beast Man on the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism, and the shenanigans of them trying to understand the quirks of each others' species. Among them is an anthropomorphic tanuki named Happei who, as a young person detached from many of the traditions of Japanese folklore, doesn't quite "get" some of the prominent stereotypes associated with tanuki and laments being associated with large bellies & big ballsacks. The punchline comes when his fox friend, whom he envies for being associated with more "cool" things, points out that he really does have a big belly and large balls.

Western Animation

• Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart has Tanya Keys, a tanuki bounty hunter and former partner of Mao Mao. As a tanuki, she can shapeshift into other people, imitate their voices perfectly, and turn leaves into objects like ice cream, ropes, or even anchors.

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