The raccoon-like tanuki were once seen as shape-changing pranksters in Japanese myth. Now situated in modern-day Japan, Pom Poko cleverly assigns to the tanuki the role of keepers of Japan’s earthy traditional society. But Pom Poko is no solemn appeal to preserve some stuffed-and-mounted version of folk culture. Animators are themselves great tricksters, and Takahata goes manic in Pom Poko—a wild, drunken festival of social satire in which Japan’s past and present try to out-hustle each other by any means necessary.