Japan’s Nippon Animation is co-producing a new spinoff in its vintage Raccoon Rascal anime franchise with Yomiuri TV (YTV). 

Henry Hirakawa is directing Raccoon Calcal Force, which will premiere next year on Nippon TV’s linear channel. YTV’s Kozo Misawa (My Hero Academia, Blue Miburo) and Nippon’s Hitomi Hiratsuka will serve as chief producers on the project. 

Plot details for Calcal Force are sparse, but Nippon unveiled a teaser visual today (pictured) that reads: “A half-century after the enduring masterpiece, they arrive on Earth.” In 1977, the studio produced a 52-episode Raccoon Rascal anime series about a boy who shelters a young raccoon from a hunter and attempts to keep the wild and mischievous animal as his pet. This premise was inspired by Sterling North’s 1963 children’s novel Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era. 

Following the success of this lead series, Nippon produced two spinoffs: 2006’s preschool series Poka Poka Mori no Rascal (52 x five minutes), and a 2014 detective vehicle called  Meitantei Rascal (12 x five minutes). 

The original series is considered to be the catalyst for people importing raccoons into Japan to serve as pets, which eventually led to them being labeled an invasive species in the country.