Everything is as is normal, with one exception. There are many kinds of supernatural creatures living in Japan, and Kyoto is no exception.The sky is ruled by the tengu,and the ground by the tanuki. Although, this is unknown to normal humans. There are clans of tanuki and there are clans of tengu, and the clans rule their own territory, with their own leading clan. The thing tanuki have to worry the most about is being eaten by humans, and tengu have to worry about losing their wings. Some humans and some tanuki can learn how to use tengu magic.

In Kyoto, Japan, lives a family of tanuki. They are four brothers and their mother. Their father was eaten as an ingredient in tanuki hotpot a few years back. Nowadays, the first son is the family head, the second son is a frog in a well, the third son Yasaburou is a partly-prankster cross-transfroming idiot, and the fourth is a hardworking but not very capable factory worker, while the mother is a huge Takarazuka fan. Most of the days are spent at random, but Yasaburou goes to visit his brother Yajirou who's stuck in a well, arguing with another tanuki family who keeps bullying his little brother, and try to stop his crow tengu teacher from going looking for the psycic human Benten all the time. It's an eccentric family, who cause a lot of chaos in the city of Kyoto.

Before their dad was eaten, an engagement between the Ebisugawa daughter Kaisei and Yasaburou was established between the fathers, but in the end the engagement was broken off by Ebisugawa. Still, Yasaburou meet with her from time to time, because she’s the only member of the Ebisugawa family that he doesn’t think should rot in hell.

The most recent event, is the Gozan Fire Festival. During this event, the family has borrowed a flying tea house from Benten (she received it as a gift from the old tengu) and as they are enjoying themselves up in the air, they get passed by the Ebisugawa tanuki. The Ebisugawa and the Shimigamo have a longstanding grudge against each other (the Ebisugawa just might have a hand in the death of Yasaburou's father) and not long gone throughout the festivities, a fight breaks out between the two families. By using fireworks as bombs, the both families try their best to shoot each other down, and as the Shimogamo's tea house crumbles, Yasaburou uses the fan that he has borrowed from Benten. This fan is a wind-creating fan, likely one she acquired from the tengu, and with it, Yasaburou blows away the Ebisugawa's ship. However, it's not "the end" there, because their own tea house ship is crashing, and breaks down in the mountains. Once everyone has made sure they're all alright and not (too badly) hurt, Yasaburou realizes that he has lost the fan, and since he doesn't want to become an ingredient in Benten's tanuki hot-pot, he flees as fast as he can. (Because he was running for the rest of the summer, he became known as "Yasaburou: the Fugitive".)
 

First off, Yasaburou is a tanuki, a Japanese raccoon-dog with the ability to shape shift. He uses this to a big extent, mostly to mingle with humans. Because humans are interesting creatures, are they not? They act funny, create crazy things, and do weird things. He loves to mess with people, and is a real little prankster. His favorite target is his oldest brother, since he is so easy to irritate.

But he’s a cheerful young tanuki, who easily gets along with people. He’s happy-go-lucky, loves learning new things, and is happy to meet new people and experience new things. He likes anything in this world except tanuki hot-pot, really. Yasaburou spends his days as they come. With no obligations - no job, not duties, no school - he doesn’t have anything planned for the day, unless a festival happens or he has a rare appointment. Many days, he goes to visit his teacher, a crow tengu who has lost his ability to fly. He loves exploring, and often goes to places he knows nothing of for the sake of seeing something new.
He loves to have fun and doesn’t like people who ruin his fun, especially if it’s only for the sake of picking a fight. He’s even get determination to laugh if he one day become hot-pot laughing. At least that’s what he says, but he’s a sarcastic bastard and it’s difficult to know just when he’s being serious. He likes to drink, he likes to smoke, and he’s always screwing around, as his teacher says. He lives life as it comes and takes a day at the time. He enjoys himself everyday, in any way that he wants.
He’s also a bit of a nerd for ancient Japan and does a lot of kabuki acts for the heck of it. Tone of voice, choice of words, poses and movements. He's a bit of a nerd of everything and anything, really. He plays Nasu no Youichi (a famous archer from Japan), Kamen Rider, and Cupid, just because it's fun.

“It’s a manifestation of our idiot blood” is something that their father would say every time they did something stupid or caused a riot. And idiots, his entire family is. He’s aware of the fact that he’s an idiot, and doesn’t mind people calling him one. Depending on who it is, really. If it’s someone that he doesn’t like that uses the insults that him and his family comfortably and lovingly throws around, he’ll get upset and might get loud in his protests.

While humans think of death as a bad thing, tanuki think it’s a natural thing that will come to everyone some day. Death is a sad thing, yes, but to a tanuki, it’s a common occurrence in their society. Normally, anyone would react with rage at having a parent eaten, but for Yasaburou and his siblings, it was more of a fact. “It happens, we just have to be careful so it doesn’t happen to us” is the mindset of a tanuki, and Yasaburou is no different.
On the other hand, it’s a tragedy when a tanuki stays to long in one form and get unable to shape-shift. Shape-shifting is second nature to tanuki, after all.

On another other hand, he is not happy at the tanuki that are likely to have part in the death of his father. For being a nice guy, he still has flaws. He can hold grudges for a long time, for any slighter offense. For any bigger offense, he will openly show his dislike, even if he might try to act polite in the beginning. But he will bite back if he is bitten, that’s for sure. He’s not the type to back away with his tail between his legs.

He isn’t afraid of using his ability to transform for the sake of getting what he wants, or pleasing others. He can play a nice lady, a petite girl or a good-looking man, but there is one thing he often forgets; he can be crude. There is no problem with a crude teen, but when he takes the appearance of a young girl in school uniform, it might not be the most fitting to sit with legs spread wide and smoke or drink alcohol. He doesn’t mind too much being felt up, if it’s necessary, and he definitely doesn’t choose his words wisely unless it benefits him.

Still, he’s a tanuki that is proud of his heritage, and he will not do anything (too bad) to ruin the Shimogamo family name. If someone starts a fight with him and his family, he won’t back down, even if it means setting off fireworks on other tanuki. But if he gets into a threatening situation that scares him utterly, he’ll run. So Kaisei, his former fiancee, has right when she says that Yasaburou has no balls. But really, why should he get himself in anything dangerous that’s bound to kill him?

He’s naturally spiteful, and doesn’t like to do as he’s told. Part of it is tanuki nature, but it’s mostly just the way Yasaburou is. He’s sarcastic toward people who know he is, or toward people he doesn’t like. And when someone tells a tanuki to transform, they stop wanting to transform. Yasaburou just feels that more than other tanuki does. It happens often that he says things without thinking them through first, and he’s especially mean to his oldest brother Yaichirou. Half the time he’s not serious about the mean-ness and pranks, however.
 

As a tanuki (Japanese raccoon dog) he has the ability to shapeshift. He can shift into anything and anyone that he wants, but he hasn't tested the limits of it. For example, he has never tried turning into a dragon. If a tanuki stays too long in one shape, they might get stuck in that shape. For example, one of Yasaburou's older brothers got stuck as a frog, and has been for a long time. One thing (As mentioned above) is that tanuki, by instinct, stop wanting to - and sort of, because of that, temporarily stop eing able to - transform if someone tells them to transform.
Even in animal form, or item form, he can speak the human language. He can also speak aniaml languages.
 

there is a dramatic pause, followed by an equally dramatic exclamation.

"I, Shimogamo Yasaburou, humbly apologize for not being available for you at the moment! If you wish me to contact you, leave the details after thsh---ouch, I bit my to--"

beep



041 » 144


| video | voice | call | action |