A new book by John Foust あらいぐまラスカル
The only Japanese anime set entirely in Wisconsin.
The amazing story of a Wisconsin raccoon who became a Japanese anime-tion star, beloved by millions around the world.
52
anime episodes, first broadcast in Japan in 1977
2.5M+
copies sold of Sterling North’s 1963 memoir
10+
languages dubbed, from German to Farsi to Mandarin
0
English versions, so most Americans have never seen it
The Book
It’s not beer or cheese…
Wisconsin’s best-known export around the world could be “Rascal the Raccoon,” the star of a 52-episode Japanese anime watched by millions.
Because of this animated series, millions know Wisconsin’s farms and fields, small-town life, Lake Koshkonong and the Rock River, and the north woods at Three Lakes and the animals that live there.
Millions watched in Japan in 1977. Since then, millions more have watched it dubbed into German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, Tagalog, Afrikaans, Ukrainian, Mandarin and Korean. Yet the series is virtually unknown in the United States, because there is no English version.
Starring Rascal is a deep dive into the multiverse of every “Rascal” story: the book itself, the Japanese anime, the Disney movies, and all the details of Sterling North’s life that found their way into his books.
The Rascal Multiverse
One boy, one raccoon, many lives
A year in the life of a boy who adopts a raccoon, and how that story kept getting retold.
1918
A boyhood in Edgerton
Sterling North grows up in Edgerton, Wisconsin, near Lake Koshkonong and the Rock River. His year with a curious young raccoon becomes the heart of everything that follows.
1949
So Dear to My Heart
North’s book “Midnight and Jeremiah” becomes Disney’s second live-action film. Remember Burl Ives and “Lavender blue, dilly-dilly”? That’s “So Dear.”
1963
Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era
North publishes the memoir of his year with Rascal. It goes on to sell more than 2.5 million copies.
1969
Disney’s Rascal
Rascal becomes a Disney movie, the only one set entirely in Wisconsin.
1977
あらいぐまラスカル
Araiguma Rascal
Nippon Animation turns the memoir into a 52-episode anime watched by millions in Japan, and later dubbed for audiences around the world.
1997
Rascal’s home opens to visitors
In August 1997, Sterling North’s childhood home in Edgerton, the setting of the story, opens as a museum you can visit. Plan a visit with the Sterling North Society →
2012
A Japanese postage stamp
Japan Post honors Sterling and Rascal in its Anime Hero and Heroine stamp series, Volume 18.
2026
The Rascal Trail opens
Called America’s first anime tourism trail, it invites visitors to discover Wisconsin through Rascal.
From the page to the road
Follow Rascal across Wisconsin
The research behind Starring Rascal helped inspire The Rascal Trail, a nonprofit cultural tourism project of the Japan America Society of Wisconsin and the Sterling North Society.
The trail runs from Sterling North’s childhood home in Edgerton through Milwaukee and Madison, then out to Three Lakes, Taliesin, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House in the Big Woods, and Lake Superior, tracing the unexpected ties between Wisconsin and Japan.
- Milwaukee
- Edgerton
- Madison
- Three Lakes
- Taliesin
- Superior
In the News
Starring Rascal in the media
The Janesville Gazette
Featured in the “Kicks” arts and entertainment section: “Starring Rascal”: North’s beloved Wisconsin classic also cherished in Japan.
PBS Wisconsin, Wisconsin Life
A segment about the Sterling North Museum, including an interview with author John Foust.
Wisconsin Public Radio, The Morning Show
John joins host Kate Archer Kent to talk about “Anime through a Wisconsin Lens.”