David Oliver Cohen

Seizaemon: All pray!

[the tanuki put their hands together and bow]

Osho: I'd like to say a prayer for the victims of this operation.

[At this point, some of the tanuki start to snigger]

Osho: We wish that we could save our forest without harming any humans. That was never our intention, but our forest is near and dear to us, and we...

[the tanuki all burst into raucous laughter and head for the exit]

Tamasaburô, Bunta, Tanuki: [singing] Let's turn into every sacred icon we can think of. Some are this and some are that...

[They do backflips into the air and turn into various items; stone Buddhas, lucky cats, painted eggs, kitsune sculptures, gold carp sculptures, monkey sculptures and Tanuki sculptures. Ponkichi rushes to join in and tries copying them. He does various poses but is unable to transform]

Shokichi: [narrating] Back then, all I thought about was transforming. I never dreamed that my friend Ponkichi might just want to be a normal raccoon.