As the human city development encroaches on the raccoon population's forest and meadow habitat, the raccoons find themselves faced with the very real possibility of extinction. In response, the raccoons engage in a desperate struggle to stop the construction and preserve their home.

As the tanuki fly off in a train of spirits and ghosts, immediately before beginning project "Poltergeist", images characters from other Ghibli works can be seen, including that of Kiki from Majo no takkyûbin (1989), Porco Roso's Seaplane from Kurenai no buta (1992), Totoro on his top from Tonari no Totoro (1988), and young Taeko from Omohide poro poro (1991) can be seen flying just above the winged skeleton.

Narrator:
They used their balls as weapons in a brave kamikaze attack.

Factual errors: The English-dubbed version incorrectly refers to the tanuki as "raccoons". Tanuki are actually "raccoon dogs" - they are in the canid branch of mammals.