YMMV / Rascal the Raccoon

• Cash-Cow Franchise: Rascal is Nippon Animation's flagship franchise due to his status in Japan. The series may have ended in 1977, but licensed Rascal products are still being made to this day.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Rascal is very beloved in Japan, more so than his owner Sterling. So much that Nippon Animation created an entire merchandise line based on him and he is chosen as a number one favorite character in World Masterpiece Theater according to this official survey in Japan.
• Misaimed Fandom: Despite showing many episodes about the dangers of taking care of raccoons as pets, many Japanese audience didn't get the message and want to adopt them as pets as a result of this show. To this day, the descendants of abandoned or wild raccoons live wild in majority of Japan's prefectures.
• The Scrappy: Martha Conway is hated by a portion of viewers for being a whiny Tagalong Kid, having a shrill voice and causing trouble to Sterling and his friends. Some of the biggest blunders she made in the show include accidentally dropping Oscar's pet frog Lucky I (who ended up being captured by Poe) and then in later episodes she lets Rascal loose from his cage without asking Sterling's permission. Even Oscar and Alice expressed disdain about her for few times. There's a reason why she doesn't show up after The Spanish Flu incident.
• So Okay, It's Average: The anime version is very popular in Japan. Outside? It only received lukewarm reception, probably either because many of them are more familiar with the Disney version.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Some people who read the memoir or at least know the background behind it felt the anime should have at least some references about World War I to make more interesting. However, either because of the author's decision for not including that or Japan's memories about the last war they involved into was still fresh at that time that part was not mentioned in the show. This idea was later used with Katri, Girl of the Meadows.
• Values Dissonance: Rocky, an African-American boxer who taught Sterling some self defense is drawn having big, pink lips. This was corrected in other black characters from next WMT entries like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari.