Today's release of episode 26 means we've reached a milestone as half of the series is translated now, hurray! We also have a question for everyone: This episode contains a song at about 20m18s. If you can tell us the title, please let us know!

Thanks so much! ❤️ Great job, "this milestone" ✌️, for sure. 👍

I tried to identify the song with Shazam and SoundHound, and also my neighbor music teacher. But to no avail. 😢 I guess we need a native Japanese preschool teacher. 😄

I checked with a Japanese today (my neighbor's daughter-in-law), but she couldn't recognize the song either, except that "it sounded old". (She is about 30 years of age and grown up in Japan.) But she will contact her mother in Japan by tomorrow, whether she eventually has heard it.

Maybe it's an American song, it sounds like that to me, and with made-up or translated lyrics in Japanese?

@Jack: I also guess it's an American song, and I expect that it's from the 19th/early 20th century. Up till now, I was able to identify all songs, some with help. Most of them are by American composer Stephen Collins Foster. However, this one seems to be written by someone else. It could still be a song written specifically for Rascal and made to sound American, but I don't think so. The title or origins might be mentioned in some Japanese (song?) book about Rascal. Thanks for your efforts in finding the title, and if you do find it, please let me know! Kind regards, Peter

best i could figure is https://vgmdb.net/album/86751 , not about to drop 50$ on a album for a song

@South Wind Subs/Peter Would it be worthwhile if "my Japanese" wrote down the lyrics in hiragana, so You than could translate it from there? If so, I would ask her to do so. (I haven't heard from her yet, i. e. whether her mother recognized it.)

In the German dub they made their own version, it's alike, but not quite the same, and also some German asked the name of this song some six years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5_xVTR5TGY The lyrics in German are: Bei uns zu Haus da ist das Leben schön, weil sich bei uns alle gut verstehn. Bei uns zu Haus da macht das Leben Spaß, denn auch wenn du im Regen stehst, hier wirst du nicht nass. Bei uns zu Haus da ist das Leben schön, weil sich bei uns alle gut verstehn. Bei uns zu Haus da macht das Leben Spaß, denn auch wenn du im Regen stehst, hier wirst du nicht nass. I tried to identify those German lyrics with the Japanese romaji songlist in nielsen145's https://vgmdb.net/album/86751 , but I guess the Germans simply made there own thing. (Google Translate works pretty well on those German lyrics, but they don't rhyme anymore in English, of course.)

well i did manage to find 30th anni collection, sad new, the song is not there, i could upload the album to here, if wanted here is the tracklist 01 - Yoake no Michi 02 - Sougen no Marco 03 - Rock River e 04 - Perrine Monogatari 05 - Kikoeru Kashira 06 - Dare Yori mo Tooku e 07 - Hadashi no Flone 08 - Hana no Sasayaki 09 - Shi-a-wa-se Carnival 10 - Wakakusa no Shoutaijou 11 - Bokura no Cedie 12 - Mouichido Peter Pan 13 - Growing Up 14 - Do-Re-Mi no Uta 15 - Hohoemi de Prologue 16 - Ashita mo Otenki 17 - Sea Loves You 18 - Sora e… 19 - Kaze no Mukou

@nielsen145: Thanks for the link to the Rascal 40th Anniversary album at vgmdb.net! The first 20 tracks are from Araiguma Rascal. Looking at song titles, I don't think the mystery song is there. But if anyone has the CD... The other CD with songs from several anime unfortunately only holds the opening song, no need to upload it, but thanks for checking! @JackAssborn: German dub indeed has its own insert song. For the Japanese song, I have lyrics and crude translation. Nevertheless, I would be interested in how your neighbor's daughter-in-law translates the song (in DE or EN) to use it as reference? Matching it to the original American song (if existing), even if a good lyrics translation is there, is another challenge. Any help is appreciated!

SWS the cd i got, took a while to sniff it out, is the 30th anni version of it, where cd 2 from 40th is missing and tell the truth, best option for this, is go vinyl or something similar https://i.imgur.com/9uGt2Jo.jpg

@nielsen145: The 30th anniversary album is called 'Rascal & The World Masterpiece Theater - Best Song Collection' and only has one Rascal song in the track list, AFAIK. The 40th anniversary album's disc 1 is Rascal-only, but does not seem to hold the song I'm looking for. I'm not going to buy it now, but if anyone has it: please share! @JackAssborn: want to add to previous message that I also searched for the title of the German insert song. I didn't find that either. Might be an original song.

SWS maybe the only way is vinyl, but then again who knows when iam listen to the song, its almost polka like in melody and very much european in nature

@South Wind Subs "My Japanese" only knows Japanese (i. e. could eventually listen and write it down in hiragana or kanji) She has just been here in Sweden half a year. Her English is kinda hard to understand (she speaks English like most Japanese speak English, you know). But she might be state-of-the-art in writing in English anyway. That I don't know. I'll see...

japanese subs are available btw (if anybody is interested in those) https://kitsunekko.net/dirlist.php?dir=subtitles%2Fjapanese%2FRascal_The_Raccoon%2F and while you're there, grab the little women sdh japanese subs. (you'll need those when you finally decide to watch it raw like i did) https://kitsunekko.net/dirlist.php?dir=subtitles%2Fjapanese%2FLittle+Women+%28Ai+no+Wakakusa+Monogatari%29%2F

@gin Great! Thanks! Then we have solved the lyrics... 山のふもとの仮小屋に 牧童が住んでいた 角笛を吹けば牛や馬は 子供に慕いゆく 山よ 丘よ 谷よ 森よ 小鳥の声 響く 牧場は広々 木々は緑 楽しい思い出よ Which Google Translate makes into this... In a hut at the foot of the mountain a shepherd lived Blow the horn and the cows and horses adore children Oh mountains, oh hills, oh valleys, oh forests The voice of a small bird echoes The ranch is wide and the trees are green happy memories 😄

The third and fourth line, verbatim, should be like: If you blow the horn the cows and horses will come lovingly to the children.

@gin @Jack: Thanks! Still remaining question: is this a song written for the anime Raccoon Rascal/Rascal the Raccoon, or did it already exist? If it's an older song, lyrics will probably be different from the translation above. For example "shepherd" might be "cowboy". Words also might be poetic and in rhyme. @Jack: I believe Shazam and SoundHound have music recognition based on playing the track, right? The track has Japanese vocals. Would playing (or humming) a purely instrumental track make any difference? The original lyrics might be American (or even in another language: A lot of people living in Wisconsin are of European ancestry, largest percentage is of German descent).

There is neither any Carl's Hotel, nor Northernaire Hotel, or any other "summer festival", or Flora Stevenson, or the song, or any song, or fireworks, in the 1963 book "Rascal - A Memoir of a Better Era" whatsoever. So thats's all made up by either one of the directors and writers Masaharu Endô, Hiroshi Saitô, Shigeo Koshi, Akira Miyazaki, or Kasuke Satô. (There is an "Irish Picnic and Horse Fair" though. 😄 ) (If you don't have the book, you can easily get it at https://openlibrary.org/account/login?redirect=/books/OL5882490M/Rascal/borrow?action=borrow ) I tried to hum it into Shazam and SoundHound, well, not me but my daughter, which normally works pretty well, but to no avail. But, we thought we had found it for a second, since many Swedes (and other Scandinavians) had emigrated to Wisconsin, that any Swedish origin could have been possible (The Sunderlands were from Norway though.) It is this song we thought it was at first, even if the tempo is more largo, it sounded first the like, but it was just "almost the same" https://www.google.com/search?q=amerikabrevet&client=firefox-b-e&sxsrf=ALiCzsZ-KySIZIOzvgtYyNgttcEmckh5eQ:1671231594202&source=lnms&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiH14nsnv_7AhVD_SoKHUUpDzIQ_AUoAHoECAEQCg&biw=1241&bih=835&dpr=1.5#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:4027a2b2,vid:5I264RMkn8g Furthermore, I played the German version to a former colleague of mine, a German scholar of music, a lady at age 65, and she didn't regognize it, nor the lyrics. (Which, by the way, I found rather beautiful with its metaphors "standing in the rain, not getting wet".) The same with my Japanese contact, and her mother, neither knew the music or the lyrics.

@Jack: Thanks for clarifying that your daughter hummed the song to identify it. Then I don't have to try as it's already been done! And also thanks for asking everyone about it! The song you found does indeed sound very similar. I am wondering if they used it and adapted it a bit? It's a Swedish song called Amerikabrevet, about someone who emigrated from Sweden to America and writes to his homeland. I believe the first recorded version is by Swedish singer Harry Brandelius in 1941 for the label His Master's Voice. There might be a local version in Wisconsin with different lyrics. I can imagine some artist there copied it around that same time and maybe adapted it and even pretended he/she wrote it? The makers of the anime might have heard this local version on their inspiration trip to Edgerton and Wisconsin in the 1970s, in preparation of the anime. By the way, Oscar's mother was Norwegian, his father part German part Swedish, according to the book. And there is more mention of Swedish ancestry in the book. As you say, a lot of Swedes went there, so the song could very well be of Swedish origin originally! Although it isn't exactly from Sterling's time, it sounds old enough to fool us all :) Also Carl Marty did exist, and the Northernaire Hotel/Resort in Three Lakes actually still does exist (!) and some events took place. This wasn't made up, although not in “Rascal - A Memoir of a Better Era”. It's all mentioned in another book by Sterling North, which was used by the animators to add a few stories. I'm not sure if Flora is based on a real person, I don't think so. The German song indeed is sweet too!

👍 I suggest simply using this as subs for that song (without any further footnotes or references): In a hut at the foot of the mountain a shepherd lived If you blow the horn the cows and horses will come lovingly to the children Oh mountains, oh hills, oh valleys, oh forests The voice of a small bird echoes The ranch is wide and the trees are green happy memories Maybe one even could convert some lines, into a better flow, or into some rhyme. But not necessarily. 🙂

I didn't know that Carl's did exist, or the Northernaire did, in Sterling's other books and stories. Maybe Flora is singing there? 😄 But we better not start walking that road. It might be a long one, too. 😄

I think "If you blow the horn the cows and horses will come" rather should be "When he blows the horn the cows and horses will come" or "When he blows the horn, cows and horses will come"

Hi Pita. It seems that now the work with the subtitles for you can be made easier since @Gin sent the subtitles in Japanese. Great job.

@Jack: I won't further investigate the song now :) Maybe someone will recognize it later and let us know. Thanks for your suggestions! @LainProxy: I actually had a version of the Japanese subs already, so I'm afraid translation of the next episodes won't be easier for me nor releases any faster :(