A family raises a bear cub while fighting poachers — 1981 anime style.
Researcher Mutsugoro takes his family to a remote and uninhabited island near Hokkaido, to study the local population of wild bears. Nearby poachers make his life difficult, and he "inherits" an orphaned bear cub, whom the family call Donbe and raise as one of their own.
Direction
Bonjin Nagaki balances gentle domesticity with genuine wilderness peril
Writing
Masanori Hata's source material — he literally played Donbe
Director
Bonjin Nagaki
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Masanori Hata was a famous animal behaviorist who lived with bears; he wrote the memoir this adapts and appears as Donbe in live-action footage.
This TV movie represents a forgotten wave of 1980s Japanese nature anime that influenced Studio Ghibli's formation — Miyazaki was paying attention.
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