Ringing Bell

The homeless dog Rock swears to take to revenge on a tiger named Killer in the zoo, who had killed his mother. The dogs in town, troubled by the atrocities of Killer, join forces to support Rock. Changing the target of revenge to the murderer of the main character's mother made it easier for kids to empathize with the character.

Koichi and his sister Yuki befriend Hanaguro, a swan who has flown to Japan from Siberia. Hanaguro is attacked by a dog, and the cowardly Koichi flees, but that night he has a dream in which he is whisked away to the Kingdom of Snow Prince, where he finds the bravery to help the other swans.

The conflicting fates of human beings and wild animals are depicted in a naturalistic setting. The main character of the story is Fang, who was born to a hunting dog and a circus-runaway European wolf. Although Fang was raised by a human family, he is a wild animal after all, and is destined to live amongst nature. The story reaches its climax when Fang returns from the circus and faces his foe, a giant brown bear which killed his family.

After their father quarrels with local military men, Anju and Zushio are forced to flee, but they are captured and sold into slavery. When their mother dies, they are sold to Sansho the Bailiff, a cruel man who subjects them to hideous torments. While Anju falls into a lake and is transformed into a swan, Zushio escapes and after being adopted to a nobleman grows to a young man. He will then fight to defeat the evil Dayu and free all the slaves.