Funny that we finally get the name drop, but nobody knows the word "badger". Almost feels like an inverse of Brand New Animal, where Michiru labeled herself a raccoon because she didn't know what a tanuki was, and here, that's everyone's first guess!

I like that you called out "mujina" (though I find "hole-bear" a hilarious name), because Toki's design looks most like a European badger, despite the Japanese aesthetics of the scenery and clothes and all, and ruling out Japanese badger as an option helps clear any confusion. (Come to think of it, the only Japanese badger character I know of is Anai from Aggretsuko).

Hole-bear is just a literal translation of Anaguma, but I think it’s fitting that badgers have to be colloquially likened to other creatures (Bears, boars, dogs, etc) because they’re kind of hard to classify if you’re a medieval everyman with little understanding of taxonomy.

Tanuki is used in some parts of Japan as a word for badgers and vice versa, which actually resulted in a somewhat prolific court case in Japan during the previous century.

Toki is a European badger and this is important to plot, but there are Japanese badger beastmen out in the world that I hope to introduce if this becomes more than just a one-shot.