Arai Rascal

 (新井, Arai) is a supporting character in the anime BNA: Brand New Animal. She is a raccoon Beastman who is a member of the Bears Baseball Team.

Appearance
In her human form, Arai is a short young woman with fair skin and thick brown hair.

As a raccoon, she has Ocher-yellow fur and a pale Golden muzzle. Her nose is grey, and there are grey-brown stripes on the cheeks and tail. In turn, her tail is quite bushy and long, and her muzzle is short. She has small triangular ears which are pink on the inside. Arai's casual clothes are mint turquoise sweaters and pants, along with black shoes. She always wears glasses because of her poor eyesight.

During a baseball game, Arai dresses in white pants and a short-sleeved shirt. There are yellow stripes on her sleeves, neckline, and surrounding her shirt's buttons. In some baseball matches, she uses an oven mitt instead of a regular baseball glove. Arai's jersey number is 25.

Personality
Arai is a quiet and shy woman who suffers from social anxiety. She's a coward and a cheat, and is called a crook by a baseball commentator. She is rather reserved and not particularly talkative, but is willing to fight for her team and friends.

Past
According to Jackie, Arai and the rest of the Bear team have lived in a poor neighborhood since childhood.

Episode 5 / Greedy Bears
Arai appears as a member of the Bears Baseball Team. She plays a series of matches against various other baseball teams. In order, the matches are against the Flamingos, the Buffaloes, the Tigers, and the Killer Animals Just before the game with the Tigers, Coach Dante tells Arai that, for this round, she will be her team's pitcher. Arai was very surprised, but still she had to do as the coach said. Arai couldn't really play because she was terrified of the opposing team, but thanks to Michiru the bears were able to win. During the match at Animastadium against the Killer Animals, Arai, like everyone else on the bears baseball team with the exception of Michiru, does not even attempt to play. This is because the bears team had been promised a large sum of money if they were to lose the match. But Michiru and the coach, who's passion for baseball was newly rekindled by Ogami, came to inspire the team to play to the end and give it their all. Although the team loses, Arai and her friends are still happy to have been able to play in a professional capacity. The day after their loss, Arai and the Bears Baseball Team visit Michiru and explain to her that they have rented new baseball equipment with a massive loan. Michiru promptly makes them get a return on the loan.

Episode 12 / Anima-City
Arai helps the rest of the bears broadcast Ogami's howl in an attempt to calm down the beastmen with Nirvasyl Syndrome at the request of Michiru.

Abilities
Arai does not have any notable abilities.

Trivia

 * Arai Rascal is based on the Japanese anime, Araiguma Rascal, which translates to Rascal the Raccoon.
 * The baseball announcer in BNA's English dub mistakenly refers to her as using he/him pronouns.
 * When Michiru claims she can't be on the Bears team because she's (posing as) a raccoon, Arai says that's no problem and they take all kinds of bears. That's because the Japanese word for "raccoon", araiguma (洗熊 (あらいぐま), translates literally to "washing-bear".

Etymology
There are two possible meanings of Arai's name:
 * 新井 – is the kanji of Arai's name means "new well". The word "well" has long been associated with hope. This means that Arai believes and hopes for a new, bright future.
 * The meaning of Arai's name is "Creator".