"Kiku-chan to Okami" adapts Akiyuki Nosaka’s short story "Toshi-Oi Mesu-Okami to Onna no Ko no Hanashi" (The Story of the Old Mother Wolf and the Girl), written by the author of "Grave of the Fireflies." It follows a girl and a wolf in the fields of WWII Manchuria, where the wolf watches over her like a mother.