Precocious ten-year-old Yugo, a village girl who is also a student of martial arts, meets a white "liger", a half lion, half tiger creature born from a magic stone. It introduces itself as Lala. Shocked that she can understand the animal's language, Yugo chases it up a mountain where a waiting Cloud Whale swallows them both whole. Inside its giant stomach, there are many different creatures all excitedly being transported to Animal Paradise, a fantastical kingdom that welcomes only 99 chosen ones every ten years.