Oroku-baba is an elderly female tanuki who holds a central place among the tanuki community of the Tama Hills. She is sometimes referred to as Fireball Oroku, a name that reflects her long history and her standing as one of the oldest and most accomplished members of her kind. Within the community she is widely addressed as grandma, a title of respect that shows how deeply the other tanuki value her. In appearance she is a round, plump old tanuki with small eyes and gray fur, and she is typically seen wearing traditional clothing and carrying a cane. Despite her advanced age, she remains energetic and active in the life of the group.

Her personality is defined by rationality, wisdom, and a strong will. She acts as a peacekeeper, and it is largely through her influence that the rival tanuki clans of the hills set aside their quarrels and face the common threat to their home. She is calm and patient, preferring guidance and persuasion over confrontation, and she is practical in her thinking. At the same time she is deeply committed to the tanuki way of life and to the traditions that define it. She believes that the community can only survive if it works together, and she urges the younger tanuki to remember their heritage even when the future looks uncertain.

Her central motivation is the preservation of her community and its homeland. When human development begins to destroy the forests of the Tama Hills, she recognizes that internal fighting over shrinking resources will only doom the tanuki. She therefore pushes for unity and for a coordinated response, becoming one of the driving forces behind the resistance effort. Her role in that effort is distinctive: rather than leading battles, she serves as the keeper and teacher of the traditional transformation arts, the magical skills of illusion and shapeshifting that the Tama tanuki had largely forgotten. She instructs the younger generation in these arts, and their later campaigns of sabotage, disguise, and supernatural spectacle are built on the foundations she provides. The respect she commands also makes her an important voice in the councils of the elders, where her counsel is weighed alongside that of other senior figures such as the old guru Seizaemon and the monk Tsurukame Oshō.

Her relationships are those of a maternal figure and a teacher. She watches over the younger tanuki, encourages them in times of despair, and gives them practical skills. Her students include many of the central young figures of the story, among them the cautious Shoukichi and the hot-headed Gonta, and she deals with each according to his character. She is also a trusted companion of the other elders, and her wisdom is treated with deference by the community as a whole.

Over the course of the story, Oroku-baba undergoes a quiet but meaningful arc. As the human development proceeds and the tanuki's various plans fail, the community begins to splinter and follow different paths. Through all of this she remains a steadying presence, committed to the survival of her people and to the knowledge she carries. When the last transformations fail and the tanuki are forced to scatter, she adapts like the other tanuki who are still able to shapeshift: she blends into human society. In the final period of the film she is shown working as a fortune teller, a fitting continuation of her role as a wise and mystical figure. The ending suggests that while the old tanuki world is lost, her knowledge and resilience allow her to endure in a new form, even as she keeps some connection to the traditions she spent her long life preserving. Her notable abilities include a high level of skill in the transformation arts, the capacity to pass that skill on to others, and a deep store of traditional lore and practical wisdom that makes her the moral and spiritual anchor of her community.