A Whisker Away: Anime Movie Review
A Whisker Away starts when one night after a festival, Miyo Sasaki meets a cat spirit who sells masks. These masks grant the wearer the ability to take the form of a cat. Miyo then used this ability to get close to his crush, Kento Hinode. As life gets hard for Chiyo, she wishes to become a cat permanently. However, things turn bad as the Mask Seller Cat stole her humanity. As Miyo waits for the time to be a cat permanently, she realizes that people around do care about her.
Being human is hard
A Whisker away is a heartwarming, slice-of-life, fantasy movie that tackles the issue of broken family and depression. Miyo is abandoned by her mother at a young age, causing their family to fall apart. Ever since then she’s hiding her true emotions behind a cheerful demeanor in front of everyone, especially in front of her stepmother and father. Miyo’s silly attitude toward her crush gave this movie rom-com vibes. It seems that Hinode’s attention is the only thing that makes Miyo happy. To the point that she transforms into a cat to secretly spend time with Hinode.
Miyo’s attitude really captures the behavior of teenagers that are having a hard time processing their feelings. As well as Hinode, didn’t know how to deal with her boisterous and reckless behavior at first. However, when he finally understands Miyo’s struggle he realizes everything that she had done for him. I’m not really into romance however, the way they got together is well written. The build-up of their relationship is not exaggerated, and the ending is worth all the trouble they went into.
Being a cat is not easy either
When Miyo accepts the deal of being a permanent cat to escape from her problems, that’s when everything starts to pick up. Miyo was confused and didn’t want to reach out for help. She started to accept her new life when suddenly she couldn’t understand Hinode. That’s when she realized she made a big mistake, she saw everyone looking for her yet she couldn’t communicate with them. Being a cat is never the answer to her problem and finally, she reaches out for help. Haneda did not even think twice to jump into an unknown realm to help Miyo.
The lesson is very obvious in this movie. Running away is never the solution to our problem. Miyo did and she learned the hard way she realized her mistake and owned up to it. Another is that it’s never wrong to ask for help and that communication can solve emotional constipation.
All in all A Whisker Away is a great movie filled with emotions and morals. The animation is stunning, simple, and gives lighthearted vibes that remind me of Ghibli’s animation. The music is performed by one of my favorite Japanese bands, Yorushika. The cats were all cute and the romance is light yet it fits perfectly with the story. This movie is a must-watch, it’s available on Netflix.
Make sure to give it a try!
