Review of A Whisker Away
A Whisker Away is a 2020 Japanese animated film released on Netflix on June 18, 2020 directed by Junichi Sato, who served as director of the first two Sailor Moon anime series. The film follows Miyo Sasaki as she struggles to capture the attention of Kento Hinode in their school. Because of that, she decides to transform into a cat to get deeper connection with him as she discovers his other side of his life. I finally got to watch this movie today after receiving news of its announcement before its release date. As a cat lover, I am very interested in how this filminvolving the cat element would play out.
The story focuses on how Miyo Sasaki gives out all of her efforts in being the apple of the eye of Kento Hinode, despite him not reciprocating his feelings for her. Whenever she thinks of ways to call out Kento, I would usually cover my face with my hands, knowing how embarrassing she is doing to herself yet she doesn’t fear to get embarrassed because of her strong feelings towards Kento. There are times that Miyo Sasaki enjoying in being a cat as Taro, which symbolizes escapism – running away from all the problems she encountered in her life including with Ms. Kaoru and her mother’s abandonment, while also serving as a key to get to know Kento a lot more. Kento Hinode, on the other hand, also has struggles in his life that he wants to do in his life while also trying to understand the feelings Miyo Sasaki is trying to say and at the same time, discovers the true story behind her smile on her face. The rest of the supporting cast were handled well in the story such as Yoriko Fukase, longtime friend of Miyo, Masamichi Isami, friend of Kento and Miss Kaoru and Miyo’s Dad.
There is nothing I could say a lot about of the film in terms of the animation is which I think is very good enough to look at. The music of the film is also just simply good and nothing much to ponder further on. The lines of the characters made it emotional just to listen to which is why there are already memes from the scenes of the film especially from Miyo Sasaki and Kento Hinode who gave such sweet words to each other. There is nothing much I could say special about the aspects of the film that much aside from the characters being the strength of the film. Everything that needs for a film to be enjoyable is what I all found from A Whisker Away.
As for flaws, while I was watching the film, I can’t help the fact that it gave me a lot of vibes from Studio Ghibli’s The Cat Returns, which is a spin-off from Whisper of the Heart. Due to the fact that there are a lot of cat elements, it was the first film I ever thought off. There are also times that the romantic scenes felt somehow cheesy sometimes that even I thought it was somewhat awkward. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that A Whisker Away cannot stand on its own. And in the end, I was still entertained with the film as much as a simple anime lover and film critic.
Overall, A Whisker Away is nothing but a feel good romantic fantasy anime film that any people can just enjoy. People should just watch this film as something that you might want to see especially during the quarantine. Try to jut lower your expectations towards films such as this because it may just downgrade your experience with the film. I do recommend any anime lovers who are just looking for good anime films to watch since it is hard to look for other films to be looking out for since majority of them are being pushed back or postponed. Thanks to A Whisker Away, I had a good time during this quarantine.