Review of A Whisker Away

Story - 8 / 10 I find most modern anime movies have two thing in common - an amazing first half, and a rushed second half. Weathering with You, and now this movie. The opening sequences pulled me into their world instantly, the daily lives of Muge being a cat sneaking around places was a great story to tell indeed. If I was only rating those parts of the movie, this would have been a solid mid 9/10. The supernatural part of the show was a big miss. It felt like it was trying to match "Spirited Away" 's worldbuilding, when it really couldn't. The storywas great on its own with Muge's life stories, it didn't need a big fantasy world to go with it. This made the movie a bit confusing to watch, resulting to a rushed and clustered conclusion. I wish they'd spent more time in that world, we as the viewers need to understand the worlds a lot more instead of just being shown a few scenes of it.

Art - 8 / 10
Brilliant set designs and art style. The supernatural scenes popped from the rest of the movie. The first few minutes of the movie already showcased how great its art direction was.

Sound - 6 / 10
The songs in my opinion have a great impact on strengthening the emotions brought about by the movie. For an emotionally demanding movie such as this, the songs and sounds have to be spot on. The two vocal tracks didn't really do much for me, both of them were great tracks on their own but they didn't do anything to contribute to the scenes.

Characters - 8 / 10
I really like Muge. Okada is capable of creating likeable, unique yet "realistic" characters. Muge's character feels energetic yet extremely fake, which is real smart since that's the whole point of her character - she is living a fake life. There are a few scenes where you'd know what exactly Muge was thinking by looking at her face and actions. Those few moments when she falls back into reality hit really hard. Her facade was absolutely terrible, which is why this was smart character design. But the ending was so meh, the ending didn't feel like it developed Muge at all. It's really unfortunate that first half felt more impactful to her character than the climax.

But some characters though I just couldn't give ten fks about. The last few acts introduced so many new characters that we suddenly had to sympathise for, why? So that the ending can happen, and absolutely nothing else. Also didn't like the antagonist cat, a simple antagonist sounds alright on paper but he is just so confusing to me. Every time he shows up and says something, I get extremely confused. (especially during the last few acts)

Enjoyment & Overall - 8 / 10
A mid 8/10 for me, the ending didn't change my strong opinions on how good the first half was. No melodrama this time, just dumb kids doing dumb things. They don't follow the rules of "reality" because they ain't adults, let them love by their own means. Also like how she's self awake about her controversial style, the scene where the two moms start slapping is just gold.