Review of A Whisker Away

I honestly don't know what I was expecting when I first saw the trailer for this film. Be it excitement or more of an "ah cool" kind of feeling, I can safely say that this movie disappointed me even without any clear expectation. I'm never the biggest fan of the so-called "desktop films", however from a critical standpoint I can understand and enjoy the story and characters for what it is, they're just not my cup of tea. At their best, they can be a movie to write home about. At its worst, somewhere there lies this movie. Story-6/10 A girl turns into a cat to be withher crush. That's how I would describe it if asked to do so with a single sentence. That being said, it isn't the worst story there is, albeit somewhat simple. It's about a happy-go-lucky girl named Sasaki Miyo (nicknamed Muge) who is open with her crush towards her classmate named Hinode Kento, who is less than happy to be the center of the attention. To get his attention and appreciation, she uses a mask that can transform her into a cat to come around to Hinode's house and just hang. The cat mask has a price, however, has a price in order to turn her into a cat forever, that being her human form. That's as far as I can tell without getting to some spoilers, but if this is enough to pull you in, then perhaps this movie is for you.

This movie also tackles some topics like humanity and being the child of a broken marriage, and while I can say that the humanity topic is handled somewhat well, I'm not knowledged enough to vouch for the writing of the latter.

Art-8/10
It looks nice, and the movements are a lot more fluid than I expected, so there's that.

Sound-7/10
Music-wise, I may be a bit biased since I generally enjoyed Yorushika's works, but the music here is pretty good, although barely memorable.

Character-3/10
This section is sadly my biggest gripe with this whole film. There are only three notable characters in this film, this being the girl, the boy, and the cat mask seller. In the girl's case, I can say that her energy is something that can be said and be liked about her, but on the other hand I find this aspect of her to be somewhat annoying and a tad bit forceful. The boy started of as being reasonably annoyed at the girl's actions, suddenly went "ah shit I love her damn" by the end without any clear reason. The cat mask seller is just trying to do business, albeit in a not so morally right way.

The two main characters have their own struggles, the girl being a child of a broken marriage and the boy about to lose his passion of pot making due to debt taking their studio away. These give the character some depth, but still makes them far from likeable. And regarding the side characters? Well they're just there. I can't even remember the MC's names (had to look it up), what makes the side characters something worth remembering? Nothing. They're just there to help the plot move forward.

The romance in this film really could have worked if they didn't settle right after the movie ended. A sense of acceptance would be much better, because at the moment, it really felt like a one-sided romance.

Enjoyment-4/10
I honestly would put this as a background anime for when I wanna do homework or read a book or something. That being said, I somewhat liked the story and the visuals and sounds weren't bad. I just wished more thought was given to these characters to make them more likeable.

Overall-4/10
This isn't the worst film there is. It's one of those love it or hate it films, and I fall a bit more to the latter.