Review of A Whisker Away

Atrocious. I had to watch this with my husband, otherwise I wouldn't have made it past the 40 minute mark. Also, S P O I L E R S. Sorry I can't write an honest review without it. **Art** Beautiful. The background artworks were wonderfully made, and the character designs were just fine, although the cat characters/world designs seemed to look more stylistic and interesting to look at (which is disappointing since we only get to see them for 30 minutes in the movie). One con though is the strange fanservice. It's aimed at children, so of course they aren't able to show much nudity. But the way themain character moves with a skirt on, the way the movie shows a lot of crotch shots, shows the MC deep throating an ice cream stick, has the furry check out her cat crotch even though he was showing concern for her leg scratch at the time... I don't know. It's uncomfortable for me. I don't think I'd like that in a Ghibli movie.

**Sound**
I'm so disappointed that they managed to get Yorushika, one of my all-time favorite Japanese bands, to sing in this. A memorable moment was whenever the fat cat came around. The Cheshire-like music was very seductive and mesmerizing. I'm not very much of a music person though.

**Enjoyment**
The characters were not relatable, especially the main character. Their motives did not make sense, the world logic was broken, tonal shifts were incredibly flawed. Throughout the movie I was either cringing so much that I aged ten years from the pruning of my face, or laughing at the most inappropriate moments (by the way, listen to the bullies read her letter out loud in the dubbed version, hilarious).

I suppose if you acknowledged that the main character was a bit of a smooth brain dumdum, and that her love interest was a strange furry with a cat fascination, and cut out the bits where her parents interacted with her from memory, and sympathized with the bullies, and ended the movie where Kinako took her place, It would be enjoyable.

**Story/Characters**
- Tone was incredibly inconsistent. There were moments where the characters, the music and animation turned cartoonish and over the top, and then right after it would become realistic and tragic with slice of life vibes. This could work with skill and experience.... They could have made the movie that's like Kill La Kill, with ridiculous characters and story, but woven together in that it makes sense. I would have Loved that!

- There was a strange focus on 'love', 'finding your place' and 'being needed' with the wrong people. These topics should have been explored with her family, rather than with friends and strangers.

It would've been much better had the story replaced the furry with the father at the end of the movie. It didn't feel like she resolved anything with her family. Now she knows that her boyfriend loves her. Okay? But what about the people living with her, related to her by blood, whom she has to deal with for the rest of her days until the furry is able to get a home for her to move into? In the end he's going to be a potter, But even his grandfather had to close down his business in pottery because there were so many other potters in the area. Where's the laying of bricks for the future?

- I don't think there should have been a villain at all. That's the thing with many slice of life stories, they don't have psycho villains. The one true villains are always the main character himself, fighting his inner demons which prevent him from moving forward. In Studio Ghibli movies, the so-called villains are often simply people with fears and desires of their own. They have a logic to them.

The fat cat should have simply been a benevolent deity, showing humans the path to another way of living, instead of some weirdo who's obsessed with living forever.
In fact, his strangely evil actions are the reason why some random half-cats decided to jump him in order to help the main character find her humanity again. Actually, since the half-cats lived in the cat world, they surely must have had developed some intimate relationships with the full-cats and shared sentiments, eventually forming an uprising against the fat cat? That's not very smart for a deity.

- The main characters' family was not in the least bit neglectful or uncaring. I'm not sure how I was supposed to feel for her when the parents were always asking her about how she felt, or including her in conversation. She often put on a happy face, but in an almost psycho kind of manner.

Being a child of neglectful parents myself, I understand that communication, quality time and security of a long-lasting relation were things that children needed, and she did not exactly feel like the family was holding together well. But why was she putting on a face in the first place? Most children/teenagers harden themselves against intimacy and would rather avoid getting along with the family that hurt them deeply; which leads them to find refuge in others, but not in such an aggressive way like she does towards the furry.

In fact, considering she only had one friend, had a quirky/condescending nickname known to everyone, and felt the pain of her parents' divorce, I would think she would have become suicidal and a social recluse. But I suppose they had to make her personality unnaturally happy-go-lucky, otherwise the furry wouldn't go "she's so much stronger than me... When I hurt, I shut down and let the pain fester deep inside of me, but when she hurts, she becomes extremely happy..."

(does the suicidal tendency come in when she jumped from the 2nd floor using a tree to slow down her momentum and landed not by somersaulting, but by doing a half body squat, likely tearing skin and breaking bones?)

I guess people can pick up their own pieces when they find someone who cares about them and gives them the butters in the tummers, but that would happen if the person is actually giving them care for their true selves. The psycho MC thinks she's actually getting his love and attention as a GF despite all of their intimate encounters being when she's not human.

Also, this MC tried to kill him by pushing his flimsy 10 gram body off a hill by jumping onto him from a roof in chibi cat form.

Anyway, I'm gonna go forget about this.