Review of A Whisker Away

NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW, READ AT OWN RISK Although I quite enjoyed the first half, my enjoyment of it totally took a turn in the second half. Other cats who have turned into humans, Miyo's life span just rolling around the place, the lack of urgency on Miyo's half, it felt all over the place. It started to make even less sense, and the movie is about the MC turning into a cat, so not like it make 100% sense from the beginning (no complaints on the beginning though). So, even though it ended as such, I can easily say it started very strong.I like the characters, the MC is sweet, strong-minded, and has a big personality. Perfect contrast to the quieter, more down-to-earth Hinode. I also quite like her best friend, Yoriko.

The story is cute, and incredibly heart-warming at times. I ADORE the little fact of Tarou/Miyo smelling like the sun. The animation is really pleasing, the soundtrack is perfect. There's a lot to love. But I can't ignore the second half. What started really strong, just became outright confusing towards the end, and the stark contrast between the atmosphere/tone in the first half and the second half is very.. jarring. From sweet, slice of life type romance with supernatural to ... the mask seller being defeated as such and again, Miyo's life spam rolling all over the place and no panic from either of the MC's about it. Also, how much time did they have? It seemed like they had already run out of time way back, but still managed to make it work.

But yeah, those are my reasons for rating it a 6. This is completely an objective rating and taking into account everything. It's pretty hard to ignore the second half. If it were just a tiny part of the movie, it would be rated much higher. But either way, it's still worth watching. I still enjoyed it and would probably want to watch it again much later on.

In short, first half of the movie rating: 8/10
Second half of the movie rating: 4 or 5/10