A Whisker Away
netflixWith the anime industry growing in size globally every year, more and more studios are investing in feature films, hoping to find success in the same vein of creators like Makoto Shinkai and Hiromasa Yonebayashi. One of the most exciting new studios is Studio Colorido, who — after producing multiple short films — made their feature debut in 2019 with Hiroyasu Ishida's enchanting Penguin Highway. Coming 1 year after the release of that film, Studio Colorido are already back with another feature titled A Whisker Away.
Miyo Sasaki (Mirai Shida) is a seemingly normal young girl that finds herself meeting a mysterious cat who offers her the chance to transform into a cat herself. Sasaki uses this to spend time with her crush Kento Hinode (Natsuki Hanae), but still finds it hard to express her feelings in real life. As she spends an increasing amount of time as a cat, it turns out that some are working against her and are trying to turn her into one permanently, forcing Sasaki to decide if she is willing to express her feelings to her crush as a human or live the rest of her life as a pet.
From the concept alone, it is apparent that much of the enjoyment in A Whisker Away is supposed to be the more magical elements of the plot. One of the strongest features of the film, and its screenplay from Mari Okada, is the depth and nuance it is able to find in that plot — going much deeper than a surface level fun concept. As the film and characters venture from the human world into the fantasy cat world, filled with those who have chosen to forgo their human lives to live as cats, the film takes the time to explore what this choice has meant for various characters and why they even made the choice in the first place. The conversation the film finds here is far from one-dimensional and is easily the part that finds the most rewarding substance, despite being shorter. Throughout the entire film, though, the screenplay surprises with smart lines of dialogue that feel inspired and natural. To a fault, A Whisker Away is an extremely mundane film that wanders in and out of scenes with a lack of urgency, which often takes a negative toll on the stakes the movie provides. Yet because of this pacing and flow of dialogue, when it comes time for the film to explore a relationship, such as the one between Sasaki and her parents, the anime is able to tackle it from a unique and surprisingly calm angle that feels fresh.
Sadly, these moments never are what is at the heart of the film. Instead, A Whisker Away focuses on a very forgettable and bland romance that never has that great of chemistry or depth to it. As mentioned, the pacing really hurts a lot of the wonder and engagement that is supposed to come from its plot, as characters often have little to no reaction to the fantasy elements of the world causing the audience to fail to have much of a reaction either. There are undoubtedly interesting set pieces and concepts that the film provides in building its fantasy elements, but they never really are given the time or focus to be super memorable once the film ends. Where the film does attempt to pick up the pace and risk in the third act, it also feels pretty standard and as if it is just going through the motions of what has been done in other films. For a movie that finds moments of nuance in the most unexpected places, it is sad that the plot feels so uninspired for the most part.
The other major disappointing aspect of the film is the animation. Where the background art is impressive and does stand out, the character art feels like it belongs to a season anime series rather than a feature film. Complete with uneven shading and choppy unnatural movement, what could have been just a weaker aspect of the film is further exposed by the shot composition and camerawork of the film, which tries to create a sense of chaos and physical engagement through its use of shaky camera to poor results. Where the film absolutely is watchable, these animation shortcomings stand out — especially in the first half of the show — and are noticeable problems.
A Whisker Away is an absolutely watchable anime film with various fun ideas and some smaller moments which really connect, but overall is also far from a must-watch piece of cinema. Especially when compared to the studio's debut feature Penguin Highway, A Whisker Away feels much more messy and uneven. Where it is not fair to say that you shouldn't check the film out, even on Netflix there are many other anime films that stand out much more than this film that deserve your time.
