Ghost Cat Anzu

Yet, for all its quirks, infectious characters and freewheeling turns, Ghost Cat Anzu is an emotionally sharp tale about a teenager trying to cope with loss.

Three years after her mother’s death, precocious tween Karin finds herself abandoned by her father in rural Japan, in the sleepy coastal town of Iketeru. She’s now forced to live with her widowed grandfather in a temple. But that’s doesn’t mean he lives alone. A long time ago, he took in a stray cat that is now grown into a giant and capricious feline called Anzu, who gambles his way through life while taking various odd jobs. Anzu, a ‘bakeneko’ (a supernatural creature from Japanese myth), is asked to look after Karin, who desperately wants to see her mother.

Based on Takashi Imashiro’s manga, Ghost Cat Anzu starts off as a breezy, hangout movie, before morphing into a wacky, surreal and spiritual odyssey. Where else would you find a protagonist, her ghostly feline companion, and the God of Poverty travelling to the underworld via a Tokyo toilet bowl? With charm and wit aplenty, the film transitions seamlessly from a slice-of-life countryside comedy into a magical meditation on the blurred connections between the dead and the living.

What sets Ghost Cat Anzu apart is its grounded, naturalistic feel – a rarity for a story involving otherworldly characters. Live-action performances were rotoscoped into animation, breathing authenticity into its fantastical world. It’s all thanks to the collaboration between animator Yoko Kuno, making her feature directorial debut, and live-action director Nobuhiro Yamashita (Linda Linda Linda). By the end, chances are, you’ll be longing for a ghostly sidekick of your own. Preferably one like Anzu.