ANI-MOVIES, *Ghost Cat Anzu

What if My Neighbor Totoro was changed to have the father be a deadbeat and the mother was already dead? That's what you get when you watch Ghost Cat Anzu. Based on a one-shot manga by Takashi Imashiro, this was directed by Yoko Kuno with Nobuhiro Yamashita who has already adapted other manga into live-action films such as Confession and Let's Go Kareoke. The majority of animation done for it was provided by Shin-Ei Animation which had already done similar productions in Doraemon, and they went back to the well of early animators by first shooting the movie in live-action and rotoscoped it. Similar to several anime films of the Reiwa era in Japan, this borrows quite a few elements from Studio Ghibli where modern day spirits are seen an ordinary part of life, and going to the Land of the Dead is like to something out of Beetlejuice, so the movie starts out like Totoro and then eventually makes a sharp turn into Spirited Away for the final act. This is a self-contained story that has a lot of world-building and is a deep dive into Japanese folklore.

Young Karin is taken to a country temple by her father Tetsuya who leaves her there with his father who runs the temple while he goes to pay off a huge debt to the yakuza. Karin is stunned to find there is a giant talking anthropomorphic cat named Anzu who is a ghost cat that's been helping her grandfather at the temple for decades. Anzu tries to make Karin feel welcome, but she blows him off wanting to make it back Tokyo to visit her mother's grave. Anzu eventually takes her to Tokyo, but they can't enter because Tetsuya didn't keep up his payments, so Anzu gets help from the God of Poverty who takes them to the afterlife to see Karin's mother who is stuck working in maintenance for the oni running the place. Karin makes a break with her mother and Anzu back to the world of the living where none other than Enma himself who runs the underworld on a merry chase on scooters, limos, and sports cars. Karin's mother decides to go back the afterlife and leaves her under Anzu's protection. Tetsuya shows up at the end having paid off his debt but agrees to let Karin stay at the temple with Anzu and her grandfather while he goes on to be insolvent.

Ghost Cat Anzu might on the surface seem like an all-ages film, although it delves into murkier territory. Karin is a fleshed-out character for being the young protagonist, while Anzu is more like someone's happy-go-lucky uncle that usually helps them out. The behind the scenes of this movie are fascinating as its one of the most polished rotoscope anime films ever made. This style can be rough at times with strange looking humans who are sometimes hard to differentiate from the other yokai shown in the movie, but Anzu himself blends in well to the picture with all the regular and supernatural characters believably blend together. It's a charming family comedy that isn't afraid to get a little dark.