SYNOPSIS: The story about how Muge was able to get closer to her crush by transforming into a cat.
GENRE : Drama, Romance, Fantasy
RATING : 6/10
"The feelings of others are a mystery to us. You shouldn't assume you have someone figured out."
The story was okay, but something about it felt unoriginal. I can't pinpoint what it reminds me of, but the feelings it gave me felt familiar. I enjoyed the first half of the film. The feeling of having a hard time living your life when terrible things happen a lot was relatable. The decision to become a cat, which is free from troubles, is something probably most of us want. Running away from your problems is easier. However, the latter half made me angry. The way the story came together felt like random scenes were just put up together, and the motivations of the characters, mainly Muge's, was terrible. There was also a lack of backstories to solidify the situation and actions of the characters. The ending felt like they just decided to finish the story in the happiest way possible without thinking about how sudden it looked.
In terms of art and music, it was okay. The characters looked normal. The main thing going for them was the sceneries. If you came here because of the cats, only Taro was likable. All others felt creepy to me, especially the merchant and Kinako.
In terms of characters, only Yori stood out. She was such a beautiful person, and I hated how she was treated. Hinode was okay, but his decisions weren't consistent, and his development wasn't outstanding. I hated Muge's motivation in life. She was too focused on Hinode to think about others and the consequences of her actions. She didn't stop to think about how others would feel about what she was doing. I got devastated about her situation, and I understand what she feels, but she didn't deal with it properly. Also, many of her actions were creepy, cringe-y, and stalker-ish. She had acknowledge her issues in the end, but everything there felt like they happened too fast.
The relationship between the lead characters felt like they were forced together. This was sad for me because I liked them in the beginning. They had potential. It would've been better to me if we saw their relationship gradually develop, or if it was just implied that their relationship would develop. Also, we should've gotten more backstories as to why Muge was in love with Hinode in the first place. We just saw her being clingy to him immediately, which made things more cringe-y. For me, there's a fine line between having someone as your motivation in life and being obsessed with them, and sadly, I feel that Muge fell into the latter.
SPOILERY THOUGHTS AND REACTIONS
CHARACTER AND RELATIONSHIP THOUGHTS: I hated that Muge's motivation for her actions is that she just wants to be with Hinode. I understand how Hinode became her sole focus because he came to her at the time when she hated the world the most and made her see something good about it again. However, it felt like she became obsessed with him. He didn't even return her feelings in the beginning and didn't try to befriend her, but she kept bugging him. She seemed quite deluded about their relationship. It made me angry that she made decisions based on her desire to be with Hinode, and didn't even care how it would affect the other people in her life. She wanted to be a cat to be with Hinode, and then she changed her mind and wanted to be a human just to be with Hinode again. Does nothing else matter to her? She just didn't deal with her emotions properly and used Hinode as an escape. It was a step towards healing when she decided to communicate with her parents after the whole ordeal with the cat merchant, and she acknowledge that she had no one to blame, but herself. Still, her earlier actions made me angry. I think that Muge was stupid for still being in love with Hinode after he humiliated her in public, told her he hated her, and hurt her. I sympathize with Yori's pain. She gave Muge proper advice, yet Muge wouldn't listen. I mean, we do stupid things for love, and Hinode treated her cat form lovingly, but it doesn't seem like Hinode is worth all that trouble. I don't know why Hinode appreciated Muge more when he found out that she was Taro. Wasn't that disturbing at all to him? That she was able to invade his private space without him knowing? That she knew his innermost thoughts because she was spying on him? Weirdly, his thought went to the idea that she was always there to support him. I don't think it was Hinode's responsibility to save Muge. It just reinforced her thinking that she needed Hinode to be happy. I dislike how they got together. It seemed like they got together because of Muge's cat form (which is disturbing, to be honest), and Hinode suddenly changed his mind about how he felt about Muge. Also, I think that they were too young to be in that intense level relationship. Kinako's motivation was so wholesome, and I love it. She changed into a human for Kaoru, but when she saw Kaoru suffer when she was missing, she decided to go back to her cat form. We can see how opposite her personality is from Muge. Her actions weren't selfish. She just wanted Kaoru to be happy. Yori is the best person in this movie, hands-down. She just wanted Muge to be happy. She stayed with Muge through the hard times, and I'm devastated about how she was treated. Muge never even considered how Yori would feel if she was gone, and she wasn't even touched that Yori was searching for her. She just noticed that Hinode did, and just focused on that. Hinode's sister seemed like such a bum. I was actually glad that the guy she liked is engaged. SCENES THOUGHTS: I don't understand how Muge could agree to deal with the cat merchant. The merchant cat was hella suspicious. She should've known that nothing comes without a price. It felt stupid to me that Muge never even thought that Hinode was sweet to her was because she was a cat? It seemed like humanity and being a cat is the same to her. Why the hell does Muge have a family picture of Hinode? It was crazy how high Muge jumped when she overheard their classmates. I guess the cat instincts were kicking in, but she was insane. I loved the part where Muge hangout with Hinode after she defended him. It was the only time we got to see them together bond normally even if it was weird that Muge was shouting about his potatoes. It's heartbreaking that at such a young age, Hinode's family was depending on him to support them just because he was the boy. He was even afraid to tell them about his desire for pottery because of that expectation. It's more heartbreaking that this happens in real life. I liked the content of the letter. It had beautiful lines, and if it wasn't for the situation it was delivered, I think it would have cheered Hinode up. I hated the scene where the bullies read Muge's love letter out loud. I didn't know what their point was in doing that? They were such assholes I wish I could kick their ass. The scene where Hinode got mad at Muge and told her that he hated her, broke my heart. I cried for Muge's pain. Still, she was quite pushy, though. My heart broke for Muge when we saw, how when she was young, other children ostracized her for being abandoned by her mother. I don't know why there are such horrible human beings in the world who would do that. Bullying someone is wrong in itself, but bullying someone who already has a hard time? What's the point? I love that Muge threw her shoes at them. They deserved it. Though, I was really annoyed that they had the nerve to get mad at her after all the hurtful things they said. It's adorable that Muge didn't want Yori to stay with her because she didn't want Yori to be bullied too. Why couldn't she have stayed that way? Why wasn't Yori enough? I'm happy that Yori chased Muge when they were young and never let go. Their friendship is so adorable back then. It was cute that Yori didn't want to heart about Hinode's positive feelings for Muge when she found out the truth. She wanted Muge to be the one to hear it first. I wanted a scene where we get to see how Muge's father and Kaoru got together. It might've help see why Muge was so antagonistic towards her, even though I didn't see anything bad with Kaoru. I saw her try to work things out, so I feel that the situation is unfair to her. I cheered so hard for Kaoru after she slapped Muge's mother. She said bad things about Kaoru and Muge's father when she abandoned Muge. We should've seen the reason why she abandoned Muge in the first to solidify their story more and to understand why Muge should give her a second chance. In my opinion, she didn't deserve Muge. I'm torn between wanting them to make peace and Muge telling her to stay away. Maybe we didn't know the story about why she left because it may turn us against her? It feels weird to me that smelling like the sun is a compliment here. The thing that comes to mind when something smells like the sun is that they stink because they've been staying outside too long. I love the humans turned into a cat squad. They helped Muge escape the cat merchant because they thought that she was too young to make that kind of decision. They didn't want her to make the same mistakes that they did. It was interesting to see their inner thoughts about why they became a cat. It was funny when they attacked the cat merchant and kept him away. It was cute that Hinode used the Hinode Sunrise attack on Muge in the end. It's cute that it was implied that there would be something between Muge's friend and Hinode's friend. CREEPY & KIND OF DISTURBING: Hinode inspected Muge's injury as a cat (from her fall), and she looked happy getting touched between her legs. It was creepy. Muge wanted to record Hinode's voice so that she can listen to it before she sleeps. I found the animation where Muge told Hinode of his feelings while she was in cat form disturbing because we know that Hinode was holding Taro, but we see Muge. She was too close to him without him knowing. I get that it was to visualize that it was Muge saying that, but it felt like an invasion of privacy. Kinako's actions as Muge. Her lines were quite creepy, and that's a lot since the normal Muge was also creepy.
SUMMARY OF EVENTS Muge felt that the world wasn't so terrible after meeting Hinode. She wanted to be him, and she tried interacting with him at school. She met a cat merchant who sold her a cat mask that allows her to transform into a cat. Using this form, she decided to get closer to Hinode. She was successful, and he loved her as a cat. The cat merchant tried to persuade her into giving up her human mask so that she can be a cat forever. She can stay together with Hinode in that form. She doesn't like her situation at home, and she can't tell Hinode the truth. Muge overheard their classmates talking badly about Hinode, and she defended him. Hinode took her to the nurse's office and gave her some of his lunch. Muge found out that Hinode's family wants to close their pottery shop. He was devastated. To cheer him up, she decided to confess through a love letter. She gave the letter to Hinode, but a bully snatched the letter. He then proceeded to read it out loud. It embarrassed Hinode, and he told Muge that he hates her. Her stepmother confronted her about her sneaking out. She was angry at them because she thinks that they don't care how she feels about their situation. She ran away. She transformed into a cat and stayed with Hinode. She decided to give up her human-mask so that she can stay with Hinode. Muge's parents decided to ask her friends about where she is. They don't know. Yoriko, Hinode, and Masamichi searched for her. Yoriko warned Hinode not to give Muge hope if there is none. Muge came back home. However, it wasn't really her. Kinako, her stepmother's cat, took her human mask, and her life. Her friends noticed that she was acting strangely. Kinako took her place so that she can make Kaoru happy. Muge went to the Island of Cats to take her human mask back. Kaoru was devastated when Kinako disappeared. Kinako changed her mind and wanted to return to her cat form. She went to Hinode and told her the truth. She took her with him to the Island of the Cats so that they can convince Muge to return back to her human form before it's too late. She gave Hinode a cat-mask to make him see the island. Kinako gave Muge her mask back, but it wouldn't stick because she didn't really want to go back. The cat merchant stole it to stop her from becoming a human again. With the help of the other humans who were transformed into a cat, Muge and Hinode became humans again. They escaped and confessed their feelings to each other. Hinode managed to tell her mother that he wants to do pottery, and Hinode did Muge's signature attack Hinode sunrise.
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