Haru merely nods, not knowing what she’s gotten into. Natori, the bespectacled advisor of the Cat King – a creepy, ill-groomed large cat with odd eyes – gives Haru a scroll and declares that tomorrow many gifts of gratitude will be showered upon her. Haru goes to sleep but wakes up in the middle of the night, and when she looks out her window she sees a procession of cats walking on their hind legs, and they stop at her house. Her mother also recalls that Haru had told her that she had spoken to the kitten. A dirty and malnourished kitten had been following Haru and in an act of kindness, Haru gave the rest of the package of fish-shaped biscuits (maybe taiyaki?) to it. Her friend doesn’t believe the cat spoke to Haru and thinks that maybe Haru hit her head.Īt home, Haru asks her mother if cats can talk, and a recalled memory of when Haru was a little girl. She then discovers that she rescued a very important cat: Prince Lune of the Cat Kingdom. In a desperate, heroic feat, Haru runs across the street and rescues the cat with her, and just narrowly avoid being hit by a truck. As they watch, the traffic starts moving just as the cat accidentally drops the parce. She is sometimes depressed that she doesn’t have a boyfriend like her friend.Īfter an ordinary day of school, on the way home with her friend discussing boys and suchlike, they observe a strange, odd-eyed cat waiting to cross the street holding a parcel in its mouth. She isn’t well-organized: sleeping in on a weekday and is usually late for class she is also low in self-esteem and confidence. Haru is a seventeen-year-old girl, a quiet and unassuming high school student who has a unique ability to talk to cats that has been long suppressed. This is just a rough and somewhat brief summary of the history of The Cat Returns, and if you are interested to read any additional information, please read the Wikipedia page.Īside from the characters of Baron and Muta and the antique shop, this story is entirely its own, and hardly relates to Whisper of the Heart or Shizuku’s story, but it is still a wonderful story. This manga was translated into English and published by VIZ Media as Baron: The Cat Returns. Later, the short was scraped as the theme park canceled the project, but nonetheless Studio Ghibli continued with the project, making a new story drawing from the short and the manga that Aoi Hiiragi had been commissioned to write as an equivalent to the short, which was written from Shizuku’s perspective, roughly years in her future. Hayao Miyazaki wanted this short to have three key elements: Baron, Muta, and a mysterious antique shop. It was spawned from an earlier Studio Ghibli film, Whisper of the Heart (1995), which depicted short scenes of fantasy elements from the story that the protagonist, a young girl, was writing about, and these scenes became so popular with fans that they demanded a movie be made of Shizuku’s novel.Īt first Studio Ghibli was approached in 1999 by a Japanese theme park, who requested to have them write a 20-minute short starring cats. In an additional element not included in the film, it is revealed that the Cat Kingdom is where cats go when they can no longer live in the human world, thus implying Yuki is deceased.The Cat Returns is a 2002 anime film directed by Hiroyuki Morita and produced by Studio Ghibli. In the Cat Returns manga from which the film was adapted, Yuki was not a stray kitten but rather Haru's childhood cat, hence her ability to communicate with Haru throughout the film. Yuki was voiced by Aki Maeda in original Japanese release, and Judy Greer in the English dub. Lune and his guards then arrive at the Cat Kingdom, only to reveal that the Cat King isn't working on his behalf, and is intent on proposing to Yuki. In the ensuing scuffle as the Baron is discovered, Yuki aids Haru, Muta and the Baron by leading them to an escape tunnel, where the three move through a maze to a tower, which contains a portal to Haru's world. It is then later revealed that Yuki works as a lowly servant at the palace, serving food and wine to the guests at the banquet. In the present day, having noticed that something isn't right, Yuki, in a loud overarching voice, instructed Haru to seek the Cat Business Office, where she meets Muta, a large white cat Yuki told her to seek for directions, who leads her there to meet Baron Humbert von Gikkingen.Īs Haru and Muta arrived at the Cat Kingdom, Yuki pleads Haru to leave the realm at once, only for Haru and Muta to be taken by the King's servants. Yuki first appeared as a stray kitten in a flashback, where she was seen being given fish crackers by Haru.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |