Who wouldn't want to ride a motorcycle with a giant cat?

This season, animated films have been marked by the Latvian mix starring in Flow, who without any mention of me ended up taking home the Oscar. But we should start making room for another cat, the one that gives its name to Anzu, ghost cat: a huge, laughing, flatulent anthropomorphic feline who lives in a small town on the Japanese coast and almost always travels by motorcycle. The only person surprised by the presence of this beast is Karin, a teenager who, disliked by her father, leaves her in the care of her grandfather while he looks for a way to pay off his gambling debts. After the initial shock, Karin befriends Anzu, with whom she spends time during the long summer days and with whom she ends up taking a trip to the underworld in search of her mother, who died a few years before.

Despite being in permanent contact with the supernatural, the film dilutes any transcendent depth in a colloquial, not parodic, register similar to the rotoscoping animation applied by Yoko Kuno to the scenes filmed with the live actors by Nobu, stories of an initiatory and youthful nature that are common in his filmography (one only has to remember Linda, Linda, Linda, an emblematic title of Japanese pop cinema). This formal option distinguishes Anzu of the thickness of productions ofanime that reach our eyes, creating images of great elasticity that transform the adorability kawaii in a mischievous grimace.

You can check out the screenings in Catalan at this link.