Los Angeles, California, set the stage for the annual Animation is Film Festival, which featured animated works from around the world, including anime from Japan. One of the Japanese titles, Ghost Cat Anzu, premiered at the festival on Saturday, October 19. Ghost Cat Anzu, originally a manga by Takashi Imashiro released in 2006, was directed by Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita. The story tells of a young girl named Karin who moves to the countryside of Japan to deal with grief from the loss of her mother and meets the eccentric cat, Anzu.
Yoko Kuno was born in Ibaraki prefecture in 1990 and attended Tama Art University, where she received many awards for her graduation film, Airy Me. She was a character designer for the main character Shiriri in Alien Shiriri from the Crayon Shin-chan movies. Kuno is recognized internationally for her rotoscoping work and is now considered a key figure in that art space.
Thanks to GKIDS, the film’s North American distributor, Anime Corner had the honor of sitting down with Yoko Kuno, one of the directors of Ghost Cat Anzu, to ask about the film.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: Let’s start with how Ghost Cat Anzu came to be. It’s an adaptation of a manga, of course. But how did you come into working on the film?
Kuno: I liked the manga creator, Takashi Imashiro’s work, [Ghost Cat Anzu], and also I like some of his other manga as well. When the producer brought up the idea of working with Nobuhiro Yamashita on making a film, since I liked Yamashita’s films as well, I said, ” Yes, I will work on this project.”
Q: Let’s talk about the main human character, Karin. She experiences a lot of grief throughout the story. How did you approach this part of the human experience and this difficult emotion in the movie?
Kuno: So when we planned the film, we decided that we would need another character – an original character for the animation film. What kind of character that would be was up for discussion. And I was really interested in the film, Moving, by Shinji Somai. It’s about a couple that is divorcing, and the 11-year-old daughter feels left alone because of that.
I thought that kind of character might be interesting, and as we worked on the script we discussed what kind of mother did she have that she was grieving over? And so we needed to bring a little bit more of what the mother was like into the film. That also strengthened Karin’s character in terms of how we brought her into the film.
Q: How about about the sound design for Ghost Cat Anzu? The sound design really sticks out. Every movement, every bite of food, every step, seems carefully thought about. So how important was the sound design to you, and were there any struggles in trying to get it perfect?
Kuno: Actually, [Ghost Cat Anzu] was filmed first in live-action, and then we made frame-by-frame animation out of that [called rotoscoping]. The actors were actually eating, so the sounds were from them. Mr. Takino, who was the sound coordinator, added to emphasize certain sounds that were originally recorded in the live-action portion. And so I think that’s why we have fairly realistic sounds that we could then amplify for the animated film.
Q: You worked with Shin-Ei Animations and Miyu Productions for Ghost Cat Anzu. What was it like working closely with them?
Kuno: Japanese animation companies don’t have much chance to work with overseas animation companies and Shin-Ei wasn’t very used to rotoscope work, so I think there were some challenging parts due to that. But, we were fortunate to have Miyu Productions to work on the background art.
They are located in France, but they took the photographs and videos we had of Japanese scenery from the live-action [recording] to work on the backgrounds for the animation. So I think they brought a bit of a different perspective to the backgrounds than a Japanese [animator] would have done. I think people in Japan watching this probably felt a little bit more nostalgic about the backgrounds than if a Japanese company had made it.
Q: For the voice cast of Ghost Cat Anzu, I noticed that these actors and actresses are not your regular anime voice actors, or they have not worked with animation as much. What was the intention behind such realistic voice acting compared to what we usually see in mainstream anime?
Kuno: The voices were the actors who performed in the live-action [recording]. We used their voices as they were recorded during that process, so that’s why I think they sound very natural. And there were times when there was some background noise, interference, and so on, so we had to do some after-recording post-dubbing for some voice [lines].
When we did that, we realized that when they were really acting and performing [in the live-action], it was better than when they were just recording the voice. I felt that when the actors are actually moving their bodies and fully acting, they get better. So that was the best version that we could come up with.
Q: How much direct influence did the manga author and illustrator, Takashi Imashido, have on the film? Were you communicating often, and how did you stay respectful to the original work?
Kuno: Both Director Yamashita and I loved the manga that Mr. Imashiro had drawn and even his other manga, not just Ghost Cat Anzu. So we wanted to keep that atmosphere – the feeling that one gets from reading his manga. We did include many of the parts and features that were in the manga, but in the second half of the film when they go to hell – that is original. It wasn’t in the manga, we made it new. As the script was completed to a certain extent we shared it with Mr. Imashiro – we got his opinions about some of the things, talked it over, and decided what would be best for the animation film rather than the manga.
Q: Lastly, how do you hope the film is received by Western audiences? Do you think that there will be some cultural hurdles to jump?
Kuno: I think this film deals with Karen’s loneliness and issues of life and death – heavy issues and her grief. But I think it also has a relaxed feeling, so I hope that audiences can take in that kind of relaxed atmosphere that appears in the film. And in terms of whether Western audiences would have cultural hurdles, as we were making the film we discussed many issues with Miyu Productions as they are in France. We took in some of their opinions, and [listened to] parts that they really couldn’t grasp. We changed some of those parts that would appear as extra noise that would bother Western audiences. I think we were able to get rid of those and bring out what we wanted to show.
GKIDS describes the story of Ghost Cat Anzu as:
Karin, 11 years old, finds herself abandoned by her father in a small Japanese town, where her grandfather, a monk, resides. Her grandfather asks Anzu, his jovial and helpful, although rather capricious, ghost cat, to look after her. As their spirited personalities collide, sparks fly—yet perhaps only in the beginning
We thank Yoko Kuno for her time, and wish all of the Ghost Cat Anzu staff well with the reception of their film! Ghost Cat Anzu will be released in theaters in North America on November 15 according to the official GKIDS website. Check out the trailer below.
We look forward to the official release!
©2024 Shin-ei Animation Co., Ltd. / Miyu Productions / TV Asahi corporation / TOHO Co., Ltd. / AT-X, Inc. / MARUI GROUP CO., LTD. / NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan LLC
©Takashi Imashiro / Kodansha
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