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Since its debut at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight category, Ghost Cat Anzu amassed online buzz for being one of the most uniquely designed and entertaining animated films of the year. Co-directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita and Yōko Kuno and written by Shinji Imaoka, based on Takashi Imashiro’s manga of the same name, Ghost Cat Anzu centers around a young girl named Karin (Noa Gotō) who is left in the care of her grandfather when her father abandons her to fix his gambling debts. While living at the temple, she encounters a crass, but helpful, ghost cat named Anzu (Mirai Moriyama). Their budding-heads relationship leads to a series of hijinks as they encounter other quirky spirits in their rural town who seek to help Karin find her mother in the afterlife.

Alongside its unique storyline, the film also is a French-Japanese co-production between Shin-Ei Animation and Miyu Productions.

Over a decade after his rom-com sensation, “Hana and Alice“, Shunji Iwai returns to the characters of Hana Arai and Tetsuko Arisugawa with a rotoscoped prequel film that paints beautiful animated images over live-action footage. Like the first film, “The Case of Hana & Alice” is a whimsical and cute tale of self-discovery and new beginnings in a middle-school setting.

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It doesn’t deal with its predecessor’s more mature themes, as the girls are only 14 and don’t have much to worry about here. But it still addresses change, with a new school for Alice, and the rumored death of a lover for Hana. This is simply a lighthearted film about being young, with a plot that sounds even simpler on paper than that of the original. It’s the story of how Hana and Alice met and became inseparable best friends.

Japanese singer-songwriter Chiaki Sato has released a lyric video for her latest digital single song "Matatabi" on her official YouTube channel . The lyrical tune was newly written as the theme song for the anime film Ghost Cat Anzu ( Bakeneko Anzu-chan in Japan), and the clip features footage from the film. Matatabi (Silvervine) is a plant in the Kiwifruit family, which produces an oil that cats are naturally attracted to. And the word can also mean "a gambler's walking journey" in Japanese. Chiaki Sato "Matatabi" Lyric Video Sato formed the rock band Kinoko Teikoku with her college classmates in September 2007, and the band made its major label debut in April 2015. The band went on hiatus in 2019, but she has continued her activities as a solo singer. Her comments on "Matatabi" in the YouTube description reads: "I think everyone has memories of 'that summer.' The sounds of festivals, tepid ramune, and street rain.

The official website for the upcoming anime feature film adaptation of Takashi Imashiro's Ghost Cat Anzu ( Bakeneko Anzu-chan in Japan) manga confirmed today that the film will screen at the Directors’ Fortnight program in the 77th Cannes International Film Festival , set to be held from May 14 to 25, 2024. The "Directors' Fortnight" is a high-profile competition in which films that emphasize auteurism are selected, and is known as a gateway to success for world-class filmmakers, and it will be the film's world premiere screening ahead of its theatrical release in Japan on July 19, 2024. The film is co-produced by Japanese animation studio Shin-Ei Animation ( Doraemon ) and French studio Miyu Production, and is co-directed by Atsuhiro Yamashita — whose recent work is a live-action film adaptation of Yama Wayama's Karaoke Iko! comedy manga — and Yoko Kuno — who worked on the 2015 film The Case of Hana & Alice as rotoscope director. Yamashita posted his...

An anime feature film adaptation of Takashi Imashiro's Ghost Cat Anzu ( Bakeneko Anzu-chan in Japan) manga is set to release in Japan in July 2024. Japanese animation studio Shin-Ei Animation ( Doraemon ) and French studio Miyu Production co-work on anime production. The film's Japanese official website has opened, releasing a 30-second teaser trailer and two teaser visuals featuring its two main characters — 11-year-old human girl, Karin, and 37-year-old ghost cat, Anzu. The manga was serialized in Kodansha's children manga magazine Comic BomBom from its August 2006 to November 2007 issues, then compiled in one tankobon volume. The film's official website describes its story as: During a thunderous downpour. A monk at a temple finds a kitten mewling in a cardboard box. The kitten was named Anzu and was carefully brought up. Strangely, however, it did not die even after 10 or 20 years. After 30 years, it somehow became a 'ghost cat' that speaks human language and lives like a human.

To most viewers, director Nobuhiro Yamashita is known for his feature films as well as his works for Japanese television, but in the animated short “Lucky Owl With Shimako”, co-directed by Yoko Kuno, who previously worked on “Penguin Highway” or “The Case of Hana and Alice”, he delves into the art of animation. In the one-minute-short, he tells a story about the kind of encounters you can have in the city, along with the adventures you can experience.

Lucky Owl With Shimako is screening at Nippon Connection

At Ikebukuro station, four year-old Shimako is separated from her parents and is soon lost within the streets of the city. When she suddenly sees an owl statue, she engages in an adventure in the streets of Tokyo which not only makes her travel back in time, but also shows her the way to the apartment of a cartoonist, who once lived there.