Updated: April 22, 2024: Updated GKIDS’ credit for the film. 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 hand-written message on the film’s official Twitter, saying “I thought it was some kind of a joke at first,” and added, “I think this is all thanks to the hard work of the animation director, Yoko Kuno-san. So I would like to treat Kuno-san to some seafood at Cannes.”Meanwhile, Kuno said, “I had no idea that Anzu-chan was the ghost cat that would take us to Cannes…! For the past year and a half, our Japanese and French staff have worked hard on this animated film, but we were really surprised that it was spotted in this way, as we never expected it. I am very happy to be able to give a wonderful report to the people who were involved in this very hand-made, hand-searched film!”
Internationally acclaimed actor/dancer Mirai Moriyama (the voice of Tomona in Masaaki Yuasa’ 2021 anime film INU-OH) is cast as the title role Anzu, the 37-year-old ghost cat, while 13-year-old Noa Goto voices the 11-year-old human girl, Karin. They played their characters as they would in a live-action film, and their voices were then used in the animated film.GKIDS, who executive produced the film, announced on the company’s official Twitter the movie will open in North American theatres later this year.
The manga was serialized in Kodansha’s children manga magazine Comic BomBom from August 2006 to November 2007, then compiled in one tankobon volume.The film’s official website describes the story:
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. His means of transport is a moped. He works part-time as a masseuse. He is now 37 years old.After a quarrel between father and son, the monk’s son, who has been missing for a long time, returns with his 11-year-old daughter Karin. However, he has another fight with the monk and leaves her behind. Karin is always a very “good” girl in front of adults. Anzu is asked to look after her and reluctantly does so, but there are signs that things are not going to be straightforward…
Source: “Ghost Cat Anzu” film official website / Twitter©2023 “Ghost Cat Anzu” Production Committee ©Takashi Imashiro / Kodansha
