A Whisker Away (泣きたい私は猫をかぶる, Nakitai Watashi wa Neko o Kaburu, translates to Wanting to Cry, I Pretend to Be a Cat) is a 2020 Anime film produced by Studio Colorido and originally scheduled to be released on Japanese theatres on June 5th, but due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, plans for a theatrical release were cancelled, and thus, was released in Netflix on June 18th. The film is directed by Junichi Sato and Tomotaka Shibayama, with the screenplay by Mari Okada.
The film stars Mirai Shida as Miyo "Muge" Sasaki, a Tokoname-based middle-schooler who falls in love with a boy named Kento Hinode (Natsuki Hanae) who is rather oblivious to her feelings towards him. To get Hinode's attention and affection and to provide herself with an opportunity to be happy, Muge strikes a deal with the sinister Mask Salesman (Kōichi Yamadera), who gives her a mask that allows her to transform into a white cat. With this guise, Muge is able to get closer to Hinode and bond with him under the identity of Tarō. However, after Hinode says he hates her (Miyo/Muge), she wishes she could be a cat forever, a wish the Mask Salesman is all too eager to grant. Now she and her friends have to find a way to reverse the transformation before it becomes permanent.
The film also stars Minako Kotobuki as Yoriko Fukase, Susumu Chiba as Yoji Sasaki, Ayako Kawasumi as Kaoru Mizutani, Sayaka Ohara as Miki Saito, Daisuke Namikawa as Tomoya Sakaguchi, and Hiroaki Ogi as Kusugi.
A Whisker Away provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: The human mother-turned cat that Muge meets in the bar is voiced by Rei Sakuma, who voiced a human girl who was cursed into becoming a cat.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Muge goes missing, Muge's biological mother comes over and accuses Muge's father and stepmother of not understanding her daughter's feelings. Sickened by her hypocrisy, the stepmother drops one such question that's enough to incense the mother into slapping her and incite a Cat Fight:Kaoru: Did you stop to think about her feelings when you abandoned her?
- Be Careful What You Wish For: After Hinode declares he hates her, Muge wishes to remain a cat forever so she doesn't have to put up with her human problems anymore. When Muge's wish comes true in the form of her humanity becoming a mask, Kinako steals it for herself to become a human and extend her lifespan. Now, on top of being stuck a cat forever, Muge steadily loses her ability to understand human language and potentially faces a shortened lifespan.
- Become a Real Girl: Kaoru's cat, Kinako, does this for a little while when she takes up Muge’s mask. She decides against it later after seeing how much her owner missed her.
- Beneath the Mask:
- Muge acts obnoxious and hyperactive around her classmates (earning her the nickname "Miss Ultra Gaga and Enigmatic), but she holds a lot of hidden pain from her mom's departure and thinks very lowly about herself.
- Hinode is aloof and unforthcoming around most of his classmates, but he's actually quite lonely and wishes that he could just tell people how he feels.
- Big Bad: While shady from the get-go, the Mask Seller becomes the biggest source of Muge's problem much later on.
- Big Damn Heroes: The cats who gave up their humanity and reside in the bar show up to save Muge from the Mask Salesman on at least two different occasions.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Both Muge and Hinode suffer from this. They can't exactly tell people how they actually feel, thus leading to them bottling up their true feelings and acting like people they really aren't. Muge lampshades this regularly as she becomes closer to Hinode as Taro.
- Cat Fight: Pun intended, between Muge's stepmom and her real mother, when the former has enough of the latter belittling her on her raising of Muge after Muge runs away.
- Deal with the Devil: The Mask Seller gets to keep not only your true face to trade it away to someone else, but also gets half your remaining lifespan as well. Once the festival is held on the Island of Cats, that deal becomes permanent and unbreakable.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Muge finally starts to heal from the pain she's felt all these years, allowing her to finally open up and be her true self. She also gets together with Hinode at the end.
- Education Mama: A mild version. Hinode's mom wants him to focus on his grades so that he can support the family. However, she seems to accept that he wants to become a potter in the credits.
- Epiphany Therapy: Muge has had major issues for years from her mother leaving the family. After a cat who was formerly a human confesses that she ran away from the responsibilities of being a mother and now regrets it, Muge immediately reconciles with her mother and stepmother.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Mask Seller is not known by any other name.
- Everyone Has Standards: Though Bannai's friend helped steal Muge's love letter, he is shocked when his friend actually ends up reading her letter out loud, and even tries to get him to stop.
- Fun with Acronyms: "Muge" stands for "Miss Ultra Gaga and Enthusiastic/Enigmatic".
- Genki Girl: Muge very much fits the bill when she's around the school, as well if her interactions with Hinode speaks of this too, behind the scenes however...
- Good Stepmother: Muge's stepmother Kaoru wants to be this but is indecisive in how to do it. Muge is too resentful to meet her halfway besides.
- Hidden Depths: Hinode is a passionate potter and longs to be a professional one in the future.
- His Own Worst Enemy: Most of the first act's problems are caused by Muge's selfishness and single-minded pursuit of Hinode's love. She ignores the people who care about her to dwell on her unhappiness, her obnoxious attempts to woo her crush only push him further away, and she impulsively decides to be a cat forever if she can escape her hardships and be loved by Hinode.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: Muge's attraction to Hinode began out of desperation to get the love she was missing in her life. Her feelings became more genuine the more she got to know him.
- Imagine Spot: In shots taken from Muge's point of view, Hinode looks like himself but everyone is a scarecrow, illustrating how they're not that important to her as Hinode.
- Jerkass: Bannai, Muge's classmate, who reads Muge's love letter to Hinode out loud for no apparent reason but to remorselessly humiliate her for his own amusement.
- Jerkass Has a Point: A downplayed example. On one hand, there's a bit of truth to Muge's mother's words when she accuses that Muge's father and stepmother rushed into their relationship without wondering how Muge herself felt about it. On the other hand, it's hypocritical of her to say they didn't think of her feelings when she's guilty of abandoning her daughter.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Flipping a desk on top of a boy should be painful, and trampling on top of it even more so. But since said boy was the above-mentioned Bannai, he pretty much had it coming.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Very subtle, but early on it's noted that Muge as a cat does not groom herself, opting instead to wash under a tap. After giving up her human mask, on top of losing the ability understand human speech, she can be observed licking her fur.
- My Instincts Are Showing: Although she plays the part of a cat well-enough Muge will sometimes display human mannerisms and behaviors in cat-form, including crossing her paws over her chest when displeased and washing her paws with water. After taking Muge's mask Kinako does the same, including effortlessly walking along thin rails instead of sidewalks and reacting to a ringing smartphone with a feline's crouched wariness.
- Not So Above It All: At the end of the credits epilogue, Hinode surprises Muge with a "Hinode Sunrise" attack.
- "Not So Different" Remark: While Hinode and Muge act like completely different people in public, Muge often lampshades the fact that, deep down, they're both actually lonely people with massive Cannot Spit It Out issues and often try to act like people they aren't
- Official Couple: Hinode and Muge finally become a couple after confessing their feelings to each other at the end of the movie.
- Only Friend: Yoriko has stuck by Muge the longest, aside from one time she was peer pressured into shunning Muge in elementary school. All the other kids ostracized her for either being annoyingly perky or her tumultuous home life.
- Parental Abandonment: Muge's real mom walked out on her and her father during grade school. While Muge doesn't really hold it against her, the pain of her leaving still resides with her.
- Prefers Going Barefoot: It's easier to list the number of times Muge isn't barefoot, indoors or out.
- And when she is wearing shoes, she Does Not Like Socks. She wears her outdoor loafers and her classroom shoes sockless, always.
- Real-Place Background: The film is set in director Shibayama Tomotaka's hometown of Tokoname, known for its ceramics. Pottery is a recurring theme in the film, and several real-life streets with pottery walls are seen.
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Muge enjoys her sessions as a cat until she gets stuck. Then it is a race against the clock to find a way back before she loses her humanity and becomes a real cat forever.
- Ship Tease: There are some inklings of it between Yoriko and Isami in the credits.
- Transformation Trinket: The mask that Muge gets from the Mask Seller functions as this.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Bannai ends up reading her love letter to Hinode out loud, which causes him to impulsively say he hates her. This event culminates into Muge running away and deciding to be a cat forever, losing her human mask and almost getting her stuck as a cat.
- Was Once a Man: The cats in the bar Muge finds in the cat world are all former humans who gave up their humanity for various reasons and now can never leave. All of them regret their choice, but have learned to live with it. Because of this, they all step in to prevent Muge from ending up like them.
