She and Her Cat
Sex/Nudity: None
Music:
Runtime Episodes: 5 min
Overall Rating: A
Artwork: A
Story: A
Comments: Human-Grand-Prix in SKIP Creative Human Award 2000
Grand-Prix in 12th DoGA CG-Animation Contest
Voice Acting English: NA
Voice Acting Japanese: A
Genre: Slice of Life
Extras: This show IS the extra.
Date Reviewed: 8/19/07 Last Updated: 10/26/09
Basic Premise: The tale of a cat and his owner. He watches her live and shows his love for his owner.
Review: This is a short story that won the human grand prix award. It is a short 5 minute heart warming episode of a cat and his love for his owner and how he sees her from the outside perspective of a cat. He has another friend cat from next door, but he seems to me to be largely a house cat.
When I bought Voices of a Distant Star one of the main reasons I bought the DVD was to get a hold of the extras. Within the extras I knew there would be this 5 minute short and it was as good as I had hoped. Makoto Shinkai is one of those new anime writers that broke onto the anime seen not too long ago with an award winning work. In this case it was She and Her Cat. One of the things that makes it special is that he did the entire thing himself. He was the voice of the cat. He did the animation and all of the work.
It is done in black and white or more accurately it was done in shades of gray or monochrome. There is actually very little animation in the show. There is some panning of scenes here and there and some of the backgrounds move independantly of one another, but it is largely snapshots in the life of the cat. There are no names for the cat or the girls except She and Cat even though at one point the name of the neighbor act is mentioned as Mimi and the Cat is named Chobi.
The music is a relaxing piano piece that plays at certain points. It is sort of sad, but not too sad.
The story plays like a short story and a snapshot into the life of a girl and her cat. Well done at that.
Conclusion: A lesser known short, but worth watching as it shows what an independant writer can accomplish on his own using the digital medium and can capture your heart in just a short time.
Publisher: ADV
Related Website: Makoto Shinkai Fan Web
Where Found: It is an extra in the DVD Voices of a Distant Star.
Copyright: 1999
Author: Makoto Shinkai
If you enjoyed this anime try: Haibane Renmei
Screenshots
