She And Her Cat
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, subtitled ''Their standing points'', is a 1999 Japanese
original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...
created and directed by
Makoto Shinkai , known as , is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, author, and manga artist. Shinkai began his career as a video game animator with Nihon Falcom in 1996, and gained recognition as a filmmaker with the release of the original video animation (OVA) ' ...
. Shinkai's first animation work, it is a five-minute story about the relationship between a male cat and his female owner told from the cat's perspective. Shinkai made the film to help a romantic interest overcome a difficult situation, and his time living in a small apartment defined the scenario. The film used his own hand-drawn illustrations and its 3D scenes were mainly done through
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. He also voiced the cat, and he had only the cooperation of three other people in the work. After completing the work, Shinkai himself distributed the film via
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format and mail, selling 5,000 copies at anime conventions. The work was well received, winning the 2000 DoGA CG Animation Contest and attracting
CoMix Wave Films is a Japanese animation film studio and distribution company based in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The studio is known for its anime feature films, short films, and television commercials, particularly those made by director Makoto Shinkai. It was fou ...
' interest. The company re-released the film in
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format and hired Shinkai. Years later, in 2016, it was adapted into an
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
television series and a
manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
.


Plot

The story occurs over the span of a year. On a rainy Spring day, She finds Chobi outside and brings him home with her. Chobi falls in love with his owner because of her kindness and beauty. During the summer Chobi gets a girlfriend, Mimi. Mimi loves Chobi and wants to marry him, but he refuses because he is in love with Her. On an autumn day, She has a long conversation over the phone. When it is over She cries and becomes depressed. Chobi does not understand what the conversation was about or what happened but concludes that it was not her fault. He stands by Her and comforts her. Time goes on and it becomes winter. She continues going to work and moves on with her life. In the end, She and Chobi are happy with their life together and say in unison, "I think that the both of us probably like this world."


Production

''She and Her Cat'' was written and directed by Makoto Shinkai; it is his first major animation work. He had the idea in 1997, but started it in 1998 while he was working as a graphic designer at
Falcom is a Japanese video game developer, best known for their '' Ys'', '' The Legend of Heroes'', and ''Trails'' series. The company was founded in March 1981, making them one of the oldest active video game companies. They are credited with pioneer ...
, a video game company. Because he experimented with computer graphic animation during his work, he wanted to minimize complex procedures. So he opted to do a black-and-white film since a colored-one would use three times as much space in the computer and it would also make the process three times slower. He was working on a
role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...
, whose genre is known to have "very rich and detailed" surroundings, and this influenced the film's background details. He also took pictures of cityscapes and the streets, and used them as a basis for his hand-drawn animations. The
composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...
of 3D scenes was done with
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and for other effects Shade,
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and
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were used. Shinkai described it as a "personal film" because it was made to encourage the girl he was in love with to go through some problems she had. The cat was the main character because he had cats since he was a child and adopted some stray cats in Tokyo. His own time living in a small apartment surrounded by electrical lines also inspired the main scenario. Although these are "ugly things", he "wanted to make it look detailed and beautiful to express that it was ok to live in such a situation". He aimed to transmit the feelings of "the vague loneliness of living", "slight pain" and "modest warmth", and as he thought it would be difficult to do it through words he did it through images and sound. Shinkai affirmed: "Without being too eager, I just let the animation speak for itself. I'm pleased with its simplicity." Although most of the work had been done by Shinkai, who also provided the voice of the cat, he had three collaborators for the film: Mika Shinohara, who provided the voice for She and also did some illustrations;
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, who composed the music; and "Rabsaris", who was credited for his "cooperation".


Release and reception

After it was completed in 1999, Shinkai made his own copies of ''She and Her Cat'' on
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and sold around 5,000 copies at
Comiket , more commonly known as or , is a semiannual ''doujinshi'' convention in Tokyo, Japan. A grassroots market focused on the sale of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, Comiket is a not-for-profit fan convention administered by the volunteer-ru ...
and by mail through his website. It received critical acclaim, and won the grand prize at the 2000 DoGA CG Animation Contest. ''Anime'' authors Colin Odell and Michelle Le Blanc called it "simple, underplayed and just a little maudlin". Chris Beveridge of Mania.com watched the three versions and said "each looks gorgeous and the story for it is simply hauntingly beautiful". In a 2017 retrospective, Anne Lauenroth of
Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...
ranked it Shinkai's ninth best work (out of 11), praising its use of lighting that gives "a modest beauty" to the scenery and its "carefully placed details" that transmits the wholeness of a world only partially presented. ''She and Her Cat'' was the work that made Shinkai popular and it led him to work on the production company
CoMix Wave Films is a Japanese animation film studio and distribution company based in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The studio is known for its anime feature films, short films, and television commercials, particularly those made by director Makoto Shinkai. It was fou ...
, for which he produced his other films. At first he received "a very long e-mail" from the company in which there was a review telling why they appreciated the work and he was subsequently hired. The movie caught the attention of Mangazoo (who would become Comix Wave) and the company released the movie in a
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format. It contained its soundtrack and three different versions of the movie: the full five-minute version, a three-minute version, and a one-minute-and-half digest version. After it was out of print, it was also included in the DVD release of ''
Voices of a Distant Star is a Japanese science fiction original video animation (OVA) short film created and animated by Makoto Shinkai. It follows the lives of two close childhood friends, a boy and a girl, who get separated once the girl is sent into space to f ...
'' as an extra. The only version to reach the United States is the subtitled version that comes with ''Voices of a Distant Star'' released by
ADV Films A.D. Vision Holdings, Inc. (known simply as ADV and also referred to as ADV Films) was an American multimedia entertainment distributor headquartered in Houston, Texas, and founded in 1992 by video game fan John Ledford and anime fans Matt Gre ...
in June 2003. The DVD includes the three different versions of the film. British company
Anime Limited Anime Limited, also known as All the Anime is a British anime distribution company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It releases anime for British, Irish, French and other European audiences. The company was established in 2012 by Andrew Partridge, b ...
released the work as a special feature on their release of ''
The Place Promised in Our Early Days is a 2004 Japanese anime film written, produced, cinematographed, directed and edited by Makoto Shinkai in his feature film debut. Set over several years in an alternate history where the Soviet Union occupies half of Japan, it follows two c ...
/Voices of a Distant Star'' in 2016.


Legacy

An
anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
television adaptation, subtitled ''Everything Flows'', was first announced in January 2016 through the February issue of
Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines su ...
's ''
Newtype is a monthly magazine publication originating from Japan, covering anime (and to a lesser extent, tokusatsu, manga, Japanese science fiction, seiyuu, and video games). It was launched by publishing company Kadokawa Shoten on March 8, 1985, with i ...
'' magazine. The anime was produced by Liden Films Kyoto Studio and directed by Kazuya Sakamoto. It aired between March 4 and 25, 2016 as part of
Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...
's
Ultra Super Anime Time is a Japanese joint holding company established in 2011 by animation studios Sanzigen, Ordet, Trigger and Liden Films. They also co-own a part of ENGI, a studio established by Kadokawa in 2018. Member studios * Sanzigen * Ordet * Trigger * L ...
programming block.
Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...
made the anime available via stream worldwide except for Asia starting on March 4. In Japan, the anime was released in Blu-ray and DVD on May 18, 2016, and it included a "complete edition" with additional footage, including a 90-second opening sequence. This edition received a theatrical release from May 21 to 27, at the Tollywood theater in
Shimokitazawa is a commercial and entertainment area in Kitazawa, Setagaya, Tokyo. It is located in the southwestern corner of the Kitazawa district, hence the name "Shimo-kitazawa" (literally ''lower Kitazawa''). Also known as "Shimokita", the neighbourhood ...
, Tokyo. The DVD and the Blu-Ray release sold 230 and 1,521 copies respectively, appearing at 18th and 6th place on
Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...
's best-selling list on their respective categories. On May 26, 2020, the anime was released in Blu-ray in the United States by
Discotek Media Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, focused on distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retro titles fr ...
with English subtitles and a new dub. A manga version by
Tsubasa Yamaguchi is a Japanese manga artist. After she graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, she created two one-shots before launching her first full series, a manga adaptation of ''She and Her Cat''. Following its completion, she launched '' Blue Perio ...
adapting the anime was announced in the March 2016 issue of
Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...
's ''
Monthly Afternoon is a Japanese monthly ''seinen'' manga anthology published by Kodansha under the ''Afternoon'' line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of January 25, 1986. ''Afternoon'' has spawned many successful manga series such as ...
'', and it began serialization in the magazine's April 2016 issue, which was released in February 2016, ending its serialization in May 2016. Its single collected volume was released by Kodansha on August 23, 2016. In January 2017,
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licensed the series, and it released the manga in the North American market on August 1 of that year.


References


Books

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:She And Her Cat 1999 animated films 1999 anime OVAs 1999 drama films 1999 films 1999 short films 1990s animated short films Animated drama films Animated films about cats Animated television shows based on films Anime short films Anime with original screenplays CoMix Wave Films films Doujin anime Drama anime and manga Films directed by Makoto Shinkai Japanese drama films Japanese short films Kodansha manga Liden Films Japanese independent films Seinen manga Single OVAs Toho Animation Tokyo MX original programming Vertical (publisher) titles