Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko.
A short, cramped, minimalistic tale compacted in a 5min OVA.
A lovely, unique, emotion-packed tale expressed at its best in a 5min OVA.
Everything always has two points of view.
Every point of view has a different interpretation.
The everyday life of the Girl and her Cat.
The everyday life of Chobi -the Cat- and its owner.
Shinkai builds this short movie -this long poem- with the same elements old-school cinema were made. Before all the advances in CGI and other technologies, when few scenes and no dialogue were needed in order to make children happy and adults believe in fantasy again.
First the introduction scene, the introduction of the characters, then followed by a monologue of one character conducing the narrative as the scenes keep changing. With a calm and relaxed pace, a whole story is told within 4:57 minutes.
The artwork reminds some nostalgic home-made productions from the times of the first portable cameras that were still black/white, however, you can notice it's perfectly drawn and detailed, as expected from Shinkai. This plus an endearing background music by Tenmon only confirms that the focus is the story itself, without other interferences nor distractions.
Great books doesn't need tons of volumes to be good.
It's often said that sequences ruin the movies.
The same way, Shinkai doesn't need more than five minutes to tell a story.
In a review, I'm supposed to present the series, do a little analysis but not spoil anything. When we're talking about an OVA like this one, I must be honest and say that I won't be filling lines that goes nowhere and will simply state: Watch it. It is worth it.
No, I'm not being vague.
If you watch it and don't get it, watch it again.
If you do it and still don't get it, you're probably too young for Shinkai's movies.
Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko is a piece of philosophy after all. Packed with antagonism and metaphors just like this review.
