Neko to Wakai se na

Out of the five music videos released to celebrate TOHO Animation’s 10th anniversary, I found Neko to Wakai se na (AKA Don’t Reconcile with Cats) to be the weakest entry. It lacked considerably in the animation and music departments and the video’s plot was a bit of a miss. I do admire that they hired voice actors for a 5-minute-long music video though.

STORY:
Before I talk about the story, I just wanted to say that this is my interpretation of what happened in the video. Due to the absence of a synopsis and subtitles for the video, I’ll try my best to explain what happened in ... the video.
The story focus on Yuuki (the red-haired guy) remembering his childhood friend Mao (the blue-haired guy). The video shoes Yuuki walking around his town and each landmark he encounters makes him remember his childhood and his interactions with Mao, and how the two stopped being friends due to a fight, something which Yuuki came to regret in his present life.
Overall, it was a bare-bones story with very very little development. My main complaint is that the story starts at a very random point. I think it would’ve been better is the video started with how they first met. It would’ve given the characters better development. What I do like was the fact that voice actors were hired for the video.
With regards to why the video is titled “Don’t Reconcile with Cats”, I’m guessing that Mao wasn’t exactly human, but was actually a personification of a stray cat Yuuki befriended. Mao means “cat” in Chinese. But I dunno. The video never elaborated on this, so I’d probably be wrong.

CHARACTERS:
From what I gathered, Yuuki used to be an energetic and adventurous kid who loved to explore the town. He also used to be pretty impulsive and quick to anger, something that he began to regret as he grew up due to his fight with Mao. Mao, on the other hand, was the calm one of the duo and tried to keep Yuuki away from danger. Overall, the characters were really basic and arguable lacked the depth as compared to the characters from TOHO’s other 10th anniversary music videos.

ANIMATION:
Neko to Wakai se na was directed by Mizuki Itou, who also worked on a 5-minute-long OVA called Takano Intersection. The OVA won the prestigious Mainichi Film Award for Best Animation in 2022. Sadly, I haven’t seen it, so I can’t compare his two works.
Neko to Wakai se na’s animation tried to emulate a more watercolour design to give a more nostalgic vibe. I personally didn’t enjoy it due to it coming off as stilted quite often and the flowing animation made the characters off-model to a point it became distracting. In other words, the animation was the weakest point of this video for me.

MUSIC:
The song used for the music video is called “Semi” by a band named Hentai Shinshi Club. They also sang the ending song for third movie in the Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution trilogy. The song “Semi” alright. Nothing really memorable. It’s the kind of a song you can put on when you’re driving. The song tries to make the video more emotional, but fails to do so due to the underdeveloped characters and distracting animation.

VERDICT:
3/10 (Genuinely Bad)
Likes: The fact they hired voice actors for a short music video.
Dislikes: The animation, underdeveloped characters, and the very vague story.