Amusing First Look Teaser for ‘Ghost Cat Anzu’ Japanese Anime Film
by Alex Billington
February 25, 2024
Source: YouTube
“A once-in-a-lifetime summer.” GKids has revealed the first look teaser trailer for a Japanese animated film titled Ghost Cat Anzu, arriving to watch later in 2024. This originally premiered at the 2023 Annecy Film Festival last year as a work-in-progress project. It’s now finished and ready to debut in Japan this summer. It’s a rotoscoped 2D animation film that’s co-directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita, who often makes live-action films. The Japanese cinema master Nobuhiro Yamashita x rising star of anime world Yôko Kuno x world-renowned artist Mirai Moriyama create a “monster cat”! The anime is about an amusing friendship shared between Karin, a strong-minded girl sent to live with her monk granddad in the Japanese countryside, and Anzu, the even-more unpredictable phantom feline who acts as her guardian. Mirai Moriyama voices the titular Anzu, and Noa Gotō voices Karin. Both played their characters live-action that became the reference for the animators, with both their dialogue and their movements being converted into the final footage. This sounds like so much fun! Just a short teaser to start without much footage – but I’m curious enough already.
Here’s the first look teaser trailer for Kuno & Yamashita’s Ghost Cat Anzu, direct from GKids’ YouTube:
Karin, 11 years old, is abandoned by her father at her grandfather’s house, the monk of a small town in the Japanese countryside. Her grandfather asks Anzu, his jovial and helpful although rather capricious ghost cat, to look after her. The meeting of these two strong characters causes sparks, at least at the beginning… Ghost Cat Anzu, originally known as 化け猫あんずちゃん in Japanese, is co-directed by the two Japanese filmmakers Yôko Kuno (character designer / storyboard artist / director on “Land of the Lustrous” series) & Nobuhiro Yamashita (director of many films including Hazy Life, No One’s Ark, Ramblers, Cream Lemon, Linda Linda Linda, The Matsugane Potshot Affair, A Gentle Breeze in the Village, My Back Pages, The Drudgery Train, Misono Universe, Over the Fence, My Uncle, Takayuki Yamada, Hard-Core, One Second Ahead One Second Behind, Let’s Go Karaoke!, and lots of other series). The screenplay is written by Shinji Imaoka; based on the manga by Takashi Imashiro. Produced by Shin-ei Animation (Japan) and Miyu Productions (France). The film opens first in Japan in July 2024 this summer via Toho Animation. GKids Films will then release Ghost Cat Anzu playing in select US theaters later in 2024 – stay tuned for updates.
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