Ghost Cat Anzu

In the outskirts of rural Japan and far away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, young precocious teenager Karin is left at a temple to live with her grandfather while her father finds a way to pay his gambling debts. Living at the temple is the lazy layabout girant one-orange-braincell “ghost cat” Anzu. As Anzu is tasked with menial work around the temple and keeping an eye on Karin, the young girl will use her street smarts to coax Anzu into a plot to find her father and a wild descent into the land of the dead! 

Being honest and upfront, I wouldn’t call myself much of an anime fan but I do enjoy a number of films. Part of my problem with anime as a cinematic sub-genre stems from the financial whiplash of growing up, and there was nowhere to rent tapes of these films. So if I was going to actually get to see Golgo 13,  Fatal Fury or Ninja Scroll, I had to special order a VHS tape. At times, that was around $30 a pop in 1990s allowance rates, which was a hefty sum to swallow, especially if the movie wasn’t any good. Thank god I didn't get into a series like Ranma 1/2! While anime is far and away more accessible today than in my youth, I still get those anxiety-driven cold sweats whenever I look at a new release with phantom wallet pains wondering how much it's going to cost to watch this latest film.

Thankfully, I didn’t have any anxiety while watching Ghost Cat Anzu. While I wouldn’t call this a great film necessarily, I did have a nice relaxing time enjoying this little adventure. The story might be paced a little slow, it might meander a bit at the beginning, but then so do cats! And our titular giant orange Anzu moves about much like my own orange cat, Butters - without much direct purpose while inadvertently causing all sorts of trouble. As the drama of the plot with Karin, her father, and her deceased mother unfolds, it’s perfectly logical that a big lumpy orange cat like Anzu would innocently suggest a trip to the land of the dead and cause all sorts of trouble while actually trying to be helpful. An orange cat would do that.

The feature directorial debut of Yoko Kuno along with director Nobuhiro Yamashita, Ghost Cat Anzu was a nice easy way to spend 90 minutes. The film isn’t complicated, the story isn’t too extravagant, and the animation style isn’t too over the top. I was actually surprised to learn that the film was shot live and then rotoscoped, and it maintains a charming look of innocence. Again, I wouldn’t call this the greatest film ever made, certainly there are better animated adventures out there, but I can’t deny I was enchanted to bits watching this film while lazily laying out on my couch with my own orange cat. The pace may be a bit lackadaisical at times, but once the third act kicks in, the film has found its rhythm for a fitting action-packed, dramatically fulfilling and funny finale. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray 
Ghost Cat Anzu comes to Blu-ray thanks to Shout Studios and GKids. Pressed on a Region A BD50 disc, the disc is housed in a standard case with identical slipcover. The disc loads to a standard animated main menu with basic navigation options.

Ghost Cat Anzu comes to 1080p Stateside with a very nice, bright, and colorful transfer. Character lines are clean for this simple and easy animation style while backgrounds are bright and well-detailed. Colors are bold, letting primaries shine nicely with lovely shading. The backgrounds have a nice sort of pastel drawing quality, I thought lent itself to the film’s story and pace. All around a great looking image that suits the story.

On the audio side, we have DTS-HD MA 5.1 Japanese, English, and French with relevant subtitle options. I mostly watched the film in Japanese with English subs but took occasional dips into the English dubbing. I don’t understand a lick of French so I didn’t dig into that track. But for the Japanese and English tracks I found the dialog to be well balanced with the film’s incidental effects and music cues. A lot of the film is quiet and simple so the surround activity isn’t jam-packed. That picks up in the last act and for more active locations in between. So the surround experience might not be all that immersive beyond conveying that Karin is stuck in a place where not a whole lot happens. As for the English Dub work, I thought it actually fit well. The translations might not line up with the English subtitles or can sound a bit too speedy, but it’s pretty good. I still prefer the Japanese mix and subs, but if you don’t like reading the dialog, this English-dubbed 5.1 isn’t a bad track.

Unfortunately bonus features are virtually nil. Just a couple of trailers and teasers. I would have loved to see footage of the live shoot before they did the rotoscope work! I want to see whoever it was dressed as that cat!

• Trailers and Teasers (HD 4:10)

Ghost Cat Anzu might not have made me an anime convert, but it was a nice sojourn for a lazy quiet afternoon. Maybe it’s the kind of movie cat people will appreciate most but I got a kick out of our titular orange cat and his lazy nonsensical antics. For a cold lazy afternoon, it was the right kind of flick. Gkids and Shout Studios offers us a nice Blu-ray release for Ghost Cat Anzu with a lovely video transfer and audio package. If you like your anime in its original language, you’re all set. If you want a solid English dub experience, that track delivers too. I wish there was more of a robust bonus features package, especially for how it was animated, but I’ll take the film as is in 1080p. Recommended