By Yusuke Yamada

　　　In July of this summer the latest animated film produced by Studio GHIBLI, The Cat returns, was released. Although Hayao Miyazaki has made plenty of films at Studio GHIBLI, Hiroyuki Morita was promoted to direct this new film, his first as a director.

　　　The animations which Hayao Miyazaki, a poetic talent, has produced go far beyond the general concept of animation. They have reached the level of art. Consequently, it goes without saying that they have been highly praised at home and abroad.

　　　During the making of this movie, however, the director and many of the production staff changed, and using the new staff might have had an influence on certain features of it. In previous films, for instance, many 3-D scenes were made with the help of computer graphics, but in this movie there are fewer 3-D scenes than before. The drawings also became a little rough, and untidy. On the positive side, though, real actorsーnot voice actorsーwere used in this movie, which hadn't been seen in the other animated films.

　　　Here is the plot of the movie. One day, the heroine, "Haru, " rescues a cat which is almost run over by a car. Strangely, the cat speaks to her in human words. She is struck dumb with amazement. But the cat then runs away. A few days later, the cat appears before her, and invites her into the cat's world. Haru is tired of her boring daily life, so she accepts the invitation, but later she regrets it. Just then she hears a strange voice coming from somewhere. She doesn't understand whose voice it is, but she follows the voice and goes to ask for the help of Baron, who manages an office in the cat's world. He is a cat. She is told she can meet him, but many cats lead her astray and she wanders about in the cat's world. When she loses sight of herself, she becomes a cat. Later, Baron comes to help her and with him she tries to change back into a human being.

　　　In this movie there is no mention of nature, which we can usually see in Hayao Miyazaki's movies. Rather, this movie resembles Isao Takahata's realistic and humorous films, yet it is different from Takahata's, whose main theme is anti-fantasy, because in this movie there is the fantastic element where the cats stand on two legs and speak human words. On this point, this latest film is one which we have never seen before from Studio GHIBLI.

　　　Since the story of this movie comes from a girls' comic book, we may think it suitable mostly for children or girls, but I think everyone can see it and enjoy it, regardless of age or gender. Also, up to now, many of the themes of GHIBLI's movies have been difficult, but The Cat Returns can be enjoyed easily.

　　　There seem to be fewer animation films these days that we can watch easily because, apart from whether they are good or bad, their themes may be about wars and they always include violent elements. Yet we watch them casually. In this movie, however, there are scarcely any elements like that: though there is a little violence, this movie is completely different from other GHIBLI movies in that it has adopted a fantasy theme.

　　　As for girls' comic books, they tend to overlook the irksome, dirty and ugly things in the world, and to present instead a shining and brilliant world. Yet though the original theme of this movie comes from a girls' comic book, this film is good in these current gloomy, cold and inhuman times because it is entertainingーwhich is what movies ought to be.