A Whisker Away

Did You Know?

• The film was originally slated to premiere in Japanese theaters on June 5, 2020, but was pulled from the schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic and sold to Netflix.
• The theme song 'Ghost in a Flower', the insert song 'Night Journey', and the ending are all performed by Japanese rock duo Yorushika.
• A manga adaptation was announced in May 2020, with its first volume released on June 10, 2020, and it ended with chapter 13 on March 12, 2021.
• The film won the Asian Academy Creative Awards 'Best Animation Work Award' and the 24th Japanese Media Arts Festival Animation Division 'Excellent Work Award'.

Plot

Miyo Sasaki is a 14-year-old girl from Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, who struggles to get along with her stepmother, Kaoru. She has a crush on a classmate named Kento Hinode, but he doesn't share her feelings and tends to avoid her. One day, a mysterious mask seller gives her a magical Noh mask that allows her to transform into a cat. As a cat, she calls herself Tarō and spends time with Hinode while he practices Japanese pottery, listening to his troubles. She wishes she could tell him that the cat he adores and the girl he dislikes are the same person.

After Miyo hears two boys insulting Hinode at school, she jumps off the school building to defend him, hurting herself in the process. For the first time, Hinode shows her kindness by taking her to the nurse and sharing his lunch. Later, as Tarō, she learns that Hinode's family is closing their pottery shop because they can no longer afford it. Wanting to cheer him up, she writes a love letter to confess her feelings. In class, a boy grabs the note before she can deliver it and reads it out loud, embarrassing both of them. To save face, Hinode publicly tells Miyo he hates her and orders her to stay away.

Heartbroken, Miyo decides that being a cat with Hinode is better than being human without him. Her human face falls off like a porcelain mask, and the mask seller takes it, saying he will give it to a cat that wants to become human. Her friends and family start searching for her, and Hinode confesses to Tarō that he doesn't actually hate her and wants to apologize. Trapped in her cat body, Miyo begins to lose her ability to understand humans and regrets her choice. Kaoru's cat, Kinako, takes Miyo's human face and starts living her life, refusing to give it back because she is nearing the end of her natural life and wants to keep living and making her owner happy.

Miyo follows the mask seller to a secret island of cats to convince him to turn her back into a human. Kinako realizes how much Miyo's stepmother loved her cat and changes her mind. She tells Hinode about the masks and takes him to the island to rescue Miyo. Kinako gives Hinode a cat mask that turns only his arms into cat arms. The mask seller traps Kinako and Hinode, but Miyo and another cat who was once human rescue them. The mask seller takes Miyo and Hinode to a place called the promised place and tries to finalize their transformations by taking their lifespan, but he is stopped by all the resentful humans he had previously turned into cats.

As they return to the human world, Hinode apologizes for yelling at Miyo and agrees to be her boyfriend, while Kinako gives back Miyo's face, restoring her to normal. The credits show Miyo telling her friend that Hinode loves her, Hinode telling his mother he wants to do pottery, and Hinode performing Miyo's signature sunrise attack on her.