If you like cats, or have trouble accepting yourself, or run away from your problems, this anime movie is for you. If you’re all 3, this movie might have been based off of your life.

A Whisker Away is an anime movie about a girl named Muge who receives a cat mask and is able to transform into an adorably cute stray white cat in order to get close to Hinode, the boy she likes at school.

At school in her human form, Muge consistently pursued Hinode romantically, but in the quirkiest ways. Her signature attack, Hinode Sunrise Attack, involves her jumping backwards and bumping into Hinode as a way of saying hello. In concept it’s cute, but maybe not as much when the recipient is tired of your antics and has resorted to just ignoring you.

When I first watched this movie, I remember not really liking the first 1/3 of the movie. Personally, I found Muge a bit annoying, because she kept going after Hinode even though he wasn’t interested. I’m not a big fan of pushy people, or ones who can’t take a hint; I mean it’s not as if Hinode was giving mixed signals and leading her on.

BUT BOY WAS I WRONG. The rest of the movie completely redeemed it and made me really appreciate every scene the 2nd time around. The more you learn about Muge and Hinode, the more you realize why they act the way they do and how similar they are.

Muge eventually gets stuck as a cat forever, with her cat at home (Kinako) taking over Muge’s body. Hinode realizes what Muge means to him now that she’s disappeared and goes with Kinako to find and rescue Muge. Kinako’s story as the tritagonist is also very endearing. As her cat life was nearing old age, she wanted to keep making her owner (the stepmom) happy as a loving daughter in place of Muge. To no surprise, she realizes that just like in real life, you can never replace the love an owner has for their cat.

For the cherry on the top, the Jpop songs from Yorushika in A Whisker Away are phenomenal.

The Life Lesson

A Whisker Away goes through so many different themes of life’s hardships, many of which are frequently touched upon in other animes. It addresses running away from your problems, accepting yourself, craving love and affection, expressing your true feelings, and more. But the lesson I want to draw most from Muge and Hinode is about the importance of making genuine connections. And in order to make genuine connections, you can’t hide behind a mask.

I believe that being genuine is one of the most valuable traits you can find when interacting with someone else. This doesn’t mean you have to be giving out compliments or saying sweet or nice things – just be real and true to what you’re thinking or feeling. This also doesn’t mean tell the honest truth and be blunt to the point where you’re making others feel uncomfortable or hurting their feelings. Being genuine has a positive connotation to it. Honesty is great and all, but I dislike when people say hurtful things under the pretense of being ‘honest’. I’m sorry, but that’s just being an asshole.

You can’t be genuine if you’re hiding behind a mask. And it’s hard to open up, or get someone else to open up, if you can’t be genuine. And if you can’t open up between you and another person, how do you become close or even romantic together?

This is part of the reason why I can never fully trust sales reps or any similar role on the surface level. The way I see it, they’re just trying to close out a deal, no matter what they have to do or say. Then again, everything in life is a sales pitch — even me trying to write this blog post in a way that others will want to read it. My first job out of college was as a sales rep, although I was inbound only (as in I only handled customers who were already interested in the product), and I wasn’t commission based. Basically, I had no incentive to lie in order to make a sale. Instead, I tried to rely on being likable and genuine when pitching to customers (instead of charismatic and pushy). I mean, my sales numbers were still pretty good.

In A Whisker Away, Muge knew some inner thoughts and turmoils of Hinode from when he revealed it to her in her cat form. Yet even with that info, Muge didn’t try to connect personally with Hinode in real life (although in her defense, she struggles with the same similar issues). She could have even brought up a common interest topic of cats; at least that would have been better than always just professing her love.

The next time you want to make a friend, pursue a romantic interest, or just have a wholesome feel-good interaction with a stranger, try to just be genuine and open instead of hiding behind a mask. Like all things, it gets easier with time, and you could be pleasantly surprised by how the other person responds.