Introduction

Broadcast 2007 – Duration Approximately 1 minute
A Gathering of Cats is a short animated film broadcast on the NHK program “Ani*Kuri 15”. The program brought together 15 representative Japanese anime creators. Using a cat as the main character, Shinkai tried to recapture the soft style and light, humorous touch of the animations he had enjoyed as a child. The character design was from Takayo Nishimura, who worked on 5 Centimeters Per Second and Children Who Chase Lost Voices, and the music was by Tenmon who is deeply connected to Shinkai’s works.

Story

Chobi is a housecat whose tail got stepped on again today! At first he let it slide, but after getting this rough treatment from the humans again and again Chobi’s had enough! Chobi calls for a gathering of the house cats so he can plan his grand revenge against the humans, but…

Staff

• Director / Storyboard / Background Art: Makoto Shinkai
• Character Design and Animation Director: Takayo Nishimura
• Music: Tenmon
• Animation: MAYA
• Digital Paint: Miyuki Ushiro

Voices

• Daughter and Chobi: Yuka Terasaki
• Mother: Akira Nakagawa
• Father: Takeshi Maeda
• Grandmother: Shizuka Okohira

(C) 2007 Makoto Shinkai・CoMix Wave Films / NHK