You have the main lead loving this guy but there wasn't anything romantic about it...she was just rather creepy, annoying, and pushy. We don't even see why she loves him so much so we could at least root for her. Their human interactions doesn't show any good moments and their cat interactions are one sided. Then when we get to the part where the guy realizes he likes her it just feels flat because there was nothing to back it up.

The thing I like about this other than the stunning visuals is the rest of their personality not relating to their love life. It's cliche and all but still.. The family troubles and the way the girl reacted felt real and it made for good development but sadly it was overshadowed by that shallow romance. They just pushed the romance too much.

They could've made the cat girl-human boy interactions have more depth if they made the scenes the basis on how the characters will grow but instead all we get is the girl swooning over the guy and the character development only happens because the guy saves the girl instead.

Overall not bad but not something I'd care to rewatch.

It's obvious from the get-go this movie was heavily inspired by Studio Ghibli and you can be allowed for making the mistake thinking it came from them; it has the same features - the strange fantasy elements, the deep philosophy about existence as seen from the mind of a teenager and a focus on strong character development. It's all there.

What I praise the movie for apart from the production quality is its daring; the main character isn't very likeable, and it's for good reason; her flaws as a character she needs to overcome. Not too many studios and directors would dare go into that. It is the archetype of the character who wants to run away from their problems and have things be magically easily fixed for them according to their own fantasies. I would say this makes it a very powerful movie for those teens/young adults who feel just like that.

Other than that, I am giving this one a 8/10 and not higher because I feel the ''fantasy'' elements got a bit too unneededly weird as the movie dragged on, removing value from its more mature themes.

The film, the poster, trailer, even the title, will immediately suggest Studio Ghibli. And the good traditional Japanese story ones, not the European ones that not always hit the mark. You have the strong female protagonist, the magic of side streets on hills, cats, magic, hidden worlds and best of all: emotional growth while confronting one's needs and desires. So what went wrong? I don't know. It all just felt like a very well done forgery, a knock off, Pepsi to a Coca Cola drinker. And exactly like that, it may all just be in my head.

I did enjoy the film, it wasn't bad, but something did feel off. Maybe the pacing, or the dialogues that revealed too much, maybe the artificially weird characters, maybe the fact that most of the motivations people use to do things are their pathological codependencies with other people. There are profound lessons to be glimpsed in the story, yet it all felt like someone glued them on there.

So bottom line: a well done animation in the beloved Ghibli style, enjoyable, but feeling a little bit fake.