Beautiful animated film produced by Studio Colorido. It tells the story of Muge, an energetic girl who obtains a magical mask that allows her to transform into a white cat to get closer to her distant classmate, Hinode. However, as she spends more time as a cat, the boundary between her humanity and her feline form begins to blur. The movie's charming and nostalgic setting is inspired with extraordinary photographic accuracy by the real pottery city of Tokoname in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.
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Tokoname Station (Meitetsu)scene
location
The Meitetsu Tokoname Line station is the gateway to the pottery footpath. Its ticket gates appear in the film when Hinode and Tarō (Muge in cat form) search for the missing Muge.
Source & evidence
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Dokanzaka — the mask seller tempts Tarōconfirmed
location
The most iconic slope on the pottery footpath (Yakimono Sanpo-michi), its walls lined with Meiji-era clay pipes and early-Shōwa shōchū bottles. In the film, as Tarō heads home from Hinode's house, the mask seller appears here to tempt him to stay a cat for good.
Source & evidence
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Shinmei Shrine — where Muge gets the maskconfirmed
location
The approach path (sandō) to this shrine appears at the start of the film: it is where Muge meets the mask seller and gets the mask that turns her into a cat.
Source & evidence
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Ichiki Bridge — Muge's daily routeconfirmed
location
A 1921 bridge linking Sakae-machi and Tōgō-chō over a sunken road, overlooking the pottery town. Tarō crosses it on the way back from Hinode's house, and the Y-junction just west of it is Muge's daily route to school, where she parts from Yoriko.
Source & evidence
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Noborigama and its square — the search and the rainy dayconfirmed
location
A climbing kiln built around 1887 and used until 1974, one of the largest surviving in Japan. It appears as Hinode searches for the missing Muge. In the square next to it, on the rainy festival day, Tarō and Hinode shelter together — a key memory in the film.
Source & evidence
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Takita House wall — Tarō remembers Hinodeconfirmed
location
The wall of the Takita family house — cargo-ship owners from the Edo to the Meiji period — appears as Tarō walks along recalling Hinode's words. The restored house is open as a museum.
Source & evidence
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Shibayama Seifū's studio — model for Hinode's homeconfirmed
model / inspiration
The studio of ceramic sculptor Shibayama Seifū, a leading Shōwa-era Tokoname artist and great-grandfather of co-director Tomotaka Shibayama. It was the model for the Hinode family's home and workshop. It is now open to the public.
Source & evidence
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Kitajō Park — Kinako and Tarō talkconfirmed
location
A park with a pond in the Asukadai residential area, 1.2 km east of the station and away from the pottery footpath. It is where Kinako — the cat now living in Muge's body — and Tarō have their talk.
Source & evidence
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Tokonyan — Tokoname's giant cattribute
tribute
A huge maneki-neko head (3.8 m tall, 6.3 m wide) peeking over the wall of the cat street on the way to the pottery footpath; it can even be seen from the station platform. It is not among the film's official settings, but it is the town's cat symbol and a regular stop for fans.
Source & evidence
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