Cat Soup: An Animated Masterpiece

This is like my 15th attempt at writing this. 

Ahem.

Cat Soup is difficult to write about. For one, its' surreal absurdist nature renders attempts at proper in depth discussion or plot dissection usually kind of null and void, purely from just how much it embodies the mantra of "up to your interpretation" as an art piece. On top of that, it's really difficult to stay pragmatic and objective when Cat Soup just so happens to be my favourite movie of all time.

The first time I ever heard about Cat Soup was when I was eleven years old, watching an ultra obscure video on an ultra obscure youtube channel discussing the movie probably on the Tv while I was alone. I didn't watch it then and there, but something about Cat Soup just stuck, and it somewhat existed in my head over the next few years, the occasional curiosity and urge to watch through the movie striking me every now and then. One day, I gave in, watching it on a whim, and my life was never the same again.

Cat Soup is an odd movie. It centers around two cat siblings venturing through these bizarre setpieces following the little brother managing to wishing well his way into the afterlife alongside his big sister, and pretty much everything that happens throughout the main body of the film is pure dream-like absurdist nonsense, with the only truly concrete and comprehensible parts of the film being both the beginning and ending.

The film  opens showing the little brother drowning while playing around in a bath with his toy car, and in the next room his horribly sick sister as she succumbs to her illness. Both siblings following their deaths are transported into the afterlife, the little brother intercepts his sister's subsequent journey through the early stages of the afterlife as interpreted by Buddhism; being lead down a path by a psychopomp by the name of Jizo (the compassionate Bodhisattva of Buddhist tradition who comes to greet people when they die), and he's then brought back to life by his father managing to revive him after yanking him out of the water bath. The brother now possesing a piece of his sister's soul following his earlier bout with Jizo restores her to a despondent semi-catatonic state, and the bulk of the film is formed by the two cat's adventure to find the other half of the big sister's soul in order to fully bring her back to life.

There's a long series of twists and turns, involving a visit to the circus featuring such acts as a live dissection enacted by a magical wizard, a voyage across an ocean of life, a trek across a desert where our two protagonists bump into a strange man that attempts to cook them into a titular cat soup, a massive disaster involving the distortion of time; where entire oceans freeze, humanity as a whole rapidly ages backwards and forwards, images of nucleic mushroom clouds, mass ISIS style executions, souls floating up to heaven, and general death and decay rapidly display on screen, and our character's final stop is at a quaint metal world inhabited by docile tin men, where our protagonists FINALLY locate the second half of the sister's soul sitting on a flower. 

The following scenes show them managing to return home; the family is sat at the dinner table ready to start digging in, but not before the little brother first finishes his business in the toilet outside. While gone, the family, remaining sat at the table, idly wait before the tv by itself switches on, showing footage of a musical duo singing their hearts out to a song that sounds vaguely anthemic. The TV then abruptly switches off, producing your typical blipping visual and sound effect, and with no explanation, slowly, one by one, each family member dissapears, exact same visual and sound effect of the tv as they all blip out of reality; first the dad, then the mom, then, after all the efforts they went through, his sister, Nyako.

The brother returns to the eerie sight of the now empty dining room, stood completely frozen as the sight washes over him. The film holds on this image of the now alone protagonist, before cutting to a wider shot of the house, notably surrounded by complete darkness almost akin to a void, camera slowly panning out as the deafening sound of crickets chirping marches on. That same tv blipping effect then plays on the whole screen, and the film ends on the image of a dark shadowy abyss, and we're treated to a music box reprisal of the film's opening theme set to the image of a photo of the family enjoying a trip to the beach. I’m of the belief that art is best left up to interpretation. Most people probably see this as confusing, or strange, or maybe even unsatisfying, but for me, for whatever reason, from the eerie sound design and darknes be no s of the scene to the implications of such a horrible thing happening, this ending has always utterly terrified me.

Cat Soup coverage isn't exactly very extensive. Apart from a random few mentions on sites like Reddit, really, the only two gathering hubs that exist for fellow Cat Soup fanatics are the full upload of the film on Youtube as well as a breakdown of it on the same site posted by user SpookyRice.

Theories vary, ranging from attempts to connect the film to its' creator, to suggesting that it may be an allegory for the futility of life/death, and it is thoroughly fascinating reading through all the interpretations that exist. 

In my opinion, Cat Soup exists for two reasons. With the soundtrack's composition, the utterly gorgeous artstyle of the film, the bizarre mesmerising set pieces, and the surreal fantastical plot centering around a journey through the realm of the afterlife occupied by all manners of spirits and the undead, on a superficial level, Cat Soup exists to impress and invoke awe with it's presentation. The film is packed with scenes of gorgeous bizarre set pieces of our characters witnessing horific circus acts, sailing across a sea of life, exploring a time-frozen ocean, and it's just something about the gorgeous look of the movie paired with the wonderfully off-beat soundtrack that invokes this hypnotic feel of not being able to tear your eyes away from the mental shit on screen.

I love the style of Cat Soup. I've always been into those very megalaphobic styled images, and seeing these two cartoony figures wandering around these large impossible sets really taps into that inherent fascination I have with the subject matter. Moreso, I think what really ties the whole experience together and manages to give Cat Soup that intensely dream-like feel that it has is its' soundtrack.

From the very first track played in the intro, the most upbeat and jolly song in the OST, I'm already offput and slightly on edge. What really gives Cat Soup's soundtrack its' identity is its' main melodic voice of a lot of the songs, that being this heavy chunky synth that permeates throughout a majority of the soundtrack. In spite of how poppy and cheerful the opening track sounds, just something about its' progression and sound is ever so slightly off, almost appearing faux happy as it slips on a mask to lure you into a sense of false security. It's the absolute perfect song to kickstart the movie, distilling the very essence of what makes Cat Soup so authentically Cat Soup into one single musical arrangement, even including these echoey water droplet soundings eluding to what effectively kickstarts the entire oddysey of the film.

As you progress through the film it feels as if the songs only get darker and darker. Pieces range from the aforementioned ever-so-slightly-off cheeriness of the opening arrangement, to completely crushingly depressing tracks, fraught with atmospheric dissonance and discordant pianos. It can sound bizarre, mysterious, crushing, and at times even beautiful, such as with the track ~Metallic World~ or the credits theme reprisal of the intro song. Without the soundtrack, Cat Soup just wouldn't be the same, and it stands as one of my favourite things in it, creating this thick dreamlike atmosphere that entirely defines the whole experience . 

The author of the original Cat Soup manga was a woman by the name of Chiyomi Hashiguchi. After being encouraged by her husband Hajime Yamano (alternative manga artist) to start her own manga after seeing her absentmindedly sketching an odd octopus-like cat and describing her artstyle with 

"it had a raw childlike appearance that wasn't filtered through adult eyes - it was cute, repulsive, and cruel-looking all at the same time." Miss Hashiguchi went on to create Nekojiru Udon, which was the debut manga featuring our two titular Cat Soupers, Nyako and Nyatta. In fact, almost all her work would feature cats as the main character, even her more autobiographical pieces like Jirujiru Travel Journal and Jirujiru Diary, wherein which she drew herself as a cat. Tragically, on the 10th of May 1998, Hashiguchi took her own life. Her suicide note included: "Forget I even lived. I don't need a grave" and "Don't talk about why I died". Contrary to her wishes, her ashes were buried in an anonymous grave by her family, and Yamano ever since has declined to provide details regarding her motives, apart from denying media allegations that it was a copycat suicide. 

Amongst all the outlandish theories paraded in the comments sections of those two videos I mentioned earlier, the ones that always caught my eye were the ones making attempts to connect the film to its' creator. To me, Cat Soup serves as an exploration on optimistic and pessimistic views of death, as made in tribute to a person who for over a decade lived with what could've been an intense suicidal ideation. In that sense, what with Cat Soup's infatuation with life and death, Cat Soup feels like a representation of the inner going ons of the twisted mind behind the first manga to ever feature the movie’s main characters. 

The film is chalk full of details that exist as little clues to what the plot is, and often the details are none explicit enough that it's honestly up to debate what the "true" plot of the movie is. At the beginning of the film, it's possible Nyatta died in the tub, and a lot of clues point towards the possibility that everything that happens is just a fucked up fever dream of stuff he goes through with his sister after he dies. It's possible he survived, and the entire movie is a true depiction of a little boy going on an adventure to save his big sister. You can theorise infinitely, but here's what I think.

The movie is an exploration of death, and all the optimistic and pessimistic interpretations of the afterlife that follows death. The events of the film reflect this, the bizarre fantastical set pieces in what I'll call the "first half" of their adventure representing how a child might imagine the afterlife being; colourful and weird and fucked up and with a bizarre dreamlike beauty of the realm of the dead. The "second half" of their adventure directly contrasts this, a complete absence of music leaving only the eerie sound of crickets chirping outside, their house completely engulfed in darkness, him never getting a chance to say goodbye to his family before they blip away. With one end of the spectrum believing in heavens and hells and all these other fantastical things that follow death, on the other end of the spectrum sits the belief that all that follows after death, is nothing, and this scene represents that harsh brutal reality of death hitting Nyatta all at once. Nyatta never went on this great big beautiful adventure to find a piece of his sister's soul, there was no psychopomp intervention, no wishing well granting entry into the realm of spirits, there was never any way to save his sister that he loved so much, or perhaps, looping back to the previous graph, none of this even happened, this scene depicting his mind crumbling as the final adventure his brain sends him on with his beloved sister comes to an end, and he succumbs to his inescapeable fate.

Cat Soup feels like it was made in tribute to the original, made after the original author's death, deviating from the source material tone wise, but maintaining that same vibe about it as seen in the original manga with its’ macabre subject matter and really really taking advantage of the unnerving art style.

I’ve always been someone who likes when experiences last just barely as long as they need to. Characters that have mere 5 minutes of screen time, songs that barely stretch past a minute, even extreme cases like bands that break up before they can reach their full potential, or shows that get cancelled after the first season, or movies that never receive sequels. It can be sad, nauseatingly so, but there’s something special about that unsatisfaction, that perpetual feeling of longing and emptiness. To me, much rather than a botched sequel or an ending that doesn’t quite stick the landing, I like being left in the dark. I like immersing myself in headcanons and what-ifs, wondering what could’ve been. As much as I’d beg on my hands and knees for Cat Stew if I hadn’t already given up hope of a sequel ever seeing the light of day, I think deep down I like the way things are now.

A lack of explanation or an explicit rhyme and reason to the shit the movie throws at you,  the fact we only get to experience the wide wonderful world of Cat Soup for a mere half hour, and all the bizarre singular qualities the film has like it’s aforementioned soundtrack have all effectively seared this film into my mind forever. I think Cat Soup’s a pretty cool movie, and so long as you’re willing to keep an open mind and drop any expectations you’d hold for a normal movie, I’d recommend it. 

So, overall, yeah, that’s pretty much it. Cat Sou