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Nakitai Watashi wa Neko o Kaburu Film Delayed Due to COVID-19

The staff of Studio Colorido's second feature-length anime film Nakitai Watashi wa Neko o Kaburu (Wanting to Cry, I Pretend to Be a Cat) announced on Monday that the film is delayed due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The film was slated to open in Japan on June 5.

The original story about finding one's true self is set in Tokoname, Aichi and centers on Miyo "Muge" Sasaki. She is a peculiar second-year junior high student who has fallen in love with her classmate Kento Hinode. Muge resolutely pursues Hinode every day, but he takes no notice of her. Nevertheless, while carrying a secret she can tell no one, Muge continues to pursue Hinode. Muge discovers a magic mask that allows her to transform into a cat named Tarō. The magic lets Muge get close to Hinode, but eventually it may also make her unable to transform back to a human.

The "Neko o Kaburu" in the film's title literally means "put on a cat," but it typically functions as a figure of speech related to deception or pretending.

Mirai Shida (The Secret World of Arrietty's Arrietty, The Wind Rises' Kayo Horikoshi, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes' Melissa Shield) is playing Miyo (seen left in image below) and Tarō. Natsuki Hanae (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba's Tanjirō Kamado, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.'s Reita Toritsuka, Digimon Adventure tri.'s Taichi Yagami) is playing Kento (seen right in image below).

Other cast members include:

• Kōichi Yamadera as the Cat Storekeeper
• Hiroaki Ogi (from comedian duo OgiYahagi) as Homeroom Teacher Kusugi-sensei
• Minako Kotobuki as Yoriko Fukase, Muge's close friend
• Kensho Ono as Masamichi Isami, Hinode's friend
• Susumu Chiba as Yōji Sasaki, Muge's father
• Ayako Kawasumi as Kaoru Mizutani, Muge's father's girlfriend
• Sayaka Ohara as Miki Saitō, Muge's mother
• Daisuke Namikawa as Tomoya Sakaguchi, a young man who works in the Hinode family's pottery studio

Junichi Sato (Sailor Moon, Aria the Animation, Princess Tutu) and Tomotaka Shibayama (animation director for Blue Exorcist, Le Chevalier D'Eon) are co-directing the film at Studio Colorido (Typhoon Noruda, Penguin Highway, Fastening Days). Mari Okada (Maquia - When the Promised Flower Blooms, anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day) is writing the script. Yorushika will perform the anime's theme song "Hana ni Bōrei" (A Ghost for a Flower).

Source: Email correspondence