A Whisker Away is one such anime that a teenager or an adult would equally love to see. People do things unimaginable to find love. And this particular anime is definitely about love and how much someone can try to get closer to someone they love.
A whisker away, also called Nakitai Watashi wa Neko wo kaburu (泣きたい私は猫をかぶる) is a story of a girl named Miyo Sasaki who is always unhappy because of her stepmother Kaoru.
Miyo Sasaki is a girl who has lost her mother and has to live with her stepmother Kaoru who is even more traumatizing for her. However, there’s something that she loves the most, and that is Kento Hinode.
Miyo is also called “Muge”, and Muge discovers a magic mask that allows her to change into a cat named Tarō. The magic lets Muge transform herself whenever she wants to and then return to her identity.
Little did she know that the magician had tricked her into this, and she might not be able to get her identity as Muge back. Since Kento liked her cat form, she felt good about being a cat rather than a human.
While Hinode in the end finds Miyo, the mask provider takes them to the “promised place”. Miyo finally discovered her selfish mistake and began to deal with the mask Seller demanding her human face lower back.
The mask provider attempts to finalize Miyo’s and Hinode’s transformation by extracting their lifespan but is foiled via all of the green with envy that he previously had become cats.
As they adventure back to the human world, Miyo and Hinode confess their want to each one-of-a-kind, and Kinako returns Miyo’s face, returning her to normal.
The credit score shows Miyo telling her friend how Hinode loves her, Hinode telling his mother that he wants to do pottery, and Hinode doing Miyo’s signature “Hinode sunrise attack” to her.
She starts a quest to get her identity back before it’s too late and talks to Taro, but Taro refuses to leave her human form.
However, eventually, Taro understood the situation and let Kento know about everything, and they rescued her.
They lived happily ever after !!
11 Similar Anime like A Whisker Away
Why Is Whisker Away So Popular?
With a whopping 93% on Tomatometer and a 75% audience score, this fantasy series is bliss to watch. The story shows not only a love story but also the complexities of human emotions.
Directed by Junichi Sato and Tomotaka Shibayama and written by Mari Okada. Whisker Away is a human drama which changes suddenly into a fantasy series.
Whisker Away shows the bond between an animal and a human and how sometimes even humans fail to understand what animals can.
Anime Similar To Whisker Away
1) Spirited Away
- Also known as: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi / 千と千尋の神隠し
- Genre – Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Mystery
- Duration – Movie (only 1st part released ) 2hr 5 min
- Platform – Netflix
Spirited Away is the story of a small girl named Chihiro Ogino, who is 10 years old.
She travels with her parents when she and her parents encounter an abandoned amusement park quite eerie, but they decide to venture into the park, and little Chihiro is stuck in the Spirit World.
She hallucinates that ghosts and her parents are transformed into pigs.
Spirited Away is similar to Whisker Away as both have a female protagonist who is preventing personal mishaps and trying to overcome their situations.
Both protagonists face the world after a decision, and then, later on, realization happens to both of them.
2) The Cat Returns
- Also Known as: Story of a cat king / 猫の恩返し
- Genre – Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
- Duration – 1hr 15min
- Platform – Netflix
The Story is about a girl named Haru Yoshika, a regular schoolgirl bored with her school life; her ordinary routine is saving an unusual cat who is the prince of the cat kingdom.
She didn’t know that the cat she rescued was the prince of the cat kingdom. The cat king rewards her and proposes to her for marriage to Lune, the cat prince.
She had to travel to the other world from the human world to clear the misunderstanding with the king.
To escape the cat world, she takes the help of Baron and Muta from the Cat Bureau, and all of them are on a quest to escape the cat world with the help of a cat statue named Baron.
You would definitely like The Cat returns if you love felines and cats. The Cat Returns is a beautiful getaway from the usual stories.
3) Whisper of the Heart
- Also Known As: Mimi Wo Sumaseba / 耳をすませば
- Genre – Animation, Drama, Family, Ghibli
- Duration – Movie, 1hr 51 min
- Platform – DVD release in 2003, Netflix
A story about a 14-year-old girl named Shizuku Tsukishima enjoying her summer vacation by reading her local library.
On the train, she follows a weird cat which leads her to a shop where she sees a statue named “The Baron” and a violin maker named Nishi.
She also gets to meet a boy named Seiji Amasawa in the library. It is set up amidst the school life of a little girl set out in the quest for self-discovery.
Just like a whisker away, Shizuku is also trying to explore her life and live it to the fullest.
4) A Silent Voice
- Also Known As: Koe no Katachi /映画 聲の形
- Genre – Animation, Drama, Disability
- Duration – 2hr 9min
- Platform – Netflix
Mere bullying would affect no one! Right? But it might affect some of them and significantly impact them.
A story about two kids in elementary school where a boy named Shoya Ishida bullied Shouku Nishimiya because of her hearing disorder.
Shoku is so much affected that she has to leave the school, which makes Shoya regret his actions later.
The anime shows the character development of Shoyu as a person, but the question arises, is it okay to regret even if it’s too late? A Silent Voice is all about regrets and realizations.
Bullying is a common theme in both whisker away and silent voice, as both the characters in the story are bullied because of their characteristics or disabilities.
Check our list of anime similar to A Silent Voice.
5) Natsume’s Book of Friends: Ephemeral Bond
- Also known as: Natsume Yujjinchaou / 夏目友人帳
- Genre – Shoju manga, Supernatural, Mystery
- Duration – 13 episodes of 30 min
- Platform – Crunchyroll
A story of good prevailing over evil deeds of someone. It is said that the actions of our elders or ancestors affect our lives in some way or another. Takashi Natsume is considered a strange child because of his ability to see spirits.
His grandmother, Reiko Natsume, has left a book for him, a book of friends, captivating the spirits from time immemorial.
Natsume is traversing between the human world and the spirit world ( yokai ) when he reunites with an old classmate Yuki who brings back the painful memories of a Yokai.
He becomes a plump cat to release these spirits from the book of friends, helping many of them while being in the bad books of sure others.
He also meets Madara, who wants ownership of the book but grows affection towards Takashi.
It shows how far people can go to do good with others. Takashi helps spirits not even known to him, and at the same time, Miyo Sasaki is helping Kento by listening to him even in a cat form, even when he does not like her human form. Indeed a truly selfless love!
6) Into the forest of firefly Lights
- Also known as: Hotarubi no Mori E / 蛍火の杜へ
- Genre – Drama, Fantasy
- Duration – 2011, 45 minutes movie
- Platform – 9Anime
It is a story about a little girl who gets lost inside a forest which is also called an enchanted forest when she is visiting her uncle on one hot summer day.
Little did she knows that a wondrous adventure awaited her. Hotaru is thrilled as a young boy appears out of nowhere and is wearing a mask.
The forest is also called the forest of the mountain god, where many spirits reside.
The boy, a forest spirit, asks him to stay away from the forest, but she continues visiting him every summer, leading to a stronger relationship.
7) Wolf Children
- Also Known as: Okami Kodomo no ame to Yuki / おおかみこどもの雨と雪
- Genre – Fantasy, Drama
- Duration – 1 hr 57 min
- Platform – Funimation, Crunchyroll
A story so bizarre that you might only see it in movies. It is the story of a high school girl named Hana who falls in love with a werewolf and has two kids named Yuki and Ame.
The story drastically turns when her werewolf lover unexpectedly dies, leaving her alone to raise two kids.
She leaves the city to raise the kids as their father’s traits prove to appear as they start to grow up.
Ame chooses to train with wolves in the forest while Yuki chooses to stray away from her big brother’s path and attend school later on; when the kids are grown up and trained, they leave their mother to explore the world with their own perspectives.
An independent life without any help from anyone is what a single mother is leading.
8) Mary and the Witch Flower
- Also Known as: Meari to majo no Hana /メアリと魔女の花
- Genre – Fantasy, Adventure
- Duration – 1hr 57 min
- Platform – Vudu , Hulu
Mary Smith comes to live with her aunt Charlotte. She is clumsy and is being ridiculed by Peter, a local boy, but his mysterious cat takes her to a strange flower which gives her a lot of magical flowers.
She gets a magic broom and is soon taken to the Endor College of Witches in the nearby forest, where she meets Madam and Doctor Dee and persuades her that she is a prodigy.
However, things start to turn when she discovers that Doctor Dee is experimenting on humans and animals, trying to change them into witches and fantastic creatures.
In the end, like a whisker away, Mary realizes she does not need magic to become a better person. She is perfect just the way she is.
9) Penguin Highway
- Also Known as: Pengin Haiwei / ペンギン・ハイウェイ
- Genre – Fantasy, Adventure, Cartoon
- Duration – 1 hr 59 min
- Platform – Prime video
It is a story about Aoyama Kun, a student who sees the sudden appearance of a penguin in the town.
It is a strange occurrence as there is no sea any near. He is in touch with Onee san, a young woman working in a dental clinic.
For some mysterious reason, he sees Onee San tossing a can and turning it into a penguin.
Penguin Highway is a fantasy in which the fourth grader investigates the appearance of a penguin and a young woman’s involvement.
10) Kiki’s Delivery Service
- Also Known as: Majo No Takkyubin / 魔女の宅急便
- Genre – Adventure
- Duration – 1 hr 42 min
- Platform – Netflix
The story is about a Young witch, a 13-year-old named Kiki, who lives with her cat Jiji. She starts a witch delivery business while living with Osono, a bakery owner.
Even though her first delivery went a little turbulent, she completed it somehow .jiji helped her by acting as the gift being delivered to that customer.
The air courier service fluctuated due to an adverse reaction from one of the receivers leading Kiki towards depression and stress.
It affected her magical powers, and she was also unable to fly until, eventually, Ursula explained to her that it was a kind of Artist Block.
She will regain her powers once she gets a purpose. Kiki finds Tombo ( another guy who likes Kiki and her flying powers ) in trouble and helps him.
She is finding fitting into this community difficult, but life is all about trying and trying until you succeed.
11) Your name
- Also Known as: Kimi No Na wa
- Genre – Romance, Drama, Fantasy
- Duration – 1 hr 52 min
- Platform – Netflix, Prime Video
When bizarre occurrences continue to happen in the lives of two complete strangers, their lives take a drastic turn.
It is the story of a young girl and a young man named Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyazumi, who are stuck in a bizarre phenomenon.
Both of them are living separate lives when one fine day, they suddenly switch places. Mitsuha wakes up in Taki’s body, and Taki wakes up in Mitsuha’s body.
These strange occurrences happen randomly, and they only have to adjust according to that.
Just imagine how weird it will be to wake up in someone else’s body.
Wouldn’t it be so uncomfortable but guess this is how they got closer to each other, and that’s how the story proceeds further.
Similarities Between A Whisker Away and Animes Mentioned Above:
One of the basic similarities you can find in Whisker Away and other anime is that it shows a coherent relationship between the humans and the felines.
Japan and most South-eastern nations like Korea hold great importance on felines in their lives, unlike other cultures, which is clearly seen in their literature.
The cat return shows how felines can overtake the world and how female protagonists are shown to be strong throughout the animes.
However, in other forms of entertainment in other parts of the world, female protagonists are not considered necessary, which is a green signal and can be seen in all of them.
Anime like A Whisker Away in some way, indicates the importance of independence and finding the true purpose of life with the help of different themes, including young love, motherhood, relations with fellow classmates and whatnot.
How Is Whisker Away Related To Demon Slayer?
The only similarity between Demon Slayer and Whisker away is that Hanae Natsuki gives his voice to the main character, Kento Hinode.
