Comments on: Tomcat’s Big Adventure

By: eli

eli — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 00:47:35 +0000

In reply to Mark.

Mark, thank YOU for taking the time to reach out write this, and for reading as well – this is what makes it worth it!! Your comment totally made my week.

I should watch the rest of Ohashi/Lamdo’s stuff – I actually wasn’t too familiar with him before this! One of the reasons the setup was/is the way it is (only screening on rare occasions at arthouse theaters), from what I understand, is because it was sort of a vehicle for Ohashi to tour around a bit, talk about the film, etc. and really have that sort of personal connection to audiences. Like you said, he was vocal about it! But now that he’s passed away, me and some others want to get back to talking with Akashi-san and see if he might be open to a wider release or distribution at some point (e.g. with the help of Discotek who sort of specialize in this type of lesser-known thing and may be interested too…) Or even doing a re-release of the BD someday, or seriously submitting it to festivals for screenings abroad, and so on. Films are meant to be seen, after all, I believe! It’d be pretty sad if it’d just stay like this forever.

So, you never know, someday it might be available and you could see it in the US! I hope, at least! I’d encourage you to try to reach out too (the official Twitter account is @chibineko_Tom) to let them know the demand is there!

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 15:43:43 +0000

Thank you. A THOUSAND THANK YOU’S!!! I’ve seen the Anime News network page, the five minute youtube clip and the websites, including the official page, Ben Ettinger, and the sankugabooru site with all the clips. Your detailed recap was icing to this whole lost film.
A lot of talented people where involved in this movie, but what really drew me to the movie was the inclusion of Manabu Ohashi(aka Mao Lamdo).
He was in the industry since the 1960s and worked on a lot of Madhouse projects during the 80s usually doing key animation or animation director. Chibi neko Tom was one of three titles where did character design. The other two were Grimm Douwa – Kin no Tori (Grimm’s Fairy Tales – The golden bird) and a segment on Robot Carnival called ‘Cloud’. Cloud was also the only project where he ever directed.
Upon the rediscovery of Chibi Neko Tom, he was the most vocal on releasing it to the public, appearing in youtube videos and doing interviews on the official website. Sadly he passed away at 73 last year. Even though I’ll never see the film in the states, I’m grateful for your recap.

By: eli

eli — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 04:45:37 +0000

In reply to William (TheRealJuralumin).

Thank you for the comment, and apologies for my delayed reply – really happy you enjoyed the write-up, and I hope there’s more of a chance to see it in the future! @_ibcf_ on Twitter is doing a lot of the advocating on this front…

I love smaller, independent & arthouse stuff too. The hand-made wall decoration at Osu Cinema felt so loving and great. There’s another one nearby me in Nagoya as well (not quite this small) that I want to check out at some point.

By: William (TheRealJuralumin)

William (TheRealJuralumin) — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 11:33:54 +0000

So cool! I never knew about this film, and now I really want to see it I love the art style, and that clip of the chase scene is incredible; the use of colours and lights is quite mesmerising, and the animation is so fluid! It's such a shame this film never got the wide release it deserved. I really enjoyed the info about the theatre too, I love small independent cinemas, I always prefer to see movies at a place like that instead of one of the big franchise theatres you get in shopping centres. Oh and Ruka's artwork is so cute!