Surreal and Buddhist, I’m told. The Life of Guskou Budori is based on Kenji Miyazawa’s novel. A significant change in the anime is that the characters are anthropomorphic cats with the exception of spirit like entities from dream sequences which look like grotesque people.
Cats are cute and all that but The Life of Guskou Budori didn’t quite sit with me. It’s hard to pin down why but a lack of empathy with the main character might be one. Lots of scenes cut to Guskou Budori looking up, big blank cat eyes at the screen, Puss in Boots style. I had no idea when he was sad, angry or happy. Perhaps this is a meaningful spiritual message too deep for me to perceive.
At the start of the anime, Guskou Budori lives with his lumberjack cat father, mum and little sister Neri. It is a simple and uncomplicated life. Then the weather turns, the cold sets in for years and one by one the cat family make the ultimate personal sacrifice to help protect the remaining survivors.
The story starts to pick up pace when a magical mystery cat turns up in a puff of magic and promises to look after the kids. I’m not sure what happened here. Did it happen? Is it a metaphor or a hunger induced hallucination? It’s not the last time we meet hoihoi cat, though.
Budori ends up on his own, travelling and somewhat haphazardly looking for his sister. It’s the larger than life characters that work the best. I think this is because they have a personality beyond looking like a stunned cat.
The first dream sequence, nice and surreal, that helps the plot along. It’s different and that’s a welcome break. Budori ends up working with volcanoes and in fairness to the script that’s not something you would have predicted at the start.
I suspect this is an anime that divides people into two camps; those that see something profound in it enough to like it and the rest of us who don’t.
In some respects The Life of Guskou Budori is about other people making a sacrifice so others don’t need to suffer. That seems appropriate to me. I’ve suffered through this one, despite some strong animation, so you don’t have to.
