Genji Fantasy: The Cat Fell in Love With Hikaru Genji

Genji Fantasy: The Cat Fell in Love With Hikaru Genji

2019 · 20 min · Comedy, Family, Animation, History, Fantasy

The Tale of Genji Museum in Uji City, Kyoto will be airing a short film blending history and fantasy, the story follows a modern high school girl named Hana who is transformed into a cat and transported back in time. She travels 1,000 years ago to the Heian Era as portrayed in The Tale Of Genji, arguably the most famous novel in Japanese literature. Guided by the novel's titular character Hikaru Genji, Hana experiences firsthand the emotions that the author Murasaki Shikibu depicted in her novel. The short features scenes based on The Diary of Lady Murasaki and other historical materials, such as the real-life noble Fujiwara no Michinaga swiping early drafts of The Tale Of Genji because he could not wait to read chapters as Murasaki wrote them.

Directed by Rika Ota

Your Rating

Cast

Tomoaki Maeno Hikaru Genji / Kouji (voice)
Mao Ichimichi Hana (voice)
Kikuko Inoue Murasaki Shikibu (voice)
Hisako Tojo Empress Shōshi (voice)
Keiji Fujiwara Fujiwara no Michinaga (voice)

Make it a double feature

1h 58m together

Genji Fantasy: The Cat Fell in Love With Hikaru Genji

Hello World

Both from Rika Ota.

More from Rika OtaSee all →

JUJUTSU KAISEN

JUJUTSU KAISEN · 2020

SeriesAnimationSci-Fi & Fantasy

Yuji Itadori is a boy with tremendous physical strength, though he lives a completely ordinary high school life. One day, to save a classmate who has been attacked by curses, he eats the finger of Ryomen Sukuna, taking the curse into his own soul. From then on, he shares one body with Ryomen Sukuna. Guided by the most powerful of sorcerers, Satoru Gojo, Itadori is admitted to Tokyo Jujutsu High School, an organization that fights the curses... and thus begins the heroic tale of a boy who became a curse to exorcise a curse, a life from which he could never turn back.

Nichijou: My Ordinary Life

Nichijou: My Ordinary Life · 2011

Nichijou: My Ordinary Life

SeriesAnimationComedy

Follow the adventures of three ordinary girls as they make life’s awkward moments a thousand times worse. Along with a colorful bunch of classmates, they learn their most important lessons the hard way. Meanwhile down the street, a pocket-sized professor makes life difficult for a robot who just wants to be normal. But normal is the last thing you can expect in a town where salmon falls from the sky. In fact, the only thing you can count on is your friends, but even they are totally weird.

Free!

SeriesAnimationComedy

The story revolves around Haruka Nanase, a boy who has always loved to be immersed in water, and to swim in it. Before graduating from elementary school, he participated in a swimming tournament along with his fellow swimming club members, Makoto Tachibana, Nagisa Hazuki, and Rin Matsuoka. After achieving victory, each of the boys went their separate ways. Time passed, and in the middle of their uneventful high school lives Rin appears and challenges Haruka to a match, showing Haruka his overwhelming power. Not wanting it to end like this, Haruka, gathers together Makoto and Nagisa once again and brings a new member named Rei Ryugazaki to create the Iwatobi High School Swimming Club in order to defeat Rin.

Natsume's Book of Friends

Natsume's Book of Friends · 2008

Natsume's Book of Friends

SeriesAnimationSci-Fi & Fantasy

Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him.

Hyouka

SeriesAnimationMystery

Oreki Houtarou is a minimalistic high school boy. One day, he joins the Classic Literature Club at his elder sister's request. There he meets Chitanda Eru, Fukube Satoshi, and Ibara Mayaka. Chitanda is a calm beautiful girl but she turns into an embodiment of curiosity once she says, "I'm curious." Fukube is a smiling boy with a fantastic memory who calls himself a database. Ibara is a short girl and is strict with others and herself. They begin to investigate a case that occurred 45 years ago. Hints of the mystery are buried in an old collection of works of the former members of Classics Club. The collection is titled "Hyouka."

Beyond the Boundary

Beyond the Boundary · 2013

Beyond the Boundary

SeriesAnimationComedy

The dark fantasy follows a high school sophomore named Akihito Kanbara. Although the boy appears human, he is half Youmu and invulnerable to wounds because he can heal quickly. One day, Akihito meets freshman Mirai Kuriyama when it seems she is about to jump from the school rooftop. Mirai is isolated because of her ability to manipulate blood, which is considered heresy among members of the spirit world. Disturbing events begin to unfold after Akihito saves Mirai.

Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!

Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! · 2012

Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!

SeriesAnimationComedy

As one of the thousands of Japanese students afflicted with "chunibyo," a state where they're so desperate to stand out that they've convinced themselves that they have secret knowledge and hidden powers, Yuta spent most of his middle school years living in a complete fantasy world. He's finally managing to overcome his delusions but his chunibyo have attracted the attentions of another sufferer, and she's decided that this makes him her soul mate.

K-ON!

SeriesAnimationComedy

Yui Hirasawa has no clue which club to join, but she’s determined to do something this year. As luck would have it, she discovers a flyer for the Light Music Club and decides this is the club for her. But there's one problem: She first must learn guitar!

K-ON! The Movie

K-ON! The Movie · 2011

K-ON! The Movie

MovieAnimationFamily

With graduation right around the corner, every member of the Light Music Club except for Azusa will be leaving for good. But the girls aren’t going to let something as silly as graduation tear them apart! For their final hurrah, the girls are going on the ultimate vacation tour— all the way to London! Their overseas journey will lead them on a trip of discovery and friendship as they take the stage one last time for their final encore together.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya · 2010

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

MovieAnimationScience Fiction

A week before Christmas, Kyon wakes up in a world where the SOS Brigade doesn't exist. Mikuru and Yuki don't recognize him, and Haruhi and Itsuki seem to have vanished.

SANDA

SeriesAnimationAction & Adventure

In near-future Japan with ultra-low birthrates, children are treasured but monitored. Santa is banned as dangerous. One snowy December 25th, middle-schooler Kazushige Sanda, descendant of Santa, is attacked by classmate Fuyumura who wants him to find her missing friend, Ono. "Santa, please find my friend." To protect children from adults, Sanda decides to become Santa and fight the adults.

Hello World

Hello World · 2019

MovieAnimationRomance

A shy high schooler in Kyoto meets a man claiming to be his future self, who tells him he’s hacked into the past to save their first love.

The Heike Story

The Heike Story · 2022

The Heike Story

SeriesAnimationDrama

A young orphan named Biwa is taken in by the powerful Taira Clan—also known as the Heike—after their leader witnesses her extraordinary psychic abilities. Unfortunately, what she predicts is a future of bloodshed, violence, and civil war. Inspired by the 12th-century epic tale Heike Monogatari.

Tamako Market

Tamako Market · 2013

SeriesAnimationComedy

Tamako is just a normal young girl whose family has been making mochi for generations. As her birthday approaches, she happens to meet a talking bird who claims to be a royal court attendant looking for a bride for his master. After the encounter, Dera the bird decides to stay around her and becomes a part of Tamako's life and the neighborhood that she lives in.

Children of the Sea

Children of the Sea · 2019

Children of the Sea

MovieAnimationFantasy

Ruka is a young girl whose parents are separated and whose father works in an aquarium. When two boys, Umi and Sora, who were raised in the sea by dugongs, are brought to the aquarium, Ruka feels drawn to them and begins to realize that she has the same sort of supernatural connection to the ocean that they do. Umi and Sora's special power seems to be connected to strange events that have been occurring more and more frequently, such as the appearance of sea creatures far from their home territory and the disappearance of aquarium animals around the world. However, the exact nature of the boys' power and of the abnormal events is unknown, and Ruka gets drawn into investigating the mystery that surrounds her new friends.

Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko

Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko · 2021

Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko

MovieAnimationDrama

Brash single mother Nikuko is well-known for her bold spirit, much to the embarrassment of Kikuko, her pensive yet imaginative daughter. In contrast to her mother, Kikuko wants nothing more than to fit in as she navigates the everyday social dramas of middle school. Life in the harbor is peaceful until a shocking revelation from the past threatens to uproot the pair's tender relationship.

More Like This

Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko · 2001

MovieFantasyDrama

After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.

Wings of Desire

Wings of Desire · 1987

Wings of Desire

MovieDramaFantasy

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.

Akira

MovieAnimationScience Fiction

A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath that only two teenagers and a group of psychics can stop.

Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation · 2003

Lost in Translation

MovieDramaComedy

Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.

Spirited Away

Spirited Away · 2001

MovieAnimationFamily

A young girl, Chihiro, becomes trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free her family.

Warriors of the Wind

Warriors of the Wind · 1984

Warriors of the Wind

MovieAdventureAnimation

After a global war, the seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind remains one of the last strongholds on Earth untouched by a poisonous jungle and the powerful insects that guard it. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaä, the people of the Valley engage in an epic struggle to restore the bond between humanity and Earth.

Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke · 1997

Princess Mononoke

MovieAdventureFantasy

Ashitaka, a prince of the disappearing Emishi people, is cursed by a demonized boar god and must journey to the west to find a cure. Along the way, he encounters San, a young human woman fighting to protect the forest, and Lady Eboshi, who is trying to destroy it. Ashitaka must find a way to bring balance to this conflict.

#realityhigh

#realityhigh · 2017

When nerdy high schooler Dani finally attracts the interest of her longtime crush, she lands in the cross hairs of his ex, a social media celebrity.

Risky Business

Risky Business · 1983

MovieRomanceComedy

Meet Joel Goodson, an industrious, college-bound 17-year-old and a responsible, trustworthy son. However, when his parents go away and leave him home alone in the wealthy Chicago suburbs with the Porsche at his disposal he quickly decides he has been good for too long and it is time to enjoy himself. After an unfortunate incident with the Porsche Joel must raise some cash, in a risky way.

Twilight

Twilight · 2008

MovieFantasyDrama

When Bella Swan moves to a small town in the Pacific Northwest, she falls in love with Edward Cullen, a mysterious classmate who reveals himself to be a 108-year-old vampire. Despite Edward's repeated cautions, Bella can't stay away from him, a fatal move that endangers her own life.

Grease 2

Grease 2 · 1982

MovieComedyMusic

It's 1961, two years after the original Grease gang graduated, and there's a new crop of seniors and new members of the coolest cliques on campus, the Pink Ladies and T-Birds. Michael Carrington is the new kid in school - but he's been branded a brainiac. Can he fix up an old motorcycle, don a leather jacket, avoid a rumble with the leader of the T-Birds, and win the heart of Pink Lady Stephanie?

Bad Genius

Bad Genius · 2017

MovieDramaCrime

Lynn, a brilliant student, after helping her friends to get the grades they need, develops the idea of starting a much bigger exam-cheating business.

Election

Election · 1999

MovieComedyDrama

A high school teacher meets his match in an over-achieving student politician.

Vampire Hunter D

Vampire Hunter D · 1985

Vampire Hunter D

MovieAnimationFantasy

In a far-future time ruled by the supernatural, a young girl requests the help of a vampire hunter to kill the vampire who has bitten her and thus prevent her from becoming a vampire herself.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter