Haru Yoshioka, a 17 year-old student, wakes up a little late--as usual.  Not 
having time to eat breakfast, she hurriedly gets dressed into her high school 
uniform and races past her mother out the door to school. Everything seems to 
get into her way to slow her down.  She snags her dress on a bush and loses her 
shoe in the pavement. She tries to duck into the class, but her teacher catches 
her--much to the amusement of her classmates.  Thus another normal day begins. 
Some time later, she is on the roof, the film title appears and fades away, 
then a soccer ball bounces off her head.  She doesn't react, as this seems to 
be her lot in life.

At the end of the school day, she walks home with her friend and classmate 
Hiromi, who is carrying a Lacrosse stick for her athletic club.  Meanwhile, at 
a nearby cake shop, a dark cat leaves the store with a small package in its 
mouth. Haru and Hiromi are teasing each other about the boys they like--and the 
other girls whom the boys they like seem to like.  They start to engage in good-
natured horseplay with the Lacrosse stick when they notice the cat trying to 
cross a busy street. The cat drops the package in the middle of the street and, 
while fumbling to pick it up, a truck is bearing down rapidly on it.  Haru, 
with the Lacrosse stick in her hand, runs into the street, manages to scoop the 
cat into the stick's tiny net, and flings it to safety.  She breaks the stick 
on a parking meter in the process.

To Haru's amazement, the cat gets up on his hind legs, brushes himself off, and 
then politely thanks her for her actions.  He excuses himself, claiming that 
he's in a hurry, takes the package, and leaves.  By the time Hiromi gets to 
her, the cat has already left--leaving Haru with a rather unbelievable 
happening to relate.  Hiromi asks her if she didn't bump her head a little too 
hard or something.

Back home, while her mother is puzzling over a quilt design, Haru hesitatingly 
asks if cats can talk.  Her mother reminds her of a past event Haru might have 
forgotten. [The scene goes to a flashback] When Haru was a small child, she 
spotted a stray white kitten on the sidewalk.  The kitten looked hungry, so she 
offered the kitten a little fish-shaped cookie.  The kitten ate and seemed to 
enjoy the cookie.  She asked the kitten if it wanted more and it meowed as if 
it were saying, "yes."  Little Haru was excited, believing the kitten spoke to 
her.  She told her mother, who was standing nearby, that cats could talk. [the 
scene shifts back to the present] Her mother laughs after recalling the event.

Later that night, Haru sets her alarm clock and resolves not to be late again.  
Outside, something is happening that is stirring the neighborhood cats. Haru, 
wondering what the commotion is, gazes out over the street.  Shortly, an odd 
procession of cats marching on their hind legs appears.  The neighborhood cats 
are drawn to the procession but are beaten back by Security cats with odd 
markings, making them look like they're wearing black suits and wearing 
sunglasses.  A very large cat wearing a cat's eye crown appears in a strange 
sedan resembling a wheelbarrow.  The occupant is obviously a King.  Haru steps 
outside as the procession reaches her fence gate.

The King's Secretary, Natori, introduces the King and reads a formal 
declaration of appreciation for Haru's actions earlier in the day.  Natori 
explains that the cat she saved was Loon, the King's son. The King's Assistant 
Secretary, Natoru, steps forth with a scroll and hands it to Haru.  After the 
formal presentation of gratitude, the King finally says in a somewhat 
dismissive tone, "thanks."  The entourage departs.

The next morning, Haru awakes to the alarm clock.  Just then, the phone rings.  
Hiromi is calling Haru from her home, looking at dozens of Lacrosse sticks 
strewn mysteriously about the floor.  Just then, Haru's mother calls out.  Out 
in the front of the house is a waist-high growth of  "Cat Teasers" (Neko-
Jarashi) [Note: the English name for the plant is Foxtail]. After Haru 
navigates through the Neko-Jarashi, she starts walking to school.  Along the 
way, she notices that there is an increasing number of cats following her.  The 
number swells to the point where she feels the need to break into a run.  

She makes to school, opens her locker, and several small packages fall out onto 
the floor. The packages appear to be moving. Then a mouse pops out of one of 
them.  Soon, all the boxes open up with mice scampering about.  She gets up on 
a bench to get away from the mice. The cats who were following her to school 
show up and make total bedlam in the locker room.

Later, in class, Haru is trying to figure out what that was all about.  Did she 
have a dream? To her amazement, she finds she still has the scroll presented to 
her the night before.  It wasn't a dream.  The writing on the scroll appears to 
be cat hieroglyphics and she attempts to decipher them when Hiromi comes up, 
startling her.  It's Hiromi's turn to do school cleanup chores and she asks 
Haru to cover for her.  Hiromi wants to watch and cheer on the boy she likes, 
who's playing in a Ping-Pong match.  Haru agrees. While she's emptying a waste 
can, Haru spots the boy she has a crush on walking with another girl.  
Distracted, she trips and spills the trash. Her day has gone horribly so far 
and she's almost reached the limits of her composure when...

The Cat King's Assistant Secretary, Natoru, calls out to her from behind a 
fence.  Her first impulse is to grab the cat by the scruff of the neck and let 
him have it. The cat, however, is quick to apologize.  He explains that they 
tried really hard to please her.  Haru calms down a bit, though still shaken by 
the day's events. Natoru comments that she is very pretty.  Haru's mood 
immediately improves upon hearing the compliment. The cat then proceeds to 
invite her to the cat Kingdom where her great deed could be properly rewarded. 
She starts to muse aloud about going to the cat kingdom. No worries, just 
eating delicious foods and napping.  Maybe the Cat Kingdom might be like 
heaven.  She turns her head and notices that Natoru is starting to leave. He 
tells here that the cats will come to pick her up her later. She sees that the 
cat took her musings as an acceptance. In somewhat a panic, she envisions 
herself as Loon's bride--and the panic escalates further.  Even though she has 
misgivings, she wonders how she might find the kingdom of the cats.  Out of 
nowhere, a pretty voice tells her to go to a place called the Crossroads where 
a large white cat would show her the way to the "cat office."

She knows where the crossroads are--it's a shopping area near her home.  She 
goes there, but mixes up the instructions a little.  Instead of looking for a 
large white cat (she was fixed on the word,  "pretty"), she thought she needed 
to find a white cat that was pretty. She's unsuccessful and decides to sit down 
on a chair in front of a sidewalk cafe.  Not looking, she starts to sit on a 
very large white cat.  The cat has a distinctive, dark mark covering his entire 
left ear. Startled, she turns around and calls him a pig  and, just then, she 
remembers she needed to find a LARGE white cat.  She whispers to the cat if he 
is the one she is looking for.  Beginning to think she was on a wild goose 
chase, she turns away.  The rotund cat then says, "come along." 

Haru starts to follow him as he leads her through narrow alleys, over fences, 
atop walls, and through back yards.  Eventually she emerges into a small 
courtyard.  The courtyard is ringed with small homes, about one-quarter human 
size.  At the center of the courtyard is a pedestal, topped off with the figure 
of a bird.  The large cat goes to one of the small homes, opens a small 
mailbox, and extracts a newspaper.  He sits down in front of the house to read 
it and commences to ignore Haru as she tries to find out what she needs to do 
next.  Through the window she sees the figure of a motionless cat, dressed in 
high hat and tails.

After a while, the Sun goes down and it starts getting dark in the courtyard.  
The small house starts to sparkle, the lights come on, the front door opens, 
and the formerly motionless cat emerges from the house.  He walks up to Haru 
and welcomes her to the cat office.  After a brief introduction to his world, 
the cat shifts Haru's attention to the gargoyle. As if on cue, the gargoyle 
atop the pedestal comes to life as a large black bird.  The cat introduces 
himself as the Baron Humbert Von Gikkemgen and introduces the bird as Toto.  He 
explains that the name was given to him by the person who made him. Haru 
decides to call him "Baron."  The Baron tells Haru that he's aware that she was 
expected to come to be transported to the cat kingdom.  She tells the Baron 
about rescuing Loon from traffic and the invitation to the cat kingdom.  The 
large white cat doesn't like any of this, and Toto takes him to task for his 
lack of manners: "You always have a bad mouth, Muta."  Muta and Toto seem to 
argue constantly between themselves, like siblings.  Soon the topic shifts to 
the mysterious way Haru learned of the cat office and how to contact Muta.  
Eventually, the Baron invites Haru into his office for some tea.

She has some difficulty squeezing through the tiny door and she has to remain 
bent over while inside, but Haru is delighted at the sight of such an elegantly 
furnished little room. After a pleasant tea the Baron calls a "special blend," 
Muta enters the room through the front door and Toto through an upper window.  
Muta and Toto continue poking verbal jabs at each other. It seems they enjoy 
doing this. The group discusses her upcoming trip to the cat kingdom. The Baron 
has never been there, and would like to come along, but Muta doesn't feel like 
going. They get into a bit of an argument. Haru feels a bit uncomfortable being 
the focus of a disagreement and, along with her original misgivings, excuses 
herself to go home.  The Baron asks her not to leave and explains that Muta is 
really a nice sort. Inadvertently, Haru addresses Muta as 'Buta.' [Japanese for 
'pig']  Muta gets visibly upset.  The Baron smoothes things over by recalling 
that there was a chiffon cake in the cupboard.  Muta is now intent on 
retrieving and consuming the cake.

Just then, there's a knock at the door.  Haru answers it.  It's Natoru, who 
came with a brigade of cats to take Haru to the cat Kingdom.  They swirl around 
her and she is swept off her feet, out the door, and off into the night.  Out 
of concern for Haru's safety, the Baron, Toto, and Muta follow closely behind. 
Unfortunately, they are only able to follow--not stop--what is becoming an 
abduction.  Muta follows on the ground while Baron rides Toto and follows them 
from the air.

After the ordeal, Haru finds herself alone in a mist.  A large, shadowy figure 
looms up behind her.  It's Muta--now considerably taller than Haru.  Sometime 
during the ride, Haru was shrunken to the size of a cat.  The mist clears, and 
before them lies a castle surrounded by a moat.  Adjacent to the castle is an 
incredibly high spire that reaches to the sky.  The scenery around them is 
beautiful, and Haru begins to enjoy the sight of the countryside.  The cat 
citizens of the Kingdom live in mound-shaped huts and lead simple lives. For 
one brief moment Haru appears to have found real happiness. She lies down in 
the grass, looking very contented. Suddenly a white female cat with a red 
ribbon around her neck approaches Haru and warns her that she must get away 
from there as fast as possible. Haru's not particularly concerned about the 
warning.  Just then, Natoru shows up and invites Haru and Muta to meet the 
King. The white cat with the red ribbon appears deeply concerned as they head 
away toward the castle.

Natoru takes Haru and Muta to the castle in grand style. As they cross the 
moat, a strange floating mechanism resembling an eyeball with a feline slitted 
pupil comes close and follows them as they proceed toward the castle gate.  
Haru is starting to get very uneasy.  Meanwhile, back in the castle, the cat 
King and his Secretary Natori are looking into a spherical 'monitor' that 
contains the image the floating eyeball sees. Once inside the castle, Natoru 
asks Haru to change her clothes before meeting the King. Haru complies and Muta 
is shunted off to an adjacent room. The attendants dress Haru splendidly and 
she really likes the way she looks.  The King enters the room and proclaims her 
to be a beautiful bride for Loon... 

Meanwhile, in the adjacent room, Muta has before him a scrumptious-looking 
array of food--which he starts devouring in earnest.  He turns around and 
before him beckons a giant goblet of purple gelatin...
 
Back in the dressing room, a stunned Haru is trying to avoid the unpleasant 
task of telling the King she's not interested in marrying Loon.  She tries to 
respond by saying that Loon is a cat and she's not. In an instant, the King and 
his secretary proclaim it's not a problem any more.  Sure enough, Haru has 
turned into a cat. She sees herself in the mirror with her new growth of fur, 
her whiskers, paws, and feline pupils.  She panics and quickly runs to the 
adjacent room to Muta. She's horrified to see Muta, lifeless, suspended in the 
purple gelatin. 

Later, there's a formal dinner party with the King and Haru at the head table. 
Muta, still lifeless in the purple gelatin, is a centerpiece.  Several nobly 
dressed cats are sitting at the tables with a delicious-looking array of food--
if you happen to be a cat.  There are dried cat food nuggets, mice, birds, and 
fish. The cats realize that maybe the new member of the cat community may not 
yet like mice, so they offer her a nice whole fish. There's plenty of 
entertainment, plenty of food, and everybody's having a great time-except Haru. 
The King is concerned that she doesn't appear happy, so he orders the 
entertainment to be more pleasing.  They bring out several acts, but Haru isn't 
smiling.  She's only looking at that fish before her, pawing at it and flipping 
it with a helpless, vacant expression. After each act, the King looks to Haru 
to see if she's smiling.  Noting that she's not smiling, the king orders his 
troops to toss the entertainers out the window-presumably to their deaths.

Then a masked cat with plumed hat and cape approaches Haru and asks her to 
dance. She objects, but he is insistent. She gives in and dances with the cat.  
He's soft-spoken and gentle; it eases her fears a little.  The King orders a 
halt to the music-he's worried that someone else might have intentions for 
Haru.  At this time, the cat removes his mask, and reveals he is the Baron.  
Haru is ecstatic and throws her arms around him.   The King is livid and orders 
his troops to move in on the Baron.  In the ensuing fight, the goblet holding 
Muta is broken and he emerges alive from the gelatin. The King's guards sense 
danger to the King and remove him from the scene.  The fight continues for a 
while, and Muta's presence turns the tide.  The white cat with the red ribbon 
comes to the Baron and Haru's aid by pointing out an escape route. Muta is 
engaging, distracting, and generally beating the troops pretty much on his own 
and doesn't appear to need assistance.  

She leads them through the passage and the trio finds themselves on an outside 
ledge overlooking the tall spire.  Between them and the spire is an uninviting 
stone maze.  The Baron quickly surmises that they must climb the spire to 
escape the kingdom. After beating all the cat troops, Muta joins them on the 
ledge.  The cat with the red ribbon departs.  At that point Haru figures that 
her voice is the one she heard back at the schoolyard.  Why did she do that? 

Haru, Muta, and the Baron proceed toward the maze.  The King sets up shop on a 
higher ledge with his secretaries and guards, because he wants to watch them 
try to navigate the maze.  The maze appears confusing, indeed.  Unknown to 
them, the king has fixed the game. He has positioned troops throughout the maze 
and, more deviously, has some of the troops moving wall segments around.  Muta 
doesn't seem to mind fighting the cats, but the maze appears unbeatable.  
Finally, Haru notices that one space that was open before was now closed: the 
wall segments are moving.  The Baron kicks at the segment Haru claimed wasn't 
there before and the segment falls-into the next moving segment-into the next...

The wall segments fall like dominoes right up to the entrance of the spire. The 
three start ascending the spire and the King is now visibly concerned that the 
trio might get away.  They continue up the spiral stairs, encountering little 
resistance from the troops.  The King and his entourage head down toward the 
fleeing group. The King, however, also has a fail-safe plan in case they get 
too near their destination.  After a little while, he calls out for his 
switch.  Natoru produces a wireless destruct button and the King presses it. 
Several explosions result, causing the spire to collapse downward. 

The three ride the spire down, but it stays upright and, after the dust 
settles, they've merely gone back down to ground level. Thinking their escape 
route has been severed, they feel they're trapped.  The King approaches the 
three, who are sitting defiantly on the floor of the downed spire. The King 
tells Haru that she must go back to the castle.  Muta tells Haru that being a 
cat isn't all that bad.  Haru asks if she needs to learn to like mice. They 
appear resigned to defeat.

Suddenly, the prince Loon shows up with his own guard.  The white cat with the 
red ribbon also shows up, looking quite relieved for a change. The King tells 
Loon that he has provided him a bride.  Loon angrily says that he's not 
interested in Haru-he's in love with another. It turns out he's in love with 
the white cat with the red ribbon.  Her name is Yuki, and he presents her with 
a small box.  She opens the box and inside there are little fish-shaped 
cookies. Haru tells her that she also liked those cookies.  Yuki replies, "I 
know." She then relates how a young Haru once gave her the cookies and she'd 
loved them ever since.  Everything now looks like there'll be a satisfactory 
ending to the showdown with the King.

The King, however, gets a new idea.  He'll take Haru as HIS bride. Haru 
immediately rejects the notion as ludicrous and snaps back at the King 
fiercely.  Muta takes notice and decides that he likes this human after all.  
He announces to the king and his troops that he's Runaldo Moon.  Everybody is 
now trembling, because Runaldo Moon was a giant legendary cat who ate 
everything.  There's a fresco on the wall above them depicting Runaldo, bearing 
an unmistakable resemblance to Muta, with that dark left ear and a gargantuan 
mouth. The King's not quite as convinced as the others, however, and sees his 
words as a bluff. Things are beginning to shape up for a major fight between 
the King's troops on one side and Loon's troops, Muta, and the Baron on the 
other. 
 
Loon intercedes with his troops and tells the three that they must leave.  The 
Baron replies that there was no way out.  Loon replies that the road out 
through the top of the spire is still intact.  Muta assesses the situation and 
flings Haru as high as he can up the spiral staircase leading to the exit.  She 
lands on the staircase okay and commences to climb the rest of the way up.  The 
Baron and Muta start up the staircase while the King retreats outside.  Instead 
of giving up, however, the King starts climbing the outside of the spire.  He 
reaches an opening near the point the Baron has climbed to and flings his sword 
at him.  The sword misses and sticks in the wall.  The Baron extracts the sword 
and tells Muta to look after Haru.

The Baron steps outside onto an extended ledge and the King follows shortly.  
They approach each other with drawn swords.  The Baron leaps over the King, 
gets very busy with his sword, and lands between the King and the spire's 
opening.  The King appears undamaged, but his crown starts to break apart.  
After that, all the fur on the lower half of his body falls off.  He feels as 
if he lost all his clothes.  Otherwise, he's unharmed. 

Just about then, Haru finally reaches the top of the spire and finds herself 
back in the real world, but at an extremely high altitude in the clouds. Using 
the King's roving eyeball, Yuki, Loon, and the others are watching Haru's 
predicament with concern.  She's in real danger of falling and there's no way 
to climb down.  The Baron leaves the now defeated King sitting on the ledge and 
heads toward Haru and Muta at the top of the spire.  Haru starts transforming 
back into her human form and size, but that makes things even more difficult 
for her as that makes the ledge a lot smaller than it was before.

She starts to fall and Muta grabs her hands just as he emerges.  As large as 
Muta is, however, he's not big enough to stop the fall of a human and he gets 
dragged out as well.  They are in a free-fall, plummeting toward the hard 
ground below.  The Baron emerges and leaps headfirst in order to catch up with 
Muta and Haru.  Haru figures she's going to die.  The Baron, just catching up 
with them, tells her she hasn't died yet and to open her eyes. She looks down 
and at least starts to enjoy the view of the rapidly approaching town below.  
Suddenly, a black cloud appears from below.  The Baron pronounces they are 
saved.  The black cloud turns out to be thousands of black birds, led by Toto.  
Even though Muta is saved as well, he still has the nature to quarrel with Toto 
over petty matters as they are descending.  The black birds alternate being the 
burden of her weight, slowing down her fall and guiding her, Muta, and the 
Baron to the roof of her school.  She and the cats land safely on the roof.  
After some brief good-byes and the promise that the cat office door is always 
open if she should need it, the Baron and Muta hitch a ride on Toto and they 
head off for home.  Haru heads home as well.

The next morning, Haru's mother wakes pretty much the same way her daughter 
does every day-a little late.  She heads down the stairs, surprised to see Haru 
at the breakfast table with food prepared.  Haru, relaxing with the paper, 
somehow looks happier and more at ease with herself than she has seemed in the 
past.  She offers her mother some "special blend" tea and says she wants to 
take in an early movie with Hiromi. Back at the crossroads, Hiromi and Haru are 
back to discussing the boys at school.  Hiromi senses a change in Haru and asks 
what happened.  Haru protests that nothing has happened.  They continue their 
discussion as they walk past a chair with a very large white cat. As they 
continue on, the big white cat with the dark left ear jumps off the chair and 
leaves the scene. The film closes.