She and Her Cat

彼女と彼女の猫

Makoto Shinkai's roughly five-minute 1999 short, subtitled Their Standing Points, is narrated by a male cat who lives with a young woman in a small apartment. Through the changing seasons, the cat quietly observes his owner's daily life and unspoken loneliness, framing their bond in soft monochrome imagery. Self-produced by Shinkai largely on his own, it is an early, intimate work that foreshadows his later signature style.