The Cat Returns is Studio Ghibli’s only feature sequel, although as Tristan and Mihaela Mihailova, Assistant Professor at San Francisco State University, discuss, its connection to 1995’s Whisper of the Heart isn’t its defining feature. But Hiroyuki Morita’s 2002 follow-up can’t help living in the shadow of the monumental Ghibli films that surround it and the two acknowledge this while evaluating its more lackluster moments.