Help Wanted: Sea Cat「シーキャット」Project (unreleased anime short film)

Howdy Folks, been lurking here for sometime but haven’t really had anything of my own to share up until now.

I have recently come into possession of a 16mm reel from a 30 minute or so short film from 1988. This was produced by an anime studio called Oh! Production. They have done a ton of work over the years but notably they have helped provide animation for most Studio Ghibli’s films. The most famous film they’ve done on their own was “Gauche the Cellist”.

This film was basically a hobby film for the studio and not really intended for wide release. Since the film was never released details are a bit scarce but it’s basically about “A cat who gets lost at sea, is raised by a sea otter, and is finally abducted by a UFO when a war breaks out and the oceans are evaporated by a nuclear holocaust.”

The film was also produced in an intresting way, with each shot done by a different animator in their free time. There isn’t a ton of information online but you can read a bit more about it here

Photos of the reel:

It seems like a lot of these are asking for financial support but most likely I am okay on that front, what I’m hoping to get is some advice on how I can managed to get this scanned, either by commercial means or otherwise. I’m not really the film collector type so I’m in a bit over my head, haha.

A few years ago a couple images of the film turned up online, based on the noise I’d guess these are from a VHS tape. I haven’t been able to find anything indicating a commercial release so my guess would be that it aired on TV at some point years ago. It’s also not impossible it was released to the educational market.

I’m very far from a film expert but it really doesn’t have any definable scent at all. I don’t have a projector or any safe way to run through the film so I’ve only pulled out to the first few frames but I didn’t see any visible signs of ware. The film itself feels very springy and not brittle.

There was actually what appeared to be an original sticker taping the reel down so it’s not impossible that it’s never been played. I can’t say for sure.

Moiisty said:

Can someone find the vhs tape also I hope you get this scanned 😃

I suspect it’s a home recording, honestly. I’ve searched for quite a while and I can’t find any evidence it’s had a commercial release. I’m setup to do pretty okay VHS captures myself so I’d honestly have never bought the film reel if I thought the tape would turn up.

Anything is possible though!