Kenji Miyazawa
The film is based on the 1932 novel by the same name by Kenji Miyazawa. Like "Night on the Galactic Railroad" before it, the characters are depicted as anthropomorphic cats. It is the second animated film adaptation of the story. The previous adaptation was released in 1994 by Kyōdō Eiga Zenkoku Keiretsu Kaigi, but that one features human characters instead.