#Animexchange My Roommate is a Cat: A Pet in your Life

Time to open this post with an open question, when are we going to get our dog owner’s anime series? I am saying this as a dog owner, by the way. Cats have it so good in the world of anime. Cat boys, cat girls, and even shows about people owning cats. What have dogs done to Japan to not warrant a good dog series? Some good dog owner representation would be nice along with stopping Araki from dog violence in JoJo. Ok, starting a movement now. Yes, I honestly didn’t know what to say to open up this post other than let’s talk about dogs because I am about to talk about cats for a bit and this show is very heart warming. It is a lot like how owning a pet can make one’s life better. Thanks for the recommendation, Hikari!

Twenty-three-year-old Mystery novelist Subaru Mikazuki is an anti-social guy who doesn’t know how to react to other human beings. Ever since his parents were killed in a car crash three years ago, he became a self-recluse who types away at writing stories in his parent’s house and nothing else. Then his life changes when he takes up a stray cat chance when it showed up as he visited his parent’s grave. Or was it fate? The rest of the series is what happens afterwards. So begins the adventures of two anti-social creatures cohabitating in the same house. Finally, some good relatable anime content.

The best part of My Room is how much of a slow drip kind of show it is. There is no sudden “you have friends” now out of it. A lot of the experiences come from small things which become bigger things over time. Subaru learning about becoming a cat owner and having to take care of someone else other than himself opened doors. What does a cat eat? What about a collar? What about taking the cat to the vet for a checkup? That’s the slow drip with interactions domino effect leading to other interactions and then other interactions in that way and it leads to a better life for him and his cat, Haru. Haru becomes more homely and Subaru’s self confidence in his work increases as a result of the two meeting.

This show was well chosen for a Christmas event, because it is perfect for it in so many ways. Two strays of different species finding each other and finding that they can care for each other. It can’t be romantic, but it’s nice to see Haru and Subaru really liking each other Same with building a support network of some kind with some fun and caring individuals. Hiroto is a fun school friend, Kawase is a little too pushy but I would stop somewhere for cat pets all the time, and the Okami siblings are wonderful and charming in their own way with their own pets. It’s just so cute and warm all together. The final showed the warmth very well.

One thing I am very intrigued by is how Haru was portrayed in My Roommate. She is a very humanized version of a cat and that is a nitpick because I don’t think anyone knows how cats think. I think the writers and mangaka captured the different planes of thinking between Subaru and Haru very well. Especially when Haru and Subaru are in the same room and don’t understand each other. A pet, besides some special words relies more on tones from how a human speaks to understand everything because they don’t understand human speech like a human doesn’t understand cat speech. A cat is going to curl somewhere warm because it wants to be warm and the placement of the warm object doesn’t matter to them which is a major miscommunication when certain humans want to be productive on warm things. This show is very accurate in that way.

With all that said, I think the art and animation works well for this show. Even if all the character designs are the designs we’ve seen before in a million places before, I think that works for the slice of life nature for the series itself. This is a series that can happen to anyone and the soft artstyle invites that to happen. Just introduce a cat into someone’s life and this may or may not happen. However, the art on the pets is just adorable. Cats in general are adorable, but seeing those fluffy cats in anime form, especially one with lots of fur, is great. This show is warmth in writing, art, and general fluffiness. I think this is a series that every pet owner should watch. Be into that holiday spirit all the time!

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