SoraRabbit Short Hop 017: Cute Cat Adventures Part 1

I’ve mentioned this before, but lately I’ve found myself gravitating more towards and craving wholesome content. Bananya, Taberareusa… even some Archie… those things are soothing to me and calm me. In a world that’s increasingly dark and terrifying, it’s important to have ways to de-stress. To forget the bad for a bit and just revel in some mindless cuteness. I find it refreshing and it helps me to feel better about life, at least for a little while.

Sadly, finding these sorts of relics seems to be harder than ever in our age of rapid-fire media, dark edginess, and deeply ingrained cynicism. These little islands of kawaii are difficult to find and usually deeply buried, so when I do manage to find one I latch on and cling tightly. (Still hoping for a Bananya Season 3!)

Well, during an idle evening in the middle of my recent vacation I found another anime that just oozes wholesomeness and has quickly become dear to me. Today I share with you the precious kid’s anime Chi’s Sweet Home!

Aww, kitty. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

Chi’s Sweet Home: Chi’s New Address is a 2008 anime by Studio Madhouse. It was based on the manga Chi’s Sweet Home by Kanata Konami that ran for 12 volumes. (And yes I will be tracking that down too.) The episodes are short, running just under 3 minutes each.

This post actually has a bit more set up than usual. See, a couple of weeks ago I took a spur of the moment (and much needed) vacation from work. I used this vacation to catch up on my projects and re-learn how to take my time and live in the moment. I had just finished Beastars Season 2. (No, I actually devoured it, pun fully intended.) I went on a search for a new cute anime to watch, remembering how much fun Bananya had been. I was scrolling alphabetically through Crunchyroll, ignoring all the cookie cutter isakai, and when I got to the “C’s” I saw an adorable little kitty that made me stop. I dived in, assuming it would be a quick watch like Bananya and watched 10 episodes that night. I loved it immediately and a few days later it occurred to me to do a Short Hop about it. As I was researching this post, I realized there were actually 104 episodes! That’s also when I learned that this was actually Season 2 and Crunchyroll didn’t have Season 1. (I ordered the DVD of Season 1, of course.) Season 1 also has 104 episodes, making this way more of a time investment than I anticipated. (It’s entirely worth the time, though.)

Thinking back, this being the second season actually makes a whole lot of sense. They mention a girl named Juri and a farm as though we should know about these things. There’s also a flashback to an incident with a bear cat, which turns out was one of the last story arcs of Season 1.

So yeah, it was a little baffling to me at first, but I figured it out. Usually I prefer to start things from the beginning, but since I’d already started watching this and writing the post, I didn’t want to abandon it and wait until my DVD came in. So we’re pushing ahead with the beginning of Season 2! Like all epic tales, this one will begin with the story already in progress!

Chi is precious. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

Chi is an adorable and adventurous kitten that was adopted as a stray by the Yamada family. The family consists of Dad, Mom, and their child Yohei. The Yamada family’s only personality trait is “loving Chi”. I’m not even joking about this… every bit of their dialog relates to their cat, how much they love her, and their feelings about her antics. Which is fine… I mean, the show is about the cat, after all. It’s just a little odd.

Give Dad brown hair and a beard and he would be me. This is spooky. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

The continual story arc at first relates to the family moving to a new apartment that allows pets. This is so Chi will be happier and they won’t have to hide her and keep her indoors. (See what I mean? This is an extremely cat-centric household.)

Sad anime. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

Mom and Dad decide to give Chi to a family friend in Hokkaido so that she can live in the country, but they don’t have the heart to tell Yosei. They also don’t want to give Chi up since she’d enriched their lives. The tone of the first few episodes is very melancholy, with the pending loss of Chi to the new owners and the family dreading the hole she will leave in their lives when she’s gone. At one point Cocoa (who was only half paying attention) asked me “Is this a sad anime or a happy one?” I had no answer for her until the next episode when things took an optimistic turn.

So happy! (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

Yosei overhears them talking about giving Chi away so he runs away with his kitty. They get all the way down the block!

I can actually read this sign. (Except for the kanji.) I’m proud of myself. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

After seeing a sign for an apartment complex that allows pets, the parents have the idea to uproot the family and move, without checking rent prices or seeing the place or anything.

Upset kitty. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

What follows is several episodes of packing, settling in, and Chi freaking the fuck out about the new house.

It’s a bad sign when they want to be in the carrier. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

And if you have had a cat and have moved, yeah. Extremely accurate.

So adorable. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

I want to pause long enough to stress just how freaking cute Chi is. It’s clear the animators and mangaka have and love cats. Chi’s character is dead on. From her mood swings to her curiosity, this is a cat through and through. As I watched this, she kept reminding me of our cats. Like Cece she’s mischievous and loud. (Not to mention her burning need to go outside to play.) Like Gobo she freaks out when picked up, is nervous about new situations, and needs all the attention— except when she doesn’t. Everything about her is realistic for a cat, including the meowing tone to her speech.

The “food” was a bird. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

Although Chi talks, it’s really more an approximation of her mood than actual speech. Her speech is simple— “Outside!”, “Food!”, “This belongs to me!”, “This is scary!” The human characters can’t understand her and often misinterpret her intentions. For instance when she’s freaking out about all the unfamiliar smells and sights of the new house, her family instantly assumes it means she loves the new place. Also, at least as far as I watched, the cats seem to be able to talk with each other, but the other animals cannot communicate. Which makes sense… they’d all be speaking different languages.

She looks so thrilled about it. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

Anyway, back to the story. Chi spends some time freaking out and then realizes that even in this strange place, some things smell like her. She decides the only way to fix this new unfamiliar place is to make everything smell like her. So she runs around rubbing herself on everything she sees and tormenting Mom. Mom has to keep catching the things Chi’s knocking over and is worried the cat’s going to pee on things.

Awwww. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

Chi finally calms down when she realizes her people are there. There’s nothing to be scared about and she decides she likes her new home. (Especially the stairs because she can be bigger than everyone else.)

BUNNY! (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

After Chi learns the downside of stairs (scary to get down) and how to use a pet door (use your head!) she is finally introduced to the neighbor’s pets. (Which are in the opening credits.) She, of course, thinks the parakeet is food. She meets a long-eared bunny named Mi-chan and just keeps screaming “What are you?” The bunny won’t answer. (That’s about how our cats reacted to our bunnies at first too.) The next animal is a furry, elegant cat named Alice-chan. She speaks properly and has no patience for Chi’s nonsense. And last they meet a rambunctious little dog named David.

David is a good boy. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

After this, Chi finally gets to play around in the yard, smelling things and rolling around. David can poke his head through the hedge, which keeps scaring Chi. When he gets his head stuck, Chi gets mischievous and jumps back and forth to tease him, until she gets stuck too.

Mad Chi is somehow even cuter. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

Alice comes to visit but doesn’t want to play, until Yosei throws a wad of paper out. Then she betrays her inner cat-ness.

This time the food is a butterfly. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

Chi finally bonds with scary David and uppity Alice by first chasing a butterfly, then David’s rubber ball. David just wants to play, and Alice is still a cat inside all that fluff and manners. It turns out the language all the pets have in common is play-time.

Um, did Chi just break the fourth wall? (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

Chi has some more adventures discovering ants, a tree, mud, and the vastness of her new world. She follows a fat cat who’s looking for food (we never catch his name) and gets lost. She finds her way back to her old home, but her family is gone and there’s a new girl there. After getting lost again, a gracious cat invites her to live in his home since there’s plenty of room and food. But Chi needs to get back to her family. She spots David out for a walk and follows him home.

Chi helps them pack. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

And that’s the first 26 episodes of Chi’s New Address! (For some reason Crunchyroll labels Episode 27 as the start of season 2, so it seemed like a good stopping point.) I think if you’ve read this post my thoughts on this anime are pretty clear. I had so much fun watching these episodes. The adorable designs, the vibrant colors, the bouncy theme song, the simple but cute plot. I love everything about this.

As I said, the characterization of Chi is fantastic. She’s not anthropomorphized beyond the fact that we can hear her thoughts. Everything she says is simple and cat-like. She loves her family and enjoys her friends, but she’s still the center of the universe, and the show’s focus reflects that.

This show is very simple but a lot of the fun is in the little details. The meowing lilt to Chi’s speech, especially when she’s mewling out loud. The discordant whistling tune that plays when she gets upset. The fact that only other cats can understand her and she has no idea what the Yamada family is saying to her. Her gradual acceptance of David once she realizes he’s fun to play with. The fact that the sweet, loving cat can still bite and scratch and wreck shit when she gets mad. All of it was done really well.

As a nice plus, since the dialog is simple, watching this actually helps me with my Japanese studies. I can make out words like “cat”, “sweet”, “outside”, and more. I know it’s a small thing, but it feels good to be able to identify things like that… to hear a word in Japanese and have my brain automatically translate it before I even read the subtitles. It just shows I’m making progress!

This is one of my favorite screenshots. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)

So, yeah, Chi’s Sweet Home is a very simple surface-level show that still provides a lot of entertainment. I’ve had a lot of fun watching this show so far and I plan to keep watching it. It’s nice sometimes to watch something simple and adorable with no heavy stakes. This anime is well done, from the designs to the characterizations, to the voice work and music. I’m very glad I found it and grateful that I was able to share it with you all. The only difficult part about writing this post was picking which screenshots to use. I took way too many.

I ordered Season 1, so before I finish Season 2 I’ll go back and start watching that. I’ll get to see Chi’s origin story and finally learn about the bear cat! Let me know if you’d like to see more about this series. (I labeled this Part 1 just in case!)

Thank you for reading and taking a look at this cute anime with me. I’m always on the hunt for more wholesomeness, so if any of you have any suggestions for me, please let me know. I’d be happy to check out any suggestions! Until next time, I appreciate you all!

Bye from Chi. (Credit: Kanata Konami, Madhouse)