SoraRabbit Short Hop 031: Cute Cat Adventures Part 4

Hey, look, more Chi! I know I said last time that this post series was over, but I found some more to say and share with you. If you want to catch up on this series, here are the other parts below:

I came to Chi’s Sweet Home backwards and continue to enjoy it backwards. See, I discovered the sequel series and started watching that (and writing the post covering it) before I realized I had missed 104 episodes. (Oops.) I went back to watch the first series (Part 2), then finished the second (Part 3). And now I’m going back even further to read the manga that the anime was originally based on.

Chi’s Sweet Home was written and drawn by Konami Kanata. The story was serialized in the magazine Morning from 2004 to 2015 and consisted of 218 chapters across 12 tankōbon volumes.

As for how I got into it at this time, I had been on an Akira Toriyama kick, wanting to read all his non-Dragon Ball works after his sad passing. (As mentioned in the first installment of my Dragon Ball video game posts.) Once I got through all those, including the excellent Doctor Slump, I read through all of Paru Itagaki’s non-Beastars work. (I’m waiting for the TV series to end to jump into Beastars.) Also Miyuki Kobayashi’s Kitchen Princess because a YouTuber I enjoy was covering it. Looking for the next thing to read as I slowly made my way through Dragon Ball Z, I decided to revisit our favorite cute cartoon kitty. I got every volume digitally. It was somewhat pricey, but ultimately worth it.

The general story of the manga is much the same as the anime which adapted it, so I’ll mainly be focusing on the places where it differs. Which, surprisingly, is a lot! When I started out reading, it followed all the same story beats, the same vignettes as the anime, but then around Volume 4 things started to differ. See, the manga adaptation came out while the manga was still being serialized, so this necessitated drastic changes and additions to the story of the anime. This is something also seen in the first anime series of Fullmetal Alchemist. (The second anime followed the manga more closely.) This is also why some anime have filler episodes, to give the manga time to catch up. (My favorite example being the time Goku and Piccolo took driving lessons in Dragon Ball Z.)

One major way in which the two versions differ is in the characters. Some characters were created entirely for the manga, such as Yohei’s preschool friends and the crazy unnamed pet store lady. Blackie the Bear Cat’s part in the anime was truncated, with him only appearing for an arc in the beginning and reappearing near the end. In the manga, Chi and Blackie are reunited midway through the series and have many more adventures together. Blackie, as expected, plays the role of the older and wiser mentor. (A role partially given to Tama in the anime.)

Blackie is a great character. (Credit: Konami Kanata)

As a quick side note to make the screenshots less confusing, this book was done in the old flip-style localization. Which means the art is literally flipped so that the dialog and action can be read in the American way of left to right rather than the Japanese standard of right to left. That took me some getting used to, since I’ve been reading a lot of manga recently and it’s all in the right to left format. Personally I feel it’s better that way because we get to see the art as intended by the artist.

One more quick note, you’ll see that the cat language is in the word balloons and what they’re actually saying to each other is translated next to it. This was accomplished in the anime by layering cat sounds with the Japanese words.

Cochi is also great. (Credit: Konami Kanata)

The part that really shocked me is that one of my favorite characters Tama, the sassy and mature cat with a ribbon around her neck, was created for the anime as well. I kept expecting her to show up in the manga and it didn’t happen. Instead we meet another kitten named Cocchi, who kind of plays her role. He’s a grumpy stray kitty with a personality far bigger than his size who Chi eventually wins over. I love the character of Cochi and think he adds a new dimension to the story. The anime, in retrospect, is less for his absence. (Although I also love Tama and the other exclusive characters.)

But let’s start from the beginning. If you recall, the anime was split into two series. The first, Chi’s Sweet Home, was all about the Yamadas adopting Chi and hiding her from their strict no-pets landlady. This portion lasted 104 episodes. The sequel series, Chi’s New Address, was all about moving into a pet-friendly apartment building where Chi met other animals and was able to roam freely outside when she wanted. This happened much earlier in the manga, around Chapter 56. (The end of Volume 3.)

One scene that I really liked in the anime was where the Yamadas came clean to the land lady and admitted that they had been hiding a cat all along. This scene doesn’t appear in the manga.

There are a few chapters that appear in the manga and didn’t make it to the anime. Chapter 43 involved an argument between the Yamadas about whether they should keep Chi or put her out in the street. Chi‘s cuteness defused the situation and they couldn’t focus on the debate. Another story that is only in the manga involved Daddy getting a goldfish. Of course Chi wanted to eat it and Daddy had to teach her that goldfish were for looking at.

While you may think that moving to a new apartment full of animals would open up a lot of new adventures and character interactions between the pets, it really doesn’t. Just as with the anime, the pets that Chi meets— David, Alice, etc— don’t really factor into the plot much. They show up here and there, but mainly the new environment gives Chi the opportunity for more outside adventures. This is where Cochi comes into the story. While at first, the spunky little cat is standoffish and acts too cool and mature for the overly-energetic Chi, she slowly wears him down and wins him over. The two become the best of friends, meeting often at the nearby park and getting into all sorts of adventures together.

There’s one cool story where Chi attempts to follow Mommy and Yohei to Kindergarten and gets lost and trapped in the rain with Cochi. We get to see how they sense the rain coming… Chi is too young to really understand, but can still instinctively tell that something is going to happen. This is also where we get some of Cochi’s backstory. He was a kitten who wasn’t picked with his brothers and sisters and so became a stray.

I love this sequence. (Credit: Konami Kanata)

Chi and Cochi have a lot of adventures. They run from a dog, Chi learns how to climb a tree and jump back down, and also learns how to groom herself. Cochi quickly becomes a significant part of the story, becoming Chi’s link to her cat nature. He also serves as a reflection of how she might have ended up, had the Yamadas not found her. Their friendship is an important part of both their development. Chi teaches him to lighten up and embrace the fun of life. Cochi teaches her how to be a normal cat and survive on the streets.

Chi could have learned this lesson a bit sooner… (Credit: Konami Kanata)

Another important lesson comes when she unthinkingly scarfs down a piece of chicken lying on the ground. Blackie explains to her that she must always, always smell her food first to make sure it’s safe. Blackie shows her the way home, but once there, she gets sick from the rotten meat. She vomits and tries to hide. The Yamadas figure out she’s sick and take her to the vet, where she has to have an IV. Back at home she rests and Blackie and Cochi check in on her through the window. They wanted to make sure she was okay, which was sweet.

Off to more adventures! (Credit: Konami Kanata)

Next up was a lengthy story arc where Chi and Cochi explore a toolshed. Daddy had gotten her a collar, but she quickly loses it. In the toolshed, they knock some things over, alerting the owner of the shed. Cochi runs but Chi gets trapped in the shed. When she finally gets out, narrowly avoiding the investigating man, she makes it back home. But the adventure had lasting effects.

Chi was filthy from the shed, so needed a bath. She also got conjunctivitis in her eye and had to go back to the vet for medicine. She is forced to wear a cone to keep her from messing with her eye. The Yamadas, worried about how dangerous it is for Chi to be outside, decide that she’s now an indoor cat for her own safety. Chi hates this, feeling isolated and trapped. Also, she had promised Cochi that she would come back to play with him the next day and was being forced to break that promise.

The plot thickens! (Credit: Konami Kanata)

Feeling abandoned, Cochi gets tired of waiting for her to arrive at the park. He sees another kitten and at first mistakes her for Chi. He meets the kitten’s brother but they run off when their mom calls for them. Cochi follows them, thinking there is something really familiar about all these new cats, but unable to make the connection in his little kitty brain.

Yes, Chi’s cat-family, only featured in the first episode of the anime, plays a huge role in the manga. This is foreshadowed throughout, and not just by Chi trying to recall her mother. The nameless cat who takes Chi to hang out at his house remembers seeing Chi when she was even younger. The calico cat— nameless in the anime but here called Auntie Calico— realizes where she knows Chi from and tries to take her to her mother’s house. Not knowing what a mother is, and thinking it’s some sort of monster that wants to eat her, Chi panics and runs, getting stuck in a net. This is where she reunites with Blackie, who had moved away earlier in the series. But this was all earlier in the manga. Right now we’re still dealing with the fallout from the shed incident.

Cochi learns that the momma cat goes out at night and calls for someone. Cochi sees this, but is unsure what to make of it. While Cochi is dealing with this mystery, Mr. Yamada thinks that a leash would be the answer to their problems. Chi could be outside and still safe! However, Chi doesn’t like it and balks at it. She soon gets out of the leash and runs off to meet up with Cochi. She becomes upset when she finds he’s not at the park. The Yamadas are unable to find Chi and even ask David and his owner to help sniff her out. They also mistake Chi’s sibling for her briefly.

Cochi is amazed. (Credit: Konami Kanata)

She finally does meet up with Cochi, who teaches her how to be a stray cat. Chi thinks this is the only option for her because if she goes home she’ll be stuck indoors again. Cochi teaches her the best places to beg for food and safe places to sleep. After they both pass out from exhaustion, the Yamadas finally track them down. They bring Cochi along, recognizing him from when he visited their back door while Chi was sick.

Cochi tries to learn to be an indoor cat. He’s happy with the free food, the security, and having things to play with, but can’t handle all the rules and having to stay indoors. Soon he leaves and goes back to living free. The Yamadas learn that they can’t keep Chi cooped up. She has friends and a life outside the house. They just have to trust she’ll come back to them on her own and be safe.

The story immediately jumps into the massive final arc. While out walking, Mr. Yamada comes across a missing poster for Chi. He can’t find a way to tell the others, but Mrs. Yamada eventually finds the photo on his phone. They know the right thing to do would be to call the number on the poster, but they can’t bring themselves to lose their cat. They also know it will devastate Yohei, so they keep it to themselves for a bit.

Kitties struggle with making connections. (Credit: Konami Kanata)

Chi meets her own siblings but doesn’t remember them. They’re very innocent and sheltered, but their mom brings them to the park to play. Cochi teaches them how to hunt. The lessons just turn into play and the four become friends.

One afternoon, Auntie Calico arrives and announces that Chi’s momma is right nearby, beyond the big tree. Also not knowing what a momma is, Cochi insists they go see, even though Chi is still scared. (It could be something fun!) On the way, they run into Chi’s siblings and end up playing, forgetting all about going to see the momma.

This is where the story shifts a little, as Cochi explains to Chi that she’s a cat, not a human. She just always assumed she was the same as her family. But after having this pointed out to her, Chi starts to piece things together. She realizes that she walks on four legs instead of two. She’s covered in fur and they aren’t. And they can’t always understand what she’s saying. This starts to bring back the long-faded memories of her cat-mom and her time with her brother and sister. (Early in the manga those memories became blurry and eventually faded almost entirely, only coming back in moments where she was fully relaxed and comforted, like snuggling with Yohei or feeling Daddy’s heartbeat.)

From Volumes 10 - 12, the story takes on a melancholy tone, what with Chi’s confusion about exactly what she is and how she relates to the Yamadas, and their concern about the missing poster. Chi becomes discontent with her life. She wants to play but everyone is too busy. Her needs are getting more complex and she can’t communicate them to the humans in her life. Add to that the sadness of her mother searching for her and becoming close with two kittens she doesn’t realize are her brother and sister.

Yohei and Mommy visit Hokkaido and Cochi is convinced that they’ve been taken to a new home. In his experience, that’s what it means when family members go away. They never, ever come back. (Like his siblings who were adopted without him.) Making a remarkable leap of logic, Cochi suggests that Chi was probably also taken from her original cat family. While Chi is in the depths of sadness about missing her mother and brother (she thinks of Yohei as her brother) and letting Cochi’s words get to her, and Daddy misunderstanding her when she begs him to bring them back… the expected twist happens. She finally meets her cat mom.

Her momma cat calls out to her, recognizing her from a distance, and calling her Sarah. Yeah, I was shocked too. Chi’s original name was Sarah. Confused and a little scared, Chi runs off to see if Mommy and Yohei are finally back. They are, and she’s thrilled. Cochi is stunned to learn that sometimes family can come back. He just didn’t know life worked that way.

While the Yamadas, Chi, and Cochi have a salmon party in the backyard, Momma Cat tracks them down and tries to get Chi to come to her. The kitten hides behind Yohei and Momma Cat leaves. While all of Chi’s family drama is going on, there’s a growing subplot of Mr. Yamada being busy at work and a possible move to France for a promotion.

After this there are some genuinely sad chapters where Chi struggles to remember her past and Momma Cat is haunted by the absence of her daughter.

Momma Cat is cute. (Credit: Konami Kanata)

While the four kittens are at the park with Blackie, Auntie Calico is the one who finally breaks it all down for Chi, explaining that she was not always with the Yamadas. She used to have a previous home, siblings, and a mother. As if on cue, Momma cat appears and introduces herself to Chi, explaining her real name is Sarah. The Yamadas were out for a walk and witness this. Yohei runs and scoops Chi up, taking her home with them. (He had just seen the missing kitten poster earlier on their walk.)

While the Yamadas pack for France and ponder what to do with Chi— Yohei vehemently refusing the possibility of Chi going back to her original owners— Chi runs out to play and is very nearly hit by a car.

Her mom leaps out of nowhere, knocking Chi to safety and getting hit instead. This genuinely shocked me in its suddenness and I couldn’t stop reading at this point. (You know I’m a sucker for the old “pet gets hit by a car” trope. Remember Vader? Vader was a good boy.) Don’t worry… Chi’s momma is okay. I actually had to skip ahead a few pages to check. I’m not ashamed to admit that. I also got Cocoashade invested in the fate of Chi’s mom, since I needed someone to share the shock with. Having just revealed to her earlier that day that Chi has a mom, I subjected her to the knowledge that she’d gotten hit by a car and then was okay, all in the space of a few minutes. Quite the rollercoaster.

Chi’s momma is lying there, not moving. Chi runs to get Blackie and the two cats worked together to get the Yamadas to follow them to the accident site. They get Momma Cat to the vet in time and thankfully the diagnosis is a concussion, nothing broken. She just needs rest.

They keep Momma Cat in their home overnight, resting with Chi in a box. They all know that the time has finally come to call the number on the poster. Yohei is heartbroken, but seeing how much Momma Cat watches over and loves Chi, he realizes it’s the right thing to do. They call the owners and the next day bring Momma Cat and Chi home.

We learn that Momma Cat’s name is Marie and Chi’s siblings are named Ann and Terry. (I didn’t think any of them would be named, but they were, in brief throwaway lines.) The Yamadas quietly leave Chi with her new/old family and head off to finish the move to France. Just when you think it can’t get any more sad, Chi realizes Mommy, Daddy, and Yohei aren’t there. Chi settles into her new life, accepting her new surroundings, new rules, and even her new name.

Cochi is happy for her too, but sad that he can never return to his before-home. He looks up to the sky hopefully. Sometimes people come back, he’s learned. Blackie, however, goes to see Chi at the Yamadas and sees moving boxes. He gets worried, realizing that Chi’s scent is fading. She’s not there anymore.

No, manga, stop it! (Credit: Konami Kanata)

Before the Yamadas leave for good, they stop by to say goodbye to Chi one last time. After a truly sad goodbye, Chi learns from Blackie that her other family are moving and she’ll never see them again.

Chi runs off to find the Yamadas. (Credit: Konami Kanata)

Marie sees how sad Chi is and tells her that she has to decide what to do for herself. After thinking it over, Chi decides she needs to go home. Marie is sad, but accepts this. Ann and Terry are supportive. As Chi runs for home, Yohei has an emotional breakdown learning that they’re moving forever and he won’t see his cat ever again. (Remember, he’s like four or something, so he doesn’t fully grasp what’s going on.) Yohei left a bouncy ball behind, since Chi loved to chase those. His scent is still on it, so she’s able to follow it. Yohei, in a taxi, hears her meowing and demands they stop so he can get out. They call out to each other and are reunited just in time. The Yamadas decide to take Chi with them to France and the series ends there.

In a brief epilogue, we see that the Yamadas called Marie’s owner from France. Blackie still thinks of Chi and Cochi is now the unofficial sibling to Ann and Terry. Maybe he was adopted by their owners. I hope so anyway. Either way, he has a family now and the Yamadas are living happily in France with their cat.

Not gonna lie, I was tearing up by the end. I read that whole last volume in one sitting, needing to know how it turned out. The tension was real there. Chi was given two perfectly happy options but both had loss baked in. She had to choose between two homes, two families. She’ll never see her momma, siblings, Blackie, or Cochi ever again. But she chose the Yamadas and is off to a new life and new adventures. I was happy with this ending, but as with much of the last stretch of the manga, it was bittersweet. She chose her family but lost her friends. However, the effects they had on each other linger. And, as Cochi finally learned, sometimes people come back. Even if she never does, you know she’s made all sorts of new friends in France. Because she’s Chi and that’s what she does.

This is a great panel. (Credit: Konami Kanata)

Overall, the manga for Chi’s Sweet Home was a great, if simple, story. At times sad, always very cute, it was a fun read. The character of Cochi added a lot to the story, as did the reintroduction of Blackie in the role of mentor. The slowly developing plot of Chi’s cat-family kept an interesting tension and undercurrent of mystery to the story.

I can’t say that I like the manga or the anime more, because I enjoy them both for different reasons. Both version of the story have exclusive characters and arcs. I love the anime for the movement and voice acting, and the catchy theme song. The manga has its own cuteness and charm, and goes far deeper into the story than the anime attempts. While the anime was more cheery and comforting, the manga went deeper into Chi’s character development and growth.

I’m traumatized. Not kidding. (Credit: Konami Kanata)

One of the things that sticks out for me with the manga is the tinge of sadness and the surprising tonal shifts. Chi getting sick from the rotten chicken, the tool shed arc, Chi’s identity struggles, and above all, the final arc with Marie and the Yamadas moving. It kept me reading and wondering where it would all end up. It really felt like it could go either way! The way the story evolved and sped towards the ending, there was absolutely no way for there to be an ending where everyone is happy. And that’s okay. It’s like life… when you have to make hard decisions like moving away from your family or deciding to upend your life for a new relationship or job, someone ends up missing out.

I appreciate that Chi was given the agency to make the decision for herself and that her mother loved her enough to give her up for her found family. While I had no idea where the story would end up, looking back, it was foreshadowed by the way that she observed the Yamadas and how they treated her daughter.

And, really, that’s the thing that impressed me the most about the manga. The way the tension built during the final arc… how I had no idea which way the story would go but I knew regardless it would be sad. I knew I wanted Chi to stay with the Yamadas… that that is where she ultimately belonged. But her cat family and the humans who cared for them loved her too. She could only be with one family due to the location change for Mr. Yamada’s job. I couldn’t wait to see how the story ended, but dreaded it at the same time. It was an interesting experience, and one I don’t think I would have had in the same way, had I had read the manga before watching the anime.

At first I balked at getting this series, since after a glance at Volume 1, it appeared to remain in line with the anime. But as time went one and I continued reading, I was able to justify the cost and repetition a bit more. I love the story and the characters enough that reading through some of the same things wasn’t much of a drag for me. At no time did I get bored. I can see that may not be true for everyone, especially if you’ve watched the anime, but there was enough new content and story twists that the experience was completely worth it to me. Seeing the story the way it was originally intended was a fantastic experience and I’m grateful that I had it. All in all, I really enjoyed revisiting the world of Chi’s Sweet Home and can’t recommend it enough.

That look of panic. (Credit: Konami Kanata)

Thank you for reading as I revisited the adorable and wholesome world of Chi’s Sweet Home. While this will likely be my last post (unless I cover the sequel manga series or the American cartoon, which I doubt I will) this will not be the last time I talk about Chi. I will give no more hints than that, but I do have another project in the works that I’m excited about. You’ll have to wait and see! Anyway, thank you again, I appreciate you all, and remember to hold tight to the things that make you happy.

Hi.

Oct 11 SoraRabbit Short Hop 031: Cute Cat Adventures Part 4

Hi.

Oct 11 SoraRabbit Short Hop 031: Cute Cat Adventures Part 4

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