Common Name: My Roommate is a Cat
Alternate Names: Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue; My Housemate is on My Lap, but Sometimes, on My Head
Score: 8/10, 3/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Slice of Life
Summary: Following the tragic death of his parents, novelist Mikazuki Subaru has let his natural shyness and low maintenance blossom into abject fear of talking to people or ever leaving his family home. Despite regular interference by his childhood friend, Hiroto, and his editor, Kawase, what eventually breaks down the walls he's built around himself is a simple happy accident. While visiting his parents' grave, Subaru meets a feisty stray cat and is instantly compelled to bring her home since she might just be the inspiration he needs for his next story. Unbeknownst to Subaru, though, Haru has also lived a difficult life that has led her to naturally distrust others in much the same way he does. Now that they're together, though, it seems their lives might be changing for the better as both find comfort and safety in each other's presence.
Review: Simple but effective: that is how I would describe My Roommate is a Cat. While calling a show "simple" might sound like a bad thing to some people, it is meant to be a statement of fact in this case. Functionally speaking, there is nothing new or inventive about what this show is as a series. Look at pretty much every pet film in the history of forever and you will get pretty much the same kind of message that this one offers but in a much smaller package. Pets are a joy for those who want or even need them in their lives. Much like children are for some parents, pets encourage us to be better and generally more emotional people. Through their simple expressions of love, quirky mannerisms, and fairly simple needs, we are given the chance to engage with something far less complex but equally as engaging as a connection with another human. As such, pets are a comfort for some people who need something to help them unwind after a stressful day. For others, they're a good form of training that can help someone work through their emotions and build up the courage to bring those emotions out into the human world. In this case, My Roommate is a Cat is a Wonderful example of the latter kind of pet story. Yet, simple as that premise might be, though, the show manages to hone that simplicity and work with it to the point that it becomes a solidly effective title that manages to bring it's initially weaker aspects up to par with those parts that were amazing from the very beginning.
Haru is, unequivocally, the MVP of this entire series.
For anyone who follows the Facebook page and saw my initial reaction to this show, that statement might come as something of a surprise. Initially, I simply did not care for the 2/3rds of each episode that was dedicated to the struggles of Mikazuki Subaru. Rather, I watched this series entirely for the last few minutes of each episode that are dedicated to the perspective of his newfound pet, later named "Haru." With Subaru's story, there's simply a lot to be desired at the start. While it is stated fairly clearly that Subaru is a bit of a mess at the show's start due to his being depressed and grief-stricken after the death of his parents, very little is done to actually make that tragedy sink in or be an effective tool to make us care for him as a character. Rather, the show opts to turn him into someone so emotionally stunted and numb that he just kind of keeps on living the life he did when his parents were still around. He just keeps doing his job as an up-and-coming author like he's some kind of emotionless robot--an oddly fair comparison considering how he has no clue how to take care of himself or do the bare minimum to keep functioning.
Dude unconsciously resorted to eating his cat's food just to survive.
If that isn't the low-point of someone's life, I don't know what is.
This characterization is meant to make it abundantly clear that Subaru simply cannot function on his own anymore, thus making him a pitiable character. What it did for me, though, was turn that pity into outright disgust as I took that characterization to the root of his problem that he simply relied on his parents for everything. Having no social skills and no real desire to connect with other people apart from wanting to share his love of books, I felt it unreasonable to build a series around a character who is no better than an infant. Infantilization is, of course, an issue with anime in general but the fact that it is used to engender a kind of sympathetic pity for a character right out of the gate upset me to the point that I was almost determined to just hate on Subaru for the entire show. Almost, is the key word there, though. Terrible as his introduction is, My Roommate is a Cat steadily works to build on Subaru's character, developing his competency as a person as he finally starts opening himself up to his loss and failures as a person, knowing that he can't take care of Haru if he doesn't improve. Yet, to make that growth and development feel like something he legitimately earns, though, most of Subaru's growth is spurred on by the development we see in Haru as well.
Oh yeah, in case it isn't obvious by this point, Haru is an actual character. She's got her own lines, backstory, and everything.
Unlike Subaru, Haru starts this series off as an already competent and willful character, having lived on the streets for a couple years now. Without Subaru, it can be generally assumed that she could have kept on living regardless of his intervention. That is, of course, not to say that she gains nothing from their alliance. Specifically, while she exists as a kind of polar opposite to Subaru in some ways, she shares a similar kind of development where she steadily opens herself up to her new situation. Where Subaru grows as a person over the course of the series, Haru learns to let her guard down and just accept the love and care Subaru occasionally offers her. This is, of course, just as difficult a process for her as Subaru's dealing with his emotions is for him, but it comes from a fairly different angle. Having lived as a stray that looked after her younger siblings, Haru grew up learning that keeping your head on a swivel and never dropping your guard is what keeps you alive as a stray. So, as you might expect, that kind of attitude would make it hard for her to let people get close to her.
And the truth of that only grows in its significance once we understand
what exactly she went through before meeting Subaru.
Troubled as her and Subaru's pasts might be, though, they both share in a similar kind of journey of personal growth and learning to open oneself up to new opportunities. More to the point, the way their journeys are linked but also build on one another makes it all feel very believable and organic. As Haru steadily comes to accept her life with Subaru, she starts to see in him a second chance to be the mother/big sister figure she lost during her life as a stray. Then, as Subaru takes notice of how she is steadily warming up to him, he realizes that he needs to put forward the effort to care for her. Failing that on his own, though, this revelation spurs him to reach out, connect with other people, and ask for help in spite of his lack of social skills. Then, seeing his desperate resolve to care for her, Haru steadily learns what it means to be in a human family, which allows her to learn to relax now that she knows that he'll never harm her. On and on, these two build upon one another until both reach a point where they can each say they are happy with who they are and where they are in life. By the series end, Haru is every bit the house cat that we see in the show's opening. While she's still just as willful and energetic, she finds her happiness cuddling up with Subaru. Meanwhile, for his part, Subaru develops relationships with a decently-sized group of people he has no problem calling his trusted friends. More than that, though, he learns to live his life in a way that would honor his parents, keeping up some of their personal traditions while also pursuing his future as an author.
Though I certainly won't snub the importance of those relationships, especially when
a couple of them clearly offer some greater hope for Subaru's future.
What's particularly interesting to me, however, is the way that this kind of mutual development came to steadily make me reconsider how I regard this show and its characters. As much as I might have disliked Subaru at the show's start, I cannot deny that, by journey's end, he is just as strong a character as Haru was from the very beginning. Yet I cannot say that my opinion changed solely because of his own action, so much as what those actions did for Haru. Having given up on Subaru at the start of the show, I came to enjoy it purely because of what Haru brought to the table. In comparison to Subaru, she was a fun, engaging, and believable character from the very beginning. She had a personality and perspective I could engage with but could also recognize as something uniquely dependent on her being a cat. As the show went on, though, I was able to see how Subaru's presence in her life was doing her some good which, in turn, allowed me to steadily come to appreciate Subaru, not so so much for himself but, rather, for the contribution he made in Haru's story. Yet, as the show went on, even that appreciation-by-proxy mentality changed as Subaru legitimately started to come into his own as a character.
The transformation he undergoes from being a thoughtless nothing to a character
capable of introspection is nothing short of astounding to me.
After a point, Subaru stops acting and making decisions strictly for Haru or anyone else's benefit and begins to act so that he might grow on his own. Toward the series's end, he actively decides to improve and tackle his weaknesses in a way that might inconvenience Haru in the moment but help their relationship in the long-term, proving to me that he has legitimately grown as a person. After all, that kind of uneasy, sacrificial growth is hard for most people to consider, let alone do, but he still comes to the conclusion that he needs to do so without anyone pushing him. While the very literal journey he goes also serves as a good means for him to move past his parents' deaths, it is functionally the first real decision he makes on his own, making the weight of it all the more impressive. On the flipside of that coin, however, it's worth noting that this kind of mutual and then individual pattern of character growth can also be seen in Haru's story. Specifically, Subaru's story follows a pattern where he learns to act for others' benefit, then a more mutual benefit, then purely for his own. Haru's, though, follows an inverse of that. She starts the show by acting for her own benefit first, then shifts to act for her and Subaru's shared benefit, and then makes the decision to endanger herself for his benefit, cementing just how far she and their relationship have come.
That said, I can't but wonder if there are people who disliked Haru at the start
but came to like her in much the same way I grew to like Subaru.
Very rarely am I ever inclined to say that a show was "crafted" in any kind of manner since that immediately implies a level of thought and intentionality rarely seen in this industry but this is one of those times that I feel it applies. My Roommate is a Cat feels like it was crafted to make the bond these two opposing characters share as effective and organic as possible. The way their stories build on one another but also mirror each other reflects that kind of intentionality I look for when I use that term but the fact that it does so so well really highlights just how special it is. To give you a good idea of how I really feel about this show, I'll just say that that it's up there with Bakuramon and Sweetness & Lightning when comes to how well it deals with its family-centric drama. While it might not be as technically impressive or as personally emotional as those titles, the way that it honed its simple premise into something special brings it up into that same league for me. So, like I said: it's simple but effective. I'm not sure it's something I'd necessarily recommend to everyone but I can say with all certainty that it'll be a real treasure for anyone with a love for cats or pets in general. Alternatively, if you just want a sweet, down-to-earth drama with little at stake but a lot of heart, then this might be worth giving a shot whenever possible.