Hello, my lovelies. I hope you're all doing well, and if by some unfortunate chance you're not, then do I have the perfect pick-me-up series for you: the tragically unknown My Roommate is a Cat, written by the immensely talented Minatsuki Tsunami and brought to animation life by an obscure studio by the name of Zero-G, whose best known work is Grand Blue.

All things considered, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that My Roommate is a Cat remained buried among the piles of available anime; a real shame for it tells one of the most heartwarming and inspiring stories of courage and recovery that still resonates with me a year on after I watched it. I snatched (like our main cutie kitty) at the chance to pick up a digital copy on Microsoft store for the low price of £7/$8 (seven pounds/eight dollars) and rewatched it over the course of three days, the first time I had ever watched it legally. (We're not gonna talk about the first time I watched My Roommate is a Cat. No-no!) and here we are.
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What is My Roommate is a Cat?__

A potent question, you might say, considering the title loosely implies it's a supernatural series regarding a talking cat that lives with the main character, at least that's the way I first viewed it before tuning in. Needlessly to say, that's not what's happening here. Haru the cat is given a distinctive voice to communicate with other cats and herself, but none of the human characters can understand her. Episodes are often split between two sections; Sabaru's POV and Haru's. Whenever it's in Sabaru's POV, Haru can be heard meowing adorably like any precious cat. The circumstances which brought them together are rooted in deep tragedy. Losing his parents to a freak accident, Sabaru visits their gravesite to light incense and share an offering of salmon when our main stray cutie, famished and led by the smell of tasty fish, pounced and drove into the scattered food Sabaru dropped in his surprise. Inspiration then sparked his writer's brain for his latest novel and he lifted her up into the air as though she were god's gift from the heavens to distract him from his grief (and given beautiful heart-swelling bond that formed between them over the course of twelve episodes you could be forgiven for thinking that's the case).

It all feels very authentic in the way anyone would want to naturally dive straight back into their hobbies and escape the tragedy of losing their loving parents that had all always be there from their birth. (I often write Fanfiction under the name SpiritedHonoka so I can relate here) And because he adopted his cat to glean inspiration for his latest story, he had to learn to take care of her, leading him to braving the outside world and entering a pet store and meeting the kind clerk Ōkami Nana, which then leads him to meeting her younger brother when Nana kindly agreed to help him trim Haru's weight down.

It all smoothly travels along like a peaceful road trip, with the end destination filling Sabaru's once cold, lonely and desolate world with warmth and affectionate.

The Message of My Roommate is a Cat.

Connections are what make people happy, and it all takes is a single moment of courage to change the course of one's trajectory. Through Sabaru, Minatsuki-sensei accomplished what she set out to do, inspiring other shut-ins like Sabaru to take that scary step outside and make the connections that'll fill their worlds with love.

The Characters.

Sabaru Mikazuki - Suffering from a form of pathological social withdrawal known as hikikomori in Japan, Sabaru doesn't even introduce himself to his faithful readers, instead keeping himself veiled as a mystery writer. You could say he's fortunate he had a passion for reading from a very early age, preferring the company of a good book over the company of other children. I'm particularly in love with the decision to depict Sabaru first over his grief. Considering the anime opens up with the loss of his parents' death, it would've been very easy for the writers to establish him through his pain. The anime cuts away from the funeral to the opening and transitions to Sabaru's life of a novel writer, showing us his character and his social anxiety as his new editor, a kind but misguided fellow, dragged him to a café, and over the course of several episodes we're given titbits of his parents and just what they made to him. It makes his breakdown all the more impactful because we were given that time to form a connection with him first, making us root for his recovery even stronger.

Haru the cat - Much like Sabaru, Haru's character is developed first before her backstory as a stray cat fighting for the survival in the scary world of predators is revealed and you feel for her when it does. She's adorably prideful, feeling the need to protect and look after Sabaru, since he ever often the bad habit of skipping meals in favour of ploughing into his work. I loved the introspection into her thoughts, giving her a terrific voice actor in the form of Yamazaki Haruka who previously portrayed Kidou Eita from Oreshura. We learn so much about her, her tenacity, her gluttony, her honour and her kindness. Minatsuki-sensei dives into the mindset of a cat exquisitely through her, given her name purely because she associated the name "Haru" with food after being fed by a preschooler called Haru and her mother who called her. It's through reuniting with her younger brother, taken into Nana's care, that she beautifully realises why Sabaru uses Haru.

She's very likeable. One of her standout moments came when she was spooked by Sabaru's childhood friend's little sister, instinctively drawing her claws to scratch her until she got a glimpse of her precious face and remembered the words an older cat whom she affectionately referred to as "Tora-neesan" said to her in regard to her smaller siblings: "Protect the little ones." She recontextualizes that as "protect all little ones" and calmly receded her claws before resting her paws on Misora's arms in a beautiful character defining moment.

The Cast.

The cast are all wonderfully wholesome and contribute to the marvellous atmosphere and the uplifting mood of the series, adding to the ever expanding cosy flame of Sabaru's home. Be it the one childhood friend Sabaru was able to make from childhood helping him unload his basket when he couldn't turn down anyone offering a sale he didn't need during grocery shopping, Haru (the preschooler) teaching him a recipe to make for Haru, Nana and her brother, Sonoko, his neighbour, watering the plants in his mother's absence, her dog, Taro and his caring editor; there wasn't one character I disliked. They were all so likeable. I particularly loved his editor's precious envy at Nana's brother's instant affinity with Haru. Just because he loves cats doesn't mean he knows how to get them to love him unfortunately.

Art and Animation.

The art fits the standard of modern anime and remains consistent throughout - at least in my rewatch in HD. The animation uses many of the crystal bubbles coloured a delicate pink that I love to see float around any wholesome scene from one of my favourite anime like Taisho Otome Fairy Tales, for instance. It encapsulates the tender nature of the series perfectly.

In conclusion: My Roommate is a Cat is a beautiful series about recovery and companionship, filling our screens its warmth. There's so many heart-swelling moments between Sabaru and Haru that I'm sure your heart will burst out into fireworks watching them snuggle up together.

The score? Need you ask.

100/100, of course.