mDuo13

Yesterday I finally finished watching Chi's Sweet Home, a series of 104 three-minute-episodes by Madhouse about a kitten who gets adopted by an ordinary Japanese family in an apartment complex that doesn't allow pets.

Plot & Characters: Chi's Sweet Home is a simple show aimed at all audiences. The plot is very lightweight, and could best be described as a series of vaguely sequential story arcs about ordinary things: today, Chi gets brushed, today Chi sneaks out of the house, etc. The characters, while intentionally generic to the point of archetype, actually have a surprising amount of personality - Chi is naive, fun-loving, and easily distracted, "Dad" has a soft spot for the kitten and worries over her, the Landlady is a bit of a stickler but ultimately a nice lady, etc. The exception would be the higumaneko, black bear cat, who from about halfway through the series becomes the star of the show for me, with his cool confidence, does-what-he-wants attitude, and broad patience. In the end, if you're not a cat person, you have no reason to care about the story, and even if you are, it takes a certain frame of mind to accept the plot as something worth making a show over, but once you do the series won't disappoint.

Art & Animation: Chi's Sweet Home is drawn in a very simplistic, cartoonish style. It's charming and very appropriate for the series, but hardly stands on its own. The animation is relatively simple but appropriate for the subject matter - Madhouse restrains itself from the use of gratuitous CG anywhere and there are no scenes or episodes that stand out for their a particularly good or bad animation. Still, the characters are all very expressive, with Chi especially getting a broad range of funny/cute faces.

Sound & Music: Like the other aspects of this show, the music is generally ordinary, not particularly serious, but somewhat charming. Mindless orchestral ditties on flute, piano, and kazoo are the order of the day. The exception to that would be the higumaneko's incredibly pimpin' baritone-sax-centric theme song, which makes me wish the series had an OST for sale. As for voices, they're nothing too special; viewers of CLANNAD AFTER STORY might recognize Koorogi Satomi (Ushio's voice) as Chi, with a similar tone and even more childish slurring of words... And yes, despite that each episode is only 3 minutes, every one of them has a short OP, sung in Chi's voice. It's kinda cute, but definitely gets old before the 104th time.

Humor: This is one of the show's strong points. It's rarely ever side-splittingly funny, but the fanciful representations of Chi's memory, the trouble she causes for the Yamadas, and the antics of other side characters are enough to bring a smile to my face just about every episode. Given how short each individual episode is, that's not a bad ratio.

Viewing Considerations: Chi's Sweet Home could be termed a kids' show, though apparently its largest audience is in the demographic of adolescent to middle aged women; in any case, there is pretty much nothing in the entire show that is at all objectionable. If anything, it's worth noting that many people might be turned off by this kind of squeaky-clean programming.

Overall: The show is a "light watch" in pretty much every possible sense: simplistic animation and music, and a plot that is almost devoid of any serious tension (although there is the ongoing concern at least that the Yamadas will get evicted or have to give up Chi if they're found out). All that does not mean, however, that the show is devoid of value. Frequently funny, occasionally insightful, and always pleasant, Chi's Sweet Home tells an ordinary tale in a fun way and is bound to cheer up those who give it a chance.

P.S. There's also a sequel series, currently ongoing, called Chi's New Address, in case you finished the first season and need more.