So a while back Owen S/Sat-chan/whatever you want to call him/her about why Lucky Star > Hidamari Sketch in the world of Slice-of-Life/Comedies in his ongoing quest to show the fallacy of not liking Lucky Star as much as he does because they approach it from the wrong end of the Slice of life – Comedy spectrum yadda yadda yadda. He even included this snazzy colour bar to illustrate said spectrum – which I apologize now for stealing and editing for my own means when I obviously have no right to, but I’m once again starved for posts (Toshokan Sensou 11 coming up soon, I promise!) so I did it anyways and I’ll suffer the flaming repercussions later :P

Anyways, I’m not going to contest Owen or TheBigN on their respective points of views of Lucky Star VS Hidamari Sketch since I like both show myself. I’m here really to babble about this other show which is really not relevant since it doesn’t have any cute girls in it. But to illustrate a point I have about it:

The colour bar that probably really belongs to Owen/whoever created it that I’ve now ruined for my own means :P

Yes, Chi’s Sweet Home, that lovable 3-minute non-adventures of a little kitty-cat that you may or may not be watching this season. If you are, bravo, if you aren’t, well, you aren’t. I’ve sort of touched upon this show some time ago (but it just turned out to be about how I got Chi’s gender wrong -_-”), and well, many more episodes in, I’m still hooked with it. I mean, unless you’re an extreme cat hater ( I know a couple personally… -_-”), it’s hard NOT to like Chi’s Sweet Home. The ’story’ if you want to call it that, is about a kitty that strays away from her mommy one day and gets picked up by a little boy and his parents. The family is at first ‘reluctant’ to keep her as a pet – well not really, they love her to bits despite Chi peeing all over their clothes XD, it’s just that the place where they’re staying doesn’t allow pets on their property :( – but Chi’s (as they eventually name her) adorableness wins them over in the end :D !

Oh look, there’s one cute girl kitten.

Cue episode upon episode of lovable Chi antics and the everyday lives of a typical Japanese family raising a kitten :P The series is apparently slated for a ‘whopping’ 104 episodes, but since the episodes are only 3 minutes long including a a really Chi-tastic OP sequence, it’ll probably eventually be possible to breeze through the entire show in roughly the same time it takes a typical 11 episode show of typical 24 minute length.

Yes, Chi = pee :P

What I actually love about this show, (you know, besides the ZOMG, a cat is fine too cute kitten is cute!!), is the way it manages to frame the episodes from the perspective of Chi as a young kitten pretty convincingly. Though we hear Chi’s thoughts in the same Japanese we here the rest of the human cast of the show speak (Her seiyuu, Koorogi Satomi seems to have quite the extensive resume, and even sings the OP as Chi :D ), it’s obvious that what Chi perceives is rather different, and in some case opposite of what we as humans would see in a situation. “Ooo, what a nice piece of laundry lying about for me to leave my mark on!” “Kitty litter? Oh you mean my new bed!” etc. Plus the fact that Chi is young, so she can be quite the hyperactive and easily distracted kitten XD Many times she remembers that she should really go back to her real mommy, but she usually ends up being distracted by something new and the thought disappears from her mind till another episode.

Yes, you!!

The other aspect to the show would be from the human characters. Watching Chi’s new owners go through the many trials and joys of cat-raising is entertaining in it’s own way, not only as a way to juxtapose Chi’s POV with that of the average human being. Cat owners in RL will probably see a lot of themselves in the family as they do they what they can to get Chi into the bath/stop peeing/to the vet, etc. Though the only pets I’ve ever had being fish, I’m kinda ‘missing out’ on all that :P

You heard that, you non-watchers??

Still, I find Chi’s sweet home is very slice-of-life in nature, despite perhaps the notion that slice-of-life should have something for viewers to ‘connect’ to, so whatever a little kitten does can’t really be relevant to us humans. Or can it? Personally I do feel that since I’m able to see things through Chi’s eyes and understand it as such, there is a level of connection being experienced, even if it’s not so much of a “hey I can totally relate to this since I’ve been through the same!”, rather a “hey, I can totally relate to this – if I was a cat”. Yet, from that notion, I eventually found that I could relate to Chi’s ‘caty’ way of thinking even if I’m not a cat – perhaps the naive child-like wonder that I once perceived things before I turned into this cynical bitch is still there and really appreciates the little follies and un-adventures of Chi than just a way to while away 3 minutes of my life?

As for the comedy, well it stems mostly from watching the fun antics of Chi (which should at least put a darned smile on your face, or you probably could use some lightening up) that’s often chuckle-worthy. Not as LOL as those series on the redder end of the colour bar, but even for a comedy junkie like I am, that;s not necessarily a bad thing.

Now, if you excuse me, I have other things to watch now – but rest assured there’ll definitely be a few episodes of Chi’s Sweet Home slot in between to brighten up these rainy season days :)

(Oh, and for the record, Hidamari > LS still in terms of enjoyment for me :P Don’t ask why, I’m not one to analyze how I should or should not have approached a series ‘correctly’. Though I’ll say that picking apart why everyone else didn’t like a show as much as you did is probably as necessary as writing a tl;dr post on a 3 minute show… -_-”)