Mid-Series Review: Chi’s Sweet Home
Sep 09 2008 • Anime
Although I’ve been a huge Chi’s Sweet Home fan since 2005, the anime has left me with mixed feelings so far. When it first started airing earlier this year, I was excited (for 3 minutes at a time) because the series was able to capture Chi’s mannerisms from the manga so precisely. The dynamic between Chi and the family was preserved and the writers didn’t feel the pressure to change the basic gimmick: watch Chi slowly control the family. 1
Your life is my personal playground.
However, the writers started taking a little creative liberty in Episodes 11-122 before launching into a chain of deviating from the manga and throwing in filler plots. In such short episodes, this doesn’t have a huge adverse effect on Chi but it does leave out some important details, such as Chi making a friend early on. The large, black cat, who I have dubbed Beat Takeshi, finally appears in Episode 40 and after about a 5 episode filler run, starts to teach Chi what it means to be a cat.
I don’t mind filler episodes, particularly because Chi’s Sweet Home is an ongoing manga and each episode is so short, but I do think that the filler episodes could have more substance. Rather than just have Chi look cute, they’re really missing out some key opportunities to thoroughly disorient the family. For starters, they live in an apartment building with a “No Pet” policy - why not more interactions with the landlady? It’s quite fun to see what the family can come up with to hide Chi.
I’ll be continuing with this series, mostly because it’s possibly my favorite manga.3 Despite not minding the filler episodes, I hope they get back on track with the manga, which is already presenting Chi with a completely different set of problems. If they decide not to, I hope they continue to include the Beat Takeshi cat as a good contrast to the Yamada family.
Favorite Episodes
- Episodes 5-8
The family tries different tactics to train Chi to use the litter box. Chi also receives her name. - Episodes 21-25
Chi goes to the vet and the father tries to regain her trust afterwards. - Episode 39
Chi falls into the bath. - Episode 40
Chi and Youhei encounter a strange, black cat.
- I’m joking, of course. The real formula is just plain, simple cuteness. [↩]
- The Yamada family is unable to keep Chi, due to living in an apartment, and they try to find another home for her. [↩]
- The list isn’t long [↩]
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Gah, I’ve been watching anything between 1 to 20 episodes at a go and still I’ve not been able to catch up!
haha issa-sa me too! this is such an good anime. havent had a chance to read the manga but i’ll consider reading it when i do get to it lol.
@Panther & tanekawa: I don’t normally do this (because I don’t read a lot of manga!) but I’d recommend the manga too. It’s a bit different from the anime and, if you’re studying Japanese, it’s easy to understand.
@issa-sa: Same here. The subbers are releasing them in batches of 10 or so too, so it seems like having to clear a huge backlog. :( But…3 minutes!! We can do this!
[...] For the first half of my favorite episodes list, see my mid-series review. [...]
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Well I do not read the manga, but I like the series for its cuteness so far. Chi is too cute! Her seiyuu is doing a pretty good job. Only 104 episodes, so 21 left for me (at 83 right now).