In my view, there are two things that are required for any person to understand the limitless wonder of cats:
- They must have had the experience of living with them. Casual contact is not a substitute.
- They must be open to the experience. It will change the way you think about many things – if you go in with inflexible views of how relationships should work, you’ll never get it.
I realize that takes me dangerously close to appeal to authority territory, but that’s just how I see it – there’s no way around it in this case. Some people are just temperamentally unsuited to being cat people, I get that, but one must live with a cat and observe it daily – build a relationship with it – to truly begin to understand the nature of the beast. And once you’re bitten (hopefully not by the cat), you can never go back. For the questing mind, nothing else ills the endlessly fascinating niche that sharing your life with cats does.
Japan is a country seemingly obsessed with cats, which is of course a good thing as long as you are too. But the dark side of that is that seemingly every Japanese city and rural town is awash in strays, ranging from semi-domesticated to full-on feral. Often humans care for these cats, feeding them at the very least – you see it often in Shinto shrines (where cats are a fixture), and Nagasaki actually has an organization in charge of it. But sometimes that doesn’t happen. Sometimes cats go hungry, or are victims of intentional human cruelty. If they’re everywhere in a place I guess you’re going to get the bad with the good, but there are a lot of sad stories out there if you know where to look.
Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue. appears not to be one of those, fortunately (though “bittersweet” certainly fits the bill), but of course it’s just that – a story. But who knows, maybe every good cat story convinces two or three people to adopt a cat – and this is a damn good cat story. Cats are certainly no less common in manga or anime than in Japanese real life, but full-length anime where cats are in the starring role – real cats, not cat robots or catgirls or cat aliens – are relatively rare. There have been some amazing shorts starring cats, but I wonder if Doukyonin has a chance to go down as the best “pure” cat anime ever.
The mix in this episode worked perfectly for me – even better than the very good premiere. There are amusing slice-of-life moments that shed light on the cat experience, but there’s definitely a deeper story here. Subaru is very much broken, shut off the from the world emotionally and literally, if not an actual hikikomori then pretty darn close. Part of Doukyonin is relatable charmers like Haru’s adopting of the laptop as her bed (yes, idiot humans, it’s because they’re warm – but also because they want to be in-between you and your desired object of attention). But it’s also Haru forcing Subaru to open him up to new experiences, and possibly old ones too.
One of those experiences is going to buy food for Haru – prompted by the desire to lure her away from his bread-winning computer, but I mean thank goodness, she needs to eat. Amazon isn’t an option (no same day delivery I guess) and the local konbini is fresh out (yes Subaru, feeding them human food is a bad idea). Fortunately there’s a pet shop across the street, but what seems like a Godsend for Subaru turns into a nightmare when the symphony of animal life overwhelms him, and then the riot of cat food choices finishes him off. Thus he’s forced to interact with the clerk – who’s very cute and friendly, and I wonder it that was the start of something – where he hilariously answers her request for his cat’s name and age with his own.
Ah, the name… For those of us who understand fear of commitment, that’s a really scary moment. The minute we name it, we open ourselves up to caring about it and even loving it – and of course Subaru is wrong, they very much understand a lot of what we say when we talk to them. This whole scene is the very definition of heartbreakingly bittersweet, as Subaru decides he’s going to let the cat choose its own name – in part because Kawase-sensei has asked him to name the cat in his story and as a writer, Subaru knows matters such as names or not to be treated trivially. So he begins reading off names randomly, hoping she’ll react, to no avail. This goes on for some good while, until the petulant pet knocks over some books with her tail and Subaru spots the storybook his mother used to read to him as a child.
The loop is closed when the narrative shift’s to Haru’s perspective (that arrangement is totally working for me, by the way). It turns out that when she was on the street, starving, a young girl whose mother owned a restaurant used to feed her – a young girl named Haru. But for kitty-Haru, the takeaway was that Haru means “food” – so of course she’s going to respond to it (she’ll learn the truth eventually). This misunderstanding causes no small amount of confusion for her, unsurprisingly. I also loved her viewpoint on Hiroto’s visit – a visit to drop off food for Subaru. Since Subaru is presumably living in his parents’ house, Hiroto is likely a friend since their childhood days – and his family is looking out for Subaru, knowing how broken he is. Another achingly bittersweet and understated bit of exposition.
The world of an anime fan can be a very small one, it occurs to me. There are no less than 35 new series this season, and that makes it the lightest one I can remember. But if I can get just a few that I really love, that’s all I need to be happy both as a viewer and a writer – sure I’d like to have a scheduled packed with quality, but it’s the special ones that really make a season. And this season seems to have three of those – not many, surely (though there are more than might indeed turn out to be very good) – but enough. Sure I’m a perfect demographic for what Doukyonin wa Hiza brings to bear, but the only demographic trait required to to be a fan of this series is to be a person who appreciates really good anime.
Collectr
January 18, 2019 at 10:04 amCat-on-keyboard is so common it has its own Internet abbreviation: COK. My cat isn’t looking for warmth (it’s a desktop keyboard); he’s telling me to pay attention to him instead of the computer, just as you suggested. If that doesn’t work, he’ll trap my mousing arm with a paw or sit in front of the computer screen and block the view. Of course, he may just like to watch the cursor move.
Cats do form relationships with humans, but it’s on their terms. Subaru is finding that out – to his benefit, in the long term. But he has some short-term surprises in store.
Guardian Enzo
January 18, 2019 at 2:14 pmI agree it’s on their terms to an extent – but that’s how humans form relationships too. And where cats are concerned that’s kind of a loaded statement.
I can say that with the cats I’ve co-habited with, once you’ve bonded the love is unconditional. You’re family. They won’t make fools of themselves over you (usually) but that doesn’t mean they’re being calculating.
Ronbb
January 18, 2019 at 12:00 pmYes, Enzo, this is a good show — for not because I’m a cat lover but because it touches people’s heart. This episode cracked me up and made me ponder about the stray animals, and the kindness that we can offer. It’s bittersweet indeed.
Marty
January 18, 2019 at 12:12 pmHaru’s refusal to move from the laptop and her puffed up face in victory was probably the funniest thing from this episode.
I feel like something that will make this anime a step above other similar cute animal/things series is that the pet isn’t just there for the cuteness factor nor to be an oblivious comfort blanket for the main character. Both Subaru and Haru have tragic backstories (parental deaths and the harsh life of a stray), so they both have room for growth when it comes to their own individual stories, creating a more compelling narrative.
Also, I’m sure that the store clerk appears briefly in the opening, it would be a shame if she doesn’t appear beyond this episode.
Guardian Enzo
January 18, 2019 at 12:43 pmYeah, I considered Haru’s victory face as the front page image.
leongsh
January 18, 2019 at 7:36 pmNot a cat person. My experiences with cats are okay. Living with cats for a brief period has informed me that cats generally don’t care about you and they only expect you to take care of their needs and wants. You don’t adopt a cat, the cat adopts you. If it feels that it doesn’t need you, it leaves.
Back to the show. It’s nice to have an anime where it gives some time for us to view the evengs happening in the eyes (and mind) of a cat. The show for me is a simple pleasant diversion.
Guardian Enzo
January 18, 2019 at 7:55 pmWe could go back and forth about how wrong you are, but there’s not much point in that because it’s not like there’s anything I would say that would convince you that you were wrong.
Simone
January 19, 2019 at 9:38 pm“Living with cats for a brief period has informed me that cats generally don’t care about you and they only expect you to take care of their needs and wants.”
I don’t know what your experience is but this statement simply doesn’t square with all the facts. There was a recent study that showed that cats can go as far as preferring interactions with their owners to food. Sure, you can always frame that in an self-centred manner – “they don’t LOVE you, they just enjoy being petted and cuddled by you” – but then you could apply the same exact logic to prove that humans don’t love each other either. Of course there’s a personal enjoyment factor in being with a person we love, that’s part of what love is. Taken at face value, cats display a set of behaviours that are only consistent if you assume they enjoy the company of certain humans. We can’t read their mind so that’s as much as we can know, but I think it’s somehow solipsistic of us humans to assume that animals can’t *feel* simple things such as love or joy just because they’re not smart enough to compose music or study nuclear physics.
Haraga
January 19, 2019 at 4:34 amMy only complaint about the show so far is Subaru — it is like we have a protagonist from an isekai show who achieved a successful career. There should be more behind the “I don’t like living things” demeanor, as loners should not just be defined by their loneliness, and I’m just not buying the whole “my parents are dead, so I’m going to be grumpy” reason the show is selling us so far. Surely it shouldn’t be the only major cause, right?
Marty
January 19, 2019 at 6:29 amI dunno, I feel like what the show is trying to portray is someone broken. Subaru feels like an individual dealing with grief in an unhealthy way. The flashback this episode shows that reading was not only very important to him, but that it was a means of bonding with his mother. He already showed some anti-social tendencies by not wanting to be around people since in his mind they were prone to spoiling stories. It seems like he leaned on these tendencies heavily as a coping mechanism to his parent’s death.
However, I do appreciate the fact that though he may be a recluse, at least he holds down a successful professional life.
Guardian Enzo
January 19, 2019 at 7:45 amCouldn’t agree more. To portray Subaru as an iseaki protag is a seriously different read on the character than the one I take out of the first two episodes.
lalu
January 20, 2019 at 2:58 amI think I liked this second episode even better than the first! The whole naming process was adorable and I loved how serious Subaru took the task beside the rather whimsical method he used. And how Haru had totally different associations with the word than Subaru haha. But in the end it all worked out fine (more or less. Loved that shellshocked image of Haru when Subaru left.)
I also really appreciated how Subaru decided to go out and buy cat food after the other options to get some failed abd even entered the pet shop in his quest to get some food. Really says quite abit about his character that even though he hates going outside and dealing with people he never once even considers to just let Haru go hungry for a day longer or just feed her anything but takes responsibility and gets her something that will be good for a cat. (Also that whole dialogue with the pet shop clerk hat me in tears! I laughed so hard it was so relatable the whole being overwhelmed by so many options and then compketely misunderstanding the questions… senior citizen indeed haha)
Definitely looking forward to next week and another episode with those two roommates!