Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko

I’m not gonna lie.
I did not expect that.

This short is really something else.

It’s well done visually (maybe except the cat, it bugs me that he’s so surreal) I really loved the mood and the lack of colour is perfect for this type of story in my opinion. It acts like that je ne sais quoi that everyone is looking for while creating something.

For an animation that relies heavily on the narrator and still images, rather than more traditional animated characters, there is a really gut punching scene in there. Everything is shown in a very calm, very familiar way. The human in the story can ... be anyone. You, Your friend, Your lover, someone You know, someone You care for and I think that’s it’s strength. You can associate with her.

The whole story is told from the perspective of a cat that was found and adopted by a young woman. There isn’t any grand plot of saving the world or anything like that. Just a calm, everyday cosiness with just a little pinch of drama.

I really didn’t expect to like it as much as I did.

I think every fan of animation should watch this ASAP.

To begin with, I have to say that I found this on a recommendation. I am by no means a cat person, or an animal person at that, but since it was so short, I decided to give it a try.

Honestly, this is less of a typical anime but more of a quiet retrospective work to watch a few minutes before bedtime or what you're feeling down and worthless. Trust me, especially if you have a pet, this will cheer you up. Since it's only a few minutes long, I won't go too in depth about the content so I won't spoil it, but ... it's simply a cat's thoughts about his owner. There's something simple and beautiful about it.

I've seen some people complain about the art, but in all honesty, I found the black and white simplicity to be quite pretty, along with the almost stop-motiony animation.

Since I watched a fandub after not being able to find a sub or an official dub, the sound really wasn't my favorite part of it all, but I am willing to give it the benefit of the doubt since it wasn't the original work. I managed to look at non-english subs and I found the original Japanese to be quite soothing to listen to, almost like ASMR.

The characters are a little ambiguous, and I liked that about it. It could almost be about anyone, anywhere. It was simple and beautiful.

Overall, though I did enjoy it, as person who isn't really a pet person, I didn't get all feelzy like many others did over it. It was just simply a thought process for me.

I would recommend this if: you own a pet, you like cats, you own a cat, you like short (really short) anime, you get feelz over fluffballs, you are feeling down and need something to make you feel better

I would NOT recommend this if: you are looking for something super philosophical or deep, you're not a pet/animal person, you hate cats

Have a great day everyone!

my rating: 4/10

The OVA was okay. If you're not into poetry, this isn't worth your time.

The story is told from a cat's perspective, who spends most of the film talking about his day-to-day activities. His words have a poetic tone filled with imagery. Some people might like that, but if you (like me) are not into poetry, I doubt you will enjoy this OVA. Some have described this show as "philosophical", which is true to an extent. But don't expect anything deep; it's just a cat pondering life for a few minutes as he watches his owner. Some other reviews have said that there's a ... "twist" midway, but it's not much more than a shift in tone.

As for the visuals, it's all in greyscale, and most of the shots are just random bits of scenery. Most of the OVA is spent panning over those drawings, with not much animation actually happening. They scenery is really well-drawn and quite detailed. The human also drawn fairly well, but nothing special. They style she's drawn in looks typical of the early 2000s.

But the one thing that threw me off was how they drew the cat. He looks very cartoonish, unlike everything else in the film. I actually laughed when I saw him. It's funny how derpy he looks compared to the serious tone of the visuals and narration. And I don't think humour was the intention.

Overall, I can't say that the film was particularly bad or anything, and I only rate it slightly below average because I don't find poetry very entertaining. But I also don't see any strong reason to recommend this to anyone. If you're into poetry, I'm sure there's better stuff out there. If you're into art house and/or philosophy, don't expect much depth from an OVA that's not even 5 minutes long. And if you're not into any of that, this will just feel boring. The only good use of this OVA I can think of is to show what "art house" or "kino" is like (to someone who doesnt know), without wasting too much of their time.