Alternative title(s): Dekiru Neko wa Kyou mo Yuuutsu
Manga adaptation by GoHands
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise

Fukuzawa is a hard working young woman who spends most of her day at the office, then comes home to her pet cat. This particular cat just happens to be the size of a human, and masterfully handles all the household chores.

Jel’s verdict: Way of the House Husband Cat

As the second of two GoHands productions this season, this episode delivers all the bizarre camera work, weird color choices, and questionable CG you would expect from the infamous studio. And yet, with a show this odd to begin with, it kind of works? OK, maybe “works” is a little strong, but the GoHands house style felt significantly less distracting than in my other attempts to watch their shows.

Putting that aside, the first episode delivers exactly what’s in the description. We get a nice contrast between Fukuzawa’s hectic work life and the quiet hours of cooking and cleaning from Yukichi (her cat companion), who only speaks in the episode preview. There’s a certain sadness to it, particularly when we get glimpses of Yukichi briefly giving in to his cat instincts. It feels like maybe Yukichi would rather be out chasing birds or something, but is too devoted to helping the lady that took him in.

If the series continues to explore that angle, I think this could be an interesting, unique experience worth watching. I’m probably reading way too much into this though, and the show will probably just be an endless loop of Yukichi’s amazing housekeeping skills, because yes, he is a giant cat and that is absurd. I don’t know if that alone would be enough to carry a full series, but I’m willing to give it another episode or two.