My Roommate is a Cat (Crunchyroll) is a lightweight but utterly charming show. I think it’s safe to predict that if you like cats you will want to see this (and if you don’t like cats you probably won’t)

The English title is blander than the Japanese title: Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue (“My roommate is on my lap, sometimes on my head”.)

The main character is MIKAZUKI Subaru, a twenty-something mystery writer. He lives alone in a large house that he inherited when his parents were killed in a traffic accident.

He prefers living alone. He’s bad at dealing with people and public places make him feel panicky.

One day he visits his parents’ grave and as a dutiful son he brings an offering of top-grade tuna sashimi.

This leads to him being attacked by a fierce feral kitten.

Something about the cat gives him an idea for a new mystery story, so he decides to take it home, hoping it will be a source of further inspiration. He ends up naming her Haru.

Episodes generally show the same sequence twice: once from Subaru’s perspective and once from Haru’s. She initially thinks that he’s quite obnoxious, but he does have food so she decides to stick around for a while. Eventually she decides that he’s totally incompetent and needs her to look after him.

KAWASE Atsushi is Subaru’s editor. He has a complicated relationship with cats. He adores them; they don’t much like him.

YASAKA Hiroto is Subaru’s neighbor and childhood friend. He regularly drops in unannounced. He pretends to raid the refrigerator but he actually brings over food and tries to make sure that Subaru is eating properly.

Subaru knows nothing about cats and needs some expert advice. He gets it from OUKAMI Nana, who works at a pet store. (No, her name does not mean “wolf”. The official web site gives it as .)

OUKAMI Yuugo is Nana’s younger brother, a high school student who is a big fan of Subaru’s mystery stories–but he doesn’t make the connection and has no idea that this is the “Subaru” who wrote them.

(This show loves coincidences like that.)

Nana has adopted a stray kitten named Hachi. In yet another coincidence, Haru recognizes Hachi as her long-lost little brother.

There’s a lot of stuff like this. You have to be willing to accept that this is a feel-good show and just go with the flow.