English Title: She and Her Cat
Japanese Title: 彼女と彼女の猫
Writer: Shinkai Makoto
Artist: Yamaguchi Tsubasa
Released: 2016
Length: ~160 pages.
Publisher: Kodansha (Japanese), Vertical Comics (English)
In 1999, Shinkai Makoto made a short anime film titled She and Her Cat: Their standing points. It is about 5 minutes long and in black and white.
The viewpoint character and narrator is a young male cat named Chobi who had been found and adopted by a young woman who remains unnamed. Chobi makes observations of her life and he expresses his love for her. The narrative spans one year in five scenes (“Introduction”, “Her Days”, “His Days”, “Her Loneliness”, “She and Her Cat”) in the style of slice-of-life.
This manga, first released in February 2016, is based on the short film. At approximately 160 pages, it is obviously much longer and fuller. It expands on most of the elements without feeling forced.
Although Chobi is the viewpoint character and narrator, the young woman named Miyu has enough presence so that she too is in effect a viewpoint character. Certain conveniences are taken; for example, although Chobi doesn’t know or understand everything Miyu does, he knows she leaves home to go to work.
The text is organized into four chapters plus one bonus chapter beginning in spring, spanning about one year. Chobi makes the point of the changing seasons to mark the passing of time. Over the course of the year, Miyu struggles as a young adult with her job and some issues with her mother, which Chobi observes.
As a slice-of-life manga, the narrative shows Miyu preparing to go to work, coming home, cooking, and talking on or ignoring her phone. There is a good mix of wide shots and tighter shots of Miyu or whatever object. Not all panels are from Chobi’s perspective but there are enough to give a sense that the story is from his perspective. Consistent to Shinkai’s other works, there are panels of everyday objects as well as trains going by, in this case denoting the outside world moving along despite Miyu’s feelings of stagnation.
Like the short film, the narrative does have Chobi interacting with another cat named Mimi during the day when Miyu is at work. Given the length of the work, the brief shift in focus is necessary to avoid repetition as is the scene in which Miyu meets her friend for lunch whilst Chobi is at home.
There is no strongly apparent plot, it is a slice-of-life narrative that covers about one year in the life of Chobi and Miyu. But it does have some movement and a few dramatic moments. Ultimately, the work is about Chobi’s love and appreciation for Miyu, especially in her difficulties.
The anime She and Her Cat: Everything Flows was released in March 2016. Although Miyu is drawn differently and there are continuity issues regarding her relationship with her mother, this is presumably the same Miyu.
In this anime, Miyu is about to graduate and is struggling in her job searching whereas she is already working in the manga. So this anime is her struggle in becoming an adult and the manga is her struggle at being an adult. The continuity regarding Miyu and her mother can be better handled instead of reusing the issue, but both are fine works.
As She and Her Cat: Everything Flows is set before this manga, I recommend watching the anime first before reading the manga.
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