Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko: Everything Flows

Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko: Everything Flows, does more with four 7-minute episodes than most anime accomplishes with hours and hours of exposition. This story is more like a set of connected haikus, or a few simple pen-and-ink drawings, where each careful choice of phrase, or each perfectly drawn line, speaks more deeply than anything else one can imagine.

I loved Daru. His narrative voice was perfect. Even though we'll really never know what cats think, he felt very real to me. And his relationship with Kanojo was portrayed with such nuance and care that I truly believed that his words were truly his own.

I ... can only say that, in the final episode, you must watch to the very end. Something very special happens, something magical, something perfect.

I started crying during the first episode. By the end of episode 4 tears were flowing from my eyes, unbidden and unplanned. I'm still crying now, just thinking of this beautiful and utterly perfect gem of animated art. It's rare to encounter any work that's able to convey so much meaning with just the smallest and most intimate of gestures. I felt like I lived an entire life in less than half an hour. And when it was all over, I believed I was genuinely reborn. And I believe that rebirth and reincarnation, if such things could exist, would be more desirable than any other fate. Just to know that connection...that summer day...that familiar face and scent once again...

This short 4 episode long series follows the life of a girl after graduation, the economic and psychological hardships she faces as she enters the world of adults (No, not THAT part of the adult world, the others) and how she has to rely on herself and her cat, a pet she's had since she was a child. The cat is already pretty old unfortunately and it's clear from the start of the anime that he's getting slower and weaker.

Melancholic themes, a tiny bit of intense drama, nice voice acting by both the cat and the girl (we can hear the thoughts of the cat ... even though he doesn't understand exactly what his owner says. This reinforces the connection between them nicely, showing that even without "speaking" the same language they have a much deeper, emotional connection). The visuals, while nothing spectacular, are on a pretty ok level, usually displaying a sunset that quickly becomes depressing.

All in all the anime is a very good drama worth your time...
EXCEPT:

Has any of you actually ever owned a cat?! Because the writer of this clearly hasn't. Let me tell you folks, I have owned both a cat and a dog in the past and this anime shows how a DOG would think, NOT a cat. Years spent together? Emotional connections? "I love her."?!?!?! Foolish naive humans, that's NOT how a cat thinks. A cat doesn't want to see you... A cat... A cat just wants to watch the world burn... I hate using memes as points of reference, but cats are a$$holes, we know it when we buy them and it's pretty much WHAT we buy them for.

In reality people, the moment you die horribly because someone threw the microwave in the bathtub, a dog would start crying next to your burnt corpse, and it would eventually die from the depression. A CAT ON THE OTHER HAND, oh... The cat would turn around on your revolving chair, rub its paws together and say: "The human is dead, good. All according to plan... Nyahahahaha!"

(Spanish review below).

I definitely recommend reading the manga instead of watching the anime. The latter deals with its themes very superficially. Also, it changes a lot of things for the worse, because these changes take away depth and make it an average anime. The drawing is much better in the manga as well.

While the manga is not a masterpiece, it set out many interesting and sensitive issues, which the anime simply trivializes. Even the relationship between the girl and her cat is different.

I watched ‘Blue Period’ after watching ‘She and Her Cat’, and I was pleasantly surprised to know that both mangas are by the ... same author.

...

Definitivamente recomiendo mucho más leer el manga. El anime trata sus temas de forma muy superficial. Además, cambia un montón de cosas para mal, porque estos cambios le quitan profundidad y lo vuelven un anime promedio. El dibujo es muchísimo mejor en el manga también.

Si bien el manga no es una obra maestra, plantea muchos temas interesantes y sensibles, que el anime simplemente banaliza. Incluso la relación entre la chica y su gato es diferente.

Vi ‘Blue Period’ después de ver ‘Ella y su gato’, y me sorprendió gratamente saber que ambos mangas son de la misma autora.