History Manga / MyRoommateIsACat

* CreepyCrows: A recurring problem during Haru's time as a stray. [[spoiler:It's also what killed one of her siblings.]]

* LostInTranslation: The last lines said in the anime are 同居人はひざ、時々、頭のうえ which translates to ''My housemate is on my lap, but sometimes on my head''. This is the Japanese name of the series, so its importance is lost of you don't know that.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Right at the start, it's pointed out that Subaru has a habit to [[ForgetsToEat skip meals and sleep]] when he gets too focused on his deadlines. In the first episode, he ends up collapsing from not taking care of himself, and in his hunger eats the closest edible-looking thing by reflex. Which happens to be a bowl of Haru's cat food.
** Due to never having a pet before, and his own [[NoSocialSkills lack of social graces,]] Subaru ends up making a few mistakes when he first gets Haru such as not taking her to a vet, getting her a collar, or even giving her a name until one of his friends points out and presses the issue.

** Nana's other cat, Roku. A tough looking, [[BadassBaritone deep voiced]] ex-stray who quickly proves to be friendly and prone to silly moments despite his intimidating features.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Subaru shows how he's NotGoodWithPeople when at a cafe with his editor Kawase. He becomes clearly uncomfortable and jumpy due to the large number of people around and gets short with Kawase for bringing him to such a crowded place before leaving in a rush.

* NotGoodWithPeople: Subaru, who tends to actively avoid people in favor of staying in his house to read books and writing his novels.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Subaru is shown to be extremely uncomfortable in large crowds, and even being around people in general to the point he actively avoids human contact in favor of just staying inside his house reading. He even seems to get physically exhausted from basic social interaction, strongly indicating that he might have Social Anxiety Disorder. He's also hyperfocused on his reading and work to the point he ForgetsToEat at times, possibly indicating ADHD.

A SliceOfLife dramedy manga from artist Tsunami Minatsuki.

''Doukyonin Wa Hiza Tokidoki Atama No Ue'' (lit. ''My Housemate Is on My Lap, But Sometimes on My Head'', adapted title ''My Roommate Is A Cat'') received an anime adaptation in the winter 2019 season.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Subaru is shown to be extremely uncomfortable in large crowds, and even being around people in general to the point he actively avoids human contact in favor of just staying inside his house reading. He even seems to get physically exhausted from basic social interaction, and is hyperfocused on his reading and work to the point he ForgetsToEat at times.

* {{Bishonen}}: As expected from a {{Shojo}} manga, most of the guys are this, with standouts being Subaru, Hiroto, and Kawase.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Nana and her brother both have bright pink hair.

* AbandonedPetInABox: Haru and her siblings share an early memory of being left on the street in a cardboard box.

* AdultFear: Two examples in Haru's backstory:
** Her and her siblings waking up alone in the street in the box, with no parents or anyone else around. Thankfully, they run into [[CoolBigSis Tora]] soon enough.
** Shortly before the beginning of the series, she goes off to find food for her two starving younger siblings. When she gets back [[spoiler:one of them is dead, having been killed by crows, while the other one is missing but thankfully is alive]].

** Subaru's ChildhoodFriend Hiroto is also this. Regularly coming in to check up on him, and trying to get him to open up. He even goes and leaves some food in Subaru's fridge when he notices that it's empty.

* ForgetsToEat: In the first episode, Subaru becomes so focused on his work that he ends up neglecting eating or sleeping. Deconstructed as [[RealityEnsues he quickly ends up collapsing from it.]] This is apparently not uncommon as his editor was informed of this by a colleague and Hiroto regularly checks up on him and is unsurprised on how empty his fridge is. Even the vet to whom he takes Haru notices, pointing out how skinny he is.

* RealityEnsues:
** Right at the start, it's pointed out that Subaru has a habit to [[ForgetsToEat skip meals and sleep]] when he gets too focused on his deadlines. In the first episode, he ends up collapsing from not taking care of himself, and in his hunger eats the closest edible-looking thing by reflex. Which happens to be a bowl of Haru's cat food.
** Due to never having a pet before, and his own [[NoSocialSkills lack of social graces,]] Subaru ends up making a few mistakes when he first gets Haru such as not taking her to a vet, getting her a collar, or even giving her a name until one of his friends points out and presses the issue.

* SignificantNameOverlap: Haru the cat shares the same name as the daughter of a restaurant owner whom she used to get food from while she's still a stray. This is actually justified: since the girl [[ThirdPersonPerson calls her own name]] while feeding the cat, the cat mistakes "Haru" as a cue for food. Later, when Subaru tests out several names to give the cat, she responds to "Haru" (thinking that she'd be fed), and is named thus.

* FaceOfAThug: Nana's other cat, Roku. A tough looking, [[BadassBaritone deep voiced]] ex-stray who quickly proves to be friendly and prone to silly moments despite his intimidating features.

* BlankWhiteEyes: A comedic staple of the series, often used to show Subaru's NoSocialSkills and {{Adorkable}} side. This is often used hand-in-hand with BlueWithShock and ColorFailure.

* {{Manchild}}: Kawase, whose excitable LargeHam tendencies seem more fitting on a kid. Unsurprisingly, when meeting Hiroto's younger siblings, two of whom are in elementary school and the youngest a toddler, he [[FriendToAllChildren got along with them swimmingly.]]

* ParentalAbandonment: Subaru's parents both died in a bus accident little before the beginning of the series. Haru and her siblings also never met their own biological parents, but were thankfully taken in by [[ParentalSubstitute Tora and Kuro.]]

* {{Adorkable}}:
** Subaru is this to a fault. His [[NoSocialSkills lack of social graces]] combined with his [[{{Bookworm}} utter love of books]] and growing love for Haru make him downright adorable, especially after his CharacterDevelopment. His {{Bishonen}} looks certainly do help in this regard.
** Nana has her moments, especially whenever [[ShipTease she's around Subaru]]. Case in point, the pet shop incident.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: As pointed out in [[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/my-roommate-is-a-cat/bd-digital/.158708 this review]], it is very possible that Haru's siblings are actually her ''kittens'', since cats can be sexually active as early as six months when not neutered/spayed.

** While it looks like Subaru is a misanthropic bookworm, the manga gradually reveals that he actually has crippling anxiety and agoraphobia along with massive survivor's guilt. It's not that he personally hates people, he's just very out of his depth when it comes to interacting with them. It takes getting Haru for him to start undergoing his CharacterDevelopment.
** At first glance, Haru looks like the typical prissy cat. Then it's revealed that she has a much harder background than she lets on and clearly has some sort of survivor's guilt due to the [[spoiler: death of her siblings save for Hachi.]]
* IntrovertedCatPerson: Subaru was quite the introvert even before he adopted Haru, so he becomes this in the first episode.

* {{Tsundere}}: Haru towards Subaru. She regularly refers to him as useless without her or teasing her, but is always there to help him out and provide support.

* {{Bishonen}}: As expected from a {{Shojo} manga, most of the guys are this, with standouts being Subaru, Hiroto, and Kawase.

* TearsOfRemorse: Subaru in episode 3, [[spoiler: when he finds an album his mother put together with various notes about vacations he might enjoy, and realizes too late how much his parents loved him and how much thought they put towards ways to connect with him. As it hits him how little appreciation he showed their efforts, he begins to cry]].

* DogsAreDumb: Subverted. While they’re still depicted as goofy and less serious than cats, the dog Haru meets at the vet is depicted as smarter than the cats (just like dogs are smarter than cats in real life), in that while all the cats, even the ones who had been there multiple times, only saw the vet as some kind of torture chamber, the dog managed to put two and two together and notice that whenever he’s sick or hurt, he starts feeling better after he goes there.

"Haru" is a street cat, walking the city and surviving day to day. While passing through a cemetery, she catches wind of food.

Food left on the family grave of Subaru's family. One fated meeting later, and Subaru and this stray feline find themselves a dysfunctional new set of roommates. Between his very reduced existing social circle turning out to be made of cat lovers and the requirements for properly caring for a cat making him meet new people, Subaru finds himself giving people a second chance in spite of himself. Haru, meanwhile, needs to slowly adapt to being cared for by a human and periodically finding herself needing to care for him.

* ApathyKilledTheCat: Not literally, but you'd think Subaru would have done some research on how to properly take care of a cat when he brought Haru in, either from the reference books he asked his editor to get or just looking it up online. He doesn't and thus has to be pressed on matters such as giving his new cat a name, getting her a collar, or taking her to the vet.