Originally a (seinen!) manga series written by Konami Kanata, Chi's Sweet Home (チーズスイートホーム, Chīzu Suīto Hōmu) is the story of a lost kitten who tries to return home to her mother and littermates, only to be adopted by a couple (the Yamadas) and their young son Youhei. However, the apartment complex in which the family lives doesn't allow pets, so a lot of time is spent preventing the landlady and the other tenants from seeing Chi. Later, the Yamadas move into a new house, and Chi has to adjust once again to her new surroundings.
The anime is produced by Madhouse, and each episode is three minutes long. The episodes correspond to one chapter from the manga. Chi is voiced by Satomi Koorogi, better known for her roles as Himawari Nohara from Crayon Shin-chan and Togepi from Pokémon: The Series.
The manga is currently licensed by Vertical, with its first volume released July 2010. Both seasons of the anime were licensed by Discotek Media in April 2014.
The manga finally wrapped up in 2015 after its 11 year run. However, the anime has now gotten a reboot serving as a sequel to the Madhouse anime, airing in 2016. The reboot's episodes are about ten minutes long as opposed to three. The first season aired 51 episodes and it has now begun its second season.
This manga provides examples of:
- Adaptation Dye-Job:
- Youhei and his parents' hair color would sometimes change in a different story or scene in the earlier volumes of the manga. In the anime, their hair color is completely different, most notable for Youhei, whose hair was orange in the original manga while his hair is brown in the anime.
- Ann the kitten has grey fur exactly like Chi in the manga, in the CGI series, she has much lighter grey or lilac fur. She is also a blotched tabby, like her mother as opposed to her 'mackerel' tabby siblings. This is probably to make it easier to tell her and Chi apart.
- Adaptation Expansion: The anime included stories not found in the manga.
- Anthropomorphic Shift: A subtle example. Chi and the other cats act slightly more human-like in the 2016 series than in the 2004 and 2009 series, though they're still obviously pets.
- Art Evolution: Chi's facial and head design in the earlier volumes looked a lot more realistic
◊ compared to her Anime design.◊ Most notable when Chi's head is turned to a different angle or during a close up in the manga. Chi would later start looking more like her Anime counterpart around volume 4.◊ - Animals Hate Him: Youhei's friend (and the pet store clerk's brother!) Ryu, but he gets better once he gets Chi down from a tree.
- Artistic Age: Chi is said to be three months old yet she and the other kittens look closer to 6 weeks old because of their stylized proportions.
- Artistic License – Biology: Goldfish don't have eyelids. Or teeth, for that matter. Is Flutter part betta? They're the ones with a mouthful of fangs.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Chi can be very easily distracted, being a kitten.
- Author Appeal: Every single one of Konami Kanata's manga are about cats.
- Baby Talk: 'Chi-go' ("Chi-speak" or "Chi language"), which is kept in the English manga.
- Battle Aura: Kuroino, when his territory is intruded on.
- Big Friendly Dog: Cat variation. Kuroino is big and scary, yet after eating her food his instinct is to bathe Chi.
- Bittersweet Ending: Chi is finally reunited with her original family but their reunion is cut short as she has to choose between her original home or the Yamadas as the latter are moving to France and may never return. Chi's mother is saddened by this as she finally found Chi but accepts her decision.
- Bland-Name Product: "Nam's" cat food for "Iam's".
- Butt-Monkey: Mr. Yamada, who tends to get the short end of the stick during Chi's antics and has difficulty in pleasing her.
- Cat Concerto: The 2016 anime has an episode with one, which causes a Disney Acid Sequence.
- Cats Are Mean: Definitely subverted (if not outright averted), since Chi's annoyances are presented from her point of view.
- Cat Stereotype:
- Chi fits the "hyperactive" and "friendly" tabby stereotypes, but Kuroino/Blackie doesn't really fit the "black cat" ones. His are more of a cross between the "orange" and "gray" stereotypes.
- Alice is a longhaired Scottish Fold, and fits the stereotype of longhaired cats being "prissy" and "snobbish." At least that's what it seems like.
- Chekhov's Gunman: In New Address, Tama sometimes reflected on her little sister, who was separated from her. Chi runs into said sister, Hana, in episode 97 when she's trying to find a way back home. She's living with a couple and is a mother now.
- The Comically Serious: Alice is a distinguished pure breed cat and all this kittening is so "under her".
- Commonality Connection: David is a puppy, Chi is a kitten, they bound over Chasing a Butterfly.
- Continuity Cameo: Fuku from Konami's previous work appears in a chapter.
- Continuity Reboot: The 2016 CGI anime has Chi and family living in the new apartment, or one resembling it, but Blackie is still in the neighborhood and acts as a mentor to Chi, while the animals from Chi's New Address are nowhere to be seen. Instead, Chi makes friends with a male kitten named Come-Come, along with a few other, less-frequently-appearing cats like sister and brother pair Ann and Telly.
- Cute Clumsy Creature: There is a chapter in which Chi is exploring her "father's" office. She ends up getting a roll of packing tape stuck to her butt and, after a series of events, the office is a complete wreck.
- Cute Kitten: Chi herself. Many of the other kittens also qualify.
- Cuteness Proximity: The pet shop lady goes into this around Chi.
- Cute Little Fangs: Chi, being a cat, has a prominent pair.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Cocchi/Come-Come is a tsundere kitten who pretends to be annoyed by Chi, but actually loves playing with her. He slowly warms up to Chi at first, but comes a long way and admits to being her friend after she gets food poisoning from eating some rotten sidewalk-chicken. He remains a tsundere, however.
- Down the Rabbit Hole: Season 2 of the CGI adaptation, strangely enough, dips into this with "Fluffyland," a colorful, physics-defying, Seussian world populated by tasty flying fish as well as more dangerous creatures that the kittens find inside of a tree stump.
- Drama Bomb: Episode 103 of Sweet Home; Blackie moves away, leaving Chi devastated.
- Family of Choice: Becomes a plot point at the end of the manga, when Chi is confused on whether to go back to her original litter, or her adopted family.
- Five Stages of Grief: Chi goes through these when Blackie moves away.
- Fun Size: Huge eyes on a tiny kitten.◊ Almost creepy when she's excited, as the pupils dilate.◊
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Chi does this a lot in the original manga. Justified, as she is the equivalent of a very young child.
- Female Feline, Male Mutt: Chi is a female cat, and David is a male dog.
- From Stray to Pet: Chi is a stray kitten adopted by a family. In the manga, it's subverted in that her cat family had owners to begin with, and they've been looking for their lost kitten for a while.
- Gecko Ending: The first anime ended well before the manga did. As such, it doesn't feature the ending from the manga, which involves Chi returning to her original family, but ultimately choosing to live with the Yamadas in Paris. The 2016 anime ignores the manga ending altogether.
- Given Name Reveal: At the end of the manga, Chi's mother reveals that her original name was Sarah.
- Good Parents: Chi's mom is another example. She even saves Chi from being hit by a car.
- Gone Horribly Right: When Chi decides, after being moved multiple times, that she is not moving for the vacuum cleaner again, Mrs. Yamada uses the hose and brush extension on her and Chi loves it. The next time Mrs. Yamada tries to vacuum Chi actively gets in her way in hopes of getting brushed again.
- I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: The pet store clerk towards Chi constantly, even after she learns she has an owner.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Chi and Blackie's relationship is best described as this.
- Irony:
Word of God states that when the Yamadas moved to the pet friendly apartment, they actually moved closer to Chi's original home. In fact, they were separated by a wall. - Kawaiiko: Chi. She's a kitten.
- Licensed Game: Yes, there is a video game based on Chi's Sweet Home which is available for the Nintendo DS.◊ But only in Japan.
- Long-Lost Relative: In the 2016 series Chi eventually meets and befriends her brother and sister, Terry and Ann. However, she still doesn't know they're her siblings and vice-versa.
- Lost in Translation: Some translations use Cocchi not realizing it came from the store owner saying "come here" in Japanese. Other translations use Come-Come instead to stay closer to the original.
- Made of Iron: Chi's mother somehow manages to survive getting hit by a car.
- Mature Animal Story: Downplayed. The manga is seinen and thus aimed at adult men. Despite this, there's nothing "mature" about it. It's just a cute series about a kitten.
- Meaningful Echo: Chi's statement of "I can't see him, but he's there!" is repeated towards the end of New Address.
- Mega Neko: Not as huge as some examples of the trope, but Kuroino is the size of the average dog.
- The Mentor: Kuroino does a lot to teach Chi how to cat.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Downplayed as Kuroino doesn't die, but gets exposed and has to move away with his family.
- Missed Him by That Much: There were numerous times Chi almost reunited with her mother and siblings.
- Mistaken for Toilet: Inverted, where the eponymous cat mistakes her litter box for a "play bed".
- Moving Angst: Inverted. In episode 102, Blackie's owners move away and take Blackie with them. In episode 103, Chi ends up going through the Five Stages of Grief, especially since she has become close to him. However, in episode 104, she comes to the realization that even if she can't see him, he's still there.
- Nearly Normal Animal: Similar to Garfield in that the cats' mouths don't actually move, except for typical cat noises.
- Never Work with Children or Animals: In-Universe; Chi and Youhei (the Yamadas' son) provide most of the humor.
- No Antagonist: With the arguable exception of the landlady, there aren't any true antagonists in the series.
- No Name Given:
- The pet store clerk. A number of the neighborhood cats also remain nameless, despite apparently becoming good friends with Chi.
- Subverted in Volume 12 of the manga. Chi's siblings names are Terry and Ann.
- Youhei's parents are never named either in the original manga and anime. In the 2016 anime, though, their names are Miwa and Kento.
- Not So Above It All: Alice is very prim and proper... until a toy moving fast enough comes along.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Blackie (or Kuroina) is what Chi calls him and he never once revealed his actual name. The humans referred to him as Higumaneko, which means Brown Bear Cat, due to his appearance. Higuma also happens to be the name of the editor's real life cat who served as the inspiration for Blackie.
- Potty Emergency: Chi doesn't get that her litter box is, well, her litter box. Also, a few instances with Youhei. It's interesting to note that the events surrounding this trope is the reason for Chi's name. It's based on the way the Japanese word for "pee" is pronounced.
- Potty Failure: Chi's current name comes from not realizing where to properly pee in the house around the time Yohei was potty training.
- Properly Paranoid: Whenever the family needs to take Chi to the vet or someplace like that they will take her there in a basket with blanket in it. By the time they move to the new place in season 2 Chi is certain that the new home they have taken her to is a bad place, because they carried her there in the basket.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: The landlady, when referring to the "bear cat" (see Episode 87).
- Senior Sleep-Cycle: Cats generally sleep a lot; Fuji-san can fall asleep while addressing the cat meeting.
- Shout-Out: One of the dolls to camouflage Chi was that of Blossom.
- Shrouded in Myth: Fuji-san is the oldest cat in the neighbourhood. All the other cats only dare to talk about his exploits in whispers, and are at awe of his wisdom. Exploits nobody ever saw, and wisdom that generally amounts to observations like "the sky is... blue" which then gets analysed into oblivion by the others.
- Small Name, Big Ego Cocchi, the black-and-white kitten from the manga and OVA.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Kuroino/"Blacky", who is this in tomcat form.
- Toilet Training Plot: Early on, both Youhei and Chi are learning not to miss their respective bathrooms, and both have at least one accident before finally getting it.
- Tsundere:
- Alice seems like a dignified show cat, but loves chasing after things all the same.
- Cocchi/Come-Come from the 2016 adaptation is a completely straight example of a tsundere, right down to his Verbal Tic. Keh.
- Urine Trouble: Chi got her name because she peed on everything but her litterbox when being trained to use itnote . Yohei remedied this by putting a peed-on sock in the litter, and Chi got the message..
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: In the 2016 anime, Yohei's mother hates frogs and freaks out when he brings one into the house.
- Zany Scheme: What Chi's owners have to go through to keep her in their apartment. However, before they finally decided to keep her, they put out advertisements in the newspaper for a kitten. They don't succeed, though.
