My Roommate is a Cat

Episode 12

I'm not sure My Roommate is a Cat could have set itself up for a more pulse-pounding finale than having its Best Girl go missing! As Subaru makes his way home by bullet train after his cancelled flight, Haru is frantic, wondering why her owner never came home at night like usual. She's scared by the stormy weather outside, remembering how the thunder terrified her baby brothers when they were strays. Haru still believes she needs to "protect" Subaru, and wonders if he got lost in the rain too. So when Hiroto comes over to feed her and can't close the door, Haru makes a run for it.

I've had a few of my cats get out. My cat Louie often tried to escape at night, which wasn't great because he was all-black and thus, hard to see. Luckily, my cats were indoor boys who didn't get much further than hiding under the car. The worst was when Casey got out in the winter, when there was snow on the ground; we found him a couple of hours later behind the house, but the cold temperatures had made him sick with pneumonia. (He recovered, thankfully.) Subaru's in a trickier situation because unlike my spoiled housecats, Haru knows the outside world. She's more like my cats Ziggy and Jonesy, who the shelter found roaming the streets of Baltimore before we adopted them. Luckily, neither of them ever tries to make a run for it.

Subaru is already in a weird mood from confronting his past, and that was before the stressful interruption of bad weather. The last thing he needs is to worry about losing Haru. Both Subaru and Haru react the way they do because of they're both afraid of loss and still hurting from the losses they suffered before they met each other. Subaru even has a brief flashback to losing his parents, knowing he couldn't take it if Haru died too, and he was already worried about her in the way pet owners often get when they're on vacation. (My stepdad says he "misses the cats" if we're even out of the house for a few hours!) It's a good thing Haru has outdoor survival skills, but it also means she's able to get further from the house.

We spend the first half or so of the episode switching between Subaru and Haru's perspectives as they chase each other down. Haru nearly falls in a creek trying to find him—but then she hears his voice on the other side of the tall wall she can't quite scale. She cries out, and Subaru reaches out to her….but predictably, falls too, landing his butt in the dirty water. All I could think about in this moment is how immensely uncomfortable that might be, but Subaru is more struck by being reunited with his cat, having her in her arms. There's a moment where she licks away his tears that might be one of the single sweetest this adorable show has ever given us. It was a foregone conclusion that My Roommate is a Cat would bring them back together, but it doesn't make it any less heartwarming when that moment finally comes.

Luckily, Subaru's friends are there to rescue him, and both of our lost souls make their way back home. I like the way that every one of their human pals ended up being important to this mission. Hiroto went out looking for Haru near home, Kawase held down the fort, and Nana gave Subaru some essential advice about where a cat like Haru might go and how he can attract her to specific places. It ties in nicely with the final message about how much Subaru has grown as a person due to his life with Haru. She's not only brought him closer to the people he already knows, like Kawase and Hiroto, but also helped him find new friends like the Okami siblings. He realized that he wasn't "disconnected" from other people, cut off from any chance of getting closer, so much as he hasn't found the courage to reach out yet. Haru helped give him that courage. As Subaru says near the end, "Since I made that connection with you that day, my world has grown bigger and bigger." My Roommate is a Cat reveals how pets can make us better, kinder, friendlier people. There's even research to suggest that kids who grow up with cats and dogs are more socially well-adjusted. It helps to have someone you look out for at an early age who will love you unconditionally, without the social and cultural judgments that come from humans. This gives us the confidence to know we are worthy of love and friendship, so we can bridge those other gaps with the people in our lives.

That's what will make My Roommate is a Cat stand out for me in its genre. There are plenty of great anime and manga out there about cats and cat-ownership, from Chi's Sweet Home to Junji Ito's Cat Diary, and as a cat-lover I've read and watched a whole bunch of them. But My Roommate is a Cat might be my favorite, because of how it nails the human side of things. Haru was obviously the most lovable character, but Subaru really grew on me throughout this series. His social anxiety was far too relatable, leaving me cringing right along with him as I remembered similarly awkward experiences in my life. Watching him grow in confidence over the course of the show was so heartening. There was a special joy in this episode watching him come full circle, planting the indigo seeds from Tokushima in a full-blooming garden and beginning work on his next book series. The theme of "family" ties a beautiful little bow on this show, but also makes me want to learn more about what he'll write about the subject!

My Roommate is a Cat ends on a perfectly satisfying high note that will leave many viewers feeling sated even if it never gets another season. But I find myself wanting more, or at least for someone to license the manga. (Please!) It feels like Subaru and Haru's story is just beginning. It's reached a nice cadence over these twelve episodes, but there's so much more ahead of them. This finale especially used the dual-perspective trick better than any before, jumping back and forth throughout the episode in a way that left me on the edge of my seat to see how each event would be different through the other's eyes. It left me feeling a little sad that this is the end, unless another season is announced.

But if we don't see that day come, here's one more cat picture of my family's newest addition, Coco, just so our whole feline family gets a moment in the spotlight. I'm crossing my fingers for even more of this special show someday.

Rating: A

My Roommate is a Cat is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rose is a Ph.D. student in musicology, who recently released a book about the music of Cowboy Bebop. You can also follow her on Twitter.