With You and the Rain

Episode 6

It's a common myth that cats and dogs can't get along. There are, of course, some that don't, and dog breeds with a high prey drive typically aren't a great mix with cats, but this episode of With You and the Rain depicts what's been my typical experience with mixing the two species: cats will whip the dog into the shape they prefer.

Case in point: when I adopted my current dog, Max, my cat Fiona was still alive. She was eight pounds of terror on three legs, with twenty years of experience in shaping the world to her will, and within moments of Max entering the house and making clear his burning desire to be her new best friend, Fiona had let him know where she stood on the matter. She was much less gentle about it than Fuji's twin's cat, but the scenes of Kimi attempting to win over his new roommate and Kitty's reaction to it still ring impressively true. Kimi may be a raccoon dog, but this is one case where the dog part stands out as more important. Also, given Kitty's reaction to Kimi's excited writing, I'm not sure Fuji's right about cats not being able to read. Why else would they be so invested in sitting on our books?

It's all still part of the delightful falsehood that Kimi is just a regular dog that the series revels in playing with, too. Once again, someone comes close to revealing that he is, in fact, a tanuki (that poor vet), but the true joy here is the way that everyone else treats him. Fuji's twin brother Teru seems content to believe (and act like) his sister's pet is just a regular old mixed breed, although to be perfectly honest, he treats Kimi more like a cat than a dog. The way he picks him up and interacts with him practically screams “cat person,” albeit “cat person whom cats don't necessarily like.” Teru is an almost perfect combination of his sister and his father, with the same basic low-energy affect Fuji has, but the enthusiasm of their dad. Both of these aspects prove a confusing confluence for Kimi, and another fun piece of the puzzle that is his species comes from the fact that Teru looks like Fuji. For most animals, the way he smells would be more important to figuring out who he is; Kimi instead reacts to his appearance. This is nicely offset by the fact that Teru's cat suffers no such confusion when it comes to Fuji versus his person. Granted, Kitty's probably interacted with Fuji before, but it's still a nice difference between the two pets.

Also on point this week is the way Kitty reacts to the new environment. Despite Kimi's welcoming enthusiasm, Kitty wants to just sit on the bureau (built by Teru, so possibly it smells like him) and stare at the closet where Fuji has stored the cat carrier. This is not Kitty's home, and these are not Kitty's people. Everything about his body language broadcasts how aware he is of these facts, even if he does manage, in a very feline fashion, to eventually decide that Kimi's acceptable. And really, Kitty's very normalcy helps to show how unusual Kimi is…for a domestic dog, at any rate. For a tanuki, one with at least a little mythological power, maybe he's just right.

And now let us all hope that someone soon forbids Teru's very pregnant wife from playing with any more knives. Pumpkin carving is good fun, but let me tell you, it is very easy to have your knife or peeler or other sharp implement slip. It's all worth it for the roasted pumpkin seeds, though.

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With You and the Rain is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.