Dekiru Neko wa Kyou mo Yuuutsu

I continuously asked myself "What the hell is wrong with this anime?" while watching this anime. The animation is so absolutely ridiculously good that it's confusing. They aren't animating anything that needs that much detail. This show rides and dies on its dialogue and comedy, which is does very well. And this show would have still gotten a very high score without having the quality of animation it had. But right off the top, every little movement of the characters and their environments is so detailed and deeply-imagined that I was constantly replaying scenes to catch all the details.Little stuff like the way carrots roll, or the way rain hits an umbrella, they're so insanely well-animated in this series. It feels like the writing and plot would have made the series a nice tasty slice of cake already, but the animation just makes it like galaxy mirror cake. To find out that this came from the same studio that made the absolute abhorrent trash that was Hand Shakers is just amazing to me. I hope they can continue to put out stuff which caters to a more mature audience. I recommend this anime to anyone who likes saccharine comedies, who likes cats, or who likes ridiculous animation for scenes that do not require it at all.

Dekineko is the best GoHands show of the season. It’s a wholesome, cute and fluffy watch that while simple, is not lacking in impact. It’s a beautiful story of a girl and her cat, a tale as old as time itself. With some gorgeous animation, a touching story and arguably the waifu of the season, it’s a must watch for any slice of life fan or cat lover. Dekineko is essentially a way better “Senko-San”. While we’ve seen these types of stories with an inept adult who’s taken care of by a magical spirit before, Dekineko is unique in that Saku subverts some common tropes. Insteadof it being a guy who’s useless with things around the house, it’s a beautiful woman who literally can’t do anything besides getting drunk and practicing martial arts. The unique take on the set-up makes for some really hilarious situations. To the outside world, Saku has everything figured out and is the ideal “high-spec” senpai who anyone would want to marry. In reality, she’s only able to put on such a strong front for the world because of the support that Yukichi gives her. While the two often buttheads, it’s undeniable how much love they have between them. The wholesome dynamic and mutual sense of appreciation between Saku and her cat are palpable. I mean seriously, can you imagine cleaning up after someone every single morning, afternoon and night? That’s real love. We all need a Yukichi. Saku also happens to be one of the most relatable characters I’ve seen in anime. She is the personification of a young adult trying to make it in this world and it’s easy to see yourself in her. Obviously things are played up for laughs and dramatized, but there is a degree of realism to her that few characters capture. Sadly, we don’t all have a Yukichi to care for us. Many will praise the gorgeous art and animation and point to that as a reason you should watch this, and while true it does have some amazing production values, I think that’s selling Dekineko short. It’s a good anime simply put and the straightforward, but effective story can stand on its own merits. The daily adventures of Saku and Yukichi are so fun to watch. It’s stories like these that remind us of what’s important in life. As long as you come home to people that love and appreciate you, you’re living a great life. Endearing moments like Saku calling Yukichi on the phone because she misses him and his cooking, or thanking him for putting up with her incompetence just work so well in this one. It’s truly fluff in the best sense of the word. Airing on Fridays after a long week was a perfect spot for this one. Saku and Yukichi are the heart of the story, but there’s some really good side characters in this one as well! Saku’s manager and co-workers are awesome and I loved seeing them praise her the whole time not knowing Yukichi is behind her success. Lots of really funny scenes between all of them. There were some subtle romance hints between Saku and one character that I wish would have got explored more, but when you got someone as good as Yukichi at home, how could you date someone? When all’s said and done, Dekineko should go down as one of the best slice of life shows of the year. Film like production values, a waifu of the season candidate in Saku, adorable slice of life moments and a heartwarming plot that you can’t get enough of. Simply put, this was like anime crack and I want it injected straight into my veins, asap. A brilliant watch. Dekineko gets 9 out of 10.

Dekiru Neko does something I think is a death sentence in most shows: constraining one of the main characters into a singular room nearly all the time. Several shows did this, the most recent that I remember being isekai Ojisan, and all of them get so stale due to the lack of scenes and variety that comes with the almost suffocating lack of room for any sort of creativity to create new scenes. However, Dekiru Neko kept me hooked for the whole 13 episodes. The charm is already apparent in the first episode, introducing Fukuzuawa being exasperated at having such a big cat that cancook and clean. The pilot episode doesn't feel like an info dump and instead serves to show the close relationship between Yukichi and Fukuzawa. And this relationship is obviously what carries the show. Both characters are cute, and the slice-of-life scenes of their mundane relationship living together in an apartment are just nice to watch. It reminds me of Minami ke in terms of transforming day-to-day activities into something fun to watch. The character archetypes are pretty typical, but the show clearly has something that other shows just don't get right. Even a typical scene of Fukuzawa overeating Yukichi's meals and getting fat, and Yukichi and Fukuzawa's subsequent attempts at slimming down become something that's actually fun to watch. Fukuzawa is slothful by nature. She's entirely dependent on her cat of all things, to cook, clean, and do all household chores. Yet, she's also nice, and kind and loves her cat, which is why Yukichi deals with her. Yukichi, the cat is more bitter and acts like he doesn't care about Fukuzawa at all, but overall finds joy in his life housekeeping the home and keeping her healthy. There are a few points that elevate the show. Of course, the main takeaway of the show is Yukichi maintaining his persona as a cat. While he's a big cat that's got human-like intelligence, he never talks. He empathizes and loves Fukuzawa and Fukuzawa does too, but he's...a cat. Indeed, if he could talk and was a regular guy, this show might have been a regular slice-of-life romance show. But the show never does that. There's no actual romance...after all, Yukichi's a cat. Fukuzawa doesn't have a boyfriend and there's practically no talk of romance when it comes to Fukuzawa, and nor are there any love interests of particular note. Instead, it's just a big old bitter cat that lives with Fukuzawa. Fukuzawa's voice acting also carries the show. Her voice isn't too high, the comedic moments are well executed, and her complaining tone hits just right whenever she vents to Yukichi. Yui Ishikawa, the VA for Fukuzawa carries the show, especially since Yukichi doesn't talk outside of his monologues. This means that Fukuzawa is basically monologuing to herself half the time. There are a few things that hold the show back. Yukichi's backstory is shown 100 times in order to save the show budget which interferes with some of the pacing, but the more important thing is how the animation is just okay. The backgrounds are clearly done in CGI in some parts and they actually look pretty good, but the character animation, facial features, and overall fluidity are a bit rigid. It's not terribly bad and it doesn't take me away from the show at all, but if the animation was superb, then this show would have ranked much higher. I almost forgot to mention the soundtrack. Again, normally soundtracks in these types of shows are just "there." The OST fits in as background music and emphasizes the scene and that's about it. However, the standard for the soundtracks in the show are just abysmal. I understand that the show wanted to be a bit different and introduce some synth, chill, electronic vibes but honestly, it just sounds like AI generated garage band music. It's terribly generic and actually distracts me from the dialogue and scene sometimes for how jarring and awful it sounds. Some parts of the OST are much better than others, but overall, this experimentation with the OST was a definite failure. Fukuzawa and Yukichi carried this show as the two --and basically the only characters--main characters of the show. However, there are a few side characters that could have been expanded upon. It's a shame since it's not like there weren't any side characters to be taken advantage of: the show merely focuses on Yukichi and Fukuzawa and leaves little for the other characters to have their own screen time. These complaints are merely nitpicks, though, and really don't take away from how fun to watch the interaction between Fukuzawa and Yukichi.

I went into this anime having watched the other GoHands animation that came out recently not even knowing it was by the studio, and immediately recognized the style in the first episode, but once that logo popped up, I knew my eyes and entertainment was going to be in good hands. What can be said that hasn't about this anime is that many people take shows too seriously, much like they do in real life, and this show isn't meant to please any of those people. Instead, here you will find a story for a seasoned veteran in Slice of Life who wants a comfy feel-goodshow in this tragic day and age, and it does a damn good job at ticking every box for how you make a completely void of any true negativity anime. First you have the lovely character, Saku Fuzukawa. With not only perfectly medium-is-premium character design, but also a great and close to home personality. It goes without saying that she should be the standard. She's really nice, good with kids and loves cats. What more could you ask for? Speaking of cats, of course, the star of the show, Yukichi. How could you possibly design a human-like cat any better? We all know cats are secretly fed up with us humans, so he hits all the spots for what a cat may think to itself when having to deal with one. However it is important to note that as the show depicts, the reason this cat much like others decide to stay and take care of their owner, is because otherwise they'd have a huge inconvenience of finding a food source. All in all character design is great, the story without spoiling too much really goes into the details of a cat's mind, and honestly it may be one of the most life-changing anime this year.

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