Chi's Sweet Home

Now Playing - Chi's Sweet Home: Chi ga ouchi ni yattekita!: Track 5

Whassdat?

Chi's Sweet Home is a manga series created by Kanata Konami, originally published on the seinen magazine Morning. The series contains 12 tankoubon volumes, two anime adaptations (one from the late 2000s and the other is from the late 2010s), one OVA, one manga spin-off and a videogame.
The story is about a baby kitten who gets lost from her mother and siblings and ends up being found, taken care of and then adopeted by the Yamada family. Each chapter revolves around Chi's perception of the world around her, sometimes learning more about herself and others, others times she just does mischief, on pourpose or totally unaware of what's happening.

Why did ya like it?

Chi's Sweet Home has became one of my favorite mangas due to a bunch of reasons. A cat manga wans't something I ever saw before and since I have interest in cats, I decided to pick it up.
I really like how everything in this work feels. Reading it makes me feel I'm reading a magazine in 2012 at the afternoon.
I really love how everyone interacts. I love how Chi interacts with the Yamadas, how she interacts with Blackie, Cocchi and basically anyone. Seeing how acurate she acts according to cat owners is awesome too!
Funnily enough, sometimes I find Chi pretty relatable. Like, the way she looks around and such reminds me of, well, me in a way.
In many ways, Chi's Sweet Home just warms my heart. Even if it has a pinch of drama, everything is just pretty cozy and I love it a lot!

Characters

(as of chapter 146)

Chi Yamada: Chi is a baby kitten who got lost from her family. She is an energetic and curious kid, who doesn't fully understand the world around her, which can create a few misunderstandings to everyone involved.

"Mama": Chi's biological mother. The last time she saw her was before looking up at the sky...

Yohei Yamada: Son of Mr. and Mrs. Yamada. He found Chi laying on the park after falling right infront of her. Yohei is a smart and kind kid, who is attached to Chi. It's even pointed out that it's almost like they're siblings! Chi calls him "Yo-he".

Mr.Yamada: Yohei's father. Mr.Yamada is a kind man who, sometimes, is the target of Chi's bites and scratches due to taking her to the veterinary and such, but dispite that, he tries his best to get Chi's affection. Although, sometimes, Mr.Yamada seems kinda clueless to the nature of cats. Chi calls him "Daddy".

Mrs.Yamada: Yohei's mother. Mrs.Yamada is a kind woman who can be a little stric and has to deal with Chi's antics while taking care of the house, but dispite that, she looks for Chi's well being, even if it can be kinda stressful. Chi calls her "Mommy".

Blackie

/ Gato Preto (Black Cat) brazil

/ Kuroino ("the black one") japan

: A big black cat who met Chi when invading the Yamadas' backyard. Even though he looks serious, and even a little intemidating, Blackie has a big heart of gold, taking care of Chi while she goes along with him and also trying to make her happy when she is scared or down. The Yamada family refers to him as "The Bear Cat".

Cocchi: A street cat who met Chi while she was exploring the park. Although he puts this "serious" atitude, Cocchi is actually as energetic and as mischievous as Chi, often playing along with her when she goes out.

Juri/Jully brazil

(?): Yohei's cousin. A very energetic kid who loves animals.

Landlady: The landlady of the Yamadas' first apartment, who doesn't allow pets in the area.

Yasuko Akashi: Lucky's owner. She is a generous and chill old lady.

Lucky: A parakeet with the hability to repeat what the others says. Even though he is a small bird, Lucky is brave and bold, and doesn't fear Chi's attempts of killing him. Chi refers to him as "prey".

Saori Ijuin: Alice's owner. An author of illustrated books, her pseudonym being "Yume Hanabatake". She is calm, but also a tad distracted.

Alice: A proud, classy scottish fold longhair, who can't control her feline instincts sometimes.

Kazuya Furukawa: Mii-chan's owner. A lively old man, who loves to travel around the world with his wife, and brings odd objects as gifts when coming back home.

Mii-chan: A quiet holland lop. What she is thinking about is a complete mystery.

Yuuki Kusano: The youngest child of the Kusano family, who is seen taking care of David. A simpatic kid that loves to pratice sports. Has trained David a few tricks.

David: A loyal beagle full of energy. He is a little clumsy, but means well. Chi is scarred of him at first, but she seems to get along with him when noticing he can't hurt her. Chi refers to him as "the woof-woof".

Mike/ Tia Carey (Aunt Carey) brazil

(???): A gentle calico cat, but her memory isn't one of the best. She knows where Chi's mom lives. Chi refers to her as "Auntie Calico".

The image above is my favorite panel as of chapter 146. Kanata's art style can be so cute and silly and also so beautiful every single time! Even the most simplest panels have such amazing charm in my opinion! I was planning to every panel that I liked from every volume I own and just after hitting over 200 pictures I noticed that probably isn't necessary for a shrine (I'm also sure I could explode someone's computer pretty easily because of that). But this one in particular has made such an impression on me ever since I saw it the first time. Also, one thing I love from the tankoubons is: they are colored! The only other manga that I've seen that is colored to the beginning to the end is Rohan at the Louvre. Of course that comes with the cost of being kinda pricey when compared to other manga, but I think it's worth it. The color in Chi's Sweet Home compliments even the smalllest things so well that it feels like it belongs there!!

Chi's Sweet Travel is a section that appears at the extra pages of some of the volumes. It was a marketing strategy that displayed photos of a Chi plushy in various parts of the world, to let Chi be know worldwide. Chi's Sweet Travel is normally paired when talking about the manga's translations, such as Chi's business trip to Paris when talking about the french translation and also her trip to New York when talking about the english translation. Volume 7's extra pages also acknowledges that the manga was published in Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Spain and China.

Unfortunally the pictures show in the manga are just a small chunk of a whole collection! The rest were available at it's own webpage! Volume 5 and this article shows that it's original url was "www.e-1day.jp/chisweetravel", but latter on Volume 7, it's displayed as "http://morningmanga.com/shisweetravel/" ("shis" is very likely to be a typo), suggesting that Morning's website changed at some point. Both of these sites are currently down, but luckily the a few links have been archived on the Wayback Machine (Look at the "website" column in this page), but that doesn't mean that it's left in a good state. It seems that the pictures were show as a flash file and no matter what I do, I can't make it load! The only flash thing that works in this webpage is an interactive map, however, clicking any of the locations doesn't bring you to other archived pages, so it doesn't fully work as intented. If you have any idea how to save flash files, and maybe even some that seem lost to time, I would be very glad! Chi's Sweet Travel is thecnically a important part of Chi in my opinion. Not only it's said to be pretty famous at the time, I think how CSW was pretty open about it's translations, which is something I don't see much with other manga, so it's cool to see a special section entirely about it! Wether it's important or not, I think these pictures should be archived for newer fans to see!

The following pictures are from the brazilian editions of volume 5, 7, 8 and the animenewsnetwork's article, in that order. Just pass your mouse on the images and read what it says! (I'll update this if I find more)

I really want this plushie!

This Chi plushie is the one used in Sweet Travel. It's very likely this is one of the first Chi plushies to be ever conceived!!
However, unfortunally, it seems this exact model isn't produced anymore, as I can't find any online to buy and I fear that when I find one it's going to be, like, a million dollars or something (- -;;)
I've searched even in japanese, but I still haven't found any other human being owning this plushie, which makes me want to have one even more! Everyone has their own "Mob Dick", right? Well, this one is up there for me, I'm pretty sure!
Hey, a little tip to indentify the "No.0001" or as I like to call it: "Sweet Travel Chi", is by the hair in Chi's ears. Like any other cat, Chi has hair in her ears, and the way it's represent in this plushie is pretty unique and I haven't found any other one who has done the same: Chi's ear hair is white!

Websites!!!!

Chi's Sweet Travel e-1day

Chi Anniversary Bookcamp e-1day

CSH Official Morning Website

CST Morning Website

Interchannel's website, the publisher of the DS game

Koneko-chi.com, the website for Chi's Sweet Vacation

Chi's Sweet Adventure (Anime):

Chi's Sweet Adventure is the second anime adaptation of the manga, this time with a 3D CG look. It started airing in October 2, 2016, one year later after the manga's ending!
In terms of informations, this one is in a weird place, since I can't find much about it online even though it's actually really acessible. I'm gonna do my best to explain it with the tidbits I've managed to find.

Koneko No Chi: Ponponraa Daibouken/Season 1

From what I understood, this seems to continue the events of New Address, but some events from that anime aren't mentioned (my guess it's the "anime original" episodes? That isn't explained that well). Unfortunally I can't find more information besides of that. I mean, it's cool people are technically seeing the characters that didn't appear in the last anime, but I'm not sure if it tries to adapt those chapters, or if it does it's own thing.

Koneko No Chi: Ponponraa Dairyokou/Season 2

This season contains a totally original storyline written by Kanata herself! I've only found that it has "travel" as a theme, but not much explanation after that. Maybe Chi and Co. and exploring other places than the usual neighborhood? I dunno and I can't promise anything, but at the very least, this might be the closest to an official sequel I think.

Koneko No Chi: Ponponraa Natsuyasumi/Chi's Sweet Summer Vacation (Season 3)

This season 3 is an Original Net Animation (Aka ONA), instead of being made for TV broadcasting like the other seasons (I learned this recently, actually), being available on Netflix.
The premise is: Mr.Yamada is asked to go to Okinawa due to his job. After a family meeting, it was decided the whole family would go on this trip, including Chi.
I remember to read somewhere Kanata wrote this season's plot as well, but I can't find where I saw that, so take that information with a grain of salt.

You're probably questioning yourself "If it's so easy to watch then why didn't this guy do it?". Well, I'll try to explain that.
Truth be told I first got to know about Chi with this series, but, to be honest, I only watched the beginning of the first episode and stopped. "Why?" you ask? Well, there is a couple of circustances.
Season 1 and 2 are available to watch on Amazon Prime, which is a platform that I have strong opinions about and I think it's better to not have it. The only way I watched it, in fact, was using the account of someone I knew. They actually got the account for free with their TV, so they firgured it wouldn't be a problem.
Besides that, I ended up avoiding this series because I didn't really liked the style. Maybe the first episodes are rougher around the edges, but I didn't like the artistic vision they where going for (Just to be clear I got no problem with CGI anime, but just like digital and handraw stuff. It just depends on how you use it). Of course, now that I learned season 1 and 2 were made to pass on TV and they are not "Amazon Original", I'm more forgiving of it and now I think it does look good sometimes, but I do have to admit some models look kinda weird, especially with the Yamada family.
Hopefully season 1 and 2 will be streamed on Netflix as well (I'm not saying Netflix is better than Prime, but it is the one I have)... or they will appear in some anime site online eventually, whatever it comes (or I find) first!

Kyou no Koneko no Chi/Chi's Sweet Adventures (Manga):

Kyou no Koneko no Chi, also called "Today's Chi's Sweet Adventure" by it's subtitle in the japanese version, but more commonly know by it's official english title: Chi's Sweet Adventures (yes, with a "s" at the end) is a weird spin-off manga.
At first, from what I could gather, this was a webmanga that later got an physical release. Like Sweet Adventure (without a "s"), the story was written by Kanata herself, but you can see very clearly that the art isn't hers. A person that goes by Kinoko Natsume is responsible for the art (as well as some part of the story, but I don't know which part exactly) and aside this manga, it appears they have worked as an artist and character desingner for a light novel and it's manga adptation, respectively. It seems Kinoko left the internet since December 10th, 2019, a day after publishing their last artwork to the internet. A rough translation of their last tweet is "fox ears are a good thing", likely in reference of their last drawing: a fox girl in a kimono, with a katana and two other foxes along with her. I have no idea if Kinoko simply left the internet and the art world in general or if they just go by some other pseudonym. Whatever it is, I hope they are alright.
Sorry for getting side tracked now, let's talk more about the manga itself.
Since one could already assume this is inspired by Sweet Adventure (without a "s"), but it's honestly unclear if any of the anime original stuff was ever adapted (yes, we are talking about an adaptation of an adaptation), as the only in-depth review I could find describes Sweet Adventures (with a "s") as a retelling of the original manga with a 4-koma structured, and even stating that they "Have no idea why it's advertised as an adaptation of the new TV series" as it doesn't bring anything new to the table.
In my opinion it's an unfortunate Sweet Adventures (with a "s") is just a shameless remake of the original, as I'm the sort of person that likes 4-komas even if this sort of genre is pretty basic. I guess this was supposed to make some extra cash while the new anime was, well, new, but I'm honestly not sure if Chi was as famous as she was for this to happen and even if she was, it's still confusing.