User Reviews

"Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko: Everything Flows" or "She and Her Cat: Everything Flows" is an anime mini-series from Japan that is also in the Japanese language. It consists of 4 episodes of 8 minutes each and every episode includes roughly 90 seconds of credits, so you can watch the entire thing in about half an hour. This one is based on a Makoto Shinkai short film from 1999 that goes by the name of "Their Standing Points" and this one is actually under 5 minutes long, so shorter than an episode of this one here which makes obvious that story-wise they really have virtually no parallels at all other than being about a girl and her cat.

I think in this one here I liked episodes 1 and 4 the most overall. I also think the anime style / animation is really well done and it is a beautiful sight. The story seems to be taken out of every day life as the young woman struggles with the relationship to her family (mother), struggles with her professional career, struggles with the search for an apartment, so just struggles with life in general. I found it somewhat refreshing to see anime for once that feels so normal, without Sci-Fi, without fantasy, without action etc. It's really easy to make a connection here. This is of course especially a good watch for people who love both anime and cats, not just because the male cat is the narrator too and his constant talk about imperfection also adds nicely to the film's general tone. It's a really slow and at times very bleak movie.

And as a consequence, I also found it a really melancholic, almost depressing watch at times. It somehow really emphasizes strongly the transience, the impermanence of everything really, not just because of the ending (before the epilogue). So this is absolutely not a film you want to see if you are in need of something uplifting. I believe that pet owners (not just cat owners) will resonate with it especially. It is not a chronological film at all as there are long flashbacks in the second and third chapter. The flashback to the cat's own past somehow irritated me as I felt the cat was really always just means to the story of the girl, even the cat's death and rebirth at the very end. This part with the mother cat and other kittens did not fit in at all in my opinion and was really just a cheap attempt at evoking emotion I felt. But the very end was handled nicely again too and actually it also means the other kittens are all reborn. But yeah, the ending works especially well in the face of the title's reference that everything flows, also when it comes to the circle of life starting anew, almost too happy actually with the girl not only finding a way back into life, but being reunited with her soulmate in the form of a cat. This was a really good and deep watch that will make you feel a lot of things, but it's not a comedy by any means, not for a second, so don't say I haven't warned you if the majority you feel when watching this one is rather unpleasant. But by now, you really should have understood that this film is nonetheless success and delivers quality from start to finish. I recommend the watch. Thumbs up.