Rann:  Before we get into it, we must first establish just what your vulnerability is to cute.

Oh sure, you may think you’re a big tough manly-man. You may watch Sarah Connor Chronicles just on the off chance they show Summer Glau naked again. You may claim you only watch Star Trek for the hot alien babes. (Or, alternatively, that you watch Star Trek and don’t give a fuck about the hot anybody.)

But… do you find your browser wandering towards Cute Overload? Maybe even especially when you’ve had a bad day? When you’re ticked off, do a few lolcats ease your anger?

If so, realize that you’ve been dealing with the gateway drug of cute. While these sites have merely been the pot that has primed you, settling you in to this life of illicit use, Chi’s Sweet Home waits in the wings, the first episode inviting you to pick up a spoon and a tricked-out lighter to get into the real stuff.

Of course, if you have no problem with just being up front and saying “I love cute stuff”, then you may as well just start selling your stuff and trying to find a vein you haven’t destroyed.

If you’ve ever seen the infamous raunchy humor series Ebichu, a good way to describe Chi’s Sweet Home might be to say that it’s Ebichu‘s good twin. Usually in these comparisons you call something the evil twin, but, well, while Ebichu takes the appearance of cute and adorable and turns them on their head for the most evil, ridiculously funny and utterly wrong laughs it can, Chi’s Sweet Home really is pure innocence and light.

It follows the life of the titular kitten Chi, from the day it becomes separated from its stray cat mother and through being adopted by a family. Both Chi and the family have some adjusting to do, as Chi spends the first few days randomly remembering “I’m going home!” (and of course almost immediately getting distracted), and the family keeps trying to find someone else to take Chi in because their apartment doesn’t allow pets. But as if anyone was seriously going to turn this away:

We’re given Chi’s internal monologue, but unlike Garfield or various other “talking pet” shows, it’s clear that the humans of the show have no such insight. Chi’s thoughts are purely for our benefit. And really, they’re about what you’d expect from a kitten: “This is fun!” “I found a neat thing!” “Something smells yummy!”

Now, thirty episodes in one night may sound like some sort of epic, time-defying marathon, before I of course oh-so-cleverly and smugly reveal that the episodes are two minutes or so long each, minus the insanely adorable opening song. I headed over to Boxtorrents (a kinda so-so signup-required site for torrents of complete anime series, soundtracks, and artbooks) and found the first 104 episodes, and they weigh in at just over two gigs or so. The series is also widely available on YouTube, and can probably be found on other torrent searches as well.

Basically, Chi’s Sweet Home is just the prescription for you if pure cute helps you perk up after a crappy day. If you are too tuff and kewl to like cute stuff, it will cause you to sneer and probably make snippy youtube comments that Youtube Snob will insure I never have to see. But just because I’m interested in giving you the first hit for free, here’s the episode someone else gave me to get me started. Take a few minutes, find a vein, and let’s do this thing.