The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today (Dekiru Neko wa Kyō mo Yuutsu) is a Slice of Life comedy manga written and illustrated by Hitsuji Yamada. The manga began serialization in Suiyōbi no Sirius in 2018, and was later picked up in Monthly Shōnen Sirius as well in 2021. Seven Seas Entertainment publishes the manga in English with 9 volumes released. An anime adaptation produced by GoHands aired as part of the Summer 2023 season for thirteen episodes.
Three years ago, Tokyo salarywoman Saku Fukuzawa adopted a black cat and named him Yukichi. In the present day, Yukichi still lives with her—but not only has he grown to an enormous size and learned to walk on two legs, he's also highly intelligent and is the one who takes care of Saku rather than the other way around. While Saku heads off to work, Yukichi is placed in charge of looking after her apartment, buying the groceries, getting any mail for her and cleaning the place to make sure it's nice and tidy by the time she gets back.
Although Saku does wonder from time to time why Yukichi isn't an average cat...
The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today contains examples of the following tropes:
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: While Yukichi doesn’t have much need for clothes, he’s often seen wearing an apron around the house. He also has a sanitary apron for trips to the supermarket, to avoid shedding on the produce.
- The Alcoholic: Saku drinks a lot. She's show to habitually start drinking as soon as she's off work and apparently has on multiple occasions gotten herself drunk enough at a pub that she needed help getting home.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: If Saku hadn't taken Yukichi in, he would have frozen in a snowstorm. He started looking after her in return, and has been ever since.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Saku is comically incompetent at housework, but surprisingly adept at self-defense.
- Dope Slap: In a flashback, when Saku got so drunk she couldn't make it home her boss assisted her in getting back to the apartment. Yukichi bowed in thanks to Saku's boss, then slapped Saku for causing trouble with her drinking.
- Driving Question: Why is Yukichi now a highly intelligent, bipedal Mega Neko? Why was he not an average cat?
- Elephant in the Living Room: Yukichi is a bear-sized, bipedal cat who goes outside to handle errands, but anyone who sees him can't work up the nerve to ask what's up with that. In the end, they either wilfully ignore it or just assume Yukichi is someone wearing a cat fur suit.
- Funny Animal: Yukichi the cat straddles the line between this trope and Intellectual Animal; he's practically a human being in most of his behavior and even walks on two legs, but cannot talk and has a few cat-like hang-ups. He has a few internal monologues where he describes his occasional dissatisfactions with life, cynicism about humans and Saku in particular.
- Furry Reminder: Despite his size and intelligence, Yukichi will sometimes do things that remind everyone that he is a cat, such as getting hyperfocused on a fly buzzing around the apartment or choosing to wake Saku up for work by sitting on her face.
- Hand Signals: Since Yukichi can't speak, he has to rely on using various signals to either approve of what Saku wants to do or make his displeasure known.
- Idol Singer: Umyuu-Sea, a sea slug-based idol group that holds fan events at the local aquarium. They also have a sentai-esque edutainment show on the learning channel, which is how Yukichi came to be a fan.
- Lethal Chef: Yukichi learned to cook, in part, because Saku can barely crack an egg. Fires might also be an issue, considering she bought an extinguisher and a welding mask for cooking lessons.
- Mega Neko: Yukichi is as big as a full grown human and as smart as one too. Why he's that way is the Driving Question of the series.
- Mistaken for Badass: At the office, Saku is considered a role model — she's beautiful, hardworking, can cook and bake her own food, Never Gets Drunk and seemingly immune to hangovers. The joke is that she can't explain this is because her giant cat is taking care of her. That said, her Action Girl self-defense credentials are legit.
- Mundane Fantastic: Yukichi is able to fit into modern society with very little issue, and is a fixture at the local supermarket. While Saku tries to keep him secret, almost no-one else seems to care.
- Renaissance Man: Or Renaissance Cat, since Yukichi's got good reason to call himself "masterful". His talents range from cooking to sewing to carpentry to topiary.
- Shout-Out:
- Yukichi sometimes refers to himself with the archaic pronoun "wagahai", which alludes to I Am a Cat (whose main protagonist, also a cat, refers to himself with the same pronoun).
- Saku dreads seeing Sazae-san air on TV in its usual Sunday evening timeslot, since it reminds her that she has to go to work the next day.
- Supreme Chef: Yukichi's known to be a good cook after Saku adopted him. It's also one of the few reasons why Saku seems to be healthier than in the past when she was formerly a slob.
- Trash of the Titans: The state of Saku's apartment before Yukichi took over the housework.
- Tsundere: Unsurprisingly, Yukichi is one as a temperamental cat. His inner monologues frequently criticize Saku for being a drunken Manchild at home, and insists their relationship is transactional — he takes care of her, she works and brings back cat food — but flashbacks frequently show that Yukichi has seen Saku's nurturing side, and is forever grateful for being adopted by her even when she could barely look after herself.
