NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES Vol. 1 (Uchi no Pet Jijou Vol. 1) is Animal Herb’s debut eroge title released back in April 2022. Based on the doujin series with the same name by Yano Mitsuki, it follows the protagonist as he navigates his new life with his pet Mint, the half-animal, half-angel girl that he picked up on the side of the road. The game is a visual novel featuring a linear storyline, with sprites that make use of Live2D to emulate simple movements and lip-syncing for the heroines.
The name NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES doesn’t really leave much to the imagination, does it? It reminds me of the hit eroge series NEKOPARA with how it embraces the universal love most of us have for cute, animal-like features on adorable girls. Top it off with mysterious, supernatural characteristics such as angel wings and devilish charms,and you have the classic formula that most MMO junkies’ characters probably adhere to as their aesthetics bible! It’s a pretty simple package that’s effective at pulling in suckers like me to give the game a try and experience what it offers for myself. These kinds of things, however, are already par for the course. There’s a ton of titles out there that feature cute girls with their own unique charms that probably get the same amount of attention for similar reasons. What does NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES have that’ll make it stand out?
Let’s join Mint and the gang as they spread their wings and try to show us a hell of a good time in their own special pet situation!
Feeding Stray Cats to Turn Them Plump and Healthy!
NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES Vol. 1 starts off with the nameless protagonist, who we’ll call Master for our own convenience, as he walks around town reflecting on his personal journey as a college student. The commonplace scenario immediately gets turned over its head as he notices a girl lying down in front of his apartment complex, seemingly collapsed from hunger. As he thinks about what to do with the situation, he notices some unusual features on the girl: white, cat ears protruding from her head, an accompanying cat tail, and a small, but visible, pair of wings on her back. She’s anything but ordinary. Regardless, out of the goodness of his heart, he offers the girl food back at his place to help deal with her grumbling stomach. Although she initially refuses, she eventually caves in and follows him to appease her own hunger.
After eating, she introduces herself as Mint, a Cherubim from Heaven who just so happens to be half-animal, half-angel. She shares her current predicament of being exiled from Heaven, which prevents her from doing her job as an angel properly. She was tasked to look for a certain item before being granted permission to return, which she had been faithfully doing up until she crashed from exhaustion. Not wanting to leave her alone and risk the same thing happening again, Master offers his own place as a temporary refuge for Mint as she finishes her heavenly mission. And just like that, he gains a new, hyperactive roommate to bring some much-needed energy to his day-to-day life. Little did he know that this meeting with Mint would become the trigger for a series of encounters between himself and the supernatural.
What kind of life will Master now lead with the mysterious Cherubim Mint? Only Heaven knows!
The Ebb and Flow of an Angelic Catgirl’s Whims
The premise of NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES’ first volume is simple enough: the protagonist meets a beautiful angel lady with cat ears, he helps her with her mission in some form, they get together romantically, and we throw in a few other cute girls into the mix. This romantic development between him and Mint happens surprisingly early as well, which sets a precedent for a lot of the interactions he has with the other characters in the game and his own motivations. Naturally, this makes the overall narrative of Volume 1 heavily centered around Mint and her struggles alongside the complexity of navigating a relationship with a heavenly being. As a concept, it’s pretty interesting when taken at face value, and has a lot of potential to blossom into a story that’ll stick in the readers’ minds. I was pretty excited to see where they would take the whole heaven-hell shenanigans beyond simply being added physical features that accentuated the heroines’ charms.
Unfortunately, I found the flow of the story a little bit too random. Through the inclusion of additional characters like the half-demon Lily and Mint’s sister Cacao, NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES does establish important details that eventually come together into a sensible conclusion, but the overall timing of its reveals alongside the lack of stakes undermines the overall emotional impact of the plot. It felt like, for the most part, Master wasn’t exactly a strongly motivated character and was simply being swept around by the heroines’ whims. Ironically, the whole point that the game was trying to get at mostly felt like the background to what otherwise is a pretty cute slice of life romantic comedy between Master, Mint, and their two troublemakers. Instead of complementing its supernatural aspects, the underlying plot makes it more complicated than it should be, which sours the experience.
Blessings Come in Threes
NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES Vol. 1 features three main heroines that Master interacts with: the sweet and innocent Cherubim Mint, the charming and seductive demon Lily, and the strong-willed and crude little sister Cacao. Mint’s your typical overly sweet girlfriend who will send you straight to insulin treatment, Lily’s the devilishly cunning side heroine who will steal you away if she finds you faltering under her charms, and Cacao’s that refreshing taste of bitterness that cuts through all the sugar with the way she treats you like dirt under her shoe. For a visual novel which takes only a few hours to complete, having these three heroines that each cover different tropes in visual novels makes for a pretty well-rounded cast without the risk of overcrowding the narrative. It’s a pretty well-balanced dish that can appeal to most potential readers.
When it comes to the game’s heroines, I couldn’t really think of anything that I inherently disliked about them. Most of my grievances about their roles, which ultimately circle back to the lackluster integration of its main plotline into the overall narrative, don’t really coincide with how they are characterized. They’re generally very lovable; their charm points, while very much inspired by common tropes in the medium, are unique to each of them. It makes them stand out from each other beyond their character designs, which helped me better appreciate them during times when they have the spotlight for themselves. This gives the cast an overall chemistry that I thought worked really nicely, even with Master essentially being a self-insert character.
Oh Heavens, Look at the Finer Details!
Despite how well I think they handled the conceptualization of their characters, I can’t help but feel that given the lack of a clear direction in the plot, NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES’ first volume actually struggles with utilizing its supernatural elements. The heroines, in all their cuteness, actually barely reference their own otherworldly stature outside of what the plot deems necessary. Sure, they give us a glimpse of their powers in specific scenarios within the story, and we also have a bit of animal ear touching and wing touching, but beyond that, as Master repeatedly states himself, they don’t really feel different from what a normal human heroine would be. Of course, you can conclude that this is precisely the point that allows the cast to come together as a group despite their fundamental differences, but it feels more like a missed opportunity for something more unique that they could have explored.
To give credit where it’s due, they actually do have some scenes where I felt that their otherworldly status actually gives them enough precedence to say specific lines that I found quite poignant. In particular, I found Mint’s views on relationship building and Lily’s monologue about our limitations as individuals pretty well put, deriving inspiration from their natures as an angel and a demon respectively. Even Cacao has some pretty good moments too. But without stronger character backgrounds or a more inquisitive look into what kind of things make angels and demons uniquely themselves, it leaves much to be desired as a story element beyond their aesthetic function.
Does the Sacrament of Marriage Apply for Cherubims?
Against all odds, NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES Vol. 1 is technically a love story between Master and Mint. All of the characters that are in the game acknowledge this as fact, and (usually) respect their boundaries as a couple. That’s why, for the most part, a lot of the flirting in-game involves the main couple themselves. And that’s fine! They go on dates, they share expectations with their partners, and they have heartwarming moments where they hug and kiss each other innocently and all. Mint is an incredibly vanilla heroine, and I almost feel like going back to church with how pure she makes the entire thing feel.
If there’s any problem with how they present this romance though, it’s definitely with how they treat the sexual involvement of Lily and Cacao as inconsequential to their relationship. Mint’s treatment of Master when he ogles other girls, alongside Master’s own conviction about Mint being his girlfriend and refusing to cheat on her, strongly imply them being exclusive. However, a few times throughout the narrative, he does do construction work with the other girls. As in he jackhammers them. And despite Mint’s knowledge regarding these encounters (one of which she literally participates in), they never really talked about it as anything serious. For a visual novel that places strong emphasis on their exclusive relationship with each other, it just felt awkward to not have any conversations regarding these encounters, aside from Mint’s jealousy being considered comic relief. A shame, as without a proper discussion on exclusivity, it trivializes the boundaries of their relationship narratively.
Playing with Supernatural Cats
Continuing on the topic of sexual encounters, NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES features a respectable number of adult scenes that are directly inspired by their counterparts in the original doujinshi series. They also cover a pretty wide array of genres despite being limited to only five total, which helps with keeping each scene interesting, even though it might feel a bit condensed given the short runtime of the game. Depending on which version you purchased, you might have to download a separate R18 patch, which is easily accessible through Denpasoft’s website. Of course, you have the option to not download it at all and settle for heartwarming variations of the scenes in question instead, but honestly, if you’re picking up this title fully knowing what kind of audience it caters to, you should just slap that bad boy in the game’s directory already and enjoy your otherworldly fun time with the cute girls.
Although I’m very much a fan of the visuals they had for these scenes in the game, I found it a little bit off-putting when taking into consideration the context of the overall narrative. Forgoing the earlier segment on inconsequential sexual encounters with the other heroines, Mint’s own perception of her relationship with Master is a little bit weird given how she acts after they become one for the first time. She acts all shy and reserved when it comes to flirting with Master, and even hesitates to give him a kiss on the lips early on, even though they’ve been climbing the stairs to Heaven the night before. With how open she generally is in terms of pervertedness and whatnot, it’s just a little bit out of place given her usual tendency to spoil Master. Perhaps due to the inherent problems its narrative flow has, it stands out a little bit more compared to how it would fare in other similar titles.
Art and Music
NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES Vol. 1 features a total of twenty-three unique CGs, not including variations, with six of them depicting sexually explicit content. For a debut game that has a pretty short runtime, it’s a pretty respectable amount. The main artist for the title is Animal Herb’s Yano Mitsuki, who is known for their work on the original doujinshi series of the same name as well as a number of well-known Eushully titles (Kamidori Alchemy Meister, Amayui Castle Meister, Wayblazer Dämmerung). Mitsuki’s art is incredibly high-quality; their use of big, brightly-colored eyes that have irises with unique shapes embedded into them make for heroines that are irresistibly cute. The petite, youthful style of Mint and Cacao oozes sweet, sweet innocence that plays well into their respective quirks, while Lily’s mature demeanor, coupled with her childlike face, captures the two-sided character she sports as the resident demon.
The use of Live2D to emulate motion for the sprites also accentuates the cuteness of the heroines. Some rigs, however, such as Lily’s and Cacao, do feel a bit uncanny with how much motion they sometimes have. They casually sweep through like half of my screen at times without really needing to, which distracts me from the ongoing dialogue. There’s also a weird frame cap in my game that limits the motion to thirty fps, which makes wide-sweeping motions look super laggy against the static background. There’s also the odd appearance that the sprites sometimes have due to how the eyes sort of move independently from the body without properly adjusting, but it’s a minor complaint compared to how much the Live2D improves the overall charm of the heroines. It’s a great addition for this type of visual novel.
As for its sound direction, NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES Vol. 1 sports a total of 11 tracks, which isn’t half bad. I didn’t feel like any of the tracks were particularly great, but they did the job well enough for the scenes they were used in. None of them felt out of place. In terms of voice acting though, the voice actresses they picked to play the roles of Mint, Lily, and Cacao were honestly incredible. Mint had a really soothing, high-pitched voice that reflected her youthful and innocent demeanor really well as she played the main girlfriend role, while Lily felt like a charming yet friendly woman who knew what she had to offer and kept teasing me about it. Cacao, admittedly, was probably my favorite performance because of how well she was able to deliver her crude voice lines and still portray her young, angelic characterization. I wouldn’t be afraid to tell you that being called a “pig” by her felt oddly comforting after the first few times, enough for me to wish that the game had a “save voice” function so I could listen to it whenever I wanted to. Don’t go around telling others I said that though. Overall, the art and sounds are really well done, which is impressive for a debut title like this.
Verdict
NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES Vol. 1 (Uchi no Pet Jijou Vol. 1) is an interesting start to a series that portrays animal girls with supernatural flairs. Banking on concepts such as mortality and the presence of heaven and hell, it tries to tell a heartwarming story about romance that transcends common conceptions of worldly boundaries. Featuring cute and attractive characters, each veiled with their own degrees of mystery, it presents a pretty interesting premise with a lot of potential for strong, impactful storytelling.
Despite its strengths, however, NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES Vol. 1 bumps into a familiar problem that a lot of similar titles encounter: a lack of clear direction. Although the overarching plotline is clear and actually resolves itself rather cleanly, it is compromised by a narrative flow that doesn’t seem to know when to introduce key story elements without disrupting its abundance of slice-of-life scenes. This ultimately undermines the emotional impact of its conclusion, which does a disservice to the appeal of its whole supernatural motif. In the end, the product feels a little bit confused about what it wants to be, failing to fully capture its strengths and missing the opportunity to capitalize on its potential.
Given its price point, I can only really recommend NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES Vol. 1 if you’re already well-invested in visual novels that feature similar heroines or generally cute, simplistic storylines. It’s definitely a feel-good title at its core, and while I generally liked what I got from it, it felt a little bit lacking in terms of what it delivered. If the character designs, the Live2D element, and the general synopsis look interesting enough to you, then by all means! Give it a try. But for other people who are just looking for something to read, there might be something else out there that’ll be a bit more to your liking. Perhaps a future sequel can find what this title missed out on.
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Thank you to Sekai Project for providing a PC review code for NEKO-MIMI SWEET HOUSEMATES Vol. 1.
Visual novel reader that wishes there were more than 24 hours in a day. Gacha victim, TCG enjoyer, and VTuber simp. Still trying to live happily.
