This one drops your blood pressure about twenty points. Makoto Kobayashi built What's Michael? on a single unfair advantage: he actually watched cats, so Michael the tabby sits, stretches, and refuses like a real animal even while the gags go completely stupid around him. The 1988 OVA runs on vignettes instead of plot, which means no arc to track and nothing at stake beyond whether the humans in Michael's orbit get through the afternoon with their dignity. All that late-80s cel work spent on feline body language rather than spectacle is the whole flex, and it lands. Put it on with anyone who has ever lost an argument to a housecat, and watch how fast they start narrating along.
Michael the orange tiger cat is back with another set of comedy vignettes. Among the sketches is a three-part parody of The Fugitive, the famous 1960s TV series, in which Richard Kimble is now a veterinarian on the run after being falsely convicted of a murder committed by "a man with overbite." Danger is everywhere, yet he cannot help stopping whenever he spots a suffering cat, and the cat is always Michael. Once the patient is treated, Kimble plays a trick on the cat and runs off, since he is a fugitive after all. Another sketch compares husbands who wander with house cats who wander, suggesting the two share similar habits. Two more show what happens when a cat's instincts clash with the demands of baseball and pro wrestling.
