A TV anime (stylized みかん絵日記) loosely based on the manga was produced by Nippon Animation and ran from October 16, 1992 to June 18, 1993 on CBC Television, TBS and other JNN affiliates.

Tom, an orange cat, the protagonist of the story, had to leave his home after his owner had died due to illness.

Shocked at first, the family gradually adopted a more welcoming attitude, and finally accepted the fun-loving cat as one of them.

From then on, Mikan got on numerous adventures in the human world as a talking cat, which was kept secret by the Kusanagis.

Apart from the typical slice-of-life stories, the manga also had some pure fantasy chapters, where Mikan and his gang, through various random means, got into different worlds of magic and dragons.