Month: December 2023

Third in this cat manga series. I found this one just as amusing and cute as the others, maybe a little better in the storyline. Riko buys a new videogame and is eager to play it straight through to the end in as few days as possible. So she whittles her schedule down to bare essentials, cutting time wherever she can- especially with sleep. She had forgotten to reckon with Musubi though, who runs around the house at night and then steps on her head super early in the morning, disrupting her plan. Riko goes through her first experience trimming the cat’s claws, and then becomes convinced she needs to bathe him. Both experiences go differently than she’d expected! The cat’s viewpoint on his nail trimming was funny. Musubi looses his favorite ball behind furniture, which sends Riko on a search through the apartment for all the missing toys. (And then he immediately whacks it back into an inaccessible corner again). More gaming time. One scene made me chuckle: Riko is conversing with her fellow gamers in a chat, and Musubi walks across the keyboard, changing her message. Isn’t that exactly like a cat. Riko gets sick and stays in bed all day- playing video games, of course. (One that looks just like Minecraft, but of course has a different name). She has a weird dream where Musubi joins her in the game. Later, recovered and out shopping, she spies a new product- traditional style hat for cats. Even though she’s learned that cats don’t need, and usually don’t like, clothes, it’s too cute to pass up. She tries to get photos of Musubi in the hat, but he protests repeatedly. The final episode in the book is about a new toy Riko gets for her cat- a “kicking bear” the cat can grapple with on the floor. He goes at it so enthusiastically that the thing is soon torn. She attempts to sew it back up, with lamentable results. The cat’s viewpoint on this bit was funny, too. Throughout the whole narrative, Riko relates to everything by applying her gamer terms. I think it fit better in this volume, at least, I enjoyed it more for some reason.

Borrowed from the public library. I’m disappointed I can’t read the rest of these- the series has at least eight volumes, but their collection stops here. (I’m going to ask if they’ll acquire the rest. I like them, but not quite enough to want to buy the set).

These books are fairly simplistic, but quite cute and amusing if you are into gaming (or know people who are, like me). And sometimes you just want a nice, easy read.

Volume two picks up right where the first one left off, with Riko standing in shock at her desk while a co-worker muses aloud who could be the writer behind the cute tuxedo-cat’s social media account. She’s at first insulted that the other woman spies things in the background of the photos to criticize- a mess all over the place, leavings from takeout and video games scattered and stacked everywhere- but then hugely relieved when the assumption is made that this must indicate the cat is owned by a man. As if women aren’t gamers, ha.

She goes home to continue leveling up in her games, while learning more about what her cat needs. When the kitten (named Musubi) interferes with her screen time yet again, she finds a cat game it can swat at on a touchscreen, and then gets into trying to beat the cat at the game. There’s an unexpected visit from Riko’s sister, who is obsessed with earning “likes” on her social media account- and wants photo opportunities with Riko’s cat. Who hides. The sisters argue about some past friction between them, then Riko challenges her sibling to fight her in a videogame, and they dive into that.

Sister gone, she spends more days alone with her cat, then is upset one day after work to find that Musubi has grown enough to jump onto counters and other heights- constantly knocking some of her character figurines off a shelf. She has to figure out how to deal with that, pays another visit to the pet store, and ends up buying a cat tower setup for Musubi. Who of course continues to prefer climbing the curtains or sitting in the box (at least for a while). Riko looks at what other people post about their cats online, and momentarily is convinced she has to get clothes for her cat. She chats with the pet store employee more, and ends up invited to her house to see what that lady provides for her cats. Riko feels uncertain about this invitation, but is determined to scope out an expert’s “personal cat environment,” as she calls it. (The shop employee, for her part, likes talking to Riko but is still often baffled by her frequent use of videogame terminology). Riko is surprised during her visit to see all kinds of things she never dreamed were made for cats- cozy round cat beds, cat flaps in the door and a toy tunnel are all new to her. I share her astonishment at the catwalk up by the ceiling! Like in this house. She balks at all the excess of stuff, but agrees that her cat should probably have a collar with identifying tags. And the book wraps up with once again admiring the cat for his cuteness, even when he’s in the way (sleeping with his head on her remote).

The author used her own cat as a model for the drawings, and you can tell- the proportions, gestures and cat expressions are spot-on. Many of the chapters have a page or two at the end that show things from the cat’s viewpoint- these didn’t add much to the story for me, personally, but that’s not a big deal. I liked all the rest of it.

Yet another cute cat manga series. This one is about a woman who works in an office, and is literally just there for the job. She does it efficiently and immediately goes home to dive into her favorite passtime- video gaming. Especially online role-playing games. She rarely socializes at work, doesn’t talk about her personal life, always refuses offers by co-workers to have drinks or go to events. Nobody knows her. They’re all shocked- herself included- when she spontaneously adopts a stray kitten found in the office parking lot. Riko doesn’t know anything about taking care of cats. It’s a steep learning curve. The kitten is adorable and energetic, and often interferes with her game time- whether distracting her, or actually stepping on buttons- sometimes loosing all the work she’s done. She finds it really frustrating, but can’t help herself falling in love with the kitten. Even starts taking photos of him and shares them online- and then is appalled to discover one of her co-workers follows her kitten’s social media account! I thought that was one of the funniest parts in the book. I don’t know why she didn’t tell them it was her cat, but maybe she’s just so used to keeping everything private, or was embarrassed at the “cat talk” she came up with to narrate the photos. It was also really odd when she started referring to things with gamer terminology in the pet store- I was right alongside that employee, baffled. Funny, though. Not much to the plot- it’s the two of them getting used to each other, daily life kind of thing. I’m not a gamer but my kids and my ex are, so I was familiar with aspects of Riko’s passion. This was a nice lighthearted read. And the drawings of the cat are very well done- especially his face and expressions.

Borrowed from the public library.

Third in this cat manga series. More repetitive recaps, sigh. Nyao muses further about why he turned into a cat, and how to get back, but still makes no progress on actually doing something about it. He’s momentarily shocked when Chika wonders if he’s human in there, because some of his behavior is decidedly un-catlike. For some reason, this impels him to suddenly get into what he thinks is a bunch of feline mischief. (I don’t know why he wanted to prove to her he was a cat, but still, it was funny). He tries to get Chika to brush his teeth, but is misunderstood. He has negative interactions what that other tabby in the neighborhood (mostly through a window). He does some more sleuthing around when Chika’s out- goes to his old school dorm, to the hospital- but finds out very little. Even though in the cat body, he can still read, and is thrilled when one day Chika’s friend is visiting, and opens his favorite manga series. But of course she just gets annoyed with him pawing at the pages. He has to get his claws trimmed which is upsetting for both Nyao and Chika, so she gets him a scratching pad- and the introduction of that is, of course, amusing. More attempts at doing human things, or communicating with Chika, but he only looks cute, with intentions awkwardly misconstrued- which Chika thinks is also cute, and so life continues. More lazy days, puzzling over how to solve his problem, while slowly becoming content with things as they are- being feline and looked after is rather pleasant, after all. Will he give up his desire to return to his old self? This volume seems to be leaning that way.

Borrowed from the public library.

I wasn’t quite sure I’d continue with this series, but glad I did! It got better- might just be that I knew what to expect, but I do think the narrative ran smoother in this one. Not that there’s much plot to speak of- it’s day-to-day life of a cat (that used to be a human boy) with a little bit of his quest thrown in. Really, he seems to forget about it most of the time, and not make much progress at all when he does focus on how to get back into his human body. The re-hash of how it happened continues to show up at the front of every little chapter, which is tiresome, but it also got briefer, so I skipped over those bits.

Nyao continues to struggle adjusting to being a cat. He sometimes forgets and takes human poses, which shocks Chika, but then she just thinks he’s being cute and takes pics with her phone. He’s baffled by the behavior of some neighborhood cats he meets outside, and upset when he gets mistaken for one of them (both tabbies). He gets fleas, and has to deal with the treatment. Chika has to go away for a few days, so leaves him with a friend, who actually likes cats but creeps him out with constant, intense staring. Chika in turn cat-sits someone else’s kitten, and the little one beats up Nyao! (What’s with this?) Nyao is so relieved when the kitten goes home. Nyao misses human food, and relaxing baths- he tries to take a human-style shower as a cat, which don’t work out! He doesn’t know what to do with some cat toys, and is surprised at the trouble his tail can get into. Spends time searching for small cozy spots, high perches to observe from, and ways to help out Chika- repaying her kindness. But his efforts usually end in a mess (amusing). He sometimes attempts to communicate with Chika via gestures and things, but she just always thinks he’s being cute, which is exasperating in an endearing way. When Chika gets sick and has no medicine in the house, he makes another gallant effort to help her- this time with some results, though not the one he expected!

At the end I really though we were getting closer to finding out why Chika lives alone, as the cat wondered that himself, but then the last few pages turned out to be extra material (including drawings by younger fans of this manga, which was pretty cute). So I’ll keep reading.

Borrowed from the public library.