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.
