Cat Paradise vol.2

There's totally a T-Rex in this volume!

In this volume, several demon animal things infiltrate the school by possessing the bodies of students, and most of this volume involves Yumi and two of the student council members trapped in the library without their cats (thus, unable to fight) with a girl possessed by a spider demon. Outside of the library, Kansuke encounters an enemy as well (a werewolf-ish fellow) before trying to go after Yumi.

It's about as enjoyable as the first volume. With introductions out of the way, it's right down to business, and the business with the spider girl ends up taking the whole volume. The one thing that bugged me about the first volume is that they dropped this whole team on us, the student council, but we didn't really get to know them that much. But judging from the last story in the first volume, which focused on Kotori, and this volume, which focused on Akifuji and Tsukasa, we'll learn more about them and their powers as they each get their turn at bat. But until then, they're kind of just background people. By the end of the second volume, there should have been decent screentime for the whole group, but there wasn't, really.

But, this volume is still a good time. Even without their powers (until later in the volume), the action is still pretty suspenseful. I could see Tsukasa's power coming from a mile away because of something that happens early on, but I wasn't quite expecting it to manifest in the way it did. I loved that the characters' reactions were exactly the same as mine when the T-Rex appeared; I said "What the hell?" and then saw the spider was saying it too...it made me laugh. So that was fun. The new characters, the group of possessed students, are an interesting addition as a sort of rival group to the heroes. Each one is a different animal (spider, wolf, snake, etc.).

The art is as solid as last time, with some cool action shots throughout. I want to see more of the cast in the next volume, and also hope they don't spend the entire next volume on one enemy. Not there's anything wrong with that, just that there's only three volumes left!

Cat Paradise vol.1

I've never read any of Yuji Iwahara's work before Cat Paradise, but I'd heard nothing but good things. While his past stories seemed to be a bit dark, this is straight up action/adventure fun.
Yumi is a new student at Matabi Academy, and like many other students, her main reason for going to this school is that they allow cats on campus. We soon find out that a demon cat is sealed somewhere on the school grounds, and that the student council and their cats watch over it. Yumi and her cat, Kansuke, soon encounter a demon and gain their own power similar to the student council members'.

There's well tread ground here, but Iwahara obviously knows it. In the author's comment section, he says he was aiming for creating something that felt like an anime, and I'd say he hit his mark. Ancient sealed demons, students fighting monsters, a mysterious student council, seven "chosen" kids, etc.; it's all fairly common for anime. The twist in this scenario is the fixation on cats. Each student/cat pair has a unique power based on some aspect of their personality (Yumi creates costumes for Kansuke which turn him into a humanoid cat person). Their powers also allow them to communicate with cats. There are plenty of pet owners who dress up their pets, and Yumi is no expection, so when Kansuke finally gets to talk with her, it's funny to finally see an animal get to complain about being forced to wear clothes. In addition to Yumi, we get to see one other student council member's power in this volume.

There's a kind of silliness to the story's underlying premise, but that's what makes it fun. The other thing that make this series worth reading is the art. His art actually reminds of Eiichiro Oda's (One Piece), not in his character designs (they're nothing alike), but in the thickness of the linework, and the way that he uses parallel lines for shading instead of screentoning. Except in Iwahara's case the shading sometimes stands out a bit too much, and can look a little weird. Here ,for instance, Yumi's tongue and neck just seem a bit odd (click to enlarge):


Otherwise, I really like his style. I'm no cat expert, but it seems Iwahara put in the effort to make the cat's breeds all look distinct and like real cats...or as real as is art style would allow. There's also a touch of Disney to the way he draws the cats, but maybe that's just me. I loved this small little gag where they're in a library and Kansuke has the sudden urge to scratch a book for no other reason than the fact that he's a cat. The way he looks at Yumi as he's about to do it is just cute. It's something a real cat would do:


This manga is fun in the way something like Digimon is. You know it's silly, but you can't help but get wrapped up in it. Your mileage may vary, but I'm looking forward to more. And if you want your shonen fix, at 5 volumes, this is a good alternative to other, more epically-sized series.

Nabari No Ou vol.1

From the basic summary, this might sound a lot like another series. Boy ninja with a secret power sealed within him. With two teammates, a boy and a girl, one of whom has someone they've vowed to kill. And a silly teacher to mentor the three of them? Yes, Naruto. But really, that's as far as the similarities go. Miharu Rokujou has the Shinra Banshou sealed within him, a secret art that can grant one's desires, and many in Nabari (the secret world of ninjas) want that power for themselves to become Nabari no Ou (king of the hidden world). Ninja action ensues. However, Miharu doesn't want anything to do with this world, whatsoever.

A, perhaps, slightly better comparison would be Harry Potter. Ninjas (instead of wizards) exist in the modern world alongside everyone else, though normal civilians are oblivious to their existence. Miharu (Harry) is taken out of his regular life and discovers that he (well, the Shinra Banshou) is known to everybody who's a part of this secret world, and is in danger because of that.

This is an action/adventure series, but one of the things that stood out to me the most was not the action, but that it's pretty darn funny. Every chapter had at least one moment that made me laugh out loud, and the main character is the reason. To put it simply, describing Miharu as apathetic is an understatement. There's a line in the anime's opening song that says (in English) "I don't care, I don't care, I don't caaaaare", and I know exactly who they're talking about (he's Pierre!). In one scene where his teacher is making a heartfelt speech about protecting Miharu, we see Miharu's thoughts are "Sensei's words" being skewered by his "indifference". He's also a bit of a trickster, often using an uber-bishonen face to get what he wants (after which he is usually depicted with devil horns). That's one of my favorite gags, actually; Kamatani (the mangaka) knows her audience and that Miharu is fangirl-bait, so Miharu himself using that aspect of himself to his advantage is just hilariously clever. The rest of the main cast is just as entertaining, each with their own silly traits.

The actual meat of the book isn't comedy, though. I just wanted to touch upon it because it stood out to me. As for the rest, there's a good balance between the amounts of action and story (I'd say there's a bit more story than action). Considering this is a ninja story, I expected a bit more action. There is a fair amount of it at the beginning and the end, but the middle chapters are more plot and character oriented. For a first volume, it does a good job of setting up the world and planting the seeds of what's to come (in terms of villains and such), we even get an interesting revelation in the latter half of the volume. The middle section is lighthearted, but it's not all fun and games, as it takes a darker turn near the end.

Art-wise, it's solid, though not great. This is just the first volume so I'm sure it will improve as it goes on. (She could also work on making people look their age; there's one scene where Miharu's grandmother looks like she's in her 20s for goodness sake!) Most of the character designs are appealing, especially the designs involving Miharu's power. When it activates, his body is covered in kanji-like writing, and it just looks great. Some of the characters are a bit on the bishonen side, but not in an off-putting way. The action scenes all flow well and are pretty cool so far, especially near the end; in the space of one chapter all four main characters get involved in a very exciting fight, each getting a moment to shine.

The main cast all seem interesting except for one weak link: Kouichi. Miharu, Tobari (their teacher), and Raimei (samurai girl) all show signs of having a larger story to tell as the series progresses, but Kouichi is the only one who's just...there. He doesn't really have any role other than being another member of their group. Hopefully Kamatani will be able to give him an interesting role in the story.

As for extras, there's a couple of gag strips, a character profile, and a preview of volume 2. I also want to mention the physical quality of the book. I'm no expert on paper quality, but the paper felt fine, not as in "adequate" but as in "luxurious"(although that might be too strong a word for paper).

On the whole, I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would. At first, I thought it'd be a series I'd only casually read, something to read while waiting for, say, the next Bleach volume. But now here I am super excited for volume 2 in October. The long wait is understandable, though, since the volumes come out slowly in Japan as well.

I saw several episodes of the anime a while back, so I have an idea of what direction the story takes, and I remember enjoying it, and I'll probably enjoy it more in manga form as this volume showed me. This volume left me with a lot to look forward to. It looks like it will be quite an enjoyable shonen series. The concept might not sound that original, but sometimes execution matters more than originality, and this book is proof of that. This is my first Yen Press book, but it looks like I might become a regular customer, especially with some other interesting series approaching.