Sunday, March 26, 2023

A Man and His Cat, Vol. 1-3

A Man and His Cat is a Japanese manga series; the writer and artist is Umi Sakurai. This comic started out on Twitter, self-published on Twitter; then it was a webcomic before being published by Square Enix Manga. Since it is a manga, I had to get used to reading the story from back to front and from right to left on the page. I am still working on that. I have now read three volumes in the series.


In the first volume, a widower, Kanda, seeks a cat as a companion, and finds his perfect match at a pet store. The cat is a large exotic shorthair and has been waiting in the pet store for an owner for a year. The man falls in love with his new cat and names him Fukumaru. 

The stories in the first volume are mostly about Kanda learning to live with and take care of a cat. The second volume continues along the same lines, but also provides some hints to his life with his wife and flashbacks to his childhood and continues to emphasize his love and enjoyment of his cat.  

In the third volume, I had hoped for a bit more about the man's marriage and his children, and that is what I got, just a bit. There is more about his work life, his love of playing the piano, and the people he works with. Some earlier relationships in his life are explored.

Each volume is short with not a lot of text. The stories are very sweet, sometimes a little too sweet, even for me. Many of the short chapters are centered on the cat, and I think it helps a lot if you like cats. I do, so the books work well for me.


I look forward to the next volume. Per Goodreads, there are now 10 books in the series. I plan to read at least one volume a month.

I read these books for the Japanese Literature Challenge hosted at Dolce Bellezza. There are other reviews for Volume 1 at Dolce Bellezza and A Fondness for Reading.



16 comments:

Cath said...

Japanese lit is not really my thing (at the moment but 'who knows?') but I do enjoy your posts about what you're reading. I'm not sure I could get used to reading from back to front and right to left so all power to your elbow for getting there at all. These sound like charming books.

Jerry House said...

Reading just one book in this series amonth makes it sort of a Meow Mix, doesn't it? (Sorry. I couldn't help myself.)

pattinase (abbott) said...

I love fictional cats and dogs. But have no experience with the real ones-allergic to cats especially. This sounds like a real challenge-which I guess it's supposed to be and congrats to you for being open to learning new ways to read a story.

Margot Kinberg said...

I'm impressed, Tracy, with the way you've learned to read in a whole new way. That takes time and practice and effort! The stories sound appealing, and that's an interesting way to explore the relationship between people and the furry family members in their lives.

TracyK said...

Cath, with Japanese literature I think it depends on the author and the genre. I have mostly read mysteries although last year I concentrated on general fiction. The Keigo Higashino mysteries are mostly traditional mysteries, not thrillers. A couple of other authors from the 1950s and 60s are the same. But I have read several other current Japanese mysteries that are very noir or thrillerish. And you always take a chance with translated fiction because the translation can make a huge difference.

Lark said...

I love the illustrations of his cat on those three covers. He's very cute.

TracyK said...

Jerry, I will have to remember that, a Meow Mix. I am spacing them out because we will be buying them, so spacing out the expenditure, but also because I want to make time for other graphic novels. I would really rather read them all at once.

TracyK said...

Patti, it is a challenge to read from left to right, and I am still working on that. My son has loaned me two other manga to try, which I think have much more text. And a friend in Stockton (retired librarian) is a fan of graphic novels and manga and has suggested several other series to try.

TracyK said...

Thanks, Margot, it is a different way to read. I often have to reread graphic novels anyway, because I sometimes don't get the story the first time through. These are even more of a challenge, even though the stories are much simpler.

TracyK said...

I agree, Lark, he is a cute cat, even though the books describe him as ugly (comparatively). The cat had trouble getting adopted because of his looks. I like the illustrations in the books, although some of the facial expressions (for the humans) in manga confuse me. The features are exaggerated to emphasize emotions.

Todd Mason said...

I first read manga in the early '70s, but Charlton Comics made it easy for their readers by putting the panels in typical Western left to right sequences (in such horror comics titles as HAUNTED), and posting the English translations of the text at the bottom of the images (IIRC) in the manner of subtitles (as I've seen in other translated comics since).

With the stereotypical reserve of Confucianist cultures, I think the excessive facial expressions and constant exclamations in at least some comics and animation (and live drama) are meant to further heighten comic (in the sense of humorous and/or absurd) aspects of various works (happily, this isn't true of every work of manga or anime).

TracyK said...

Todd, I read comics as a child, but in the 70's I wasn't reading comics. My husband and I did not get back to comics until the late 80's and the 90's. I never got into reading manga, although my son did for a while. Right now I have a good number of graphic novels that I haven't read yet.

Todd Mason said...

Indeed, I think I read my first comic book (what I suspect to have been a DC sf comic my parents bought for me) in '69 or '70, when I was four or five years old, and my first height of reading newsstand comics (and what issues of NATIONAL LAMPOON I could cadge) came around 1974/75, then tapered down to MAD and similar matter (including some better, such as Walt Kelly's POGO collections, Trudeau's DOONESBURY collections, and Jules Feiffer's strip collections and the like) by '76-'77, and I didn't start reading more widely in comics again till the early/mid '80s, when Fantagraphics and DC/Vertigo really started catching my attention, though, a little earlier, I thought, say, Pacific Comics' versions of Michael Moorcock's fantasy fiction were impressive enough...never really cottoned to HEAVY METAL, though Ted White's year as editor, after he left prose magazines FANTASTIC and AMAZING, was more interesting than what I'd seen before or have since. Always did like newspaper strips (at least the better ones), and what would pop up in the likes of CHILDREN'S DIGEST and BOY'S LIFE when I read those as a kid, as well.

TracyK said...

Todd, my father loved Pogo. Probably mostly in comic strips in the paper, but he may have had some collections.

When I was young I liked Little Lulu and Mighty Mouse, then the Archie Comics and Katy Keene. We came back to the Archie comics in the 90s. But lots of other stuff too. Batman, Spider Man, and various independent comics. The only names I can remember are Flaming Carrot, Concrete, The Tick.

Jinjer-The Intrepid Angeleno said...

Oh gosh! That is a very cute cat!!!!

TracyK said...

I agree, Jinjer. A very cute cat. And the story is nice and comforting.