Genre: Shojo? Kind of?
Length: One Volume - 3 Chapters
Art style is older shojo, the faces aren't particularly expressive and the clothes are plain; people are very varied, though. Backgrounds were half and half, and when they were there they looked good enough but they weren't special just mostly trees or walls. Now, the animals, which are a major part of this manga, look very well done in both realistic poses and cartoonish ones. All the cats look really good, the dogs are little less realistic but are still very cute. That goes for the action of the animals, too, its all very natural looking.
When he was small Ryuuichi found a box of abandoned kittens in the rain and took them home to take care of them. The biggest he named Cesar, who, it turned out, was not just any kitty but a great and terrible lion. The two form a special bond and begin growing up together. Cesar has grown in their past six years together, grown and grown and grown, but she just can't seem to be fierce and graceful like a cat should be. Ryuuichi told her he always wanted a cat like a lion but somehow Cesar is a lion who doesn't want to act like a lion. I've read this manga before but I had no recollection of it and I think I know why, Wild Cats is completely unremarkable. Let me set this up: it is a pet's perspective manga with a lion. A LION. You'd think that'd make it memorable but it somehow misses the mark, its just 'blah' all over from art to story to character. Its redeeming factor is it's humor, you can't help but laugh at a huge lion acting like a spoiled house cat. Cesar herself, especially in the last chapter, is so very cute and lovely that you sympathize with her instead of the person actually afraid of the beast. Yet Ryuuichi is no where near as interesting as his pet, probably because he never thinks about that fact that he owns a lion and lets it roam around town freely. The best chapter is the last one, the middle chapter has very little to do with the lion at all and the first is just so predictable that its a chore to read. Maybe as a grown up I can't immerse into the story because I know the dangers of having a large cat as a pet, usually you or someone else gets maimed and the cat is put down, so this story about a boy who picks up a lion mixed in with regular kittens is cute and novel but its also disturbing. There are no consequences for this pet lion living in the middle of a town and no one even bats an eye that its happening. Again I shall repeat: it seemingly roams around town freely with out anyone caring! Even if you can get over that, the disjointed story is a put off, too, its really more of three one-shots about the same characters than a comprehensive book. If you like outrageous shojo stories it could be worth the read but barely so (this coming from a cat maniac!). If it was crazier I'd like it more but instead all you get is disappointment.
2.5/5 Cute but ridiculous and not in a good way
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