Itou Junji no Neko Nikki: Yon & Mu by Junji Itou

That post title looks a little like a palindrome, doesn't it? I had a hard time choosing which pictures to choose for this manga, so there is a little too many of them. I just couldn't help myself.



Itou Junji no Neko Nikki: Yon & Mu (Ito Junji's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu) by Junji Itou

Length: One Volume – 10 Chapters
Genre: Comedy, Seinen, Slice of Life

...and this color picture, too

           This manga is by a prolific horror mangaka, and the art style is played up even further for entertainment purposes in this comedy manga. As I said the last time I reviewed Itou Junji's work, the art is practiced and well done from every angle. The creepy and

unsettling look is very unique, as well, and the realistic way every thing is drawn just adds to the atmosphere. Surprisingly, it lends very well to the comedy of it all and allows for super dramatic movements for the cats and captures the strange things you do for your pets in a real-to-life way. The cats' faces are the best part, no question, but the over the top way he caricatured himself and his former-fiancee-now-wife are also lots of fun and creepy for no reason whatsoever. You quickly adjust to it, anyway.
           A horror manga artist's comedic depiction of his learning to love living with cats, and all of the furry creatures' strange ways.
          When I read Black Paradox, I sort of swore off this artist because I simply didn't care for that story at all, or the way it was written and so didn't feel in the mood to try another of his work. On the other hand, I really like cats and the humor of Black Paradox worked for me. After looking at it several times and debating I decided to go for it and read this. I do not regret it at all. Its completely understandable and the humor does hit. All the embarrassing and scary things that his cats did speak true and had me laughing out loud a few times. The oddly horrific art meeting the mundane mischief of the two title cats is a blend I wasn't sure I'd

like, but it works so well it adds so much more to the stories. Mu, the fluffy one, is so much like my own cat (who was sleeping on my chest while I was reading and who is currently laying across my forearms as I type this) that I enjoyed it all the more. A big part of the plot is how unused to cats the author is, so he looks like a fool trying to understand, and, and simply get to like, his new roommates. Things like having to have his brand new house spoiled by their claws and items to protect against them. Its also about trying to understand why cats act like they do, and how much that effects the owners. The looks the two human characters give each other out of jealousy because one cat or the other is showing favoritism is just so perfect, even if it is twisted into inhuman form by the horror-style art. And I do mean twisted. The cats are the stars, though. Yon has such an atrocious face at times and at other times he's perfectly normal that the personality is so easy to understand. Mu is the cuter one but the way he's so likable but suddenly will bite, and how normal it is, also is super realistic. There's not really a continuous story, as its short tales of how different life is when pets share your house, but for comedy manga its pretty well cohesive. Its so funny how much people will do for their pets and how much they simply seem to be undermining your entire system of living that this manga could probably go on and on and not lose any of its humor. I'd like to see more of the pair, for sure.



5/5 Fun with cats and horror art.