Cat + Crazy vol. 1

High schooler Kensuke Fuji has a problem:  He absolutely loves cats, but isn’t allowed to have one of his own.  So he spends most of his free time observing the strays in the neighborhood, particularly a calico one named Tamako.  When Tamako goes missing, this brings Kensuke into contact with her owner, Jin Nekoya, who is the master of everything related to cats.  A genuine cat whisperer, you might say.  Kensuke is immediately taken with Jin’s capabilities and begs the man to take him under his wing and teach him everything he knows.  Meanwhile, regular high school girl Koharu Yamada takes all this in and wonders how she got involved in this kind of craziness in the first place.

“Cat + Crazy” is the new series from Wataru Nadatani, the mangaka behind “Cat + Gamer.”  That series had its charms if you liked cats (like I do) and were also a gamer (like I am), but even I’ll admit that it was pretty slight in terms of storytelling, jokes, and character.  I wasn’t expecting much more from this series, but was pleasantly surprised by what I got here.  Jin’s eccentricities help give this series a lot more personality and comedy while squarely fulfilling the mentor role to Kensuke.  Our protagonist, while being a little on the bland side, is still pretty enjoyable to follow as he learns about cats and puts that knowledge to use in interesting ways.

Koharu, on the other hand, gets the short end of the stick here as her purpose here is to be the straight woman to Jin and Kensuke’s antics.  She at least works well in this role, establishing a baseline of realism that they can buck up against with their antics.  It looks like that’s going to be a full-time role for her as Kensuke’s journey barely gets started here, and the fact that he’s actually on a journey of cat discovery gives this series more momentum than “Cat + Gamer” ever had.  I’m honestly surprised that series did well enough to convince Dark Horse to stay in the Wataru Nadatani business, but after this first volume I’m glad they did.