The Fall 2023 Manga Guide

My Cat is Such a Weirdo

What's It About? 

Staring at you at night, putting their butts on your face, getting stuck in a box... Based on a popular blog, this full-color manga shares the everyday silliness of living with cats.

My Cat is Such a Weirdo has a story and art by Tamako Tamagoyama. Published by Seven Seas Entertainment (October 31, 2023).

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

I don't think any publisher puts out more cat manga in English than Seven Seas. I'm surprised they don't have a feline-specific imprint; catboats are a thing. Of course, this isn't a complaint, and My Cat is Such a Weirdo is a delightful little full-color book. In this case, being full-color is a major selling point because, alongside the drawings of the two cats, Ton-chan and Shino-san, the creator includes photos of them and the two cats her parents had, Shiro and Tora. Not only is it always a bonus to see kitty pictures, but we can also see how she came to settle on how she draws them. Both cats are recognizable in both forms and picking out what markings and body language are emphasized in the art is a lot of fun. Shino-san's purportedly kinked tail is the only thing that doesn't come through.

The book is primarily four-panel in format, with a couple of longer one-to-two-page pieces. There are also little picture essays about grooming the girls, what she feeds them, and other little daily details. There's nothing new if you've had cats yourself, but that's what's so fun about it. Ultimately, this book is about sharing the joys of living with cats. Each of them is weird in their own way. Still, each of those oddities is part of the greater recognizable whole of feline ownership/parenthood, like how Ton-chan attempts to throw up on her person's face or the ultimate failure of an attempt to use claw-trimming as a punishment. It's most similar to Nights with a Cat in terms of the canon of cat manga in English, and it doesn't have any of the gimmicks of something like Yakuza and Stray Kitten or The Masterful Cat is Depressed Today. But it also doesn't need them, and if you like cats, this is a solid bit of fluff to enjoy.