Plum Crazy! Tales of a Tiger-Striped Cat, Vol. 1

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By Natsumi Hoshino. Released in Japan as “Kijitora Neko no Koume-san” by Shonen Gahosha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Neko Panchi. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Nan Rymer.

Cat manga have been around in North America for a very long time, but never in any great number. Fans with a long memory will recall the years Dark Horse put out What’s Michael? (which I desperately wish would get a re-release), and Vertical has recently been releasing the adorable Chi’s Sweet Home. Japan loves their cats. Japan loves their cats so much, in fact, that one company has a magazine devoted only to cat manga, Neko Panchi. Technically classified as josei, it runs the gamut from supernatural cat manga, to Edo-period cat manga to funny cat manga to cat manga with romance (between humans, I hasten to add). There’s something for everyone. And now we have this title, the story of a cat owned by a young teenage boy and his ditzy mother, and her travails when a new kitten is added to the family. If you like cute cats, you will not be disappointed.

That said, apologies if this review seems to be grasping for ways to fill out the word count. This is not the sort of title where you can spend time talking about the depth of the plot of the characters. We have: Plum, the titular cat, who alternates between being the long-suffering older cat dealing with the excitable and troublemaking new kitten Snowball; Taku, a teenage boy who seems to be Plum’s owner, and loves cats but is for the most part responsible and level-headed; his youthful-looking mother, who loves cats and is for the most part NOT responsible or level-headed, but it’s fun watching her be a ditz; and Taku’s classmates, one of whom is an animal wikipedia whose job it is to provide exposition, and the other of whom owns a raccoon (yes, for once, it is an actual raccoon). As for the plot – cat gets into trouble, cat deals with kitten, cat celebrates Christmas, mom has dream sequence with endless cats of various kinds… the plot is cats.

This is cute, and cat fans will enjoy it. Most of the humor stems from either Snowball, the new kitten in the family, and Plum’s reaction to same, or the antics of Taku’s somewhat immature mother. The art fits the story well, with the cats drawn for maximum awwwww and the humans looking like they would if this ran in any other josei magazine like Feel Young. It’s apparently 16 volumes and running in Japan, which shows that it knows how to do the cat manga thing properly. I’m not sure if I’m down for 16 volumes of this, but I’ll definitely be picking up more of the series, as it’s a nice light snack of a manga to read after you’ve taken in something heavy. All cat lovers should enjoy this.

Invaders of the Rokujouma!?, Vol. 4

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By Takehaya and Poco. Released in Japan as “Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?” by Hobby Japan. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by Warnis.

I’m not certain if this is deliberate or accidental, but so far in Rokujouma each starring heroine has been the one featured on the PREVIOUS cover. Sanae features on the cover of Book 2, and gets most of her development in 3. Theia features on the cover of 3, and gains the most development (and a rival) in this book. And, judging by the cliffhanger ending, the next volume will focus primarily on Yurika, who’s on the cover of this volume. Of course, given this is a harem comedy with a large cast, everyone gets something or other to do in this book. But there’s no doubt the main thrust is the play that Theia writes using her own planet’s history, and how much it resonates with some of the cast. And, as I noted above, we get another candidate for the throne as well, who seems to be the mad scientist type, and is perfectly OK with killing others if she can get away with it. Fortunately, this is a comedy.

The other beneficiary of this school play is Harumi, who is a knitting club member rather than a drama club member, but everyone agrees that she has the look and feel of the princess that Theia has “creates”. The gag, of course, being that she only turns into a good actor – only identifies with how the princess is feeling about being separated from her knight – when it’s Koutarou who’s playing opposite her. In fact, it feels like a bit more than a gag, and there are hints that there may be some serious reincarnation or something similar going on here. Of course, this makes for a great excuse to have Koutarou, also not a Drama Club member, play the Blue Knight, which allows Theia to give him rigorous knightly training with a suit of armor that fits him abnormally well. I;ve often said that Vol. 4s tends to be the ones where the plot is greatly expanded as the publisher tells the author it won’t be cancelled immediately, and that seems to be the case here.

The others don’t get as much to do – though I noted that Yurika saved the day without anyone realizing it again, a running gag that suits her misfortune. We do see that after the events of the previous volume, everyone is getting along much better – aside from the occasional abuse of Yurika because, well, that’s what happens to her – there’s little jealousy or typical harem antics going on here. I suspect the ship here may end up being a poly one (in fact, many of J-Novel’s current licenses have legal or implied polygamy – coincidence?), but it’s handled well enough, and poly ships also help to avoid all that “who is best girl?” nonsense. Rokujouma is never going to win any awards for originality or good writing, but it’s like a good beef stew, a meat and potatoes sort of book you can read anytime. Recommended to fans of the genre.

Appleseed Alpha

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By Iou Kuroda, based on the manga create by Masamune Shirow. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Morning Two. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Lillian Olsen and Stephen Paul.

It has been an awfully long time since I read Appleseed, even with the recent digital release. And I haven’t seen the 2014 movie that this is apparently a spinoff from, though I understand the manga and anime may only be loosely based off each other anyway. But that’s OK, because Appleseed Alpha is still a perfectly enjoyable, if occasionally too busy for its own good, story. All you really need to know is that the human woman is Deunan Knute, and her lover/companion is Briareos, a former human who is now mostly cyborg. (How far they go as lovers is, as always, left mostly ambiguous.) The main series proper saw them living in, and rebelling against, the utopia of Olympus. The Alpha story is a prequel, so naturally we get to spend it in a dystopia – the remains of New York City, run by a cyborg who is half mayor and half mafia boss.

Shirow is not writing or drawing this, by the way, but the artist is not unknown to North American readers – it’s Iou Kuroda, creator of cult classic Sexy Voice and Robo. That felt like more of an indie comic than a manga, and this feels much the same, which makes sense as it ran in Kodansha’s experimental manga title Morning Two. The art has thick lines and less detailed faces, though trust me, there’s just as much detailed background and cityscapes as you’re used to with this title. The main plot separates our heroes early, as Briareos, by nature of his not only being a cyborg but one of the awesome cyborgs, is lauded by the mayor (whether he likes it or not) and Deunan is left out in the cold. She ends up outside the city, meeting a group of farmers who may have more links to the city than she had expected. Meanwhile, Briareos has, of course, NOT abandoned Deunan, and ends up heading out to see her.

This one-volume omnibus has a few cool battles, though the artist seems more suited to drawing the effects of the fights than the fights themselves. There’s also some amusing humor, the best of which involves several trains filled with cows all heading into the remains of Penn Station with drivers asleep at the wheel. Deunan and Briareos feel in character – both somewhat removed from society, yet still highly involved it it – and Deunan still gets to be a hothead at times. As for the mayor, Two Horns, he is a hoot, a giant parody of all mayors with a sinister side to him as well – and a mysterious past that gets revealed right at the end of the book. I’d definitely recommend this if you’re a fan of Appleseed. For others, even though it’s technically a prequel/alternate universe, I’d recommend starting with the four main Appleseed books themselves.