Thursday 7 July 2011

Book Review- Cat Paradise Vol 1 by Yuji Iwahara

 Author: Yuji Iwahara
Series:  Cat Paradise #1
Published:  4 August 2009
Length: 192 pages
Warnings: a little romance that doesn’t go anywhere, demons
Other info: There are 5 volumes of this in total.
Summary : Nine lives might not be enough to survive this catfight!
At Matabi Academy, students are allowed to bring their pet cats to the dorms. For Yumi Hayakawa, whose favorite hobby is making clothes for her kitty Kansuke, Matabi seems like a sure bet. After all, nothing can possibly go wrong with her best friend at her side! But on the first day of school, the two find themselves face-to-face with a murderous demonic minion on campus! Will Yumi and Kansuke be able to defend themselves and their school against an ancient cat demon's thirst for vengeance?
Review : This is a school set manga with a difference. At Matabi Academy, students can bring pet cats  to school. And it's set on a site where a princess and her cat died after a fight against a demon. And the student governers and their cats have special powers enabling them to protect the school from said demon, and its henchmen. But apart from that, it's your typical gakuen(school) manga. Girl, in this case, Yumi, starts at new school, settles in, plot moves on in some way and she falls in love. In Cat Paradise, the love interest is Tsubame, a fairly interesting boy in that, like the rest of the student council, he and his cat can do something special to protect the school. The way the plot moves on is that a demon, not the one mentioned earlier, who is called Kaen,but another one, shows up and wants to eat Yumi, along with the other humans. And then various things happen, Yumi and her cat gain special powers and by the end Yumi and her cat have to save the school.
This was a fun interesting plot. The back story provided was good, and the things happening in the present day happened fast enough to keep you interested.
Some of  the things are hard to remember, such as the names of minor characters and their cats. This is only to be expected as a lot were introduced in a short period of time. However the plot in general was easy to follow and understandable.
The characters aren't exactly the best, but they're fun and have distinctive personalities. I like the way the cats have their own personalities too, that match or otherwise compliment the owner's.
The art is realistic, for the humans and cats anyway. I don't particularly like the shading style- ie mainly pure black and white, with greys thrown in every now and again. It works for single pieces of art, but for 200 pages worth it gets boring easily. However the fantasy creatures are drawn very well and are very imaginative.  
Overall:  Strength 3 tea to this fun quick read that isn't really the best thing ever but you might enjoy it.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads

1 comment:

Thanks for taking time to read this!
Comments are much loved.
Nina xxx

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