Cat + Gamer, Volume 1 by Wataru Nadatani Review

An office worker adopts a stray kitten on a whim - not realising how disruptive her cute new friend will be to her secret gamer double-life! But maybe a little chaos in her highly regimented routine is what’s needed…?

I know. Comics about cats. I get it. There’s too many, they’re all the same, etc. But, Cat + Gamer, Volume 1 was unexpectedly good!

Describing the contents doesn’t do the manga justice as it all sounds so banal: Riko has never owned a cat before so its behaviour is all new to her - the kitten’s boundless energy, ignoring expensive toys in favour of empty boxes and packing materials, and fleas (this part is the “action set piece” of the narrative). Especially if you’re a cat owner yourself - I grew up with cats, I recently bought my parents a pair of kittens - then none of this will be surprising to you.

I think it comes down to Wataru Nadatani’s skill as a storyteller. He writes and paces his story so well that the pages just fly by and I was fully enthralled, even knowing that there wasn’t anything ground-breaking or original happening in the book. He mentions in his author bio at the end that he also got a kitten himself prior to the manga and that experience clearly shows in the accuracy of Musubi the kitten’s behaviour.

Riko is a charming and likeable character. She’s professional and hard-working in her day job in order to avoid having to do overtime (much more common in Japan than elsewhere) and devote more of her free time to playing a generic MMORPG at home. She frames her life through the lens of the game - her kitten is a Level 1 character that she must level-up and she makes decisions using game-like logic (the more valuable the item, the better it is - unless your kitten rejects the fancy toy in favour of a piece of plastic on a string!).

And Musubi (“musubi” is another word for rice-ball or “onigiri”) is ridiculously cute. I’m a dog person too - I luckily grew up with both cats and dogs in the house - but maybe if you’re exclusively a dog person, you’ll have a lesser reaction to this book than the more feline-inclined among us.

Short “bonus stages” are included after each chapter where Musubi “speaks” which complements the preceding chapters. These also provide the perspectives of both main characters for the audience and make for a more satisfying read.

I wasn’t that interested in the social media storyline introduced at the end and the art, while serviceable and effective for the story (he draws Musubi perfectly), is undeniably very generic and lacking any distinct style. Otherwise I found this story of an introverted, isolated person’s world slowly growing by allowing this small creature in to be sweet and surprisingly entertaining. Cat + Gamer, Volume 1 is the cat’s pyjamas!