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House of 1000 Manga - Cat Paradise




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Merxamers



Joined: 09 Dec 2013
Posts: 720
PostPosted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 2:00 pm Reply with quote
where on earth do you dig these series up Anime hyper

I'll have to check this out! sounds like it has potential Smile
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pachy_boy



Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1323
PostPosted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 2:28 pm Reply with quote
I'm more of a dog person than I am a cat person, but this series turned out that wonderful. The story gets really wild/crazy and inventive, taking its special twists and turns like revealing who the real "villains" that our characters have to face against (and thus keeping the story from really being black and white), and there was a genuine believable heart to Yumi and Kansuke's relationship that all pet owners can feel connected with. It reaches such epic heights, I find it hard to imagine how it could translate to an animated series and how it could do the source material and its artwork justice--unless they just restructure the story like they did with the King of Thorn movie. Granted I like that movie very much, but someone should license-rescue the manga so people could find out a whole range of what-could-have-beens.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 2:46 pm Reply with quote
I read this at the suggestion of a friend ages ago, it's good stuff. And I love cats! I'd love to form a psychic duel team with my cat! Who wouldn't? I love my cat! I also like that Japan in general just likes cats more. In American made things, they're the bad guy 98% of the time, but with Japan, their either main characters or good guys more often than not (the realistic cats of What's Michael? are simply main characters and normal cats more so than actual protagonists or good guys, they're just cats!) I mean, in an American cartoon, a cat that tries to eat a mouse is the devil (like Tom & Jerry, the amount of abuse Jerry puts Tom through is cringe-inducing many times), but if that happens in an anime or manga, it's more of a silly aside and a "cats need to eat too!" thing than calling them flat-out demons for it like American stuff does. It's why I prefer Japan for my cat fixes quite often (though American books might like cats ok, they still like dogs way more)

I prefer screentones in my manga though, so I find the artwork a little hard to look at some times. Nothing wrong with having a distinct style though.
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Touma



Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2651
Location: Colorado, USA
PostPosted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 3:33 pm Reply with quote
I really enjoyed Chikyu Misaki and have read it twice, so I will definitely try to find Cat Paradise.
And fortunately my library has it, so I just reserved the first volume.

Thank you for the review.
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Chrno2



Joined: 28 May 2004
Posts: 6171
Location: USA
PostPosted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 6:51 pm Reply with quote
I always enjoy manga about protagonists that control monsterous animals. Beasts cats ho ho.
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Calico



Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 383
PostPosted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 8:32 pm Reply with quote
I saw this advertised a couple of times in the back of some other manga, but I figured it wouldn't be that good. Nice to hear that it isn't that bad. Also, I didn't realize it was by the same guy that did King of Thorn. I remember liking what I read of that.
And hey, if the cats end up looking too weird I can always add them to my collection of badly drawn animals in manga.
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doomydoomdoom



Joined: 08 Mar 2013
Posts: 278
Location: Michigan, USA
PostPosted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 9:51 pm Reply with quote
Interesting little manga; animal ones are always welcome. And I've got to use "The time is meow" to someone, preferably while brandishing a cat in their face after I've said something deadly serious.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 11:28 pm Reply with quote
I read the first two manage awhile back. While I wouldn't say I stop reading it but my usual book store stopped shelving them and I haven't particularly cared.

The review is spot on on the visual, it's really interesting without being too much in your face. It's just looks really good.

The problem is the story and character have no substance, it's just completely average monster of the week formula (at least for the first 2 volume). I think most of the problem come from the character and setting. Everything happen on school, so it's hard to feel like the world is threaten and the story has to spend too much time and energy to justify it. But the (human) character are the biggest problem, there just so boring, the cat are better (mostly because there cat) but they don't have enough screentime.

Overall it's not bad, but I'd really like if his next story was done in partnership with someone else who'd write the story and he'd just focus on art.
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dm
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Joined: 24 Sep 2010
Posts: 1345
PostPosted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 11:30 pm Reply with quote
Yes, I think it was Chikyu Misaki that brought Yuji Iwahara to my attention, and I've tracked down most things he's written (I think it's too bad that King of Thorn is out of print).

He also did the character designs for Darker than Black (and has a four-volume manga adaptation of the series).

In addition to Dimension W and the other series you mentioned, he has a three-volume adaptation of the video game Koudelka and a stand-alone volume called Eye of the Wolf.

All have the wonderful art and fine control of lines you describe in your review.
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phia_one



Joined: 15 Jan 2012
Posts: 1654
Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2015 1:28 pm Reply with quote
I definitely need to read this at some point!
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Snomaster1
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Joined: 31 Aug 2011
Posts: 2790
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 5:32 pm Reply with quote
I remember reading this once. It's a cute manga and it was a interesting read. And,for full disclosure,I've owned both cats and dogs. And I like them both,so for me,"Cat Paradise" was a good read.
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