The Spring 2025 Manga Guide

Cat Man

What's It About? 

In a world where humans and humanoid cats coexist, shy Cat Man Hachisuke struggles with being seen as just a “cute” object. Trying to fit in among humans who don't fully understand him, he faces society's hidden biases head-on. With wit and warmth, this story challenges us to see the world differently—through the eyes of a cat who just wants to belong.

Cat Man has a story and art by Parari, with English translation by Nicole Frasik and lettering by Rebecca Sze. Published by Seven Seas (April 29, 2025). Rated T.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

I'm not sure what I was expecting from Cat Man - possibly something furry-adjacent, or maybe just a basic beastperson story. Instead, it's a thinly disguised examination of the way people viewed a specific way by society are treated. The easiest example is to say that in Cat Man's world, one where cats are human-sized and shaped, the cats are stand-ins for the way women are treated by our society. But that's also the way that my own life experience has prepared me to frame it. The issues that Hachisuke, Mike, Kurono, and Makio face over the course of the single volume are close to things that I've experienced as a woman: being groped on public transportation, being viewed in a specific light because of my gender and appearance, being told that I would be better off in certain jobs because of my gender. Now substitute “species” for “gender” and you have a good idea of what the cats in this book go through.

None of the experiences are new, which is perhaps why creator Parari frames them in a different way. (I desperately wish there was an author's afterword.) Tired old excuses are constantly trotted out – “You were purring, so I thought you wanted it!”, “How can you show that fur and not expect a man to touch it?”, and so on. Hachisuke, the main protagonist, has experienced so much of this discrimination that he's reluctant to engage with humans, while bookstore owner Muku has to constantly field questions about who the “real” boss and owner is. Mike's father is convinced that the only work his son is suited for is as a maneki neko, which, although never formally defined, is strongly implied to be a combination pet/sex symbol role played by a living cat rather than a figurine.

There isn't really a resolution to the story. Everyone learns a bit and tries to incorporate their life experiences into a way to be a better person, like Hitomi, the human who molests Hachiksuke in the first chapter because she mistook a purr for consent, or Yoshihito, Mike and Hachisuke's boss, who is trying so, so hard to be an ally that he oversteps. Most interesting is Makio, who, as a popular cat model, worries that maybe he's part of the problem. It's both topical and slice-of-life, and that makes for a good, if heavy, combination. Cat Man wants you to think about the way you treat people you find attractive or who you've been socially conditioned to view a certain way, and that's a worthwhile message. I wouldn't call this a fun read, but it is still worth reading.