Sakurako Ueyashiki is an introverted and awkward college student. She's moved to Tokyo from the boonies and is having a hard time making friends. Things don't get easier when a spaceship crashes into her apartment, piloted by an alien cat who is desperate to get his paws on everyday appliance technology to save his people.

Me and the Alien MuMu is written and drawn by Horyuki Miyashita. Translated by Alyssa Weldon and lettered by Henrique Silva. Published by Kodama (February 1, 2026). Rated T.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

Mu is an alien cat. His homeworld was destroyed, and with it, all the scientists and engineers, leaving only the foolish members of his people. Desperate to save his people, Mu has come to Earth to learn about the kinds of technology that run your refrigerators, vacuums, and other household products. Only…he's a cat and has no opposable thumbs. And he's not that bright. He's a cat, afterall.

He crash-lands into Sakurako's apartment and her life, turning this anxious young woman's life into a daily crisis, as he pulls apart her appliances without understanding how to put them together. But as obnoxious as this is, somehow Mu also helps Sakurako to make some connections. When she finds the “Home Regeneration Study Group” —to get her refrigerator reassembled after Mu disassembles it— she not only meets a group of people not unlike herself, but also makes a friend or two.

I sincerely think that, if you have a cat and find its destructive tendencies adorable, you'll probably really like this manga. Or, more obviously, if how a microwave works really interests you, definitely pick this up; you'll love it. I was on the cusp of very much not enjoying it when the story shifted to the Electronics club and Sakurako making some contacts. At which point Mu's story shifts a bit, too. A fellow cat alien brings with him a whole new conflict. Mu's story becomes far more complicated than just “cat destroys things.”

The book is itself extremely nicely put together, with a Japanese-style manga sleeve. My one complaint is that the credits page is printed with white text on light gray, which makes it impossible to read. Seriously, please never do that!

With such a messy opening and sad sack protagonist, you'll need to give this some time to develop, but by the end of the volume, it's more than just a manga about home appliances.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

I can't help it – the entire time I was reading this I kept hearing “Bill Nat the Science Cat” play in my head. It's not a terrible distillation of the core premise of the story, although to be perfectly fair, Mumu, the science cat, isn't the one explaining how science works – that would be Sakurako, the hapless human whose apartment he crash landed in. And I do mean that literally: Mumu is an alien cat from a distant planet, and he has arrived on Earth to relearn the technology that his people lost when all of their engineers and scientists were killed. Mumu is…not a scientist by any means, although he is awfully good at taking about important appliances in Sakurako's apartment.

I'm not entirely sure if this is meant to be a thinly veiled excuse to teach people how microwaves work or a goofy science fiction romp. Honestly, there's no reason why it can't be both, and it does seem to realize that to an extent. Mumu, apart from his facility with appliance dismemberment, is very much a capital-C-cat – sure he can talk, but he's also a big floofy goof who makes Sakurako's life both better and more stressful. His primary function apart from science lessons is that he gives her someone to talk to, and since she's very socially awkward and uncomfortable, that's no small thing. It's still a bit painful to watch her attempt to socialize at school (by which I mean “be around other people”), but Mumu is there for her in his exasperating feline way.

The science bits of the story do feel a bit shoehorned in, but they also taught me a few things about how vacuums, microwaves, refrigerators, and other small appliances work, as well as a bit of history. The art is particularly good with the scientific diagrams, but it's not bad with the rest by any means, and cats look cuddly and squishy. It's definitely not like most other manga out there and I could see it being a hit with science-curious younger readers.