Showing posts with label Story of Seven Lives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Story of Seven Lives. Show all posts

Sunday, March 3, 2024

REVIEW: A Story of Seven Lives: The Complete Manga Collection (manga) by Shirakawa Gin, translated by Alexa Frank

The Story of Seven Lives is a blend of drama and some fantasy elements. I bought my copy of this omnibus volume new.

Review:

Nanao used to be a house cat, but he's now yet another abandoned stray cat. He spends his days alongside his best friend Machi, a fellow stray, trying to survive just like all of the other strays in their neighborhood. 

Meanwhile, Yoshino, who for some reason has an aversion to cats, runs the Narita Bathhouse with help from her younger brother. The neighborhood the bathhouse is in is known for its feral cat population, which creates some cute moments for tourists to photograph but has negative aspects as well. In the interests of reducing the local feral cat population, people are now forbidden from feeding them unless they're on the neighborhood cat feeding schedule, which all the local shops are part of. To her shock, Yoshino is first up on the schedule, which requires her to face her feelings about cats and her memories of and grief over her husband, who died in an accident shortly after they were married.

This manga is a combination of several things: a "keep your cats inside" PSA, a story about a widow overcoming her grief over the death of her husband and learning to love the cats he loved, and a story about cats dealing with feline politics and trying to figure out how and whether to trust humans.