My Cat Loki, by Bettina Kurkoski

[rachelmanija]

OEL manga. Ameya, an artist, has gone into a decline since his cat Luka died three years ago(if he was named after the Suzanne Vega song, possibly from falling off the second floor.) But when he finds a stray cat, Loki, Ameya rediscovers an interest in life and art. That is to say, 150 pages of a cat running around a house interspersed with dull human-human interaction.

This was not my cup of tea. The pace is glacial and there's no suspense even of the quiet, naturalistic variety one might expect. Ameya has no personality other than being weirdly over-attached to his cat. His presumed love interest (his agent) is inexplicably against him getting attached to a new cat even though he's been a listless mess without one for three years. She even tries to stop him from retrieving Loki when he runs away, and this made me hate her.

The animals are sometimes shown as cat-boys and other animal-people. This seems to not be literally real, but a representation of them from their own perspectives or something. I think it was supposed to be charming, but it creeped me out. Don't cuddle the pre-pubescent cat-boy, Ameya!

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

And now I'm very, very glad I never picked this one up, despite looking at it a few times in the store.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'm still unsure about the literal/metaphor-ness of the animals, as the last panel, IIRC, shows Ameya asleep with a picture of Luka Loki as the cat-boy on his drawing pad.

Does not make me curious enough to read #2, however, as I am allergic to cat-boys.

Edited for the name. :)

[octopedingenue]

allergic to cat-boys

I am taking my Kyou-ball and GOING HOME!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Kyo is a BOY who is occasionally a CAT, not a CAT-BOY. There is a small but telling difference there!

[auragirl.livejournal.com]

From what I recall it doesn't get any better, just weirder. Looking back at it in hindsight from reading it over a year ago...I can't help but wonder if it's some sort of LOL DEEP METAPHOR etc. Like the cat just represents Ameya being...gay or IDK, something.

[octopedingenue]

He's not gay! The cat he fell in love with just happened to be male!