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Jan. 10th, 2013 12:26 pmWhen ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
izilen visited this summer, she left me a bunch of digital scans of Cat Street, so that became my Kindle manga test case! (Conclusion: great for being able to devour a ton of manga at once, terrible when it freezes up my Kindle.)
Cat Street focuses on Aoyama Keito, a former child star who got All About Eve'd by another child star and froze up on stage. Fast-forward ten years and Keito is a recluse who refuses to attend school, has no hobbies, and dislikes everything and everyone (especially herself.)
Then she gets introduced to a School for Socially Awkward Weirdos, and, for lack of anything else to do with her time, she starts going. Eventually she becomes friends with three other "stray cats": Rei, a soccer prodigy who bombed out due to being an asshole to his teammates; Momiji, a gothic lolita who dreams of starting her own fashion line; and Kouichi, a genius computer programmer who is even less interested in people than Keito is.
So the plot begins with Keito re-entering the world and learning how to interact with people, and then it becomes about Keito finding herself again without basing her identity on other people, and finally it's about Keito and her friends re-building their relationships based on their growth as people.
Which is a character arc I very much appreciate; becoming a whole person is a long and complicated and ongoing process, and it's never too late to start. I love that.
(I also really like the stuff about Keito's career as an actress because I have a huge weakness for behind-the-scenes stories about performance and meta about acting, see also Skip Beat!)
I also like how the eventual romance goes, for a couple of reasons ( that could count as spoilers. )
So basically it's adorable, and my only complaint is that Momoko -- the one other girl in the group of four -- doesn't get anywhere near as much focus as the rest of the kids; her friendship with Keito is great, but there's clearly less time spent on its development than on Keito's relationships with the guys, and she doesn't get as much of a serious plot and character journey of her own, either.
(But I do really love the development of Keito's relationship with her former child-actress-bff-turned-life-ruiner-turned-sort-of-friend-again. SHE'S AWFUL AND I LOVE HER.)
izilen visited this summer, she left me a bunch of digital scans of Cat Street, so that became my Kindle manga test case! (Conclusion: great for being able to devour a ton of manga at once, terrible when it freezes up my Kindle.)Cat Street focuses on Aoyama Keito, a former child star who got All About Eve'd by another child star and froze up on stage. Fast-forward ten years and Keito is a recluse who refuses to attend school, has no hobbies, and dislikes everything and everyone (especially herself.)
Then she gets introduced to a School for Socially Awkward Weirdos, and, for lack of anything else to do with her time, she starts going. Eventually she becomes friends with three other "stray cats": Rei, a soccer prodigy who bombed out due to being an asshole to his teammates; Momiji, a gothic lolita who dreams of starting her own fashion line; and Kouichi, a genius computer programmer who is even less interested in people than Keito is.
So the plot begins with Keito re-entering the world and learning how to interact with people, and then it becomes about Keito finding herself again without basing her identity on other people, and finally it's about Keito and her friends re-building their relationships based on their growth as people.
Which is a character arc I very much appreciate; becoming a whole person is a long and complicated and ongoing process, and it's never too late to start. I love that.
(I also really like the stuff about Keito's career as an actress because I have a huge weakness for behind-the-scenes stories about performance and meta about acting, see also Skip Beat!)
I also like how the eventual romance goes, for a couple of reasons ( that could count as spoilers. )
So basically it's adorable, and my only complaint is that Momoko -- the one other girl in the group of four -- doesn't get anywhere near as much focus as the rest of the kids; her friendship with Keito is great, but there's clearly less time spent on its development than on Keito's relationships with the guys, and she doesn't get as much of a serious plot and character journey of her own, either.
(But I do really love the development of Keito's relationship with her former child-actress-bff-turned-life-ruiner-turned-sort-of-friend-again. SHE'S AWFUL AND I LOVE HER.)
