Neko ga Nishi Mukya
When a Cat Faces West

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1 Recommended

0 Mixed Feelings

0 Not Recommended

Jun 28, 2019

Chrome_Falcon

Written by the author of Mushishi, this manga follows an identical episodic formula where the main character Hirota deals with a supernatural phenomenon called as "Flow". These flows are always caused due to one or the other emotions or thoughts people have from time to time. This is quite underrated in my opinion owing to its frequent comparison to Mushishi.

The story is a bit weaker than Mushishi because it only revolves around finding the causes and then reversing the effects of the Flow without much exploration into the concept of Flow itself. That makes this automatically less engrossing giving the feel of an average slice ... of life manga with some investigation thrown in. But the characters are an improvement because we get two recurring characters instead of just one. The constant dynamic between these characters makes them more interesting than one shot characters.

The story takes place in a town of modern times where social media and such exist. Curiously, Hirota's cat plays an important role in each chapter because cats are naturally attracted towards the Flow. This is why the manga has such a name. Hirota comes off as a clumsy but chill dude. He cares deeply for his cat and is a very nice person in general. The assistant has her own bit of a history with the Flow and started working for him as a result. There seems to be an overarching narrative about her within the episodic stories. The manga gives off a workplace story's atmosphere.

The art is clean, with decent background details. But it isn't anything phenomenal. The angles of view are intriguing especially in the front page of each chapter. It does its job well considering that it is not an action manga.

Overall I give it a 7.5/10. There are only 9 chapters out at the time of writing this and from what I have seen so far, it has been entertaining.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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