Cat + Gamer Volume 2

Although I’m neither a cat owner nor a gamer, I enjoyed the first volume of this series by Wataru Nadatami because of the way it used the language of one hobby to talk about another.

Cat + Gamer volume 2 has moved away from that premise somewhat to present more generic examples of how life works with a pet cat. Readers who enjoy seeing adorable animals will still enjoy these stories, because Musubi is drawn to be excessively cute.

My favorite was the first chapter, in which a coworker is determined to figure out who at the company is behind the social media account with the cute cat pictures — and Riko is petrified at the idea of anyone knowing it’s her (although I have no idea why that would be a problem). The coworker makes all kinds of deductions from the image backgrounds, getting most of them wrong. This detective thing is harder than it looks!

I would have liked that to have been more of a storyline, but most of the chapters are more standalone than that. Others here involve buying a iPad game for the kitty, the cat going crazy for a treat, then making a mess of the house. We also meet new characters, as there’s a visit from Riko’s sister and Riko goes to the shopkeeper’s house to meet her pets. Bonus strips after every chapter present moments from the previous story from the cat’s perspective.

It’s a fluffy read, excuse the pun. I’m not sure I’ll need to buy future volumes, but it’s a great bit of escapism.