“What’s Michael” is the type of entertainment that you easily share with the nearest cat-lover within in the vicinity and go “you gotta read this!”
Other than music, loving cats is the most universal language. The every day nuances of carrying for these furry little monsters comes with it’s very own brand of burden and crazy that we humans just deal with. Whether you care for cats in Japan, Australia, or America, these manga panels that will make every cat friend nod in head in solidarity while grinning widely.
Around 1984, Makoto Kobayashi wrote a serialized manga called “What’s Michael.” The manga centered around a round faced orange tabby named Michael. The series is a delightful flavor of moments of life with cats, absurd humor, and dancing cats. The closest comparison to the US equivalent would be the lasagna loving Garfield. Michael is his own little category of being a more cat like in his mannerisms and choices. Both orange tabbies are iconic and absolutely adorable.
“What’s Michael” was released mainly in Japan during that time. So those us in the West were denied another orange kitty to love. Now, Dark Horse has compiled Volumes 1 to 6 in the mega volume of “What’s Michael?: The Fat Cat Collection Volume 1” and it has been an absolute treat to experience.
The manga can be read out of sequence but the collection does align in a sort of timeline as we see Michael as the main lone cat in the household all the way until he has his own little family. In between the timeline,there are random enjoyable snippets of side characters that also reside around Michael. There is the veterinarian fugitive who cannot help jumping into homes and caring for cats or the cat loving yakuza mobster who tries to hide evidence of his cat from other yakuza members.
The whole collection is completely entertaining and a definite collection item.The volume contains 500 pages of kitty silliness along with the out of prints originals: Michael‘s Album, Living Together, Off the Deep End, A Hard Day’s Life, Michael‘s Favorite Spot, and Michael‘s Mambo. The collection is translated by Dana Lewis and Toren Smith.
The collection is available now from Dark Horse.
The manga series was so beloved that apparently there was a TV series and random music videos. To get a snippet of the zany humor of the manga, check out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWZLz1LQRnY
