Manga Monday: When a Cat Faces West Volume 1

Author/Artist: Yuki Urushibara
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Released: May 17, 2022
Received: NetGalley

This week I took some time to sit down and binge a bunch of manga since it has been a while. Out of the ten volumes I read, I think When a Cat Faces West Volume 1 is my favorite. It’s unique, offering a fresh perspective on the supernatural/paranormal.

Flow is a (natural?) phenomenon that the city has been forced to deal with for years. Where it appears everything can change, oddities arise, people disappear, and the rules of physics alter. That’s where the Flow Disposal department comes into play. It’s their job to find the Flow source and help resolve it when possible.

Chima Kondo is the newest Flow Disposal recruit. She knows firsthand how much Flow can change a person – after all, she’s a thirty-five-year-old woman currently residing in the body of a twelve-year-old.

Wow. When a Cat Faces West Volume 1 was an utterly enchanting story! I’ll admit that it took me a while to get into the flow of things (sorry, not sorry). But once I did, I was hooked. I will have to look up the rest of this series and read it because I have to know more.

There are three main characters in this series, Chima, Hirota, and Shacho. While I love them all, Shacho (the Flow sensing cat) is my favorite. No surprise there, right?

When a Cat Faces West Volume 1 is similar to a freak of the week story, where it’s a series of different events revolving around Flow. I enjoyed these adventures and cannot wait to read more.

Thanks to Kodansha Comics and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.