Manga
Description
The manga follows the daily life of a freelance designer and illustrator known as Kuruneko-san, a woman living alone who cannot resist taking in stray cats, a tendency she inherited from her family. Her father once picked up puppies, her mother brought in a roadside kitten, and her sister frequently appears with abandoned litters, all of which inevitably end up in the author's care. The premise originates from the author's real-life blog, which she started to document the stray cats she rescued and to help find them adoptive homes.
The primary characters are the cats themselves, each with distinct personalities and medical histories. The first generation includes Miwa Reverie, the fussy and elderly matriarch who requires daily medication; Poco, who was found with an uncut umbilical cord and barely survived a viral infection, leaving her with a weak sense of smell; Karasbong, who can climb high but cannot get down and suffers from stomatitis; and Tomekichi, a former stray who is easily startled and becomes overly excited by catnip. Shiro, one of a set of triplets found by the author's sister, is a handsome white cat unafraid of water who grows plumper over time. The second generation introduces cats like Kotetsu, found injured on a highway with a fractured leg and cloudy eye; Momosuke John Malkovich and Koyuki Joe Apollovic, siblings with cerebellar disorders affecting their movement; and Tom, a Russian Blue taken in after his original owner passed away.
The setting is primarily the author's home in Japan, where she works as a freelancer. The narrative arcs are episodic and grounded in the realities of caring for multiple animals. A significant ongoing theme is illness and death, as many of the first-generation cats pass away from old age or chronic diseases like heart failure, kidney cancer, and diabetes. The manga documents these losses directly, including the specific dates and times of their deaths. Despite the melancholy, the story also focuses on joy, such as the author's marriage in 2011, the rehabilitation of injured or sick cats, and the integration of new, often difficult-to-adopt felines into the household. The series concluded its original run under the title Kuruneko and continues under the name Happy Happy Kuruneko.
The primary characters are the cats themselves, each with distinct personalities and medical histories. The first generation includes Miwa Reverie, the fussy and elderly matriarch who requires daily medication; Poco, who was found with an uncut umbilical cord and barely survived a viral infection, leaving her with a weak sense of smell; Karasbong, who can climb high but cannot get down and suffers from stomatitis; and Tomekichi, a former stray who is easily startled and becomes overly excited by catnip. Shiro, one of a set of triplets found by the author's sister, is a handsome white cat unafraid of water who grows plumper over time. The second generation introduces cats like Kotetsu, found injured on a highway with a fractured leg and cloudy eye; Momosuke John Malkovich and Koyuki Joe Apollovic, siblings with cerebellar disorders affecting their movement; and Tom, a Russian Blue taken in after his original owner passed away.
The setting is primarily the author's home in Japan, where she works as a freelancer. The narrative arcs are episodic and grounded in the realities of caring for multiple animals. A significant ongoing theme is illness and death, as many of the first-generation cats pass away from old age or chronic diseases like heart failure, kidney cancer, and diabetes. The manga documents these losses directly, including the specific dates and times of their deaths. Despite the melancholy, the story also focuses on joy, such as the author's marriage in 2011, the rehabilitation of injured or sick cats, and the integration of new, often difficult-to-adopt felines into the household. The series concluded its original run under the title Kuruneko and continues under the name Happy Happy Kuruneko.
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