Cats With Jobs, Vol. 1

Cats with Jobs #1

by Pandania

Where There’s a Job, There’s a Cat Who Can Do It!

Ever wondered what it would be like if your cat had to get a job? The cats in this book do every kind of occupation you can imagine, and they do it just the way they like. Feline chefs, dentists, wrestlers, detectives, opera singers and much more await in this hilarious full-color collection by the creator of The Evil Secret Society of Cats, Yokai Cats, and Monster Cats!

Genres: Manga, Humor, Comics, Graphic Novels, Cats, Animals, Slice Of Life

144 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2025

Reviews

[Peacegal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pandania hits another one out of the park with an odd, quirky collection of cats in manga form. These felines are hard at work--well, sometimes. Take a look at the job opportunities available to cats, from rock star to sumo wrestler, and see if your tabby is ready to join the workforce.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun and cute manga! With a surprising attention to detail for a book about chibi cats.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, quick read. But I found the artwork generic and the jokes kind of flat. There were a few funny ones, like the cat ninja.

[Emmy]

While I really enjoyed Yokai Cats and Monster Cats, I thought that the gimmick for this book fell kinda flat. The first two allow for some real development of the characters, as we see various families interacting with their respective pets. This one was a sort of one-off gag each and every time, so you really didn't get the chance to appreciate the rakugo cat or the maid cat. However, I will say, the bodybuilder cats were almost worth the price of admission.

[Cody Roecker]

its just cute and fun

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book comes via the wifey.
You cannot help but have a good chuckle at these cats. The job descriptions with the artwork adds another level of fun.
Too many amazing characters to choose a favourite. Although, take your time to study each cat.

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do feel kind of bad for rating this book so low, but it really is my least favorite of Pandania's cat books. Since most of the cats with jobs get only one 4 panel comic, it's nothing but one off gags. Generally the most obvious gags possible, so most of them aren't even very funny. There's also the issue that a good chunk of the jobs are only arguably jobs (spirit medium, aspiring author) and some aren't jobs by any stretch of the imagination (ghost, Heian noble).

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the illustrations in this manga. It was super cute and easy enough to read. I wish there was more of a plot to the book though where you could see the cats interacting with each other on their day to day jobs, but other than that, it was fine.

[Becky B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short comics imagining if cats held different jobs and what that would look like.

These were hit or miss for me. It felt like a more adult audience intended than some of Pandania’s other works (like the Private Investigator said they are hired to uncover things like adultery). I don’t feel comfortable handing this to the middle school crowd who LOVE Pandania’s Yokai Cats series, but older teen and adult readers (or middle schoolers who are mature) who like cats will likely enjoy at least some of these. I did really like the Ninja one and would read a whole book of Pandania’s Ninja Cat comics. I also quite liked the Pirate one, Potter one, Rhythmic Gymnast, and several others. And though I’m not a horror film fan, the notes on the Horror Film one were pretty funny. Others just weren’t funny to me.

Notes on content:
Language: I think there were 2 minor swears.
Sexual content: None, but as mentioned above the PI page mentions adultery (doesn’t show it or explain it and another page has someone is cheating on someone else, but they are talking about a cat owner petting another cat).
Violence: Pro wrestler tackling is shown.
Ethnic diversity: Japanese
LGBTQ+ content: None specified.
Other: There are several jobs related to spiritual or supernatural jobs like a Buddhist priest, Protestant pastor, fortune teller, haunted house employee, spirit medium, ghost, shrine worker, hypnotist, and some more adult jobs like bartender and bar hostess.

[Sol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really happy I read this, because sometimes I get parents coming into the library who ask me for manga recommendations for their little ones, and I have a very limited selection on what I know would be good to recommend to kids under the age of 13-ish. But I think this book would be really good for little ones interested in the format of manga -- it's simple and easy to follow, the pages are full-color and gorgeous quality with a really adorable chibi manga art style. I really like how each job has a detailed description before the 4-koma itself; even though I obviously know about all of the jobs described in this book I still enjoyed reading each one. It might help introduce kiddos to some career paths they've never heard of.

I grew up reading 4-koma like Lucky Star and Shugo Chara-Chan so when I read this, I smiled thinking that my younger self would have pored over this over and over again until the pages were wavy and yellow. I'm excited to recommend this to people at the library once I get the opportunity to because it's just so cute!

I also genuinely laughed out loud at some parts. My favorite kitties were the maid cat, Santa Claus, the ninja, the weather forecaster, and the explorer. I also read this whole thing under a heated blanket with my cat Sissy sleeping on my lap so overall, 10/10 experience :)

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't particularly interested in this premise when I first encountered the title, but having read through all the other Pandania books in my library system, I thought I might as well read this one, too. I ended up liking it quite a bit. There's an absurdist edge to the world of these stories where cats behave just like people, yet are also definitely cats. Each "job" is usually only given a single four-panel comic strip, some get and few if any get more (ninja has three, but I don't remember any others as long). In Yokai Cats and Monster Cats most of the cats get multiple comics, but since many of the cats have a single shtick, there is often less variety to stories than that would imply.

For some reason the book is arranged into chapters, but I don't understand why. Each chapter is of varying length and there doesn't seem to be any thematic link between the comics within a chapter.

[Kelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean, the title is pretty self-explanatory? This is about cats—with jobs.

If that interests you, then you’d probably like this series.

It’s basically a collection of snippets about cats performing all kinds of different jobs. There are some uniquely Japanese jobs in there—which could give some readers a glimpse into another culture.

Otherwise, I just think this is cute. I like how this author keeps coming up with adorable little stories that feature kitty cats~

[Georgette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I laughed my ass off. Picture a job- any job- but with CATS in the role. These are jobs with descriptions of the gig and panels with examples. Best one in this book? The mahjong parlor. Cats and tiles; you just know how this one is going to go.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is thicker than the usual offering from Pandania (and I do miss the different coloured pages rather than the constant olive pages). These cats are a delight. I love that there are some many different jobs for cats, including hauntings and crimes!

[Zaferino · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art is cute and the ideas are funny. The author is a cat expert. I just wish there were longer segments about the jobs. I really enjoyed the ones that were two pages long. I wanted a little more. But I guess that’s also a sign of a good book.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this to read to my kitties at bedtime, to give them some ideas. But their heads are so small that they can't really hold a lot of brains, so they didn't pick up on my hints.

Seriously though, this was cute. Simple, but I chuckled a few times, and the artwork was adorable.

[Alison Yim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Throughly enjoyed the book and was surprised on how extensive it covered like every possible profession. I definitely learned several new professions too that are integral in Japanese society / culture that I was not aware of before. Love the accompanying illustrations. Very cute

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the part when the cats had jobs

(-1 star for repeating jokes)
(-1 star for mediocre copyediting)

[Lara S · Rating 4 out of 5]

cool

[Ev · Rating 4 out of 5]

super cute book

[Nicole Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extreeeeeeemely cute!! The little details are everything! This book would give me life on my breaks!

[Lucy Kirby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun but I enjoyed Pandania's other series more.

[Katie]

So cute!!

[ReadingFrog · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars.

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely read, great artstyle, although I felt like some jokes got a little lost in translation.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cute!

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to read and giggle over with A.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

These cute comic strips imagines the chaos that would happen if cats perform a variety of different jobs. They are indeed very cute and gently humorous. Some understanding of Japanese culture is helpful if you want to fully appreciate the humour.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cats With Jobs Vol. 1 was a fun read featuring cats in various everyday occupations.

Cats are a notoriously lazy animal but what if your cat was required to get a job? In Cats With Jobs there are no jobs that cats won't do but just because a cat will take the job, that doesn't mean they'll do the job the right way.

I have previously read and enjoyed this author's Monster Cats series so when I saw this book while browsing at my local bookstore, I knew I wanted to pick it up. This book contains nearly one hundred different jobs for cats that are split up into ten chapters although the chapters aren't themed in any way. Each job gets between one and three pages dedicated to it although the majority of them are only a single page. I loved the creativity when it came to the variety of jobs the cats take as there were quite a few I wasn't expecting and some that I had never even heard of. Some of my favorite jobs were Conspiracy Theorist, Explorer, and Pirate. The illustration style is the same as in Monster Cats with simple backgrounds so the focus is on the cats.

Overall Cats With Jobs Vol. 1 was a great read and I will definitely be checking out more from this author in the future.