Stuff I Read – Cat Paradise Vol 3
So the cat insanity continues in the next volume of Cat Paradise, and so far it is following all the conventions of a traditional manga fighting story. Indeed, just like the last one, this volume progresses the story to show the good guys take on one more of the villains, this time a huge catfish spirit, or demon, or something like that. They call they spirit beasts, which is probably very similar to demon, but at least in this volume the writer gives us a little more back-story concerning the spirit beasts and their relationship and battle with humanity. This is set against the plan of the villains to open a gate to try and get at the priestess who imprisoned them so long ago. We also get a small glimpse into the life of the main character while at school, but this is quite brief and is interrupted rather quickly as the spirit beasts begin to move. And I will give this series something, which is that it does move the story along at a fairly good clip. This is shaping up to be fairly short series, and I don’t think that is a bad thing at all. I really don’t like when these fighting mangas draw themselves out over the course of over a hundred volumes.
Because even though this volume does what most of its genre would do, it is still new and is still progressing towards something. It is not the case that this volume is just spinning its wheels to pad out the drama. We see the battle between the heroes and the catfish spirit, who explains that the spirit beasts are the first animals, the protectors of their species, and that when a spirit beast dies it typically means that its species will diminish and die. And according to this legend the humans had no spirit beast, and so some of the other spirit beasts, when not fighting each other, decided to try and kill the humans. But the humans learned of ways to kill spirit beasts, and a sort of war began. It basically turned into everyone against the humans. But the cat spirit beast wanted cohabitation and cooperation. And so apparently this led to the cat spirit beast gathering all the spirit beasts to try and forge some sort of truce. And while they were all gathered the humans trapped all of the spirit beasts away. This was not a permanent solution, so eventually there would need to be a fight, so these pairs of humans and cats were trained to deal with the eventual resumption of hostilities.
It is interesting that the manga takes this really mythological approach to creation, and it is more interesting to me that some of the spirit beasts have returned only to find that their species has died out. There is a dragon spirit beast, for example, which is pretty kick ass and makes it a bit more complicated because it means that the humans are kind of the bad guys as well. Not that the spirit beasts are the good guys, but that represent a nature that is, perhaps, understandably pissed off at humanity. So that does make the story a bit more complicated. Couple that with the possession of one of the heroes, the one that the main character has a crush on, and there is more drama here, especially because I’m sure that the possession is going to be key to the villains’ inevitable defeat. It adds a bit of tragedy to the story, though, and the story progesses quite quickly, to the point where the main bad guy actually fights briefly, something normally reserved for volume twenty or so in normal series.
And there is plenty of action, and the fight with the catfish spirit beast is entertaining. The fight at the end is rather one-sided, but it does show that every team has to get the crap kicked out of them before they can triumph. Kind of cliché, but it makes for a more dramatic story. And really, it is still a fun read. Yes, the story that is being presented is complicated a little, but in most ways it is so ridiculous and unbelievable that one has to just accept it and move on. It’s not something that is going to make anyone question their reality or make this story any more believable, but that’s really not what one is looking for when one turns to a manga about fighting cats. So I still am having a good time reading the series, and give this volume a 7.75/10.