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ねこぢるうどん [Nekojiru Udon] #1
Nekojiru Udon
148 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1998
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164 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 26, 2022
Nekojiru Udon is a set of short stories about two kid cats who go around and torture, murder, and essentially do not very nice things to others.
The premise doesn't sound all that interesting (maybe unless you're a sadist), but the structure of the stories - dream-like and all over the place - are what is so intriguing. At the end of the first volume (this volume), there is a commentary by Kurosawa Sou which sums up this dream-like nature quite nicely. It is quite hard to find (you may have to use some illegal websites), but it is very worth reading, even just due to it having an incredibly different perspective to normal manga.
The premise doesn't sound all that interesting (maybe unless you're a sadist), but the structure of the stories - dream-like and all over the place - are what is so intriguing. At the end of the first volume (this volume), there is a commentary by Kurosawa Sou which sums up this dream-like nature quite nicely. It is quite hard to find (you may have to use some illegal websites), but it is very worth reading, even just due to it having an incredibly different perspective to normal manga.
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May 1, 2022Probably very hard to read for some people, but I really liked the very absurd yet very disturbing juxtaposition where you have these quite minimalist and cutesy visuals along with a story of children doing depraved and messed up things and revealing all these underlying horrors. It's quite interesting because the visual style is so clean and approachable with a notable extensive usage of the Ben Day process that they almost look like characters that would be a mascot for products aimed at children. That's inviting, conjures up memories of childhood but in context it seems to focus a lot on childhood trauma, remembering really screwed up things with such a vivid detail, yet there's also this sense of it either being inexplicable or somehow normalised.
Characters often do messed up things but don't entirely register it as such, and it's that sort of thing that fascinates me about this - and there's such a distinctly pessimistic tone to this where it feels like it's really digging deep into depravity, with vignettes of snails being killed and eaten, inexplicable segments of people being mutilated, and instances of child abuse inflicted upon by hypocritical parents who see their children as nuisances. This volume also opens with a very scathing depiction of a child being smacked over the head by a parent, then the child replicates that behaviour on a small animal and is then reprimanded by that very same parent and locked away in a dark shed, terrified for their life and facing this unknowable but horrifying punishment for it. Like there's definitely something that's trying to say there.
Characters often do messed up things but don't entirely register it as such, and it's that sort of thing that fascinates me about this - and there's such a distinctly pessimistic tone to this where it feels like it's really digging deep into depravity, with vignettes of snails being killed and eaten, inexplicable segments of people being mutilated, and instances of child abuse inflicted upon by hypocritical parents who see their children as nuisances. This volume also opens with a very scathing depiction of a child being smacked over the head by a parent, then the child replicates that behaviour on a small animal and is then reprimanded by that very same parent and locked away in a dark shed, terrified for their life and facing this unknowable but horrifying punishment for it. Like there's definitely something that's trying to say there.
October 13, 2022
i like them
July 2, 2020
I knew cats were nihilists.
July 1, 2024
the random anti-Semitic comic was weird. but i don't think that was included in the official version, i think i just found it because i was reading a fan translation that included the obscure shit. the rest was absurdist nihilistic fun. i like how obliviously evil these cute little cats are. and how it fluctuates between silly nonsense and genuinely compelling ideas and violent gross chaos. as a comic artist I admire Hashiguchi a lot. I wanna be just like her someday. (popular enough for indie animation studios to pick up my stuff, dead before it can be used for corporate promotional campaigns).
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December 11, 2024cute but also very horrible
August 26, 2025
Polecam, jeśli lubisz dziwność, brutalne sceny i humor dotyczący przemocy oraz śmierci. Koty lubią się znęcać i są dumne z tego, że się znęcają. Raz z*biją psa, innym razem zginie przez nie człowiek, a jeszcze innym same zostaną pobite przez ojca. Jest to specyficzna manga i na pewno nie trafi do wszystkich. (Tylko pierwszy tom mi się podobał)
July 28, 2019
What in the world did I just read?
May 31, 2023
Another in the occasional "Tom reads some fucked-up manga" series, but - despite being about the adventures of some big-eyed cats - this set of nihilistically funny short stories doesn't really remind me of any other manga. Instead it's like I've come upon a lost Fantagraphics title from their 90s glory days of single-creator anthology comics: I'd file Nekojiru Udon next to JIM, Meat Cake, Dirty Plotte, Neat Stuff... all those wonderfully wayward indie comics from creators pushing their craft forward and unleashing their id at the same time. Even the rough title translation - Cat Soup - sounds like one of them.
The timing fits, too - Chiyomi Hashiguchi did most if not all her work in the 90s, before taking her own life in 1998, at age 31. Her death and the manner of it make it tempting to read much into the darkness of Nekojiru Udon, but while it inevitably colours how you approach the comics, they deserve more than that: these are quick, nasty, punky pieces by someone with a huge and original imagination, darkly philosophical but also full of grossly vivid life.
Like any anthology - particularly by a creator learning on the job - some bits are better than others. There are stories which ramble or deliver a few up-yours shocks before running to a halt. There are also some unforgettable works here: cat hero Nyatta's psychedelic near-death experience (which was adapted into a short film) or the skewering of obedient optimism in the 'insect courthouse' sequence. This first short volume represents - as far as I can tell - roughly a third of Hashiguchi's lifetime work. There's no sign of repetition or a joke running itself down - I never opened a story knowing what to expect.
The timing fits, too - Chiyomi Hashiguchi did most if not all her work in the 90s, before taking her own life in 1998, at age 31. Her death and the manner of it make it tempting to read much into the darkness of Nekojiru Udon, but while it inevitably colours how you approach the comics, they deserve more than that: these are quick, nasty, punky pieces by someone with a huge and original imagination, darkly philosophical but also full of grossly vivid life.
Like any anthology - particularly by a creator learning on the job - some bits are better than others. There are stories which ramble or deliver a few up-yours shocks before running to a halt. There are also some unforgettable works here: cat hero Nyatta's psychedelic near-death experience (which was adapted into a short film) or the skewering of obedient optimism in the 'insect courthouse' sequence. This first short volume represents - as far as I can tell - roughly a third of Hashiguchi's lifetime work. There's no sign of repetition or a joke running itself down - I never opened a story knowing what to expect.
September 4, 2022
coole manga die de inspiratie was van een recente anime favoriet van mij (Cat Soup, heel erg coole film). het is duidelijk te zien dat veel elementen uit de manga zijn verwerkt in de anime. de tekenaar tekent met een simpele, haast kinderlijke stijl heel gruwelijke, surrealistische beelden. sommige verhalen sloegen beter bij me aan dan anderen, die vond ik wat té gruwelijk en grafisch, maar ik vind het heel erg vet hoe ze haar dromen vertaalt naar strip in de vorm van de beleefwereld van twee schattige katten.
July 29, 2025
nasty but it really grows on you
reminds me of those ultraviolent gross-out flash animations that were popular in the early 00s of cute animals doing bad things to each other... but nekojiru is elevated by a certain surreal and mysterious quality... i read so many of these books in one day that they blend together but for me the circus episode is a standout whereas the comics of animals being killed etc are mostly just annoying
reminds me of those ultraviolent gross-out flash animations that were popular in the early 00s of cute animals doing bad things to each other... but nekojiru is elevated by a certain surreal and mysterious quality... i read so many of these books in one day that they blend together but for me the circus episode is a standout whereas the comics of animals being killed etc are mostly just annoying
September 1, 2024
Ta bueno, son historias cortitas con un humor muy tonto y surrealista. Algunos capítulos te hacen pensar que son menos tontos de lo que parecen, por lo que el mood que hay entre un capitulo y otro puede variar bastante. Pienso que lo pude haber disfrutado más si hubiera visto las historias por separado.
August 3, 2022
Evil and terrible, even the authors comments were disturbing. I couldn't stop reading. So bad it's good. The sort of read that has me losing hope and faith in humanity, until I reframe it as the authors interpretation of things. And then I'm just sad.
November 9, 2022
I really love Cat soup\Nekojiru sou its one of my favorite movies and manga its very confusing, dark, and cute at the same time I love it.
March 11, 2024
childlike adventures blend adult violence and surreal landscapes into a strange, otherworldly view of post-modern japan inhabited by talking cats, homeless people, and jews
August 19, 2024
my favourite chapter is probably the one with alcoholic Dad selling the house to buy saccopharynx fish apparently to stare at it lovingly for all eternity rendering his family homeless until Mom serves him healthy dose of family violence so he reverses the operation.
i cannot really recommend this manga to anyone but for me it was fun to poke around the nekojiru's brain trying to figure out how much humour was lost in translation. the chapters often seem nonsensical and you get your fair share of very random xenophobia all right but i am still glad that this thing exists bc they made amazing animation out of it.
my main takeaway from it is that Nyakko and Nyatta are not just a pair of psychopathic kids but more of a reflection of senseless violence present in the world around them which they repeat without really getting the implication. in the world where society treats their sapient pigs the same way ours treats our non-sapient ones why would they treat anyone else any other way if there is actually no real difference between pigs and people.
i cannot really recommend this manga to anyone but for me it was fun to poke around the nekojiru's brain trying to figure out how much humour was lost in translation. the chapters often seem nonsensical and you get your fair share of very random xenophobia all right but i am still glad that this thing exists bc they made amazing animation out of it.
my main takeaway from it is that Nyakko and Nyatta are not just a pair of psychopathic kids but more of a reflection of senseless violence present in the world around them which they repeat without really getting the implication. in the world where society treats their sapient pigs the same way ours treats our non-sapient ones why would they treat anyone else any other way if there is actually no real difference between pigs and people.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews