Hard-Boiled Stories from the Cat Bar

by Yourei Ono

猫ロスから立ち直れない「葬儀屋」と呼ばれる殺し屋・三宅、突如転がり込んできた頬に傷のある男・小野寺、飼い主の帰りを待つ猫・ダンディ…！ カワイイ猫とワケありな男達が贈るハードボイルド・ストーリー！

Genres: Manga, Graphic Novels, Seinen, Comics, Mystery, Cats, Animals

210 pages, Paperback

First published April 3, 2020

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have very mixed feelings about this. 2.5 rounded up because Dandy is a good kitty.

[Madelynn Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was super confused after chapter four of this manga. And seeing how a lot of people left similar reviews it makes sense. Maybe I’ll pick it back up in the future and read it again.

I wasn’t expecting the type of story I got. Very Noir, but very simple. The plot has little to do with cats, mostly detectives and faking deaths but not really. I was under the impression we’d be following the assassin more than the detectives which was equally confusing to me since he and the cat were on the cover.

I loved the art (it’s the reason I picked it up.) I feel like over all if it were to better site who these characters were and what was really going on it would’ve been better. If I’m being honest I just want this creator to make more stories with the former hit man and his new kitty. Over all it wasn’t horrible just confusing.

[Angela R. Watts · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the art. Hitmen are always fun, even if this was a bit cheesy and humorous for my taste, but ULTIMATELY I was just... very very confused. I would say it was me being dumb, but others had the same issue, so yayy, it was not just me, haha.

[Debb · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was confusing as hell. Cute cats tho.

[Peacegal · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars -- I liked the concept of this book, and I don't know if it's because I don't read a ton of manga or not, but I had difficulty following the story at times and found myself wondering exactly what was going on.

I liked the emotive cats of the Kitty & Me cat bar and the MC's extreme devotion to felines, so much that he flies into a rage if someone inconveniences a cat in any way.

Cat lover content alert: Cats are threatened with harm in an effort to force characters' behavior.

[Tessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

i really liked the art in this one but i was really confused as to what was happening and who was who for most of the book.

[AltLovesBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Credit where credit is due, this was a really unique idea that fell flat in execution. Some of the really early panels where these hardened hitmen/cops/bouncers were talking all lovey-dovey about cats really made me giggle, but the plot was incredibly hard to follow. I'd love to summarize it, but I really can't. Something about how one guy was killed, leaving behind his cat Dandy who hangs out at the cat bar with other cats, and dudes there to drink away their stresses. Another guy chasing down Dandy's owner finds his way to the cat bar and starts interrogating the people there about some list of names that Dandy's owner left behind(?). This list of names is incredibly important to this man, but the guys there don't know anything about it.

There's also flashbacks while this is going on that confuse the issue more than clear it up. There's no clear delineation between current time and past time, and maybe it was issues with translation or something, because I couldn't follow the story at all. I read a lot of confusing literature and tons of manga, and I couldn't really follow the thread of the plot, unfortunately.

But the art was fantastic! The cats were cute! I just wish the story held up.

[Librarian Jessie (BibliophileRoses) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly funny and enjoyable plot of hardened men and their adoration of adorable fluffy cats.

[Forthright . · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of the regulars at this cafe are tough guys. Former yakuza. Hitmen. They're dangerous men, but they abide by the house rules. Don't do anything to upset the cats. It's a tenuous truce.

It's funny to see these hardened men dote on their favorite felines, but this isn't a comedy. Very much a hard-boiled tale, there's a complex mystery/case underway. It resolves by the end of the volume.

[(╯`▭´）╯︵ ǝɔnɒꓷ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was confused pretty much the whole time I was reading this.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was a bit confusing. I got it because I'm familiar with the noir genre. But the formatting was a bit of a mess. Very pretty men though, and cats are also loved. So.

[Miss Jools · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing!

The art is so unclear and there are three characters who look pretty much the same. Some panels were more badly drawn than others. And the speech bubbles were a mess and confusing as to who was talking.

The cats look awful too...

Humour is pretty bad. And the story line is absolutely incomprehensible, just convoluted nonsense really.

Such a shame because cat loving gangsters is a great premise.

[Lavender Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

So at its core the story and it’s characters were very good. The problem is that in black and white certain characters look too similar and add in a lot of time jumps back and forth it can get really confusing. I think this is the type of book that it’s better on the second read when you fully know who is who and how they are connected. I also found thinking of it cinematically really helped me.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

**sigh! I really wanted to love this, but it was too slow. The art was amaZing , however. One star for the abs table of contents alone 🤩 and the cute kitties… 🐈‍⬛

[sachi · Rating 4 out of 5]

man hot, cat cute.

[Kastie Pavlik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started reading this in July and was forced into a hiatus. At about the midpoint, I noted: "It's confusing but funny. Kind of a gag-humor/noir mix." When I picked it back up, the story was difficult to follow and I was fairly well lost by the end. But Cats. I'll try to read it again some day to see if makes any more sense.

For others who have asked or wondered: it's not a manga thing. I read a ton of manga and this is not a common problem. The art (which is good, really) style does make telling the characters apart difficult at times. Usually, you'd look at details like the way the hair parts, facial markings, clothes, etc, but that's not the problem here. Jumping into flashbacks usually isn't an issue - there's a frame or background change, and here, the present day is told against a white background and the flashbacks are against a black (or shaded) background.

It's the story. It's hard to follow once the action starts. I don't think we're given enough context up front for the serious parts - like with the "officer" exclamation when the masked guy barges in. I reread those pages to no avail before giving up and continuing on, only to have the issue mostly resolved a few more pages later. The cat moment in between, while cute and funny, stilts the momentum of what would normally be a next page reveal, and the writing continues to get harder to follow on from there. I have no idea if it was a ghost story, a noir, a comedy, or what, but I *want* to like it. Hopefully, the next time I read it, maybe I will.

[Siina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard-Boiled Stories from the Cat Bar seemed interesting for the cover is wonderful and I'm always eager to test out one-shots. Also, manly crime mangas are too scarce. But cats? They're still overrated. In a sense it was kind of hard to grasp what is happening in the manga. The story takes place mostly in a bar/cafe for men loving cats. Some police have died and crimes are unsolved. There's an assassin and a man with a scar on his face and a black cat that belonged to the dead police. These characters form the crime mystery that's full of cats. The characters look a lot like each other, at least these main ones, which made it hard to follow the plot. Also, the manga is mostly talking heads trying to trap one another with schemes. I liked the premise, but it would've needed more time and less weird humor to make it work fully.

The art looks great and works well with the story. The panels are lively even though hardly anything actually happens in them. I wish the crime had been better constructed though and the role of the cats and the Cat Bar was weird in itself. Still, this is interesting and works as a standalone too. The cover is awesome, really.

[Kiley Bennett · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's something in here I really want to like. The setting in that bar is great, the cast of characters is interesting, the cat designs are hilarious, and once I finally wrapped my head around what was happening I did like where the story was going. But there are apparently three main characters in this, ex detective Onodera, Section Chief Officer Sakota, and Miyake (the hitman known as The Undertaker).

Sakota and Miyake look almost exactly alike.

This confused the hell out of me. I paused after the first chapter for an hour or so then returned to the book to find a flash back before the story continued and had no idea that I was no longer following Miyake, the pov had swapped to Sakota. It made the entire experience confusing with coupled with the non linear storytelling.

I'll have to give it another shot in the future as it was a quick read, but not really enjoyable either of the two times I've done so right now.

[Shelby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm gonna be honest; I had almost no clue what was happening from like page 20 on because I'm pretty sure what happened is that this artist started drawing these insanely hot characters and the editor was like "I'm sorry is there a story here because I simply won't be able to focus on it if you keep drawing these men so hot" and the artist wouldn't stop so the storyline just kinda hurt itself. Also, like everyone said, three or four of the characters were indistinguishable because the creator failed the follow the unspoken yaoi rule that one guy has to have light hair and the other dark. And I fucking love them for it. The storyline was enjoyable and surprisingly noir, the men were just..... I lost my mind. And the cats were so cute! Also, the one guy made the 'rock n' roll' sign with his hand as he was going down after getting punched in the face. An amazing detail! I can't wait for Yourei Ono's next work!!!!

[J-Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three main characters that are all connected because of the accident three years ago all look the same! Honestly, the on.y difference was the scar on the guys cheek or when the hitman wore glasses; otherwise, I had to reread some panels to understand what was going on. In addition to having to read some parts two or three times, I didn’t know whether it was in the past or present because everything merged together…..

Seriously, one second they’re playing questions at the bar and the next they’re at a grave/park/car/home/anywhere. I was getting whiplash from keeping the story straight!

As noir fiction goes, this kept my mind busy for an hour or two before dinner, so that’s a win in my book.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was glad to read down through the reviews and see that I'm not the only one who found a majority of the book incomprehensible.

The premise sounded so good that I just had to pick it up. The art is lovely, but the story just makes no sense and is difficult to follow. Some of the characters look so much alike, that it was difficult to tell them apart and know what each was doing.

All in all, pretty to look at and with a lot of promise had it been done right. I'm not sure if it was botched in translation or if it was that confusing in Japanese as well, but it's a real shame. I had been looking forward to this book.

[Brooke Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5]

This was a hard one to rate. On one hand, once the pieces (finally) started clicking together chronologically, it was an interesting story. I just can’t rate it 4 stars - technically I am only because Goodreads doesn’t do half stars. The fact that the 3 main guys all look similar REALLY confused me. I mean, the plot kind of did too until it did the ‘this is what happened we didn’t show you before’ thing that helped connect the dots.

While I did end up mostly understanding, this one’s tough to decide whether I actually enjoyed it. But hey, at least it was well illustrated and had cats!

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's an over-reliance on flashbacks, some really weirdly placed, which makes the story hard to follow. Kind of disappointing, but mainly because it's more of a single tragic psuedo-detective story than slice-of-life stories at a manly-man's cat bar. Nice color insert though XD. It's a debut work, so the mangaka may improve in time, but it could also be that hard men loving cats is a hard market to cater to. ;) 2.5*

[Lorie Ham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a dark and twisted story of a hitman, a detective, and a very unusual cat bar. It was the idea of these violent men coming together in a cat bar because of their love of cats that made me want to pick this one up and is what made this story very unique. I also love the cover! If you enjoy a hard-boiled mystery, and you love cats, be sure to check this one out. As far as I can tell this is a one-off, but perhaps there are more stories about the cat bar coming in the future.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first manga in a very long time that I have read. I'm not used to the format. So I was very confused about what was going on. It was hard for me to distinguish between characters and if a scene was a flashback or currently happening. However, I liked the concept of this manga. And it was a nice quick read.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over all, this was a fine story for a stand-alone manga. The pages and dialog could be a little confusing and the story a bit hard to follow at times. For example, the detective and Undertaker were hard to tell apart at times? Otherwise, the art was very good and although the people were more realistic than the cats.

Kind of a silly but serious read. Didn't take long; forty-five minutes tops.

[VirgoVulpes · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea of it was fun but it was so confusing to read that I kept seeing if I missed pages on accident. The amount of flashbacks were all too confusing and I had to sit there and solve the mystery of a timeline. I think we missed a lot of points. I also wished the “bad guy” and the hitman didn’t have such similar design because I confused him multiple times 🫠

Cats are good beans though.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was kinda confused throughout most of this. There was a simple mystery that they chose to segment in a mixed up time line, which led to confusion. Most reviews can atest to that as well. I personally had a hard time distinguishing between the two main characters. They were drawn extremely similar which aided in more confusion. All that said it wasn't a bad read.

[Carlislethesucker uwu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got it because it had cats but it was a pretty good cop x hitman story throughout the manga.

The theme of cats is prevalent through the story but the minor twists and turns of the story being told is interesting! Although I feel like we could have had more of the background characters involved but I liked this.

[Joshua]

It shifts around a lot in terms of tone. At times it's funny, at times it's super serious and it doesn't feel good. It works in some manga (Gangsta) for a variety of reasons, but this didn't hit my sweet spot.