Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon and Mu

Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu is Ito's account of his and his wife's (or fiancee's, at the start of the volume) experiences living with two cats. J-kun (Junji Ito) starts off as more of a dog person than a cat person, but A-ko (Ito's wife) loves cats and plans to bring Yon from her parents' home to her and J-kun's new house. While she's at it, she also decides to adopt Mu, a Norwegian forest cat kitten.

Initially, J-kun is terrified of Yon, who he views as having a cursed face. It doesn't help that Yon also has what appears to be a face-like pattern on his back. J-kun falls for Mu almost immediately, but Yon grows on him as he realizes that he's just a cat with a weird face.

There are the usual cat manga stories about playing with them, show more sleeping with them, and dealing with their quirks, but with Ito's creepy and intense art style (and his love of poop jokes). Ito often draws himself bug-eyed, overreacting to everything, and his wife is usually portrayed as a creepily smiling presence with blank white orbs for eyes. It's a weird mix of humor and horrifying moments.

I loved Ito's depictions of Yon and Mu. His over-the-top terror over Yon was amusing. Ito includes a couple color pages with photos of both Yon and Mu - I didn't find the real Yon to be all that terrifying, and yet I wouldn't call Ito's depiction inaccurate. It was impressive how he managed to make the tiniest details in Yon's appearance look so disturbing. Mu, meanwhile, was drawn more cutely, true to Ito's view of him as a little angel (even as Mu occasionally chomped on him for no reason).

If you'd like a cat manga that's a little different from the usual ones out there, this might fit the bill. It wouldn't be my top cat manga recommendation, but it was still enjoyable, and I teared up during the final bonus content.

Extras:

Two full-color pages with photos of Yon and Mu, a full-color illustration of them, Q&A pages with Ito, a 3-page bonus story (text-only) about a wood stove, a couple four-panel comics, a page of translation notes, and a short comic (by Junji Ito) and letter (by Ito's wife) about Yon's death.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu was one of the manga releases I was most looking forward to in 2015. Junji Ito is primarily known for horror manga–his Uzumaki is one of my personal favorites in the genre–but in 2008 he had the opportunity to serialize an autobiographically-inspired manga based on his experiences living in a house with two cats. The result was Junji Ito's Cat Diary, ultimately collected in a single, slim volume and published in Japan in 2009. The English-language edition of the manga released by Kodansha Comics in 2015 also includes the contributions made by Ito and his wife (Ayako Ishiguro) to the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake relief anthology Teach Me, Michael! A Textbook in Support of Feline Disaster Victims. I show more thoroughly enjoy Ito's brand of unusual horror and I, too, happen to have the privilege of feline companionship, so I was very interested in Junji Ito's Cat Diary. I expected it to be a manga that I would enjoy and I wasn't disappointed; I absolutely loved it.

J-kun is the proud owner of a new house in pristine condition from floor to ceiling and he's looking forward to living there with his soon-to-be wife A-ko. What he didn't initially realize was that by inviting her to live with him he would also become host to two more guests: Yon and Mu. J-kun is convinced that Yon, one of A-ko's family's cats, is cursed. He's a strange-looking feline with skull-like markings that would seem to confirm J-kun's suspicions. Mu, on the other hand, is an adorable kitten with a pedigree and cute enough to melt even J-kun's dog-loving heart. And so begins J-kun's trials and tribulations as a keeper of cats, slowly falling under their spell as he grieves the loss of his perfectly-kept house. He warms up to both Yon and Mu, but they don't quite exhibit the same amount of warmth in return, more often than not preferring A-ko's company. But J-kun is determined–one day he, too, will enjoy Yon and Mu's love and affection.

Junji Ito's Cat Diary is immensely entertaining. Ito has kept his signature style used when drawing horror manga and has applied it to a collection of stories that are closer to being gag manga. The illustrations can be intentionally grotesque and creepy, with an emphasis on J-kun's exaggerated expressions as he reacts (and overreacts) to the events occurring in his household and the horrors of pet ownership. A-ko, too, is drawn in such a way that her disconcerting appearance adds to the atmosphere of horror in the manga. For the most part, the cats are simply cats (at least when J-kun isn't hallucinating from lack of sleep); it's the humans who come across as maniacal. Junji Ito's Cat Diary looks like it should be a horror manga and has all of the genre's visual stylings, but it really isn't. The humor is even funnier because of this deliberate disconnect between the actual stories being told and how they are being portrayed.

As someone who tends to enjoy Ito's work and as someone who tends to like cat comics, I was already in a position to particularly appreciate Junji Ito's Cat Diary. It may certainly not work for everyone, though–the manga is a weird mix of horror and comedy, the grotesque and the adorable–but I loved it. In general, the stories in Junji Ito's Cat Diary are less about Yon and Mu's antics and more about J-kun's reactions to their behavior and his changing relationships with the two cats. Yon and Mu are actually very normal as cats go; the humans in the manga are the ones who come across as eccentric and a bit odd. Junji Ito's Cat Diary is hilarious but at the same time the manga maintains and oddly disconcerting and even ominous atmosphere. Ito simply excels at taking the mundane and transforming it into something truly devious and bizarre. I'm not sure, but perhaps I should be concerned by how much I can identify with the stories found in Junji Ito's Cat Diary.

Experiments in Manga show less

A very sweet, charming, funny manga that was a delight from cover to cover. I have read some of Junji Ito's horror and it's really amusing that a man who can create such terrifying, grotesque work also seems like the sweetest, most sensitive guy around cats. This manga plays a bit with Mr. Ito's horror style in everyday situations and it's very humorous.

I definitely think that Ito fans will like this if they would like a peek into their favorite mangaka's life, and cat lovers will enjoy it for its relatability and comedy. It has a lot of heart and I think I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, cute read.

Truly hissterical. These tales chronicling real-life trials and tribulations of being a cat owner - and Junji Ito's reluctance to become one are both charming, somewhat terrifying, and so true. A wonderful, slice-of-life manga about what it is like to be a cat owner as seen through the eyes of the horror manga master, Junji Ito.

Cat lovers & horror fans rejoice.

¿Eres más de gatos o de perros? Esta frase marca la convivencia del autor, Junji Ito, con su pareja cuando ella le anuncia que Yon, el gato de cara extraña, vivirá con ellos. Y no sólo eso: adquieren un precioso gato de la raza Bosque de Noruega, al que llamarán Mû, para que sean amigos.
No hace falta decir que al principio Junji Ito vive atemorizado ante estos dos pequeños seres, y es que para quien no conozca al autor, estamos hablando de uno de los autores más reconocidos en el género del terror sobrenatural, por lo que es sorprendente encontrar en su bibliografía este divertídimo manga en el que lo que empieza como auténtica aversión a los felinos deriva en un amor incondicional ante las carantoñas y diabluras de los show more dos gatos.

Aún así hay algunas viñetas delirantes, en las que se nota el género favorito del mangaka: alguna alucinación, pesadillas... pero nada perturbador, ya que todo queda en algo humorístico, reflejo de su imaginación desbordante. Recomendable tanto para los seguidores de Junji Ito (a pesar del cambio de registro) como para los amantes de los gatos. show less

I loved this graphic comic about mangaka Junji Ito becoming a cat person when his wife brings home two cats. Anyone who has lived with a feline companion will understand the journey. And the last few pages were touching.

I was having a particularly bad day, one of those almost comedic ones where basically everything goes wrong. On my way home I popped into the comic store in a huff and grabbed this manga as a treat. I'm so thankful I did as it completely turned my day around and warmed my sad little heart. Chapter 10 'tread on poop, snot or cat' had me crying with laughter and I desperately needed that laugh. The artwork is crazy good ❤️