Saturday, June 13, 2020

Cats of the Louvre (rank 3)

Publisher: Viz
Volumes: 1 Omnibus (Complete), In Print
Josei/Seinen
Genre: Supernatural, Fine Art, Cats, Experimental Work



Summary: The famous fine art museum, the Louvre in France, has a few secrets known only to a select few who work at the museum. First is a hidden colony of cats living in the attic, tended to for many years by one of the night watchmen. Secondly, an old story that the night watchman will tell anyone who is willing to listen, about his eccentric little sister who claimed she could talk to the paintings, and even enter them. One day she disappeared, never to be seen again. Meanwhile, one little cat, a white runt who still looks like a kitten despite being 6 years old, can also enter the paintings as well.

Review: This work is basically a love poem to the Louvre museum and the famous paintings inside. The actual art style of this comic is very western inspired as well. If I did not know it was by Taiyo Matsumoto, I would have guessed it was a French comic. The actual story is a bit thin, quite a good piece of it is just the normal activity inside the museum, and only part of it is the cats. The main story is about the missing girl and the little white cat. Overall the story is not bad, but it wanders and for the first half of the book I was wondering what it was about.

As a cat lover, I picked this up for the cats, and I was a bit disappointed. Half the time the cats are drawn in a beautiful, detailed style clearly inspired by fine art. The other half of the time they are drawn as weird monstrous half-human half-cat like creatures when they talk, which I didn’t care for. I would have preferred if they were just straight up drawn as people if he wanted to convey their personalities visually.

I am not particularly interested in fine art. That being said, I think a fine art lover would appreciate this story where every painting literally has a whole world inside it. That part of the story was also quite imaginative and visually impressive.

As for Taiyo Matsumoto’s work, I feel like this story is somewhat weaker and less interesting to the average manga reader. I felt like Tekkon Kinkreet and GoGo Monster were much more accessible.

Recommended: Fine art lovers, and those who love the Louvre. Also this is Seinen but I would say it's more aimed at older readers in general.

Not Recommended: I don’t really feel like this is for cat lovers, but I could be wrong. I feel like it’s more about the paintings than the cats. The cats are more like a mix between observers and to drive the plot, they aren't the focus of the story.

Age Rating: PG for some mild violence.

Other Works in English by this Mangaka (from most to least popular):

  • Ping Pong (Seinen)
  • Tekkon Kinkreet (Seinen)
  • Blue Spring (Seinen)
  • GoGo Monster (Shounen/Seinen)
  • Sunny (Seinen)
  • Number 5 (Seinen)
  • Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators (Short Story in an Anthology) (Seinen)
  • The Tipping Point (Short Story in an Anthology) (Seinen)

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