It’s always great to have a stable of slice of life manga series you can return to when you need a pick me up, and I can’t help but feel like Nights with a Cat is an idea kind of candidate. Everything about this collection of brief vignettes is pleasant.
Rather than long chapters, each story in Nights with a Cat is only a few panels long and cover a brief moment in time between Kyuruga and the humans in the household. While Pi-chan is his owner and, as such, comes across as the more knowledgeable. For example, in volume 3 she is the one responsible for the vet visit. However, by this point in the series, her older brother Fuuta also seems like he’s gotten comfortable with the situation. It’s the the point where he’s also helping with cat care, such as providing a scratching box.
All of the situations in volume 3 of the Nights with a Cat manga deal with the observation of regular cat mannerisms. For example, the first story has Fuuta watching as Kyuruga finds a place to get comfortable and sleep. In another, we see the cat react to an ordinary chore. They’re funny and accurate depictions of the lengths a cat will go to in order to get “comfy” or how they’ll misinterpret actions as playful.
What I also love is how Nights with a Cat goes on to show how humans shape themselves to work around or with a cat. We see how Fuuta, even when he’s working, is aware of Kyuruga and making sure he does things to make the cat happier and more comfortable. Likewise, when the cat is at the vet, we see that by this point in the manga, Fuuta is so comfortable with his new normal that he is unconsciously thinking of and missing the animal.
Nights with a Cat is one of those incredibly lighthearted manga series that makes it easy to get cozy and relax with adorable characters and relatable situations. I just felt better after reading it at the end of a long day. Kyuruga engages in so many prime cat behaviors. Even if I never witnessed similar ones, I’d just smile and go, “Yup, Kyuryu Z sure actually lived with or spent a lot of time with a cat.” It’s one of those manga series I feel I’d keep coming back to, since it is such a fun, timeless read.
Nights with a Cat volume 3 is available now via Yen Press, and there is no release window for volume 4 of the manga yet.
