From the mangaka behind Cat + Gamer comes a brand new cat-focused adventure: Cat + Crazy. Will this new series from publisher Dark Horse be a must-read for feline lovers everywhere? Let’s find out!

Our story follows high schooler Kensuke Fuji, who absolutely loves cats but can’t have one, due to his family being highly allergic. Still, he fills his days observing the stray cats around town and has become quite knowledgeable about them all. Although he does look like a creepy stalker, as pointed out to him by classmate Yamada Koharu, who happens to mistake him for some sort of troublemaker when she spots him perched on a wall with binoculars…

Kensuke enthusiastically explains his daily routine to Yamada and drags her along to meet Tamako, a stray cat he’s been indebted to since childhood, after she led him home one night when he got lost in the neighbourhood. She’s also the only stray that lets Kensuke pet her, which means a lot to him given his desire for a feline friend.

Unfortunately, not long afterwards, Tamako goes missing, and while desperately searching for her, Kensuke runs into a mysterious man known as Nekoya Jin. Together, they find Tamako and Nekoya displays incredible cat-whispering abilities, which Kensuke desperately wants to learn, so he begs Nekoya to teach him.

Unlike Cat + Gamer, which was a bit more episodic, Cat + Crazy has an ongoing storyline with Kensuke. He loves cats, and now that he’s met Nekoya, he (and we readers) are learning a lot about them. Nekoya very quickly tells Kensuke that there’s a lot he can’t learn by just studying strays, and although he understands that Kensuke can’t have a cat at home, Nekoya allows him to keep a kitten at his place. That way, Kensuke can learn about what it means to look after a cat and also observe them in a completely different environment. I’m sure at some point his family will find out and he’ll have to deal with the fallout there, but for now he has his hands full running around after his new pet!

I do worry that Nekoya is a bit too whimsical. He practices a art known as nekendo, a cat form of martial arts which seems to have given him the ability to understand what the stray cats are saying and some other unrealistic abilities. This is an otherwise fairly grounded story, so it does feel a little odd at times when Nekoya rolls into a scene and solves it with his skills.

It can sometimes feel like a bit of an idealistic depiction of stray cats as well, both in how they live and how Kensuke and Nekoya interact with them. That’s not necessarily a problem either, but I sometimes feel it’s at odds with the charming story that mangaka Wataru Nadatani is otherwise trying to tell. Perhaps it was for the best that a ‘pet’ was very quickly introduced for Kensuke, as opposed to him just following the neighbourhood strays around all the time.

As you’d expect from Nadatani, whose previous cat manga was nominated (twice!) for the Best Manga Harvey Award, this is otherwise a solid first volume. Both the humans and cats alike are well drawn, and although Nadatani sometimes puts a lot of detail into quite small panels, it’s still easy to follow from scene to scene. You can certainly feel the love Nadatani has for the subject matter, that’s for sure.

As mentioned, Cat + Crazy comes to the West thanks to Dark Horse Manga and has been translated by Zack Davisson with lettering by Susie Lee and Studio Cutie. The release reads well, and the lettering especially stands out for the large variety and how well it blends in with the rest of the work. Sadly, no colour pages here, which is a shame as the first few pages look like they were published in colour at some stage (I assume for the magazine serialisation).

The series is already complete in Japan with 6 volumes. Here in English, Dark Horse currently has Volume 2 scheduled for the end of October with #3 following in April 2026, so a fairly reasonable schedule for this one.

Overall, if you’re someone who enjoyed Cat + Gamer or simply loves cats, you will surely also enjoy Cat + Crazy. While this first volume doesn’t feel as grounded, it is still entertaining, and the creator’s love for humanity’s feline companions shines through. With only 6 volumes, this isn’t going to be the biggest commitment in the long run either.

Our review copy from Dark Horse was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services)

© Wataru Nadatani / Dark Horse / SHOGAKUKAN