Synopsis
My Cat’s Aura is Strong Today Volume 1 is an anthology of short stories about the daily lives of two humans (Sumire and Kinnosuke) and two cats (Kuroneko-sama and Kijineko-sama). Kuroneko-sama is a former stray, and most of its scenes focus on it warming up to Sumire enough to emerge from its hiding spot. The humor of the book stems from the perspectives of the cats, which should be relatable to anyone who owns one or has spent a lot of time around them. One example: the cat is insulted and perplexed when Sumire tosses away the gift it gave her, with said “gift” being a cockroach.
Though the collection isn’t a 4koma strip, it reads like one, with minimal development for the characters and cats. This came as a surprise to me. The summary had given me the impression that this book would not only feature interactions between the two cats, but it would also have more of a plot.
The Good
This is definitely a book for cat owners and cat fans. The artist Utako Uguisu writes that Kijineko-sama and Kuroneko-sama were inspired by her cat and a cat she’s interacted with, respectively. It doesn’t seem to be a retelling of real situations that happened to her, though, since she mentions differences in age and temperament between the book version of Kuroneko-sama and the real one.
The art is really cute. Despite the simplistic style, the cats look surprisingly realistic thanks to how Uguisu does the shading. It’s clear that she has spent a lot of time either observing her cats or referencing pictures of them. She even perfectly captured the arc of the spine and visible thighs from when a cat has just settled down and hasn’t gotten into the loaf formation yet.
It’s funny how there are so many panels showing the cat’s side profile or face from a side angle. It gives the impression that Uguisu can’t take her eyes off cats and has stared at them as they looked at something else for hours and hours until she could draw them perfectly from memory. Her love of cats practically oozes from each panel featuring them, which makes this book a delight to read for fellow cat people.
Somewhere In-Between
Kijineko-sama falls into the stereotypical depiction of a haughty kitty master and its stinky human “servants,” which seems very common in Japanese media. This somehow also applies to Kuroneko-sama, even though it’s under the misguided belief that it’s an undercover agent. Though this sounds ripe for wacky “mission logs” from Kuroneko-sama’s point of view, akin to Buzz’s misunderstandings in the first Toy Story movie, the silly humans end up the sole butt of the joke, just like in Kijineko-sama’s stories. If reading these strips one by one at a slower pace, this might not be an issue. But when reading them back to back in a collection, the cats feeling interchangeable despite having distinct personalities can make the experience a little lacking.
From the author’s notes, the real Kuroneko-sama seems quite quirky, so I think it might have been a nice change of pace to show its manga rendition eating flowers or being uncomfortably heavy on Sumire’s or Kinnosuke’s lap. As someone who has mostly interacted with cuddle-bugs with only two brain cells at most, I hope to see those types of cats represented more in media. This is only the first volume, though. Maybe in the second volume, once Kuroneko-sama becomes more used to living with Sumire and Kinnosuke, it’ll let more of its personality shine.
Verdict
My Cat’s Aura is Strong Today is a comic that’s for its niche, and only its niche, of cat owners and cat people. Considering how popular cats are, though, that’s still a huge market. There’s a very charming “self-published fanbook” air to this book, as if the author couldn’t contain her love for her cats and just had to put out a book to spread the good word of the real-life Kijineko-sama and Kuroneko-sama. Fellow fans of felines will find a cute read that’ll have them nodding along to the cats’ ridiculous interpretations of their humans’ antics.
My Cat’s Aura is Strong will come out on May 26, 2026. You’ll be able to get it physically and digitally from Amazon, Bookshop, Indigo, and Walmart.
Credits
Story and Art: Utako Uguisu
Translation: Caroline Winzenried
Editor: Robin Herrera
Adaptation: Hattie Trick
Lettering: Jaewon Ha
Cover Design: Mariel Dágá
Proofreader: Elliott Santomare
Production Designer: Ria Linn Johnson
Published in English by Seven Seas Entertainment
Thank you to Seven Seas Entertainment for providing a review copy. Receiving this copy did not affect the reviewer’s opinions as expressed here.
Article edited by: Adam Wescott
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