What's Michael? - The Cat Lover's Comic

What's Michael by Makoto Kobayashi is admittedly one of my favorite manga. I suppose if you don't care for cats, then you probably wouldn't care for this comic. What's Michael follows the adventures of a ginger tabby called (surprise!) Michael. The story telling is not strictly sequential over the 11 volumes that have been published in English. Little kids may be confused by this since the stories often change setting: in one, Michael may be owned by a young Japanese couple; in the next, Michael may be owned by an older couple with children and in a third, Michael might be owned by a yakuza (Japanese mafia member). There are even story settings that place groups of cats in business suits or playing baseball in sport team uniforms. There is no consistent setting and Michael doesn't have one consistent home or set of owners. The stories are all episodes involving the cat Michael, his mate Popo, the monsterous Catzilla, any number of other cats, different dogs including one common repeat character named Bear, a couple of yakuza with pet anxieties, and all sorts of other everyday folk living in suburban Japan. Though the stories, settings, language and presentation are all appropriate for even little kids in the lower grades at elementary school, the ever-changing settings can be confusing for the younger age groups.

If you're looking to buy What's Michael for kids, be prepared to explain why the settings change. Also be prepared to explain why people in the comic do things like sit on the floor at a low table to eat meals or sleep on futons on the floor. All of the settings are modern suburban Japanese. The people in the comic are not North Americans - something that's most noticeable by the amount that they smoke. If you buy this comic for your kids, be prepared for this and be prepared to talk with your kids about it.

Like most manga, published weekly in Japan in serial form, the art is black-and-white. It is also very crisp and unlike a lot of manga, the faces of many of the characters are often distinctly Japanese. The ever-changing settings are part of the charm of the What's Michael and the take-off of The Planet of the Apes, appropriately titled The Planet of the Cats (Dark Horse volume #11) is a side-splitter. The author of this comic really understands his cats.

What's Michael is appropriate for all ages - though I suspect a lot of modern American adolescent boys would be bored by it. For the rest of us, it's a great read and a lot of fun. There is no bad language, no inappropriate or graphic violence, no "adult situations." Once in a great while, there may be a glimpse of modest mundane underwear under pajamas - your average American beach is worse...

What's Michael is published in English by Dark Horse Comics. It's initial debut in the USA won a New York Library Book Award in 1990. For about 6 years, it was also serialized in Dark Horse's now defunct Super Manga Blast which was not at all appropriate for little kids due to the rest of its content. As of this writing, Dark Horse has put out 11 volumes of What's Michael as 100-page self-contained collections of 4 to 8 stories. One of my biggest beefs over Dark Horse's publication of What's Michael is that the oldest volumes are out of print and hard to find. Every one of these volumes is worth owning in my opinion. Personally, I'd like to find all 11 volumes of What's Michael to give to my niece and nephew for Christmas.