The Black Cat

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Black cats are known for getting a bad rap, this manga is no exception. Based on the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, it follows the events surrounding Pluto, an intelligent black feline aptly named after the Roman god of the underworld and the judge of the dead. He plays a crucial role in the dark grotesque short story that is "The Black Cat."

The story begins with his master coming home from a night out drinking. Having loved animals all his life you wouldn't expect a few drinks to change this. Though you'd be sadly mistaken as he eventually abuses Pluto in a fit of ... rage. This event soon progresses into the unthinkable happening but I won't spoil the details. As the story is the most redeeming factor of this manga. (A warning in advance, it contains nudity and sexual acts.)

The manga's art I'd say is fair at best. Many times I feel the dialogue doesn't match up with the expressions. The faces seem monotonous and lacking emotion. Though it excels with Pluto and the grotesque scenes. I would have liked to see more Gothic-esque aspects to it.

The characters are of similar quality. While it's based on a short story with little development or characterization. There could have been subtle things added to flesh them out more. Such as more insight into the thoughts of their actions instead of just following the details of the original story.

Overall for being an adaptation. It's fair in the representation despite changing and leaving out details. It could have been much better given a different art style and more characterization. Disregarding these faults it's okay for being a one-shot and does well to promote Edgar Allan Poe's works.

Black Cat is a rather confusing manga because I don't quite understand the thought process behind it.
If you want to experience one of the most famous horror writers adapted into manga format then keep looking somewhere else. This manga is bad for both a newcomer and someone who read the short story. If this is your first encounter with Poe then you'll miss out on his arguably remarkable prose and style as well as believable first person portrayal of mental illness and paranoia. This version of the story lacks a lot of inner monlogue that shaped the main character and themes of the ... story.
If you were going in with knowledge of the story and don't mind to see the Japanese retelling of it in a different format the it's still pretty bad. To get a picture of what this reads like imagine a 4th grader ripping off a Poe story for some Halloween writing contest but he didn't even actually read it and it's going off of a retelling some guy told him a year ago. It's cut in places where it shouldn't have been yet adds useless sex life subplot and whore sex, in the end of you asked someone who had read the short story and someone who had read the book what did they read and what was it about you'd get two wildly different answers.
If you think I'm only harping on this due to inaccuracies then you're wrong and I should've thought to type that sooner but this manga can't stand on its own either. Without convection to Poe it would just be just as bad of a one-shot, with black characters, bare bones plot and mediocre art.

Overall: read the book/10