There are two ways to look at this story. You could read into all the words and subtexts and make your own explanations about what something means and see beyond a story of a two kids wanting to make a difference. Or you can just take it to be a really neat story about friendship and stray cats.
That’s right, this is a story about cats.
From the outside, through a very small crack, it’s about Yun-lee, a sweet girl who just feels lost. She’s twenty-one years old and is in that point of her life that she’s an adult, at least by age standards and yet her time froze at nineteen and she missed her own transition. A car accident and she skipped from nineteen to twenty-one leaving her wondering who she was. Living in a monotonous pattern of school and home trying to catch up to where society dictates she needs to be, she only finds solace in feeding stray cats on her breaks. A chance meeting and what she’s been missing jumps in front of her; a young man who is living the gap she can’t.
What no summary mentions is that the cats are central to this story. Everything revolves around them. Yun-lee’s life changed because she took pity and saw in the strays what a lot of people didn’t. In return she meets Donghwi, who loves the cats and feeds them. He is currently on break from school and just working, enjoying his last year of blissful freedom before he is an official “adult.” He saves her in a way, from herself. Days pass and they meet through feeding the cats, saving them from their own people that dislike them and want them gone.
Somewhere along the way they decide that stray cats shouldn’t be stray anymore and start a plan to change it. One cat at a time, or maybe I should say people since it really starts with changing people’s mind in the nicest way.
It’s a journey for her, Yun-lee, about figuring out who she is and growing up, or staying young since there’s sometimes no difference and other times they’re polar opposites.
“If you don’t want any regrets, think about your future seriously..” We have all heard those words or some variations of it, throughout our life. Whether from our parents, school counselors or our own peers. We do nothing but try and shape ourselves for our future.
In a hurry to grow up we don’t realize that our most carefree time is the one before adulthood. The wanting badly to grow up, in order to have say and be listened to takes over and before we know it we shove ourselves into a world that isn’t by any means fair.
For some of us, we only see what’s in front of us, worrying only about what we can or can’t do. Taking it one day at a time. Others want to make a difference. “Be the change they want to see in the word,” one person at a time. Whatever the case may be, we have all wanted at some point to leave our footprints behind and not be forgotten.
Characters are few in this one, no more than ten characters in the whole volume. Out of those, half speak more than a few sentences as a whole. But they are great ones. You have your grownup who still maintains his child essence yet is mature as an adult. The girl who through humility and caring goes outside of her shell to make a difference in someone’s life. The boy who’s smile and casualness was so heartwarming it invited a stranger in.
The art, if I’m being honest it’s not beautiful in the way other manga are. It’s unique and elegant with a touch of realism. It is one volume of colored pages I am pretty sure due to the fact that it's not really classified as a manga but a webcomic in some places, but I could be wrong. Leaving nothing about the colors and places to the imagination, it creates the scene for us and livens up the characters. It’s not perfect, but I'm sure all the imperfections were done on purpose. For all of that I give it a perfect score in art.
Why not a ten then? If it's so great I mean. It's portrayal of someone who's transitioning into their own persona is very accurate and even though it had the character development that in most cases makes me giddy (I'm a weird girl and as my friend says, "whatever floats my boat."). But throughout reading, the hold it had on me from the beginning because of her personal struggle left, only to reappear in small glimpses later. The cats took over, and unless you take the cats to be symbolic for something you're going to end up feeling like something was missing and you can't quite put your finger on it.
All in all, it was memorable. Art was great, story was very nicely done and the characters were ordinary in the best sense of the word. For those who're wondering if there was romance, don’t fret because this one has it, even if it is in small doses.
It could be simple or it can be complex, you choose. :)
