Bye Bye, Niini.: Neko to Kikansha

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A manga mixing cats and boxing in a Disney like fashion, tackling themes of culpability and forgiveness, that’s what made me interested in this. It seemed like an experience like ashita no joe, a work where the thematics were strong ansd merely used boxing as a tool to tell it.

What I found very interesting from the get-go, is its artstyle which is very unique and not seen often in the manga scene. Even though I mentioned Disney earlier, it would be more fitting to say its close to don bluth movies, and it especially made me think of “banjo the woodpile cat”. The characters have ... very recognizable features, they are exaggerated in a way that you can instantly recognize what role they have in the story. For example, there is this one character that represents death, and is always presented with a black top hat and coat, a threatening grin and disproportionate eyes, surrounded by crows. The Mafioso and the earnest main character are also presented in very distinctive ways. It really puts the expressiveness of its characters forward. It has a pleasant nostalgic feel to it while having an overall grim tone.
Following the story of “The locomotive” Nido, a boxer that was once at the summit but lost it all in an accident. Now living in the street and haunted by the death of his little brother which he believed died because of him, he will find a new meaning when meeting Jiro, an aspiring boxer full of dreams, reigniting Nido’s lost flame for boxing. What they don’t know is their past which will burn them to white ashes…
Now, this type of story has already been done countless times before and can’t be said to be original or innovative in any way. It’s a shame because its as mentioned, its presentation is quite unique and a breath fresh air, and honestly, it is what saves it from being bad. It really feels like a lot of its potential is wasted because everything goes too fast and its twists are quite predictale. The story being this short, around 150 pages and a side story, doesn’t really help in getting emotionally attached to the characters and would have gained a lot from having a second volume and being more nuanced.
While being overdone, its atstyle and atmosphere makes it charming enough to compensates for that and make it just average, giving a nice but otherwise forgettable story.