Fuyuki Kanda is a widow and a pianist by occupation who has committed himself to something he never did before and become a cat owner. The one year old cat, Fukumaru is an ordinary cat in terms of appearance but Me. Kanda loves him with all his heart despite of the fact he has never owned a cat in his life before. His friend, Kobayashi is a dog person and is unable to understand why Mr. Kanda became a cat owner. With the passage of time Fukumaru and his caring owner become accustomed to live by each other side and we get to explore why Mr. Kanda become a cat owner after spending all his life without a pet. In some flashbacks we come to know how Mr. Kanda has been brought up in a strict environment where he spent most of his time in piano practice and was strictly prohibited to touch animals as his mother was a gramaphobe. We also get to see his late wife in some flashbacks which are quite heartwarming mainly because his wife had been planning to own a cat but unfortunately before they could get one, tragedy occurred and his wife died. We also got a glimpse in the childhood memories of a co-worker of Mr. Kanda, Yoshiharu Moriyama, shows a kid who had dreamed about making music but it was shattered by their pushy family and an extremely skilled brother.
These flashbacks are combined with 4-koma pages that tells the story of life with ‘Daddy’ from Fukumaru’s perspective and Mr. Kanda’s adoring bewilderment at some action of his cat like hair balls, scratching stuffy furniture, playing with cat toys, litter scuffing etc. Fukumaru is up against the ‘black thing’ which is the grand piano that his owner spends most of his time with and so Fukumaru doesn’t like it at all. The art-work style of Umi Sakurai is a little rough at some point but there is no denying that she pours all her heart into the characters, no matter if it’s a human or an animal. It is understandable that it is the relation between a cat and his owner where they both benefit each other as the cat protect Mr. Kanda from loneliness because of his belated wife, whereas, Mr. Kando has provided Fukumaru a home as he could have spend the rest of his life in pet shop because of his ugliness. But this message had already been conveyed in the previous volume and there was no need to force it upon readers repeatedly in Volume 2 as well as the new aspects like Mr. Kando finally willing to own his friend’s dog Chako as a solid indication that he is finally able to overcome his grief. The time leaps from the pat to present probably because it is a web-manga and was initially released in bite-size episodes before it compiled into tankoubon. It doesn’t contribute to the linear plot development but probably this is how the story is meant to be progressed, slowly and gradually.
As far as the first Volume goes, the quality of the paper is admirable which also include colored visuals at front and back along with 4-koma page that shows the cat’s owner in cosplay. The translation, done by Taylor Engel continues to amuse us with Fukumaru’s adorable sound. It is a sound that will make any cat lover happy and satisfied. Hopefully, in the next volumes Umi Sakurai will keep the right balance between the decent humor and the emotional moments. The nature of Fukumaru, which seems tsundere will take some time to make his story remain at the right track.
