Neko Wappa 1 by Naoya Matsumoto, review: look what the cat dragged in
Neko Wappa 1 by Naoya Matsumoto, review
Taking advantage of the wake of the debut of Kaiju No. 8, recovered HERE our review of the first volume, Star Comics also brings the previous works of Naoya Matsumoto to Italy, starting with this Neko Wappa. It is a miniseries of two tankobons with a decidedly humorous cut which, despite having very different premises and settings, winks at some great classics of the more or less recent past such as Doraemon and above all Dr Slump & Arale by Akira Toriyama.Neko Wappa 1
Neko Wappa 1: look what the cat dragged in
Eight million gods live in Japan and there are countless sacred buildings. Right on the threshold of one of these sacred buildings, the Shinto shrine of the Nekomata forest, a little girl named Tama is abandoned. She is collected from the family of divinities who live in the sanctuary, cute as well as extremely anthropomorphic cats, she is raised with love until she reaches the right age to return to the world of men and to become, herself, a divinity!| ); }Neko Wappa 1 All these changes, and the hustle and bustle caused by Tama's exuberance, however attract the attention of the rival temple of Mount Kitsenubi which sends little Kibimaro Kitsenubi to the same school as Tama to thwart her and start a fight against her. last wish to fulfill. The first faithful to contend with is cute little Rikka. Meanwhile, Himiko Maeda, a girl who claims to be possessed by an evil spirit, shows up at the temple of Nekomata. In reality this is not exactly the case and it will even be a deity to visit the temple to explain the situation and entrust the girl who will become their priestess to the care of the Nekomata, thus giving prestige to the rapidly rising temple not only among the faithful but to apparently even among the gods.
Neko Wappa 1: “power of the cat… come to me!”
On the one hand the expansive (and explosive) but naive character of Tama recalls that of Arale, on the other hand the presence of an action component, albeit mitigated by slapstick and deliberately exaggerated solutions, gives a certain dynamism to reading with less linear plots, more involved characters and in general a narration which, although anchored to a purely vertical scheme, does not renounce to insert hints of a horizontal plot making everything more engaging and less episodic and an end in itself.
It should be emphasized that not even the author Naoya Matsumoto, in the short introduction that appears on one of the flaps of the tankobon dust jacket, hides the distinctive trait and the true inspiration behind the creation of the series: cats. Anthropomorphic, kawaii (extremely cute) but also lethal when evoked by Tama, cats are the real stars of the series. Their appearances are hilarious, just take as an example those of Tama's adoptive parents or even those of the various "special" cats evoked by the protagonist, but also cuddly lethal as when, always Tama, unleashes the Megaton Cat Punch. In short, if you are a "cat" or a "cat" the humor and the feline-based action of Neko Wappa will be irresistible.
Worth noting is the author's excellent storytelling thanks to a particularly tidy table organization. The preferred coordinate is the horizontal one which roughly allows you to always use the same 3-strip pattern that the author composes or breaks down according to needs. Over the course of the chapters the solution is then resumed or abandoned in favor of an always ordered verticality or more daring solutions such as splash pages or live squares.
The volume
Star Comics presents Neko Wappa in its classic entry level format or a paperback volume of 11.5 × 17.5 cm. However, the presence of the dust jacket which enhances the captivating cover should be noted. There are no color pages in the volume nor editorial contributions by the Italian curators who, on the other hand, have lavished on precise explanatory notes. The choice of paper is the classic dark uncoated paper of the Perugian publisher with good yield and moderate weight, also worthy of mention is the excellent trimming of the pages which allows for easy reading.Neko Wappa 1
