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(4.18/5)An endearing story about cats and family
This was my first ever manga read in Japanese and I think it was the perfect choice.
- I know cats so I enjoyed all of the cat humor
- It's in color so it was beautiful to look at
- Most of the dialogue is short and not overly complex
- There are words that repeat frequently and are now deep in my brain (e.g., 逃げる)
- The story becomes surprisingly good and emotional
The only marks against it are that Chi's baby talk takes some time to get used to, and some of the dialogue between the adults can be quite complex compared to the relaxed dialogue between the cats themselves.
very cute and encouraging
I personally found this story so cute, the author's depiction of Chi was so precious. The mini-adventures Chi would get into were entertaining and interesting, I really felt that the perspective of a kitten was well captured. As for language learning, I think some readers may get tripped up by Chi's baby talk. However, if you are aware of that going in, it may not be so bad. Some research (someone linked a great youtube video!) can help navigate Chi's baby talk, however, I think it becomes relatively easier to figure out as the book goes on. Even if you may not feel ready for reading a manga yet, this is a great beginner manga and is light enough to just jump into! Don't be afraid to not understand everything, and don't study too hard! Reading is meant to be fun :)
Easiest manga I've ever read
I've only read one volume. It's cute, it's in color (which is rare for manga), and the content should be enjoyable for every demographic.
This is probably the easiest manga I've read. I think it would be great as confidence boost for beginners. Reasons its so approachable:
- It's cute and enjoyable for every demographic
- it uses simple language
- it has a simple story
- it has a rather low word per picture ratio and you understand a lot through prictures alone
All this also means that it's just not ver "meaty", which limits how much you can actually learn from it.
The manga makes heavy use of contractions and baby-talk. So I would strongly suggest learning about those first. I suppose the WK book-club would explain those things. Personally, I would recommend this youtube video: https://youtu.be/0ekrYwTHNTM
This is a cute story about a cat (from the cat's perspective) who gets adopted by a loving family. It's not a particularly engaging narrative but I enjoyed it and it's a quick read as there aren't that many words on each page.
For a language learner, this book is a bit difficult to grade as it has a relatively small vocabulary set and simple sentences, but there is a fair amount of slang and contractions, so I wouldn't recommend this as a first manga - maybe a second or third. As another reviewer mentioned, Chi's language is very quirky and you somewhat need to know what he's expected to say in order to figure it out... so you'd be hard pressed to do that if it's your first manga.
The WaniKani group discussions and vocabulary sheets (good coverage) really do help you figure it out though, highly recommend. As expected, this book has furigana on everything.
Perfect for a first-time manga, fun for experienced readers
I read it being a N3 student so I found it easy to read, and very entertaining. But still able to learn some very useful vocabulary. And I thought about it as a great first-time manga read for when you have passed N5. The cat (Chi) speaks 'badly', like a little kid as it is a small kitten. But I see it as an opportunity to get used to a manga-ish style of changing words that you'll find a lot moving forward on your reading journey.