And so it ends.
T'was alright but I'm gonna be honest, this series really didn't do much for me. (sorry for the long rant in advance, I just wanted to share my full thoughts somewhere)
Let me be clear, it was not a bad manga by any means. It did it's job okay, didn't commit any grave sins, and had several cute moments and a decently happy ending all things considered. So please understand this is not coming from a place of hatred. But as a fan of Nobel (both Boku to Uchuujin and Mousou Telepathy) I really feel like this one was one of her weaker works and that kinda blows.
Compared to her other stories, the main characters in this felt very... Surface level? They weren't cookie cutter necessarily but I never got a sense that they had much to explore compared to her other stories where each main and even side character could legit have its own dedicated manga. Takase's core issue was very simple and dealt with pretty promptly (it was almost jarring considering how much they built up to it), and same with Mitsuki's (literally 1 conversation and most of her abandonment and family issues were sorta solved), and the last conflict of Takase wavering on how to treat Mitsuki was also solved pretty nonchalantly because, as it turns out, Takase is still attracted to human women and Mitsuki is cute, and that's basically it.
You could argue that that's more realistic, that not every problem needs to be some intricate drama web, and I'll give you that. But at the same time, there was quite a bit of build up to many of the issues in this manga, so when they just sort of waved them all off in conversations it doesn't feel entirely fitting either. I think there was a middle ground where their issues could have been dealt with across a longer span of time via words and actions to make them feel more genuine and also engaging to follow. As it stands, most of this manga was just having a conversation to solve one issue and then rinse and repeat. I really hoped to see our main cast do things together in order to evolve, but that rarely happened, especially toward the end. Show don't tell, y'know?
Romance wise, Mitsuki and Takase could have also had several arcs where they properly developed their relationship and learned to be close to one another which would tie into the overarching narrative, but we never got to have that, only conversations of promises of things to happen and then a time skip that didn't show any of those things.
And the rest of the cast was hardly involved, with the only other decently prominent character, Mr. Tiggy, not even getting a comeback moment besides this one final scene. Sure he was always meant to be a cat and didn't want to be human, but as a reader I still cared about what he felt/thought and the manga clearly did too since he was directly involved for half of it, so excuse me if I feel kinda blue balled that he was just permanently gone with no warning and I'm expected to just assume he was always a mere cat with no thoughts, feelings, or agency.
For the author who wrote Boku to Uchuujin, where almost every single character ever mentioned gets multiple dedicated arcs, and Mousou Telepathy, where the main cast and at least the best friend gets a sizeable chunk of development and involvement, and time spans across multiple months with several events happening in between, it feels like both the main and supporting cast of this manga was really underdeveloped and under utilized, as was the setting.
The story also felt a little incomplete. Nobel introduced a bunch of lore and then just kinda let it go. Immortality can be such a complex subject and all we got were a few nice words of hope and that's that. The curse afflicting the manager and the dad could have been such an interesting subject to delve deeper into as well.
Both could also have had really interesting arcs after their back stories, but they were almost relegated to the background after speaking their mind. What happened to Mitsuki's mom and dad's relationship? Is there a possibility the curse can be dispelled? What about the rest of the cat staff? Guess we'll never know.
Okay, so maybe the goal wasn't to discuss or delve into such heavy topics, that's fine (even though most of the manga was characters discussing their problems), but then why make them such a big drama point only to then basically shrug them off? It's like the story is practically begging the reader to be interested in more only to then ignore them and undermine their expectations.
But even if we ignore all this and assume the sole goal of this manga was to just gush about cats, it still kinda failed at that since after the first few cats were introduced they were all side stepped by the whole immortality drama and Mitsuki's issues, so I don't even feel like this is a manga I'd recommend to someone who likes cats and is just looking to turn off their brain.
And lastly, we have this absolutely bonkers time skip that I think not a single person saw coming. Even if you disagree with everything I've said so far, I think I speak for a lot of readers when I say that this time skip was kind of underwhelming and felt extremely out of left field after everything we had. We don't get to see friends, family, or the cat staff, nothing. Just Mitsuki and Takase's couple (not even engaged smh) life for like 5 pages and that's that. Yay they're happy, but I still cared for the rest of the cast and story. I'm sure the volume extras will include some more but man, when this chapter first came out a month ago I remember audibly saying "that's it!?" and had to double check on Twitter that this was, in fact, the end.
There was so much in this manga that could have bloomed into something but instead everything just sort of quietly flopped, leaving you grasping at straws for stuff that you will never get.
Sorry, I didn't want to be a big downer in the finale, I just can't help but feel disappointed that an author I love and that I know has the talent to write a lot more interesting stories spent 3 years on such an average one that will likely be forgotten in a few months, whereas something like Mousou Telepathy probably still resonates in the minds of most of its readers (I still think of Mana half the time I grab a croissant).
Yes I know that even a good author isn't bound to write amazing memorable masterpieces each time, and I also know that a manga doesn't always have to be some deep, philosophical outlook on a particular subject, but when looking at Nekotete at a first glance I do see the potential for more. It did have the elements to develop a more intricate plot, or at least an equally diverse story like the previous works did, it just very clearly wasn't given the chance to, and that's what's ultimately frustrating to me.
Maybe it was the publisher that canned it, maybe this is what Nobel planned all along, idk, but I wish I hadn't finished it with so many mixed feelings.
I do admit it's partially my fault for placing certain expectations on the work that maybe shouldn't be there (though I do genuinely feel the manga created at least part of them and then didn't really deliver). I'm sure many readers who followed this just took it as another one of those dime-a-dozen Twitter comics with no depth and didn't have many serious considerations or qualms about it. If girl cute then manga good, amirite? But to me this was the next promising work from an author I really love. It didn't have to be the next Mousou Telepathy, but damn, I was really hoping it at least left a mark. I didn't want this manga to be lost in the already endless, bottomless, milquestoast sea, but I think that's sadly where it will be swimming.
Do I regret reading it? No. Like I said at the start, it's an okay manga, especially if you don't think too hard about it. I'm not angry about reading it or anything. I've also read many other manga with similar quality so it's not like I think this one deserves particular scorn, nor do I think it is somehow wrong for a manga to simply be average and not do anything special. It's just that, in the broader context of the author's works, it does feel like it didn't have much, if any, of her magic, and that's extremely regrettable to me as a fan.
I blame FFXIV.
Hopefully her next manga hits the mark better. Or maybe just continue Boku to Uchuujin wink wink.
