Voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro, I’m telling you

Nekogoze — vol. 1

Action blockbuster set in a catfolk-inhabited post-war Japanese Soviet Socialist Republic.

Art & Story: Hiroki Ugawa
Genres: over-the-top action, alternative history, supernatural, catgirls
Sold digitally: partially

tl;dr synopsis

Yes, orthodox churches in Soviet Japan. You tell me.

Set in an alternative catfolk-inhabited post-war Japan, occupied and integrated into the Soviet Union, this is a story about a traveling goze — a blind female musician — and a skilled assassin Youme, and her guide, buddhist monk Uguisu. Making a living with street performances and taking on dangerous jobs that make use of their considerable fighting expertise, the pair clashes swords with criminals, Cheka enforcers and orthodox religious sects looking for clues to the whereabouts of Uguisu’s brother and the mysterious two-tailed Cheka operative.

some more words

This is a completely objective review of a manga about catgirls by someone who really, really likes catgirls — just look at my nickname. Not to mention technically being born in a country that is quite important to the setting.

What I was really reading this for.

I couldn’t pass this title when I learned that it’s about two catgirls and Soviet Russia. While I had some misgivings at first, it ended up being a great action flick with common Soviet tropes exaggerated to a ridiculously fun extent, yet modified to account for the story taking place in a reviving Tokyo of the 1950s. While soviet aesthetics already started planting its roots in the Japanese capital, the city is still very old-fashioned Japanese at its core and most of the story so far is set in such venues.

I liked the original concept for Youme even more than what we’ve got.

The first volume introduces Youme, the titular goze catgirl with crazy sword skills and a personality to match, and her guide and companion, Uguisu, who take shelter in an abandoned Buddhist temple. Like the synopsis says, they’re looking for Uguisu’s Kalmyk brother taken by a two-tailed high-ranked Cheka operative and supposedly brought to Japan. They’re making some small-time money with shamisen performances at inns and in the street, but with the city rotten to its core their consciousness doesn’t allow them to pass by injustice unattended, not to mention criminals trying to rob a blind and supposedly helpless musician more than once. Little did the poor thugs know.

Taking the role of a villain in the first volume is Gakinmaru, a “Russian bear”-looking arms merchant, gang leader, human trafficker and a pimp to boot. As if it wasn’t evil enough, he even steals little girls all in the span of these initial seven chapters. Reluctantly saving him from a femme fatale ninja Cheka enforcer, the two heroines have to deal with the aftermath of him joining forces with an underground orthodox sect/church of the Penitent Thief linked to the white émigrés. It sounds cheesy all right, but it’s the good kind of cheesy. Oh, and also Eucharist superpowers, something I’d translate as Sacraments.

The living embodiment of Soviet Japan. Lacks a pet bear and an AK-47, if you ask me.

There are some other story points I won’t mention not to spoil absolutely everything, but the story really is packed with events, switching between slower slice-of-life pacing and fast-paced action scenes, and boy there are a lot of those. Ugawa-sensei went all out with the battles, although given that it’s an introductory volume most of them were fairly one-sided.

In a battle between dozens of armed cossacks and a half-naked catgirl, you know who to bet on.

Ugawa’s art style is full of rough-looking lines and crosshatch shading, and it’s really welcome here as it gives an additional sense of motion to the dynamic scenes. It’s also a fun contrast with the good old moéblob faces we’re used to, especially when some of the bulkier characters are drawn in a more realistic manner. A word needs to be said about the gorgeous and detailed backgrounds, even though they are few and far between. Yes, the art is really good and elaborate when it needs to be.

That double-headed eagle is slightly out of place in this particular time period.

Not much to nitpick about, really, it was a good start to the, hopefully, long-running series of catgirls kicking commie ass. There was some questionable usage of Russian and slight historical inconsistencies, but for an over-the-top action manga there was clearly enough research done — Buddhist kalmyks, cossacks, uzbeks, Red Army officials, revolutionary tribunals (don’t mind the fact that they’re personified by ninja catgirls), and that’s not mentioning the historical Japanese things like the goze association, literature references and lots of traditional clothes.

the good

• Art.
• In Soviet Russia, manga reads you. (Setting, style, atmosphere)
• Action scenes are not exceptional, but very solid.
• CATGIRLS, beautiful deadly catgirls.

the bad

• Youme might be an exceptional swordsman, but this risks turning into a typical shounen with superpowers if it goes deeper down that rabbit hole.
• There is no heed paid whatsoever to the fact that absolutely everyone is a catperson. No explanations, no mentions, every character is acting as if they didn’t have a pair of cat ears on their head. I mean, that’s not bad to me, but if you’re not as fond of catgirls as I am you might very well ask “for what purpose”.
• Kindle editions are half a year late.

afterword

Don’t expect a lot of deepness to Nekogoze, but so far it’s a great action manga in a wonderful setting with two beautiful catgirls taking the center stage. Wouldn’t ask for more.

Japanese difficulty: very hard. The rule of this genre is “show, not tell”, but for what it does tell you need solid language skills and a lot of patience looking things up (imagine my suffering as my moon is mediocre at best). The speech mannerisms and vocabulary used reflect the time period and welcome to a world of pain if you want to understand the occasional song lyrics.

But — “difficult Japanese is compensated by simple Russian”, rightfully noted a friend of mine.