It feels oddly 2000s

This is the weirdest manga I have read in a long while. It isn’t an issue of the plot or story, but the general tone and vibe of this series is so odd and slightly off putting. One of my issues with this is that I saw that this was a recently published series, but it reads like something written in the early 2000s.

The story focuses on Tamaki Mishina, an orphan who was raised in a rural town where everyone treated her as a leper. She had no one to talk to, no kids her age, and even her grandmother refused to interact with her aside from allowing her to live there. When she’s old enough, Tamaki decides to leave town and move to apply to high school in Toyko. After things go terribly wrong, she is found on the street by Rou, a punk rock band member. Rou allows her to stay for a few days but as she has nowhere else to go, she stays longer and the relationship between the two grows.

This situation is absolutely unbelievable but it’s a manga, so that’s easy for me to overlook. That being said I think Tamaki is about 15, maybe 16, and Rou is clearly several years older and hooking up with one-night stands. This orphaned child is living on the floor of a one-bedroom apartment with a college (or so) aged dude, so if that is an issue for you I would avoid this series. Of course, a relationship starts between the two, despite a boy in Tamaki’s class having a crush on her and not knowing she’s quasi-dating a member of his favorite band.

I’m not sure why I didn’t like this manga too much. I wish I could pinpoint why, but something about it felt so 2003 in terms of content and art style. Maybe it’s because of the band element as that fantasy was much more of a thing when I was a teenager, but who knows. Either way this wasn’t compelling enough for me to pick up volume 2, but others may enjoy it more than I.

Title: Stray Cat & Wolf
Author: Mitsubachi Miyuki
Format: Paperback
Pages: 168
ISBN: 9781975370534

Three Descriptors: Quick-moving, dated,  odd tone