Cat Prince Vol 1 by Morim Kang
Art/Story: Morim Kang
Genre: Romance
Rating: All Ages
Imprint: NETCOMICS
Updated: 11/16/15 Next: 11/30/15
Synopsis: From the one who brought us the fantastic 10, 20 and 30, Morim Kang is back at her best with Cat Prince, the tale of Skyla who has the uncanny ability to speak Cat. She is constantly bullied by a boy, Logan, but needs her help when he is unfortunate enough to be cursed and turned into a cat. His problem is, he might stay a cat as there isn't a way to change him back to normal. Logan's only option is to get to Skyla as soon as he can, but when she finds out who he really is - will she help him?
Review: Cat Prince is a different route for Morim as her work has been so grounded in romance and the difficulties associated with it. Cat Prince has all the hallmarks of a fun manga, a young man who hates cats and leads a fun lifestyle in his big house, he doesn't realise what sort of time he is in for when he is cursed to become a cat himself. What is worse is he doesn't understand what is going on until it is too late for him. Then he turns into the one thing he hates most - a cat.
I like how he mulls over the special powers he could have if he was a superhero, Spiderman, a vampire, werewolf etc crop up in his mind where he might get awesome powers others would be jealous of, so why was he reduced to becoming a cat? Readers will obviously see it as a way of him seeing the world from someone else's perspective, and how he will be treated by others by being a cat, the object of his hatred when he was human. From Logan's perspective he is still human, then he feels as though he is shrinking and his assistant doesn't recognise him, only a cat invading her master's garden. This is the worst case scenario for Logan as he has to befriend his enemy who is the only one around who can communicate with him.
The artwork is simpler than other art I am used to seeing in manga, but sequentially it reads well with the text, has a good enough pacing and features some very interesting characters that are easy to get into. The story shows that, just like in So I Married an Anti-Fan by Wann, here Skyla and Logan are from quite different backgrounds and have to get along if he wants to get back to what he would consider normal.
Summary: Cat Prince Vol: 1 is a funny, exciting new manga from one of the best Korean manga artists out there at the moment.
