Title Leo Series --- Author Moto Hagio Illustrator Moto Hagio Publisher Éditions Akata - 2024 First Printing Shogakukan - 2009 Category Children Warnings None Main Characters Leo, Princess Tama, Mai Main Elements Anthropomorphism

Dur dur d'être un chat quand les humains n'en font qu'à leur tête! Léo est un adorable chat qui ne demande pas grand-chose : manger, jouer et se reposer. Mais bien souvent, les humains qui l'entourent ne semblent pas comprendre ses besoins! Quand il va à l'école, au travail ou qu'il demande tout simplement à sortir, il se fait souvent gronder. La vie est vraiment trop injuste...

I love cats, and fortunately the Japanese do too. So when I saw this new arrival at the library, even though the edition was in French, I couldn't resist, Leo looked so cute with his little school backpack.

I wasn't disappointed. Though it was intitially odd that no one found it strange that cats could talk and walk upright and such you just get used to it, and while the cats act an awful lot like humans, they are still cats. I still love how the teacher ever so politely reminded Leo that students shouldn't lick their butt in class.

I think the next segment was my favorite because...well, that whole plotline was taken from my own cat. It was raining so he wanted to go out the back door. When that didn't work he tried the front door. Then he tried the back again (after all if you try again after 30 seconds the rain must have magically stopped right?). But in the end he had to use the litter box to do his business, ooooh he looked so embarassed. Funny how outdoor cats really prefer the bushes and find "The Box" humiliating to use, like as if they are some wimpy pampered indoor cat, meh.

I also learned how mangas are put together by an entire team of people and how things like shading are done (or how it shouldn't be done as Leo messes some of it up...but for a cat inking in pencil lines and attempting to draw cars, he does a really good job! Hey, he has no thumbs!)

At the end there are some photos of the author's real cats having a conversation with each other, super cute.

The manga was quite adorable and often capture pure cat-ness even while the cats acted a bit more like humans.