Review by Frank Plowright

The original What’s Michael paperbacks seem to be very slim volumes, so it may surprise to learn that each features ninety pages of strips. Off the Deep End did, and Michael’s Mambo does.

By this fourth volume Makoto Kobayashi has settled into a quirkiness that if not formulaic, certainly has predictable elements. Michael’s lived a long life, during which he’s had several owners, and Kobayashi dots between them, noting their foibles as much as Michael’s. We know Michael has fantasies of cats in human situations, and he’s fathered several litters of children. All factor here.

There is one change. Although the assorted owners have been visually distinctive, until now most haven’t been named, nor have the circumstances as to how Michael came to be with them been revealed. For the first time here there’s a story naming a young woman owner as Reiko Takibama, and showing how she adopted a young kitten after hearing him mewling in the park and named him Michael. However, the masterstroke is the surreal touch of all this being revealed in a random letter to a private detective. Titled ‘The Mysterious Letter’, the mystery is why anyone would write about the cuteness of their cat to a random person.

Perhaps there are interviews with Kobayashi available somewhere online, but it would be interesting to know if he ever suffered writer’s block, as the sheer amount of strips created – and we’re not even halfway through the series – is astounding. The ideas come thick and fast. We have Michael as a crook’s hostage, cat sign language interpretation for the television and the perils of cat with their tongue sticking out. At times Michael doesn’t feature, substituted by an even bulkier cat, Nyazilla (sometimes Godzilla), shown as a rival.

Michael’s adventures continue in Michael’s Favorite Spot, but as attractively designed as these volumes are, true cat lovers might want to head straight for the first Fatcat Collection combining the first six volumes.