Review by Frank Plowright

On the cover to Cat + Gamer 3 Musubi resembles his glove puppet merchandise pressed against a window. Such is the random nature of Wataru Nadatani’s stories, as that actually being a plot is not beyond the bounds of possibility.

As introduced, Riko Kozakura is an incredibly efficient person. She ensures her work has been completed at the end of the day in order to maximise the time she can spend gaming at night, yet adopting a kitten has thrown chaos into her orderly routine. The order versus chaos theme plays out explicitly over the opening two chapters, which begin with Riko arriving home with the latest release in a favourite game series. She separates the 24 hours of the day into disciplined segments enabling maximum screen time, but can’t factor in Musubi’s behaviour disrupting that schedule.

Nadatani’s love of cats is seen via page after page of elegant illustrations, showing Musubi as a cute bundle of energy. It takes a dedicated artist to convey the movement so well, and as before, cat fans aren’t going to be shortchanged by the drawing.

The theme of connecting a cat and its ways with video games was diminished a little in Cat + Gamer 2, but springs back here. Cutting back claws is likened to depriving an assassin of their weapon, and finding lost balls in a small flat is likened to in-game treasure hunts. The most cohesive unification comes when Riko hallucinates during a fever and Musubu appears in a game that in the book cannot be named as Minecraft. It’s one of a few strips where the regular bonus back-up ties directly into the main chapter’s events.

From the start of the series readers have known what they’re getting with Cat + Gamer, and Nadatani doesn’t disappoint. The joy and frustration of cat ownership transmit, and there are plenty of laughs along the way. Will that last, though? Nadatani promises an addition to the family in Cat + Gamer 4.