sucreslibrary's reviews
1109 reviews

soft dnf, may return to in the future 

this one took a little bit for me to settle into, but once I did I found myself really enjoying it! I think the idea that this is a shounen version of Umezz's other work, Orochi, is pretty accurate. there's a lot of similarities (the main one being a title character that isn't necessarily the main character of the story but rather an outsider looking into the lives of others) with a big difference being Cat-Eyed Boy deals almost exclusively with yokai while Orochi grapples with more modern ills. I'd honestly say Cat-Eyed Boy has a better head on his shoulders than Orochi does, but that really isn't saying much considering the kinds of things Orochi gets herself into. the last couple stories are very much creature features and they had a very fun B-movie quality to them.

unfortunately this also carries similar issues as Orochi (and Umezz's other works in general), namely drawing horror from disfigured people. these stories tend to have at least a slightly more nuanced take, in that the way disfigured people are treated by society is shown to be a bad thing (the awful hearts and thoughts that reside in beautiful people is a common theme) but disfigured people are still made out to be antagonists and often completely morally bankrupt (there is a LOT of animal torture and death in one of the stories, all done by a disfigured antagonist). while it's meant to show that society made these people that way by mistreating them, it still has a lot of ableism attached and could get tiresome after a while.

still a very enjoyable read, and by the last several chapters I was really into the overarching story as well as seeing all the interesting yokai and monster designs. don't go into this expecting Serious Literature or Extreme Scares and you'll have fun 

felt way too short and lacks a good timeline to understand the spacing of events. it needed at least another twenty pages to really work and honor the story of these women + give enough detail to inform and engage the reader.