Holiday Review #24: CAT'S EYE by The Manga Test Drive / Anime Blog Tracker

Holiday Review #24: CAT'S EYE

This year also brought us quite a few older manga titles from some surprising sources. Kana took advantage of their French heritage and that country's long-standing love of Tsukasa Hojo to not only put out City Hunter again but publish Hojo's other hit series from the 1980s in English for the first time.CAT'S EYE (Kyattsu Ai), by Tsukasa Hojo. First published in 1981 and first published in North America in 2025.PLOT:By day, Rui, Hitomi, and Ai are the beautiful proprietors of the Cat's Eye cafe. By night, the Kisugi sisters become Tokyo's most notorious art thieves, using all their skills to capture priceless paintings and jewels in the hopes of finding a lead on their long-missing father. The only clue they ever leave is a calling card, much to the consternation of lead detective Toshio. He would never guess that the answer to all his problems lies within his favorite hang-out spot or that his high-school sweetheart Hitomi is using him for insider info on their heists.STORY:Cat's Eye is one of the formative works in the phantom thief subgenre. It wasn't the first manga to riff on this concept, but it was an important one as far as giving it a more modern, glamorous look for the 1980s. That being said, this was Tsukasa Hojo's first serialized works and his inexperience shows in more than a few ways.Despite the fact that there are three sisters, the only one who matters plot-wise is the middle sister Hitomi. Even then, most of that revolves around her hot-and-cold relationship with Toshio and the guilt she feels for using him as part of their schemes. Unfortunately, this conflict just goes in endless circles, making it dramatically inert. Meanwhile, the most I can say about the other two is that Rui is vampy while Ai is perky. Occasionally they get their own side-stories or one-off romantic interests, but it never lasts for long. I'm kind of reminded of Bubblegum Crisis in the sense that the Kisugis are written less like characters in their own right and more like the author's idealized version of Cool Chicks (tm). Frankly, Hitomi shouldn't feel that bad for deceiving Toshio because the man is a certified dork. Making the cop in charge of the phantom thief case is also the most hapless and least observant dude on the force is genre tradition, but Toshio feels even dumber than average. It's inexplicable how he hasn't been demoted or fired considering he fails constantly, and he's regularly threatening to quit in frustration. He's no more adept at relationships than he is at policework, to the point where you have to wonder what on earth Hitomi sees in him beyond a useful if unwitting mole. He only makes himself look worse when Mitsuru Asatani is introduced, a new detective who is not just Toshio's new supervisor but puts together the clues about the Kisugis almost instantly. He gets downright pissy and sexist about it, like a child. I realize that characters like him are always the butt of the joke in these stories, but Toshio just plain sucks in a way that's no watch to fun or mock. I do wonder if presenting this series in omnibus form wasn't a bit of a mistake. Tsukasa Hojo does his best to keep things fresh throughout with new characters, new locations, and new objects to steal. Sometimes the girls will have to steal something to foil rival thieves or return an item so that someone close to them doesn't lose their job. Sometimes there are multi-chapter story arcs, and the bigger storyline about the death of the girls' father in an arson attack finally shows up midway through this volume. The introduction of Mitsuru and a particularly sleezy journalist/thief called Kamiya actually forces the girls to make an effort at hiding their alter egos. Alas, none of this is quite enough to keep Cat's Eye from getting kind of monotonous. This would have been far less noticeable in its original serialization, but by the midpoint of this chunky omnibus my patience and my attention span was wearing thin. ART:It's remarkable that this was Hojo's first serialized work because even from the start it's so polished. He obviously gets to show off his knack for drawing beautiful, naturalistic women with the Kisugis, along with every other woman who crosses their path. The men don't look bad either, even if Toshio's hair is kind of dated and Kamiya is a pretty blatant riff on Lupin the Third. He handles the action sequences well, especially since this series has to rely on acrobatics and subterfuge than gunfights and car chases. He manages to work in some comedy, even if there's nothing as outrageous as someone pulling a mallet out of thin air. He puts care into the backgrounds, capturing the glamor and prestige of the high-rises and galleries of 1980s Tokyo. Despite some very specific references to the era it was made (such as Toshio and Hitomi going on a date to see what is clearly one of the Space Battleship Yamato movies), this series has aged incredibly gracefully.PRESENTATION:This is another case of a softcover omnibus with a slip cover. While it is perfectly pleasing (and better gets across what the series is about better than the equivalent for City Hunter), I can't help but wish they had sprung for a sturdier paper stock for the cover. I'm not even demanding it be hardbound, just something that will contain three volume's worth of manga more securely.RATING:Cat's Eye has aged better than most 1980s shonen titles, but its good looks can't entirely compensate for how much it repeats itself and Toshio being so pathetic. I'm glad it's finally gotten a chance here, but I can't say I found myself clamoring for more.This manga is published by Kana. This series is complete in Japan with 18 volumes available. 1 3-in-1 omnibus has been released and is currently in print.There's only one day left in our Holiday Review Giveaway! To find out more and potentially win a $25 Bookshop.org gift certificate, click the link above. The contest ends on Christmas Day!

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