Zombies have always been popular in every medium of entertainment, from movies and TV to anime and manga. If you’ve seen one zombie story it may feel like you’ve seen them all. But one mangaka found a way to freshen up an old plot device by adding a perspective I’ve never seen before — a cat’s!
The Walking Cat: A Cat’s-Eye-View of the Zombie Apocalypse by Tomo Kitaoka is a survival horror manga about a cat’s journey through a world ravaged by zombies. The best part? The cat has no idea a zombie apocalypse is happening, or maybe he just doesn’t care — it’s hard to tell with cats.
The 3-volume manga opens with a white cat named Yuki who is out hunting for food when he finds himself surrounded by bloodthirsty zombies. Just when it looks like Yuki is about to be gruesomely devoured, a man named Jin swoops in from behind, stabs a zombie in the face, and scoops Yuki off the ground before making a dash for safety. Both Yuki and Jin then set off on a journey to find a mysterious island where survivors —including Jin’s missing wife — are believed to be hiding.
The Walking Cat includes many of the same tropes featured in countless other zombie series:
- Humans losing their morality in their fight for survival
- Infected people lying about not being bit and ultimately spreading the zombie disease further
- Tragic flashbacks to life before the apocalypse
- Beloved characters dying violent deaths
But what separates The Walking Cat from other zombie stories is that all the characters, storylines, and arcs are tied together by sweet, oblivious Yuki. While the humans are fighting for their lives, Yuki is chasing lizards, sunbathing, trying to mate with other felines, and happily eating whatever wet food Jin manages to get him.
Yuki has no knowledge or interest in the chaos around him and just meanders lazily through each story arc while introducing us to new characters. His relaxed detachment contrasts the brutality of the world he lives in, and gives readers a bit of hope, humor, and warmth in between the story’s many tragedies. And this is a perfect representation of why people like me love cats – they keep us grounded through the chaos.
There is this misconception that cats are too uncaring and aloof to make good companions, but their detached nature is really their superpower. In The Walking Cat, Jin is mentally and physically exhausted as he slices through countless zombies day and night to find his wife. Jin only ever catches a mental break when Yuki falls asleep on his chest, uses his backpack as a scratch post, or begs for treats. Yuki keeps Jin grounded in the present – because who cares about zombies and the future when there’s a cat begging for food and attention with its big doe eyes?
It’s that type of grounding that gives Jin — and every character Yuki meets — the mental fortitude to keep pushing forward. And I think that’s very relevant to the times we’re living in. With climate change, an unrelenting pandemic, and the government trying to knock us back to the 1920s – it’s hard to not be terrified of the future. But The Walking Cat shows that when you have someone or something to guide you back to the present and to remind you that joy is still possible even in the darkest of times – you’ll find the strength to keep fighting for a better future.
I enjoyed following Yuki through a hellish world of zombies and carnage. It was a fun, emotional, heartbreaking, and sometimes humorous journey filled with an ensemble cast of unique characters whose stories I couldn’t get enough of — which is why I was a bit disappointed at the story’s abrupt ending.
The ending of The Walking Cat wasn’t exactly bad – it just felt like a bit cut short and like the story could have gone on for a few more chapters. By the end of the manga, we are introduced to a new character whose journey felt like it was just beginning. We also find out a character we thought was dead might actually still be alive, but the story ends before we know for sure.
While I wasn’t totally satisfied by the ending, I don’t think the overall quality of the manga suffers at all. I would definitely recommend The Walking Cat to anyone looking for a solid but unique zombie story.
TsundEri 
Leave a comment