Customer Reviews

Chi's Sweet Home, volume 2

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Chi's Sweet Home tells of the wholesome adventures of a little cat named Chi, who becomes separated from her cat family one day and is adopted by a young couple with a toddler.

Chi's Sweet Home will likely not appeal to you if you dislike overly-cute stories. However, I find that the series is excellent, and even though it's seven volumes long, it doesn't fall into a trap of repetition. Chi's always finding new and interesting ways to get herself in trouble.

Chi's Sweet Home is one of my favourite manga of all time. I actually have all the Japanese copies, so with that advantage, I'm able to objectively decide how good the English translation/presentation is. Vertical decided to flip Chi to the 'Western' reading order, as opposed to keeping it in its original Japanese format. However, I feel that this does not undermine the greatness of this series, because it will, in theory, allow it to reach people who may not be interested in manga.

The second volume details more fun kitten adventures with Chi, but...with a new character thrown in! Hmmm? A big black cat wandered into the Yamada home and terrorized Yohei and Chi?!! Oh, but it seems he's not such a bad guy after all, and Chi and Blackie become good friends. He's really a gentle giant who doesn't mean to hurt anyone, but he's quite intimidatingly large, and it doesn't help he sometimes breaks things and steals stuff from the people living in the apartments where the Yamada family resides. Chi has to take another trip to the vet- we can all see where that's going!! Run, Chi, run!

Vertical did another great job with this book, it's clean, beautifully done, well-presented, has good translations, and the way they explained the extra comic was superb- I was kind of afraid they'd take it out, but when I saw they not only kept it, but explained it, too, I was so happy. I really look forward to the next awesome cat-action-packed volume of Chi!

This manga can be call sweet, very different from what a usually read but its such a nice story that you get hook very easy

Nice story flow and the characters are drawn cartoon-like and cute! The story about a kitten and her antics.

The word "kawaii" is Japanese, an adjective meaning cute or adorable - which Chi is, in spades. This isn't high drama, but if you're looking for some wholesome, delightful, heartwarming fun, you won't be disappointed.

Chi's Sweet Home tells the story of a curious and mischievous kitten (named Chi) who after accidentally separating from its mother becomes adopted by a family with a young son. This second volume furthers the story along as Chi and Chi's human counterpart, the young boy Youhei, both exhaust Youhei's parents' patience with their irrepressible behavior.

Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

An adorable series! And another adorable entry. I didn't find volume 2 quite as hilarious as the first but it was still funny and just as cute. Cute little chapters in which the family is getting used to raising a pet and others where Chi is exploring and learning about life. He no longer misses his mother and siblings but he does have a couple of flashbacks of things that remind him of that comforting time. While there is no real overarching plot to this volume there is the hanging nuisance of a large cat in the apartment complex who is causing trouble knocking over flowerpots, stealing salmon and he invades Chi's home. Chi begins to meet him more often and at this point learns that he is a cat not the same kind as the family he lives with, though he doesn't really believe it. Though the family has no problems this time with being caught with the cat, except for one near miss. There is some foreshadowing that this large troublemaker cat, similar in looks to a bear, may be the downfall for any hidden pet cats in the complex. In the note at the back we learn about the author's background a bit and find that this is not her first foray into manga, but that it was her first manga written for a men's weekly comic anthology. It is surprising to hear that the intended audience was men since the story is so suitable for children but then on the other hand the father's emotions and attachment to the cat are presented much more as story elements than the mother's. A really cute, funny series!

The second volume of Chi's Sweet Home, written and illustrated by Konami Kanata, continues the story of Chi, the little grey kitten, and her life with her newly adopted human family. All of the characters from the first volume, including the cranky, cat-hating landlady, are back in this second volume, along with some new feline faces.

This new installment of Chi's tale continues the basic story laid out in the first part of Chi's Sweet Home. Chi's new family continues to adjust to the near-chaos that having a kitten in the house can create; at the same time, there are some increasingly tender moments between Chi and the family, particularly with the goofy father. These cat-human interactions are comical, and will bring out laughs in even non-cat lovers.

Chi does not speak in quite the same amount of baby talk as she did in the first volume, signifying that Chi is an older kitten. This will allow for an easier reading experience for older readers of the series. At the same time, the art in volume 2 of Chi's Sweet Home continues to be fun and colorful. With Chi's growth comes a wider-range of emotions for the gray kitten, and the more she tries to communicate with her human counterparts the more expressive and comical she becomes.

One of the most interesting aspects of this second volume comes with Chi's interaction with her family. As we continue to follow Chi, it becomes clear that she is equating all of her interactions with her humans to her past experience with her cat family that she lost. Multiple times in this volume we are presented with the image of Chi dreaming of her cat family while sleeping next to, or on, her new human family members. This is the beginning of a rather complex theme for a children's manga: Just what is the true relationship between a cat and her human family?

For Chi, she obviously sees herself not as a cat, but simply as Chi, a member of a (human) family. When she meets a big neighborhood cat, who treats her like a cat and tells her not to trust humans too much, she slowly starts to question her role in her household. We are left to wonder how this questioning, along with misunderstandings that understandably happen between beings of different species, will affect Chi's happiness with the humans.

Obviously, this second volume is much more complex than the first. That is not to say that it is too complex for elementary-aged readers. This is one of the brilliant things about Chi's Sweet Home: It relates complex ideas in simple, humorous, and fun ways. While Chi does seem to trust her humans just a little less by the end of the volume, we find that we become fonder of these humans while enjoying her new feline friends. Chi's Sweet Home volume 2 is highly recommended for everyone elementary-aged and up; this volume proves to be thought-provoking and gentle, comical, and complex.



-- Kyla Hunt