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Cat Paradise #3
Cat Paradise 3
While the council members are away, the cat demon will play!
The Matabi Academy student council (and their cats) are on high alert: Spirit Beasts could be possessing students and hiding among the student body, waiting to make a move! Amidst all this tension, Yumi (with Kansuke in tow) decides to unwind at a dorm slumber party with some friends and a good scary story. But when an actual ghostly encounter cuts the party short, Yumi wanders off the school grounds...and right into the maw of another Spirit Beast, Daraku of the Deep! To make matters worse, she's not the only student council member to take the bait, and with the school practically defenseless, the evil cat demon, Kaen, is about to strike on their home turf!!
The Matabi Academy student council (and their cats) are on high alert: Spirit Beasts could be possessing students and hiding among the student body, waiting to make a move! Amidst all this tension, Yumi (with Kansuke in tow) decides to unwind at a dorm slumber party with some friends and a good scary story. But when an actual ghostly encounter cuts the party short, Yumi wanders off the school grounds...and right into the maw of another Spirit Beast, Daraku of the Deep! To make matters worse, she's not the only student council member to take the bait, and with the school practically defenseless, the evil cat demon, Kaen, is about to strike on their home turf!!
208 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2007
1 person is currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Yuji Iwahara
57 books52 followersIWAHARA Yuji
Japanese Name (岩原裕二)
Associated Names:
ИВАХАРА Юдзи
IWAHARA Yuuji
Blood Type: B
Japanese Name (岩原裕二)
Associated Names:
ИВАХАРА Юдзи
IWAHARA Yuuji
Blood Type: B
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 16, 2021
Another solid chapter. Characters are interesting, story is developing and the tension is rising.
November 26, 2020
The cat/people pairs deal with a catfish spirit beast.
This series fills like too much of a mess to me. There was no buildup to introduce you to characters so I mostly don't know who the people are. And even though there are only two volumes left in this series, I'm ok with stopping with this one. So much wasted potential with magic cats!
This series fills like too much of a mess to me. There was no buildup to introduce you to characters so I mostly don't know who the people are. And even though there are only two volumes left in this series, I'm ok with stopping with this one. So much wasted potential with magic cats!
October 1, 2021
Another good volume and the cats are just adorable.
Cat paradise volume 3 by Yuji Iwahara get a 9/10 stars.
Cat paradise volume 3 by Yuji Iwahara get a 9/10 stars.
April 24, 2022
Did not see that twist coming! And I really like the deep lore!
May 30, 2012
Stuff I Read – Cat Paradise Vol 3
So the cat insanity continues in the next volume of Cat Paradise, and so far it is following all the conventions of a traditional manga fighting story. Indeed, just like the last one, this volume progresses the story to show the good guys take on one more of the villains, this time a huge catfish spirit, or demon, or something like that. They call they spirit beasts, which is probably very similar to demon, but at least in this volume the writer gives us a little more back-story concerning the spirit beasts and their relationship and battle with humanity. This is set against the plan of the villains to open a gate to try and get at the priestess who imprisoned them so long ago. We also get a small glimpse into the life of the main character while at school, but this is quite brief and is interrupted rather quickly as the spirit beasts begin to move. And I will give this series something, which is that it does move the story along at a fairly good clip. This is shaping up to be fairly short series, and I don’t think that is a bad thing at all. I really don’t like when these fighting mangas draw themselves out over the course of over a hundred volumes.
Because even though this volume does what most of its genre would do, it is still new and is still progressing towards something. It is not the case that this volume is just spinning its wheels to pad out the drama. We see the battle between the heroes and the catfish spirit, who explains that the spirit beasts are the first animals, the protectors of their species, and that when a spirit beast dies it typically means that its species will diminish and die. And according to this legend the humans had no spirit beast, and so some of the other spirit beasts, when not fighting each other, decided to try and kill the humans. But the humans learned of ways to kill spirit beasts, and a sort of war began. It basically turned into everyone against the humans. But the cat spirit beast wanted cohabitation and cooperation. And so apparently this led to the cat spirit beast gathering all the spirit beasts to try and forge some sort of truce. And while they were all gathered the humans trapped all of the spirit beasts away. This was not a permanent solution, so eventually there would need to be a fight, so these pairs of humans and cats were trained to deal with the eventual resumption of hostilities.
It is interesting that the manga takes this really mythological approach to creation, and it is more interesting to me that some of the spirit beasts have returned only to find that their species has died out. There is a dragon spirit beast, for example, which is pretty kick ass and makes it a bit more complicated because it means that the humans are kind of the bad guys as well. Not that the spirit beasts are the good guys, but that represent a nature that is, perhaps, understandably pissed off at humanity. So that does make the story a bit more complicated. Couple that with the possession of one of the heroes, the one that the main character has a crush on, and there is more drama here, especially because I’m sure that the possession is going to be key to the villains’ inevitable defeat. It adds a bit of tragedy to the story, though, and the story progesses quite quickly, to the point where the main bad guy actually fights briefly, something normally reserved for volume twenty or so in normal series.
And there is plenty of action, and the fight with the catfish spirit beast is entertaining. The fight at the end is rather one-sided, but it does show that every team has to get the crap kicked out of them before they can triumph. Kind of cliché, but it makes for a more dramatic story. And really, it is still a fun read. Yes, the story that is being presented is complicated a little, but in most ways it is so ridiculous and unbelievable that one has to just accept it and move on. It’s not something that is going to make anyone question their reality or make this story any more believable, but that’s really not what one is looking for when one turns to a manga about fighting cats. So I still am having a good time reading the series, and give this volume a 7.75/10.
So the cat insanity continues in the next volume of Cat Paradise, and so far it is following all the conventions of a traditional manga fighting story. Indeed, just like the last one, this volume progresses the story to show the good guys take on one more of the villains, this time a huge catfish spirit, or demon, or something like that. They call they spirit beasts, which is probably very similar to demon, but at least in this volume the writer gives us a little more back-story concerning the spirit beasts and their relationship and battle with humanity. This is set against the plan of the villains to open a gate to try and get at the priestess who imprisoned them so long ago. We also get a small glimpse into the life of the main character while at school, but this is quite brief and is interrupted rather quickly as the spirit beasts begin to move. And I will give this series something, which is that it does move the story along at a fairly good clip. This is shaping up to be fairly short series, and I don’t think that is a bad thing at all. I really don’t like when these fighting mangas draw themselves out over the course of over a hundred volumes.
Because even though this volume does what most of its genre would do, it is still new and is still progressing towards something. It is not the case that this volume is just spinning its wheels to pad out the drama. We see the battle between the heroes and the catfish spirit, who explains that the spirit beasts are the first animals, the protectors of their species, and that when a spirit beast dies it typically means that its species will diminish and die. And according to this legend the humans had no spirit beast, and so some of the other spirit beasts, when not fighting each other, decided to try and kill the humans. But the humans learned of ways to kill spirit beasts, and a sort of war began. It basically turned into everyone against the humans. But the cat spirit beast wanted cohabitation and cooperation. And so apparently this led to the cat spirit beast gathering all the spirit beasts to try and forge some sort of truce. And while they were all gathered the humans trapped all of the spirit beasts away. This was not a permanent solution, so eventually there would need to be a fight, so these pairs of humans and cats were trained to deal with the eventual resumption of hostilities.
It is interesting that the manga takes this really mythological approach to creation, and it is more interesting to me that some of the spirit beasts have returned only to find that their species has died out. There is a dragon spirit beast, for example, which is pretty kick ass and makes it a bit more complicated because it means that the humans are kind of the bad guys as well. Not that the spirit beasts are the good guys, but that represent a nature that is, perhaps, understandably pissed off at humanity. So that does make the story a bit more complicated. Couple that with the possession of one of the heroes, the one that the main character has a crush on, and there is more drama here, especially because I’m sure that the possession is going to be key to the villains’ inevitable defeat. It adds a bit of tragedy to the story, though, and the story progesses quite quickly, to the point where the main bad guy actually fights briefly, something normally reserved for volume twenty or so in normal series.
And there is plenty of action, and the fight with the catfish spirit beast is entertaining. The fight at the end is rather one-sided, but it does show that every team has to get the crap kicked out of them before they can triumph. Kind of cliché, but it makes for a more dramatic story. And really, it is still a fun read. Yes, the story that is being presented is complicated a little, but in most ways it is so ridiculous and unbelievable that one has to just accept it and move on. It’s not something that is going to make anyone question their reality or make this story any more believable, but that’s really not what one is looking for when one turns to a manga about fighting cats. So I still am having a good time reading the series, and give this volume a 7.75/10.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 22, 2020
This volume surprised me a little. It starts off with a ghost story, that eventually leads into what seemed like it was going to be more of the "spirit beast of the week" sort of format we've seen up to this point...and then things suddenly shift into high gear. In the span of more or less a single chapter, the Big Bad makes his appearance, and we're thrust into what feels like the final arc of the series.
I did a little digging after this volume ended, and found there are only two volumes after it. I'm kinda wondering if the publisher got fed up with the series' likely low readership, and told Iwahara to wrap things up--similar to what happened with Bleach, but with a more generous time frame.
Because the shift really is that abrupt. In the last few chapters here, we're flat-out told what the spirit beasts want, and flat-out told what the powers of the last remaining student council members are. It's breaking one of the cardinal rules of storytelling, but at the same time, things have abruptly gotten interesting. If there was just a single volume left, I'd assume the ending would be as sloppy and sudden as this change of pace, but the existence of two further volumes gives me hope that this newfound momentum could end up being a good thing. Plus, the art continues to be very lively, with some panels here and there that actually manage to be rather striking.
Just one volume ago, I'd anticipated finishing this one, shrugging, and selling these back to Half-Price Books at some point. Now? With how this one ended, I might actually pick up the remainder, the next time I see them on sale, just to see where it goes. That has to mean it did something right.
I did a little digging after this volume ended, and found there are only two volumes after it. I'm kinda wondering if the publisher got fed up with the series' likely low readership, and told Iwahara to wrap things up--similar to what happened with Bleach, but with a more generous time frame.
Because the shift really is that abrupt. In the last few chapters here, we're flat-out told what the spirit beasts want, and flat-out told what the powers of the last remaining student council members are. It's breaking one of the cardinal rules of storytelling, but at the same time, things have abruptly gotten interesting. If there was just a single volume left, I'd assume the ending would be as sloppy and sudden as this change of pace, but the existence of two further volumes gives me hope that this newfound momentum could end up being a good thing. Plus, the art continues to be very lively, with some panels here and there that actually manage to be rather striking.
Just one volume ago, I'd anticipated finishing this one, shrugging, and selling these back to Half-Price Books at some point. Now? With how this one ended, I might actually pick up the remainder, the next time I see them on sale, just to see where it goes. That has to mean it did something right.
January 12, 2015
I really enjoyed this story arc. The fight with this spirit beast was longer, more complex and dealt with more characters. Kansuke had a big role and I liked that as well that he got outraged on Yumi's behalf. Go kitty!
I didn't expect what happened to Akifuji and I love how he treated Sakura. The art at the end in particular was cool and some of the best in the series so far. Love that the plot is finally transitioning from setup to action! Let's get all the student council involved now...
I didn't expect what happened to Akifuji and I love how he treated Sakura. The art at the end in particular was cool and some of the best in the series so far. Love that the plot is finally transitioning from setup to action! Let's get all the student council involved now...
March 22, 2010
Loved it; Kaen was awesome.
September 25, 2020
I'm still enjoying this series. Now, I have to wait for volumes 4 and 5 to show up in my mail box.
May 30, 2013
This series is super straightforward. I like it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews