Depending on what kind of cat person you are, this manga could either be a huge leap in logic or an absolute dream come true. For one, The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today takes place in a sort of heightened everyday reality where an apron-wearing cat the size of a small bear shopping at the supermarket would not even get a second look from bystanders. The general tone of the volume is light and relatively grounded, but its centerpiece is equal parts simple and completely out there. The appeal of the series is stated outright in the title, and if you cannot suspend your disbelief past the premise, then do not even bother continuing to read on because this is very much a book where what you see is what you get.

Our protagonist Saku is a flailing young adult who doesn't have a lot of self-determination and clearly doesn't know how to take care of herself. In fact, she is such a mess that this stray black cat that she randomly came across wills itself to develop mentally and physically to the point where he would be able to take care of her so that she can continue going to work to earn money and feed him. It is very much a symbiotic relationship between these two even if it can seem one-sided for most of the book, since the cat does a majority of the work in Saku's life outside of her occupation.

He cooks and cleans for her, takes care of her from hangovers, and makes sure that she takes time for baths. Funnily enough, as I'm writing this, it very much does feel like she is the cat in the relationship. Saku is incredibly simple-minded and yet that surprisingly makes her very endearing when it could easily come off as annoying. The book also does a good job of balancing that desperate need for someone to take care of her with some lighthearted comedy so the book never comes off as mean-spirited. In fact, it's quite the opposite, as everything in the volume is filtered through this kind of laid-back, wholesome lens. Any conflict that is introduced is unnecessary at best and a potential roadblock at worst, and sidestepped before it is able to develop into any type of dramatic beat that takes away from the main appeal of the book itself. It feels like a book written by an author who fantasizes about what it would be like for a big stoic cat to take care of them, and as someone who prefers dogs myself, I couldn't help but feel drawn into hoping for such a similar need.

Speaking of cats, our main mascot for the volume, Yukichi, surprisingly doesn't come off as depressed as the title suggests. He's definitely stoic and probably spends more of the book scowling rather than smiling, but there's nothing to indicate that he's doing any of these things unwillingly. If anything, the book seems to go out of its way to make it very clear that not only is he well-suited for housework, but he keeps trying to find inventive ways to keep it interesting. Like most pets, he appears to have an established routine, and while his owner does slip up and make things frustrating for him from time to time, you never really get the sense that he dislikes being where he is. The book tries to justify the magical circumstances revolving around him as a type of self-preservation. While I never really get the sense that this is the kind of life he desperately wants, it definitely doesn't feel like he needs to talk to a therapist about it. He's just a big grumpy cat that seems to have come to terms with this lifestyle and is content with all of the little moments of joy that come with it, even if his demeanor won't always let it show.

I think a lot of that comes down to the book's artwork, which has a very light and fluffy style about it. There are a lot of soft corners and round edges that make everybody come off as very bouncy. The panel layout is simple but easy to follow and there are stretches of pages where things such as the passage of time or a character's state of mind are effectively communicated through shading and facial expressions instead of dialogue. It is a very pleasant book to look at and arguably has a lot more detail in it than one would expect from such a simple premise. I wouldn't go so far as to say that you should buy the volume for the artwork, but you can definitely tell there's a lot of thought and care that went into trying to make it as comfortable a read as possible.

If that is really what this volume wanted to accomplish, then I think it achieved that with flying colors. The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today is a manga that I would firmly plant in the “read to put yourself in a good mood'' category. It's the type of thing that you would read on a rainy day or when you're feeling just a little bit down. It's nice to imagine some big animal that relies on you to some extent to take care of you in turn. Yukichi may not always emote that much given his natural stoicism, but I would be surprised if reading this first volume didn't have the opposite effect on your average reader.