The Fall 2024 K-Comics Guide

Cat in the Chrysalis

What's It About? 

Neglected by her family, Kitt develops a silent affection for Edwin, a man she encounters in a library, yet she never reveals her feelings before he tragically dies. Haunted by this loss, Kitt miraculously awakens in a time prior to the fatal event. As she attempts to save Edwin, she finds out he has lost his will to live a long time ago, caught in a cycle of death and time reversals. Undeterred by Edwin's cold demeanor, Kitt persists in her efforts. Could she hold the key to his salvation?

Cat in the Chrysalis has a story by Bae Hee-jin and art by butter. This volume is localized by Tapas Ent., Inc. Published by Tapas.

Is It Worth Reading?

Time loops aren't the easiest genre to write in, but there are ways to approach them. In Cat in the Chrysalis, Bae Hee-jin uses the idea of an inescapable event continuously propelling the characters backward, similar to how 7th Time Loop works. Unlike Rishe, Kitt and Edwin aren't reliving entire lifetimes; they're stuck reliving the same short period. When this set of chapters opens, we think it's only Kitt who has gone back in time after being murdered by her husband Rony –she's haunted by the memory of the mysterious young man she used to meet at the library, who died shortly before her wedding. By the time she dies, she's suffered his loss and the realization that her husband was actually in love with her insufferable older sister Rosaline all along, so returning to a point two years before her death feels like a gift: she knows not to marry Rony and she has a chance to save the young man.

Except…he doesn't seem all that keen to be saved. Kitt can't quite figure that out, especially since he's a prince, the only son of the late king. But her return through time has brought about another strange change: she can see the ghost of Edwin's father. When Edwin realizes that, he suddenly changes his tune and reveals that he's on his tenth trip through the autumn of his eighteenth year. Edwin can't hear his father's spirit, but Kitt can, and this gives the prickly prince the push he needs to team up with Kitt, while his tsundere qualities (believably the result of his life and death experiences) ensure that the romance plot isn't moving too quickly. And although we almost definitely know that Rony killed Kitt the first time (and the second), there's still a strong mystery element. After all, Rony's just a tailor; if he's been orchestrating the deaths of a prince, he's almost certainly not doing it alone.

Although there's a political element – we still don't know how Edwin's father died, and I, for one, am suspicious – the story functions much more as a mystery with romantic elements. Kitt's father and sister blame her for her mother's death in childbirth, but Rosaline's bitterness feels like it goes much further than that, and the question of whether she and Rony were involved before he married Kitt in the first loop is an open one. We know Edwin's mother proposed to her brother-in-law shortly after her husband's death, which opens some real Hamlet-inspired possibilities, and one reveal after Kitt saves Edwin from death by carriage crash hints that Uncle Stepdad may not be the prize the kingdom treats him as. The longer Kitt and Edwin are involved, the more emotionally open he becomes and the more emotionally intelligent she grows, which is a very interesting proposition for the story from this point on. It takes a bit to get going (although I was hooked fairly quickly), but with its crepuscular shades of orange, beautiful late 19th/early 20th century gowns, and even story flow, this is a series I hope to see get a physical release. Or an anime adaptation. I'll take either.