“Turning Japanese, yes, I’m turning Japanese, I really think so!”–that’s what you might be singing to yourself as you check out the latest graphic novel Okita and the Cat from Arrow Publications, or buy it online here for $1.99 as an app for your iPad or iPhone (169 gorgeous, eye-popping screen shots for your dinero, dudes!).
It’s the story of a samurai warrior, Okita, dying of tuberculosis. You see him in his glory days, as the best swordsman in Japan, and you see him in his final days as a shell of his former self, but still with an ironic sense of humor. Now, his foe is a cat, who he at first attempts to make friends with, until it bites his hand. He chases it around with his sword, trying to kill it, but now, he is too weak and not as fast as he once was, and he fails.
The only graphic novel I’ve previously read and reviewed that was illustrated by mpMann is the brilliant Some New Kind of Slaughter, about many of the world’s flood myths. He collaborated on that with A. David Lewis. The story and artwork were both great. Okita and the Cat, based on a factual story and written by Josh Hechinger, shows that mpMann is again a part of a winning combination. They both capture the style and atmosphere of Japan in the mid- to late 1800′s, and Okita and the Cat is a tale you should check out if you, too, are interested in Japan, samurais, and turning Japanese.
