I’m the Catlords’ Manservant Vol. 1 Review – What Could Pawssibly Go Wrong?

The constant stream of cute anime boys is almost never-ending. But their attractiveness could never come between my love for cats. However, what happens when a manga combines these precious entities and presents them in a manga? Well, in I’m the Catlords’ Manservant Vol. 1, we get a pretty good idea of just how interesting a situation this can be.

I’m the Catlords’ Manservant introduces us to Yukiharu Izumi, a high schooler who recently became an orphan. With no parents, no money, and no place to call home, he receives instructions and a house key from his late father to seek help from Miyako if the worst should ever happen. Not knowing who that is and following these instructions, he finds himself in a bougie neighborhood inside of a house occupied by five men. They reveal to him that they are Bakaneko, shapeshifting cat spirits. However, the bombshells don’t stop there as they explain to Yukiharu that he’ll have to become their servant if he wants to live there and get out of debt.

Suppose the title doesn’t draw you in, then the cats or pretty gents in this manga will. Each Bakaneko has a different personality, one to fit any mood you’re in or just your personal preference in cat-boys. We begin with seeing five Bakanekos, but they mostly focused on three of them in this first Volume of the series, along with the main character. Throughout the pages, we get a brief background and an understanding of who these characters are.

As an introduction to the cat-boys, this Volume provides enough details to make a loose choice of best boy, but I’m holding out since I assume they’ll share more information about the others in the next Volume. For male Bakaneko leads, we have your typical mature, Miyako, who takes care of all the others, your tough and rough, Susumu, who has a sensitive undertone, Kyou, seen as the suave playboy, and the childlike and sweet, Akira. Tohru hasn’t really been introduced, so I’m eager to hear more of him hopefully in the next book.

I’m the Catlords’ Manservant Vol. 1 takes place mostly at Yukiharu’s high school, and your typical teenage situations that are brought up have a cat-like twist. All he wants is a normal high school life, but nothing is normal when you’re surrounded by guys who have cat impulses. This proves to be entertaining rather than your standard high school story manga.

Occasionally the order of the text boxes confused me, like figuring which cat was speaking, but it’s so slight it might not have been worth mentioning. The cats are cutely drawn, and the men are illustrated handsomely across the panels, so you can’t help but fall for them as they get into plenty of adorable situations. Each page and panel is packed full of illustrations, while each chapter art is topped off with a nice illustration of Yukiharu being cute with his catlords.

I’m the Catlords’ Manservant Vol. 1 lays out the introduction of this much-needed mash-up of cute boys and cats. It serves as a way to get us acquitted with the characters, but there’s a bit more that I’d like to see in terms of character depth in the following volumes. The hilarity of the situations is enough to entertain you throughout each panel, and the conclusion of a mysterious character has me excited about what’s to come. Still, it’s exceptionally low-effort, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m going to need more than just cute boys and cats to keep me engaged in this series.