Cat Eyed Boy Volume 2 (Kazuo Umezu)
Viz Media
Genre Horror
Age Rating For Older Teens
Price $24.99
A chilling concoction of dark vignettes dripping with the macabre, the grotesque and the absurd.
Hated by humans and demons alike, Cat Eyed Boy dwells in the shadows of the human world. Cat Eyed Boy continues his battle with the Band of One Hundred Monsters, a group seeking revenge upon the corrupt humans who have made them outcasts.
Those who haven't read the previous volume should stop and grab a copy as this volume of Cat Eyed Boy continues the story arc established previously. Not much significant development here and you'll probably enjoy this if you like the previous manga: it features the same B-movie aesthetics and narrative technique.
As for the story, Cat Eyed Boy shows a more mischievous side although he also redeems himself by attempting to do a good deed in one of the stories. In many ways, I also find this to be the weaker of the two volumes as there's a particular scene in "The Meat Ball Monster" (I told you it had a B-movie vibe!) story arc that feels too contrived and featured some unnecessary elements.
There's also some colored pages to be found here but in retrospect, I wish they didn't because the colors are awful (it's by design, not a lack of talent on the artist's part): they were trying to mimic the color of 70's comic strips and well, they succeeded but it's not that great to look at. What can be praised however is the essay on Kazuo Umezu at the back and a guide to various Umezu titles which surprisingly cites other US manga publishers.
If you were hooked by the previous volume, that's the only time I can recommend Cat Eyed Boy Volume 2. The former is in my opinion the superior title of the two although this one pretty much works with what's established.
7
Summing Up:
A step down from volume one but manages to sustain the B-movie atmosphere of Cat Eyed Boy.
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