James Nicoll Reviews

Junji Ito’s Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu is a semi-autobiographical manga. First serialized as Itō Junji no Neko Nikki: Yon & Mū in Japanese manga magazine Monthly Magazine Z from the January 2008 issue to the February 2009 issue, Cat Diary was collected into a single volume in 2009 and translated into English in 2015.

Years of hard work¹ have delivered horror manga artist J‑kun the life he covets. He has a brand-new home. He has a darling fiancée, A‑ko. However, to his growing alarm, he discovers A‑ko has dreadful plans, plans against which a simple writer/artist cannot hope to prevail.

Whereas J‑kun is a dog person, A‑ko is a cat person. A‑ko has a cat named Yon. Yon will be living with J‑kun and A‑ko.

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1958’s SF: The Year’s Greatest Science-Fiction and Fantasy: Third Annual Volume is the third volume in Judith Merril’s The Year’s Best SF anthology series. The previous two volumes were reviewed here and here. You may note that Merril was not entirely consistent with her naming conventions. In fact, I have for reasons of clarity taken liberties with the title because, as discerning readers will have noticed, the paperback in hand does not mention that this is the third anthology in this series. Also missing is any hint as to the year for which this is the best. 1957, which as it happens was somewhat of a turning point in American history.

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