Chi's Sweet Home

vol. 11
by Konami Kanata

Once again my daughter and I waited and waited for another Chi installment. It's just as cute as ever. In this issue, the little kitten worries when part of her human family leaves to visit relatives. She searches for them, starts to fear they will never return. She romps with Cocchi and the other tabby kittens. Some of the adult cats make remarks about Chi's former family, recognizing her from before. The other two tabby kittens tell how their momma is always looking for someone, and so Chi and Cocchi finally begin to put two and two together. Chi doesn't want to think that she might belong to a different family than the one she knows. Cocchi pushes the issue. Meanwhile, the little boy finds a lost poster featuring Chi, and we also see things from the mother cat's viewpoint, constantly missing her third kitten. There's also some family upheaval going on in Chi's home- the father has a job offer that would require them to move far away. What's going to happen to everyone? where will Chi end up?

I liked, as always, the look at things from a cat's perspective. Being playful, sneaky, affectionate, impulsive. Interacting with Yohei and Cocchi, learning more about being a cat. But I felt that this storyline didn't really get anywhere. Chi and Cocchi spend a lot of time puzzling over their memories to piece together what might have happened in the kittens' past; in my opinion there could have been less introspection and more feline adventures! I also expected her to finally meet her mother, but it just didn't happen. However, the teasers for volume twelve make it clear that she will. Why can't it be now.

Rating: 3/5        146 pages, 2014