What's Michael?

Infobox animanga/Header
name = What's Michael?


caption =
ja_name = ホワッツ マイケル?
ja_name_trans = Howattsu Maikeru?
genre = ComedyInfobox animanga/Manga
title =
author = Makoto Kobayashi
publisher = flagicon|Japan Kodansha
flagicon|USA Dark Horse Comics
flagicon|France Glénat
flagicon|Germany Egmont Manga & Anime
flagicon|Poland Waneko
flagicon|Italy Star Comics
demographic = Seinen
magazine = flagicon|Japan Weekly Morning
flagicon|USA Super Manga Blast
flagicon|Italy Kappa Magazine
first = 1984
last =
volumes = 22Infobox animanga/OVA
title =
director =
studio = Kitty Films
episodes = 1
released = November 25 1985Infobox animanga/Anime
title =
director =
studio = Kitty Films
network = TV Tokyo
first = April 15 1988
last = March 28 1989
episodes = 45Infobox animanga/OVA
title = What's Michael? 2
director =
studio = Kitty Films
episodes = 1
released = July 25 1988

nihongo|"What's Michael?"|ホワッツ マイケル?|Howattsu Maikeru? is a Japanese manga series created by Makoto Kobayashi. In 1984, it began its serialization in the "Weekly Morning" magazine. The comic shows Michael, an orange American Shorthair tabby cat, his feline friends, and other domesticated pets in a series of humorous episodes.

The manga was adapted into two anime OVA series in 1985 and 1988, and a 45-episode TV series in 1988-1989. It is currently released in the US by Dark Horse Comics. In addition to being presented in the standard left to right American reading format, the comics were heavily edited.

In 1986, "What's Michael?" received the Kodansha Manga Award for general manga.cite web | url=http://www.hahnlibrary.net/comics/awards/kodansha.shtml | author=Joel Hahn | title=Kodansha Manga Awards | work=Comic Book Awards Almanac | accessdate=2007-08-21]

Story

Most episodes of the series fall into one of two kinds of stories. The first portrays the cats in a realistic way, living out normal lives with their owners. It finds humor in how humans observe their pets' naturally quirky behavior. The second type of story is complete fantasy. All the animals are given human characteristics such as walking on two legs, wearing clothes, and being able to talk to each other. These episodes place the animals in a clichéd storyline, and mixes up their human personas with normal animal behavior.

References

External links

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