Cat Street (manga)

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Cat Street


caption = Cover of the Japanese volume 1
ja_name = キャットストリート
ja_name_trans = Kyatto Sutorīto
genre =Drama, Romance, Slice of life storyInfobox animanga/Manga
title =
author = Yoko Kamio
publisher = flagicon|Japan Shueisha
publisher_other = flagicon|Italy Panini Comics
flagicon|Vietnam Kim Dong Publishing House
demographic = Shōjo
magazine = flagicon|Japan Bessatsu Margaret
first = August 2004
last = October 2007
volumes = 8

nihongo|"Cat Street"|キャットストリート|Kyatto Sutorīto is a shōjo manga series created by Yoko Kamio.

Plot

The story revolves around the life of Keito Aoyama, a 16 year old girl who used to be a famous actress when she was young. But once, while acting a scene, she froze up, and this traumatic incident caused her to make it a point to protect herself from others. In the process of doing so, she isolates herself from others and avoids getting close to anyone. Then one day her life changes when a person takes her to a special school called "El Liston", a free school for people with social issues. People without a home or purpose are considered "stray cats" by society. She eventually joins the school and meets new people such as Rei, Kouichi, and Momiji, who soon become her closest friends.

Characters

; nihongo|Keito Aoyama|青山 恵都|Aoyama Keito: A 16-year-old girl that used to be a child actress. She was star of a play when she was 9. Therefore she didn't spend much time in school and had little friends. When she was nine she was given the main role in a musical named "Sunny Days", but she froze on stage and couldn't say her lines. As a result, she quit the acting industry and dropped out of school around finishing elementary. Her parents began to fight and argue after she did so. Since then she has stayed locked up in her room for 7 years. While in a diner a man asks her if she wants to join a free school named El Liston. Right then and there her whole life changes for the good. Keito starts to open up more to her new friends at her school and for the first time in 7 years she called her parents mom and dad. She agrees to go out with Rei in chapter 17. After witnessing Momiji confess and being ridiculed, she devised a plan to get back at the guy who rejected Momiji. She dressed up as Yamaguchi's favorite actress and acting exactly like her, pretended to be interested in him, even causing him to break up with his current girlfriend (although she did not mean to do this, Yamaguchi broke up with his girlfriend to show his love for 'Megumi' the person Keito was pretending to be.) She has a 'telepathic bond' with Kouichi, in which they can tell what the other is thinking or feeling. This causes Rei to feel extremely jealous. After Kouichi tells her not to come see him anymore, she becomes very depressed, thinking that he probably hates her now. Rei cheered her up by telling her this was definitely not true, however, he showed signs of great jealousy that even when she agreed to go on a date with him, she couldn't think of anything but Kouichi. After finding out that Kouichi left El Liston, she was crushed, and realized that she had been vain to think they shared a telepathic bond, and that she really knew nothing about him, not even that he was 18.

; nihongo|Rei Saeki|佐伯 玲|Saeki Rei : A formerly famous soccer player. He said that he was a fan of Keito when she was acting back then and that he watched the incident which ended Keito's acting career. He is also the one that convinced her to attend the free school named El Liston. He becomes friends with Keito. Chapter 12 shows that Rei does have a girlfriend, but he was trying to break up with her on the phone which Keito hears but it didn't bother her. In later chapters, he disappears after confessing to Keito and when he returns he tells her to 'think about it.' In chapter 18 he discovers that Keito stayed overnight at Koucihi's watching a DVD. He got really jealous and punched Kouichi. he says that he looks only at Keito, and is very jealous of the 'telepathic bond' between her and Kouichi and kissed her, partially out of frustration, after she could speak of nothing but Kouichi. He leaves for Brazil to play soccer in chapter 23 and is gone for part of the manga.

; nihongo|Kouichi Mine|峰 浩一|Mine Kōichi: A genius at the age of 18 with an IQ of 200. He's usually seen with a laptop and is a computer geek, although when Keito called him that (not knowing it was an insult) he was offended, saying it was an insult. He saves Keito's sister when she was in trouble with other girls by using his laptop to make it sound like the police was near. He's one of Keito's friends, and when they first met Keito thought that they had a telepathic bond because she knew what he was thinking. First, 'Shut up!' and 'Go away' and then, after saving Keito's sister, 'See you tomorrow.' This bond was shown to be so strong that he could sense Keito's internal scream and fear when she was paralyzed in fear and unable to scream. Their bond is so strong that it makes Rei extremely jealous to the point that he asks Keito, "Why can you tell what Kouichi is thinking and feeling, but not me?" Kouichi has a step sister since his mother got remarried and later in the story it shows that he actually likes his sister as a woman but not as a sister. Kouichi actually dropped out of school because he thinks it was boring to stay with too many idiots there. Keito saw him cry after finding out that his sister was in a relationship and that has created a stronger bond between them. Recently, with the influence of Keito, Kouichi hacked into Yamaguchi's computer, which had pictures of Momiji's humiliation posted online. He deleted Yamaguchi's files and crashed his computer with a virus. Kouichi then allowed Keito to stay the night at his apartment while she watched a DVD featuring an actress that Yamaguchi had a crush on. When Rei jealously asked Kouichi if he thought it was weird that someone else's girlfriend is at another guy's house, he told Rei that it's Keito's own choice to stay at his place. This resulted in Rei hitting Kouichi across the face, thus causing some tension between the two. Later that night, when Keito came to see him, Kouichi told her that he would not be attending El Liston for a while (in fact he is not to be seen as of yet in El Liston again), and then told Keito never to come to his apartment again. He is later seen looking up a picture of the coxcomb plant, which Keito had told him earlier her name meant, which represents "undying love". It has been implied that Kouichi might have romantic feelings for Keito. In the newest Chapter it was said that Kouichi has graduated from the free school and a newspaper has been shown that reported about him baving created a company named Coxcomb Company and that the "new generation security software" he has been developing is being adopted by many companies and is receiving worldwide attention.recently Keito went to check on him( she was asked by Kouichi's sister) and asked him if he was going to keep going on like this, alone. She cries and Kouichi just asks her if she is done. Later he goes to his new apartment and hunkers down looking extremely sad.

; nihongo|Momiji|野田 紅葉|Noda Momiji: A gothic lolita. She designs her own clothes and she came to El Liston since she hated having to wear the same thing everyday and when she wore one of her gothic lolita outfits to school she was shunned by everybody else. She becomes really good friends with Keito. She fell in love with a guy named Yamaguchi, but when she tried to confess Yamaguchi told her to put on some decent clothes and come see him later. So she did and since Rei and Keito were worried they followed her. Yamaguchi's girlfriend pushes her into a pond when she confesses. She gets a fever and hives and wants to throw away her sewing machine and all the clothes she has made saying "It doesn't matter anymore." Momiji's family notice strange differences in her, as she no longer dresses oddly when she goes out or puts on makeup. She recovers however, looking for a new love.

; nihongo|Chika Aoyama|青山 知佳|Aoyama Chika: Keito's younger sister. She wasn't so close to Keito to begin with, but starts to hate her after having to listen to her parents fight. Not wanting to be alone like her sister, she pays people to be her friends. This gets her in trouble but she is silently helped out by Kouichi and Keito who were watching.

; nihongo|Midori| |: Kouichi's step sister. She was Kouichi's first love, though he later finds out that she already has a boyfriend. She invites Keito to her college fair, and Keito performs in the college play. She is really happy when Kouichi finally calls her sis.

; nihongo|Yamaguchi| |: The guy that Momiji likes. He already has a girlfriend, of whom Momiji didn't know, and he makes a mockery out of her when she confesses, even inviting classmates to watch. Momiji's friends decide to get revenge for treating Momiji so shamefully. First, Kouichi hacks into Yamaguchi's computer and deletes all of his files, then releases a virus that crashes his computer. Then, Keito pretended to look like an actress that Yamaguchi liked. This causes Yamaguchi to break up with his girlfriend so he can go out with Keito. Keito then takes Yamaguchi to the park, removes his shirt, and then pushes him into the same fountain that Momiji got pushed in. Yamaguchi then gets furious, chasing Keito through the park threatening to kill her. When he finally catches Keito and grabs her by the hair, police show up and arrest Yamaguchi for being an accused pervert. It was soon revealed that Keito had called the police earlier that night, warning them about a pervert in the park, thus making Yamaguchi's arrest all a part of her plan for revenge. This is the last we see of Yamaguchi for now.

Volumes

# ISBN 4-08-847847-9 released on April 25 2005
# ISBN 4-08-847848-7 released on April 25 2005
# ISBN 4-08-846007-3 released on November 25 2005
# ISBN 4-08-846042-1 released on March 24 2006
# ISBN 4-08-846087-1 released on August 30 2006
# ISBN 4-08-846165-6 released on April 25 2007
# ISBN 4-08-846216-5 released on September 25 2007

References

External links

* [http://annex.s-manga.net/catstreet/ Official site] (Japanese)
*ann manga|id=6443|title=Cat Street