Men living a life of crime and crime solving find their way to a cat bar, no matter how hard they try not too. These macho men just can't get enough of cats after a night of evil deeds.
Hard Boiled is a one shot manga that a reader could get into even if they don't like cats. THAT WAS If only the story was a bit more consistent in keeping a clear end goal, this manga would have had a better end result. Much of the plot deals with the case of a police officer's death and the details behind that death being a bit mysterious. Then we have the men who frequent the cat bar as well as the assassin who's foot steps are followed by a dirty cop. Under these men's feet are the idea of cats being man's best friend. So much so that the manga constantly reminds the reader of this whenever one of the character's has a fit over his cat. A lot goes on in the crime elements of this manga due to the story being heavily disjointed. Dialogue also gets a bit to preachy toward the conclusion because the creator had to throw cats back into the story after a whole crime ark where cats take the back burner. Yourei Ono had an opportunity to create a thrilling story surrounding loyal cats's owners in night life crime but instead became overwhelmed in fitting the two subjects together. We manga readers see enough crime manga on the shelves without having to feel that reading these manga is a chore to get through. I felt this way reading Hard Boiled Stories From The Cat Bar as a guy who likes cats.
The art is the best aspect that this manga has going for the content. However, that art is still a problem. Most characters look similar to each other. what's worse is the two main characters look just alike. Only one has a scar on his face and the other dos not. When I was reading, I had to pay close attention to the dialogue to know which character was which. Most times I couldn't tell. The flashback scenes were the worst. Manga being printed in black and white didn't help the cause either.
I would recommend this mang to people who like cats and can still enjoy the bad story. I won't be reading this manga again. I'm not sure why I feel like this manga was suppose to be in the Yaoi category at first..
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