Reviews

Il gatto che voleva salvare i libri by Sōsuke Natsukawa

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cameliawithbooks's review against another edition

3.0

kukira awalnya mirip2 sama dewey kalau pernah baca. Yg mana ceritanya kucing yg menghibur di tokbuk. Ternyata ini berbalut fantasi. Dan juga kucingnya bukan tokoh utama juga..

Ceritanya adl Rintaro yg setelah kakeknya meninggal dan mewarisi tokbuk bekas milik kakeknya. Tokbuk ini mau dia tutup soalnya dia mau pindah sama bibinya. Tapi di tengah2 rasa duka dia didatangi kucing yg namanya Tiger. Tinger ngajak Rintaro untuk menyelamatkan buku. Jadi mereka masuk ke dalam labirin2 petualangan untuk mengemban misi menyelamatkan buku.

Ada 4 labirin yg ditemui. Ke-4nya memiliki masalah masing2. Masalah2 ini berkaitan dg pecinta buku. Mulai dari masalah pride seorang penimbun buku, masalah baca cepat dan penerbitan buku. Ada lagi masalah terakhir adl kompilasi ke-3 masalah sebelumnya yg telah dipecahkan beserta bagaimana jika buku kehilangan kuasanya/jiwanya? Hmm

Yg terakhir plot twist sih menurutku...

Buku ini cukup tipis yaitu 200 halaman. Seru untuk diikuti dan keknya bagi pecinta buku harus baca buku ini juga.

shlymiller's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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luia's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

kendrastrand's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This novella has a cute and appealing premise, and the detailed descriptions of the characters and the various book labyrinths they visit make it easy to imagine as an anime adaptation.

The plot was not as solid-- the adventures were all quite simplistic, and the various "adversaries" were defeated with little more than a few superficial comments from the main character. Tiger the cat had a lot of potential as a character but was relegated to a minor role that was barely likable because of his aloofness. The plot was further weighed down by a heavily moralizing tone -- sweeping statements about how "nobody reads books anymore" or "these days the classics aren't appreciated" -- and each of the adversaries represented one of these ideas. Rintaro's arguments to defeat each of them also presented a very narrow prescription of what an ideal reader- someone who "truly" loves books- should be.

My biggest issue was with the shallow and pejorative representation of Rintaro as "hikikomori", often translated as a "shut-in," in reference to a serious condition that is viewed as a problematic social issue in Japan. There are a lot of ways that hikikomori manifests but, in general, it describes people who retreat from their public lives and social commitments because they are dealing with severe depression or other serious mental health issues. First of all, Natsukawa's use of the term for main character Rintaro comes across as slightly exaggerated because he is already fairly engaged with multiple people in his life, and he is regularly at work in the family bookshop. But throughout the novella, multiple comments fed into the harmful stereotypes about hikikomori -- for example, that Rintaro is a "moody, gloomy bookworm" and "a hopeless shut-in" -- but most frustratingly, that Rintaro's real problem is that he is just too focused on himself and that he can "get over" being a hikikomori by thinking about other people and to stop being so selfish.

Content Warnings