Bingo 20: Disco
On the assumption that “disco” may be applied to any culture blending, I am going with Yokai Cats 1 for this. That and also somehow managing to use both muted but also very colorful illustrations. The muted part is not disco, but the rest is, so we’re going with it.
I have to admit that I was a little surprised that there appear to be four volumes of this, which I noted adding it to my Goodreads. It’s pretty simple: envision various creatures from Japanese folklore as cats. And then have them act basically like cats, and their humans know what they are, but most anyone else won’t see it. For example, the nopperabo has no face but still has expressive emotions, it enjoys spooking people, and pranks. Shiro the nopperabo cat often grins when happy, especially when she thinks she’s startled someone by smiling thus revealing they were looking at her face, no the back of her head. She also likes treats. Her human tells a friend who’s meeting the kitty for the first time to pretend surprise when kitty reveals her smile; it works (“whoa!”) and Shiro is pleased. The rokurokubi cat uses its long neck to try and steal food, try to grab a human arm or leg, and maybe also sometimes to make a mess of a paper sliding door. When a tengu cat and a namahage cat (both wear spooky masks) meet in the street, they just keep going about their business. The satori, a mind reader who looks like a grey Scottish Fold, can read the feelings of its humans, and tries to make them feel better. But that’s also a general cat thing in some ways, right?
The whole thing is very cat, and pretty low key, almost cozy. When Shiro wants to see fireworks, she gets two yokai cats who can fly to help her go see them. Kitty is pleased.
Each section has a solid inch deep margin on the page of a different color, and everything is faintly pastel but also too strong a color to really count as pastel. If you peel back the edge of the book (page side, obvs) a little, you get almost a rainbow effect. I have no idea if it’s meant to represent, but it sort of does, by making the slightly odd to the world but loved by family totally normed.
In the end, it’s all kind of feel good. Still not sure how you get four books of it, but hey, why not.
