What's It About?

Youichi Kamisuki is a college student with the special ability to see past experiences by gazing into someone's eyes. During just another tedious day at school, he happens to look into the eyes of a stray cat where he encounters a girl named Misato Yuzuhara (aka Miri) who can see into the future. After Youichi's initial shock at being able to communicate across time via a cat, Miri offers him a startling revelation: There will soon be a series of murders among Youichi's peers, and it's up to him to change this fate. As the pair deepens their bond, Youichi wants to meet Miri...but where is she in the present day? The line between fact and fiction may be blurrier than it appears...

Miri Lives in the Cat's Eyes has story by Taiga Shiki and art by Isshiki, with English translation by Michael Blaskowsky. Published by Yen On (March 25, 2025). Rated T+.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Lauren Orsini
Rating:

Imagine you had the power to gaze into your pet cat's eyes and be instantly connected to the girl of your dreams. I would call Miri Lives in the Cat's Eyes an escapist fantasy except for one very big plot point: COVID 19. The global pandemic permeates every corner of this magical realism murder mystery, and the disease itself is in fact the key to solving a string a serial murders at a college drama club. If you can't already tell, there are a lot of moving parts in this complicated novel that can only be considered “light” by grace of its brevity. It combines supernatural powers, romance, murder, the world's most dramatic drama club (and I realize there is tough competition for that title), on top of the sometimes stifling reality of what life was like in 2020.

Youichi is an ordinary college student—oh except he has had the power to gaze into another individual's eyes and access their memories since his childhood. But one day he looks into his pet cat Saborou's eyes and sees something entirely unexpected—Saborou's previous owner, Miri, and what's more is that this beautiful young woman can see him and even communicate with him, all through their cat's eyes. Whenever Youichi initiates the connection, he and Miri can have conversations and see each other's surroundings. In all this time though, it doesn't occur to Youichi to ask Miri where and when she is (or to confess his feelings, because this is a light novel and we can't have that resolved quickly). All Youichi knows is that Miri has the opposite power as he does: when she looks into somebody's eyes, she can see their future. Naturally, the pair decide to use their complementary abilities to solve murders, what else?

After Youichi's neighbor, a drama club member, is brutally murdered in her apartment, Miri convinces Youichi to join the college drama club to look for answers, and she even trains him to act well. It's easier said than done because Youichi's college is only in-person part of the time due to the pandemic. Fortunately this sets up one of this novel's best and most creative scenes—a murder that occurs during a remote Zoom rehearsal. Will Youichi be able to finally catch the serial killer? To do so he'll need to uncover Miri's hidden connection to the drama club and investigate Danganronpa levels of unrealistic locked room shenanigans. The climax involves an increasingly unbelievable series of surprise twists that won't be to every mystery- lover's tastes, but I can't deny that this is one of the most unique light novels on offer.

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