Takashi Murakami, author of The Dog Who Looks at the Stars, returns to delight us by telling the family life of the cute little dog Kota!
If you have been lucky enough to welcome a dog into your life, reading Takashi Murakami's words you will immediately understand the great meaning of the words “being together”. Deciding to dedicate yourself to a pet, a dog in particular, means on the one hand giving up a piece of one's life and time, and on the other, it means letting a large part of one's heart go in its direction. In this game of renunciations, however, a counterpart creeps in that seems to cancel every cons, since every sacrifice made for your dog will be repaid by him a thousand and a thousand more times, in each of the single days you will spend together. There is actually no real "sacrifice", instead there is a desire to be together, to grow and share every little part of one's life. There is an ordinary and daily desire to love immeasurably, there is the desire to "be together". Having a dog is also and above all sharing, and not in the mere sense of playing with space on beds or sofas, but in the deeper meaning of sharing soul and existence with each other.
kota
A few years ago, J-Pop Manga introduced us to Sensei Murakami thanks to the publication of the highly acclaimed The Dog Who Looks at the Stars; the mangaka returns today for the publisher with Kota - The dog who lives with us (Kota oide). While The Dog Who Looks at the Stars made little Happy the common thread that linked the lives of people and animals, in a successful mix of tenderness and drama, Kota is a relaxed set of small self-contained episodes that describe the family life of the funny Shiba. inu of the Murakami house. The mangaka describes daily life with Kota with shrewdness and irony, starting from the very first moments of their meeting, arriving at today, a moment in which Kota is in all respects an integral part of the family.
The walk, the bath, the kennel, the interactions with the human family, the need to carry out the poop in the perfect place, the joy of food, the odd obsessions and much more; the volume tells Kota in all her being, in every little and great joy or challenge of everyday life. Who has a dog will not be able to help but see himself in certain attitudes of the Murakami family, even the strangest ones (who, does not understand with pride, when his dog is ready to poop?), And it will be impossible not to find in some Kota's attitudes those of our four-legged friend, while enjoying the fact that we fortunately did without some oddities. Kota's stories show us how all dogs are similar but at the same time unique and special.
Having reached this point it might seem that Kota - The dog who lives with us, is a volume for the exclusive use and consumption of dog lovers or those who own a dog, but if it is true that seeing oneself again in the pages of the volume increases the pleasure of reading, it is also true that Murakami's simple and amusing narrative makes the work appreciated by anyone, even by those who do not have a dog or intend to have one. What is told is the daily life of an ordinary family that shares its existence with one more member, which, requiring care and attention different from those of humans, ensures that family dynamics, habits and rules, integrate. and adapt to this presence as particular as it is welcome that offers unique experiences. Therefore, if the “identification” factor is lacking, the sweet and cheerful story of Murakami can still interest and entertain a wider audience.
And in any case, animal lovers or not, how can you resist Kota's funny and tender nose?
As it was for The Dog Who Looks at the Stars, albeit in different ways, once again Takashi Murakami tells us about the life and experiences of people linked to a dog, expressing on each page the deep affection that is created between the latter and the his human family, through small gestures, through daily living and through a love so boundless that it cannot be explained in words.
The trait of the mangaka is the same that we met in The Dog Looking at the Stars, sketched, a little caricatured, this time perhaps a little sweeter and softer in the characters, adapting perfectly to the serene and playful atmosphere of the story. Kota, a true star of the series, has a refined design, very tender and incredibly similar to its real counterpart, with the addition, however, of slightly less "canine" facial expressions that clearly highlight thoughts and feelings.
Kota - The dog who lives with us, was originally born as a work in 2 volumes but J-Pop Manga brings them together offering us a full-bodied single volume treated both in the interior and in the external graphics. The real photos of Kota, present at the beginning of the second Japanese volume, were inserted in the flaps of the dust jacket. The manga, in format 15