Fellas, you ever love a girl so much you… beat the shit out of her?? Yes??? No??? I sure as fuck hope not.

Ladies and gentlemen, people of MAL, let me introduce you to a manga called Mahou Shoujo Neko X—a short-lived two volume manga with a little bit of everything. You’ve got action, super powers, romance, ecchi… ‘comedy.’ Sound good? Good. Our story follows the daily adventures of a cat girl EVO, Peke, and her owner, Yamato, as they hunt down the EVOs in their city and get into wacky romcom ecchi situations. Now, doesn’t that sound like the plot to a perfectly average 2000s romcom ecchi manga? It sure does. The night I chose to read this manga, I was in the mood for something lighthearted, cute and a little sexy. My friends… Nothing could have prepared me for the bleak world of Mahou Shoujo Neko X.

The Juumen in Mahou Shoujo Neko X live sad, miserable lives, in a world rife with racism and oppression directed toward them. Despite having the same mental facilities as humans, they do not have human rights. They have few choices for how they want to live their lives: be kept as pets, work for humans or live homeless on the streets. Certain establishments, such as cafes, do not even allow them in. If you wanted to bang some nekomimi babe in this world, people would see you as a freak into bestiality.

This brings us back to our two main characters, Peke and Yamato. Peke is madly in love with Yamato, and Yamato is madly in love with Peke, but he doesn’t want to be seen as the guy who fucked his cat. So how does Yamato respond to this situation, where the love between him and his moe cat girl pet is forbidden? Like any normal person, he decides to take being tsundere to the next level and become an actual psychopath, violently abusing and humiliating Peke every chance he gets. When Peke shows him affection, he responds by kicking or hitting her. Even when Peke is minding her own business, he goes out of his way to treat her with cruelty, doing things like shooting her with a bb gun or stealing her bathing suit so she’s forced to walk around nude in public. These events often leave Peke crying and hurt, unsure of exactly what she did wrong.

How do the other EVOs in this story fare? Well, arguably better than Peke, but not by much. Are you an EVO who wants to fight back against the humans who oppress you? Very well, face the wrath of this teenage freak and his cat girl pet with Stockholm syndrome and Hulk strength. The captured EVOs have their powers sealed by special collars, and they are taken away, likely to be imprisoned or enslaved. The world of Mahou Shoujo Neko X is shockingly bleak. If I went into every fucked up moment in this manga, I would be here all day.

I’m not going to pretend I’m some reader with high brow taste. Quite frankly, I love awful, edgy manga and anime boobies. If you browse my profile, you’ll see I am a proud consumer of problematic media. So why do I take issue with this manga? For a brief moment, let’s talk about the tsundere archetype and female-on-male violence. Female tsunderes are notoriously violent with their male love interests and very few people seem to take issue with that, but why? Two reasons.

First, people are less sensitive about male characters being treated violently, due to society’s perception of men as tough and free of emotion. A man? Being abused? Society doubts that, especially if it’s by a woman. Meanwhile, women are seen as weak and vulnerable, needing protection. Many MAL folks seemed to take issue with the series Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! for that reason. The main male character in Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! regularly hits the main girl with a metal baseball bat, causing her to go flying into the sky in an overtly comical fashion. Double-standards aside, there is a big difference that separates the violence in Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! from the violence in Mahou Shoujo Neko X, which I will discuss in a few paragraphs.

Anyway, back to tsunderes.

Second, the way female-on-male violence is portrayed with tsunderes (usually) does not resemble real life abuse. The average author intends his tsundere hitting or kicking her love interest to be seen as comedic or cute. You could argue that the actions of a tsundere are still abusive, but that isn’t (usually) the intent of the author, and the tsundere’s outbursts seldom lead to truly negative consequences or the male love interest being seriously hurt.

Now, what if we swapped Peke and Yamato’s genders. Would a female Yamato be perceived the same way as, let’s say, a Rin Tohsaka? Maybe. I imagine there are a lot of people who would be fine with that, because after all, it’s the guy being abused, and who doesn’t want a cute anime girl to step on them? Still, I’m going to have to say the dynamic between Peke and Yamato would continue to be fucked up even if their genders were swapped, and the reasons for that are the tone of Mahou Shoujo Neko X and the intentions of the author.

Let’s talk about the tone. The setting of Mahou Shoujo Neko X is very dark, but the tone of the manga is akin to that of your average ecchi romcom with a side of drama. Peke and Yamato get into wacky situations, there’s a bit of action when other EVOs show up, some fanservice, some serious moments regarding the romance or treatment of the Juumen, ect. The manga has plenty of silly moments, but there is a serious story there, and the comedy is grounded in reality. This brings us back to Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! which features a similar blend of comedy and serious moments, but the crucial difference between these two series is Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! regularly employs slapstick humor. I think Mahou Shoujo Neko X attempts to use slapstick in a single scene, but the results are much more disturbing than comedic, as it feels no different than the usual abuse inflicted upon Peke. Peke’s abuse is too grounded and real to work as slapstick or zany comedy.

Let’s talk about the intentions of the author. The author clearly intended for the interactions between Yamato and Peke to be humorous, and for the reader to sympathize with Yamato after learning how much he’s been struggling with his love for Peke. But, what is there to sympathize with? The extent of Yamato’s struggles is he doesn’t want to be the guy that fucked his cat. Not to mention, he also seems to take pleasure in Peke’s torment, relishing every chance he has to humiliate her. The character of Yamato is just… kind of despicable in general, even outside of his abuse of Peke. There aren’t any redeeming qualities in the character. Ironically, even in the manga, Yamato’s abusive tendencies aren’t viewed as normal. Some characters on the sidelines express disgust after seeing the way he abuses Peke. If Yamato were presented to the reader as he is—a cruel, abusive asshole not meant to be likable or sympathetic—I wouldn’t have any problems with the character. Sometimes characters are just awful and abusive and that’s fine, because it’s fiction. The author of Mahou Shoujo Neko X is self aware enough that he realizes the behavior of Yamato isn’t normal or rational, but he still tries to justify the character’s abusive tendencies and portray the romance between Yamato and Peke as touching and cute. It just doesn’t work.

Now that I’ve finished rambling about that, let’s talk about the manga as a whole, since this is a proper review.

Story – 3

The basic concept behind the story here isn’t anything special. Kemonomimi people racism isn’t a particularly original idea at this point. I dare say it’s even been overdone. If not for the abuse, the romance between Peke and Yamato would be incredibly forgettable as well. It’s a pretty standard tale of forbidden love. Cat loves boy. Boy loves cat. Society says boy loving cat is wrong, so boy is sad. Things get weird when boy decides to beat the shit out of cat. There’s some episodic chapters featuring the wacky adventures of our couple, and those are nothing special. The action? It’s forgettable. The comedy? Unfunny at best, disturbing at worst. The only noteworthy thing about the story is how shockingly dark and mean-spirited it is, despite wearing the skin of your average ecchi romcom. Maybe some of these ideas could have worked in another manga. You could dial back on the abuse and mean-spirited aspects of the story and have a fun, lighthearted manga, or you could dial those things up to eleven and have some good edgy garbage. Honestly, you could even go for something in the spirit of Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan and make it a violent, zany comedy. Allegedly, the manga was axed after two volumes, so I imagine the author wasn’t able to express his complete vision, but… all things considered, I don’t think that would have helped. The story is incredibly poorly done.

Art – 8

The only good thing this manga has to offer, for sure. The art style is peak 2000s anime aesthetics. The girls are all very cute, and the full color illustrations are especially pleasant to look at. Honestly, that’s what lead me to read this manga in the first place. I was drawn to the cute, colorful volume covers.

Sidenote, but there was a lovely figure manufactured by a company called Kaiyodo based on the volume one cover art. I kind of want it lol.

Character – 1

Every recurring character in this manga is abyssal. Let’s start with our beautiful couple, Yamato and Peke.

Peke is the moe cat girl who wants to do her best for her master. She is in love with him and very horny. Occasionally she’ll do something a little sexy, like show some skin or get turned on when Yamato touches her, to which he responds by telling her that’s disgusting and punching the shit out of her. She doesn’t really understand why Yamato abuses her, but she takes it and continues to love him. She also has superpowers, which she uses to fight alongside her oppressors and imprison her fellow Juumen.

Yamato is an asshole otaku and high school student with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. When he isn’t tormenting Peke or being a horny otaku, he’s tormenting actual animals or abusing the power handed to him by his mother to do things like arrest innocent Juumen for crimes as insignificant as writing an ending he didn’t like in a manga. He’s pretty much every unlikable trait you could ask for in a male protagonist. Allegedly, he is in love with Peke, but because he doesn’t want to be seen as the sicko who boinked his cat, he yells at and pummels the cat instead.

How about the rest of our main cast? Well, we have Umako aka HORSECOCK, a justice-obsessed horse girl EVO. She has a massive schlong that she likes to show people. We also have Yamato’s sister, Yukikaze, who enjoys cosplaying and trying to fuck her brother. She isn’t too happy about her brother wanting to fuck the pet cat, so she regularly tries to seduce him and get him to like human girls. There aren’t really any noteworthy side characters. Yamato and Yukikaze’s mother does have a role in the story, but she doesn’t show up much.

Enjoyment – 4

I did not find this manga enjoyable, yet I couldn’t bring myself to drop it. The comedy is not funny, the action is forgettable, and the drama and romance are AWFUL. From the very first chapter, I became fascinated by Mahou Shoujo Neko X, and as I continued to read it, I continued to be amazed by this raging dumpster fire. It is such a bizarre experience, especially when you go in completely blind. I was not expecting ANY of the fucked up stuff I mentioned in this review. Keep in mind, there’s also a lot of stuff I chose not to talk about, because this review is already way too long. I laughed a lot while I was reading this manga; not because I thought it was genuinely funny, but because I was just… in shock. I love reading trashy, edgy manga, but I’d never experienced anything like this before. In the words of the great RedLetterMedia, the author sure did manage to subvert my expectations.

Overall – 2

Mahou Shoujo Neko X is one of the worst manga I have ever read. I don’t think I’m exaggerating at all when I say that. It’s a truly terrible manga, with some of the worst characters I have ever seen, and, definitely, the worst romantic couple I have ever seen. It’s just baffling. The comedy doesn’t work. The drama doesn’t work. The male protagonist and his family are inhuman monsters. The cute and colorful ecchi romcom shell of Mahou Shoujo Neko X hides a sinister nightmare world, where kemonomimi racism runs rampant on the streets and public order is defended by a cat girl with Stockholm syndrome and her freak of an owner that seems to enjoy making her miserable. All that said, I wasn’t completely miserable while reading this manga. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it either, but the shock value provided me with some good laughs. After I finished the manga, I immediately went to rant about it to three separate people. For whatever reason, this is the awful manga that grabbed my attention and made me want to write my first MAL review. It’s so fucked up and weird, I just had to tell people about it. Would I recommend this manga to anyone? Well, if you’re a garbage connoisseur or you like cat girl abuse, this could be the manga for you. I would not recommend this manga to anyone without such specific interests.

Now, let’s end this on a positive note. The author wanted to publish this manga and he did. The absolute madlad put his cat girl abuse fantasies out there for all the world to see and he even got a figure of his battered cat girl waifu. That’s pretty cool. After they axed his manga, he went on to make three hentai doujinshi that continue the story. Sadly, only the first received an English translation, but you are able to look at the scans for the other two. Ladies and gentlemen of MAL, don’t let your memes be dreams.

Thank you for reading!