Intimacy, Sensuality and Fluffiness.
It's really all you need to know, if you wanna go in blind.
A peek into the leads' dynamic:
Synopsis: Erina loves cats more than anything, even though she looks like the haughty-princess type who could have any guy she wants. But even with his cat-like name, she can't stand her aloof classmate, Nekoyama-kun. But when she rescues a hurt kitty in her yard and gives it a perfect, snuggly kiss...she suddenly finds a very human Nekoyama-kun in her room? What gives?!
This is a series that thrives on its romance, and its romance thrives on genuine touch and connection (my personal favorite), with a spoonful of wack comedy. I've always been weak to skinship in romance, especially if the skinship is a foundation for love to grow on. As the very drive for the story (the male lead turning into a cat, duh) calls for a kiss, the leads do get touchy-feely a lot, and that only escalates alongside their budding feelings for each other.
The, um, intimacy is definitely shown more explicitly and boldly than you'd usually encounter in a typical shoujo, but as I see it, it's the perfect combination between the delicacy and sensuality of their attraction for one another, and the messy lightheartedness of their strange situation. Tasteful but still retaining the excitement.
~~this is on the tamer side of the intimate situations that happen in this manga, but it proves my point right~~
The sexual tension is intense, and it only gets more so as the series goes on ~~not that I'm complaining~~. It's honestly super realistic that teenagers who like, constantly kiss would be so attracted to each other lol. The author handled this development very well, from curiosity to hesitance when push comes to shove (but they're not overly shy either, but quite adventurous actually) and then ultra-satisfying culmination of it all. It's all very down-to-earth and grounded, which enables you to really connect with their feelings.
Of course, it's not all physical desire between these two ~~this would be softcore smut otherwise but I would like not to talk about that possibility~~. The series is soooooooooooooooooo cute and fluffy as well. Be it cat or human interactions, they always have killer chemistry with the back-and-forth (very flirtatious) banter. I also love how they don't lose anytime to become an item, the dating content was sooooooo sweet. Will-they-won't-they is nice too, but it just doesn't compare.
I adore the emotional drive between them as a pairing as well. Mutual respect, communication??? Sign me the fuck up. This is also a exemplary case of "she fell first, he fell harder" ~~which we all know is the best romance trope~~.
The comedy was able to get a few laughs out of me as well (which is rare). It's mostly wack shennanigans based on character interactions (as opposed to situational), mixed with a certain cat's cuteness. As it goes, everything that includes a cute chonky cat gets a few bonus points.
Chonk.
As you probably have seen demonstrated in the panels above, the art is very pretty. Typical shoujo-esque sparkles and dreamy ambience and I mean that in the best way possible. It's incredibly aesthetically pleasing and I couldn't have asked for anything more. The covers are really vibrant and beautiful as well. My personal favorite is volume 4's:
Another thing that really made me enjoy this manga as much as I did was the artist's notes at the end of each volume. I looooove her muscle mama mangaka thing, and the peek into the manga's production is really interesting. Reminds me of Yumi Tamura's Tam-Tam Time lol. Relevant to the volume 4 cover discussion:
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Welp, what more can I say? It's a read well-worth checking out, very shoujo-esque but still manages to make itself stand out with the unique, more sensual approach to romance. A lot of fun, and a lot of fuzzy feelings. And it's completed with 24 chapters! Short and sweet.
^ me and my inner self writing this review to get y'all to read Neko to Kiss