Show Us Your Stuff: Neokitty’s Cat Soup Manga

This week’s contributor, Neokitty, has eclectic tastes. Her library includes fluffy shojo (Tail of the Moon), period dramas (A Bride’s Story), OOP classics (Kazan), and ultra-violent cult favorites (Berserk, The Monkey King) — now that’s diversity! Like some of our previous participants, Neokitty has dedicated a room in her home to manga, games, and figurines. As you’ll see from the photos, it’s an impressive collection, both in terms of size and organization. I think I need to hire her to whip my messy office/manga lair into shape! So without further ado, here’s Neokitty in her own words. – Katherine Dacey

My name is Terra but I go by Neokitty on almost every site. I trade a lot on Gametz and Mangatude. I also like making art and watching foreign movies and anime. My favorite series manga is Berserk and my favorite stand-alone manga is A Drunken Dream. I’ll also read anything by Kaoru Mori and Fumi Yoshinaga.

A view of Neokitty’s manga room.

How long have you been collecting manga?
Around 10 years.

What was the first manga you bought?
Sailor Moon.

How big is your collection?
Over 1,000 volumes.

What is the rarest item in your collection?
I think my Black Jack artbook is uncommon.

What is the weirdest item in your collection?
My Cat Soup (Nekojiru Udon) manga.

How has your taste in manga evolved since you started your collection?
At first, I mostly read shoujo; now I seem to read more gory stuff.

Who are your favorite comic artists?
Katsuya Terada (The Monkey King) is pretty cool, and Kaoru Mori art in A Bride’s Story is gorgeous.

Left to right: Neokitty’s yaoi shrine (plus a few favorite plushies); Berserk, Tramps Like Us, Nodame Cantabile, and Kage Tora all have pride of place on Neokitty’s shelves.

What series are you actively collecting right now?
Right now, I’m finishing up Black Jack and Barefoot Gen.

Do you have any tips for fellow collectors (e.g. how to organize a collection, where to find rare books, where to score the best deals on new manga)?
I try to organize my books according to publisher.

Show Us Your Stuff is a regular column in which readers share pictures of their manga collections and discuss their favorite series. If you’d like to see your manga library featured here, please follow the directions on this page.