is a shōjo

Shojo

The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10-18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong...

 manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 series written and illustrated by Yoko Kamio

Yoko Kamio

is a Japanese manga artist and writer. She is most famous for , for which she received the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1996. Her work has been translated and distributed in Asia, Europe, and North America.-Biography:...

. It was serialized by Shueisha

Shueisha

is a major publisher in Japan. The company was founded in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The following year, Shueisha became a separate, independent company. Magazines published by Shueisha include Weekly Shōnen Jump, Weekly Young Jump,...

 in Bessatsu Margaret

Bessatsu Margaret

, or for short, is a shōjo manga magazine published monthly in Japan by Shueisha. It is targeted at girls aged roughly 12-17. It is a spinoff of the magazine Margaret.-Current:*360° Material - Touko Minami*Acanthus - Izumi Yamaguchi...

from August 2004 and October 2007 and collected in eight bound volumes

Tankobon

, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

.

It was adapted as a six-episode live-action drama

Japanese television drama

, also called , are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including murder romance, comedy, detective stories, horror, and many others...

 broadcast on NHK

NHK

NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

 between 28 August and 1 October 2008.

Plot

The story revolves around the life of Keito Aoyama, a 16 year old girl who used to be a famous actress when she was young. But once, while acting a scene, she froze up, and this traumatic

Psychological trauma

Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...

 incident caused her to make it a point to protect herself from others. In the process of doing so, she isolates herself from others and avoids getting close to anyone. Then one day her life changes when a person takes her to a special school called "El Liston", a free school for people with social issues. People without a home or purpose are considered "stray cats" by society. She eventually joins the school and meets new people such as Rei, Kouichi, and Momiji, who soon become her closest friends.

Characters

A 16-year-old girl that used to be a child actress. She was star of a play when she was 9. Therefore she didn't spend much time in school and had little friends. When she was nine she was given the main role in a musical named "Sunny Days", but she froze on stage and couldn't say her lines. As a result, she quit the acting industry and dropped out of school around finishing elementary. Her parents began to fight and argue after she did so. Since then she has stayed locked up in her room for 7 years. While in a diner a man asks her if she wants to join a free school named El Liston. Right then and there her whole life changes for the better.

Keito starts to open up more to her new friends at her school and for the first time in 7 years she called her parents mom and dad. She agrees to go out with Rei in chapter 17. After witnessing Momiji confess and being ridiculed, she devised a plan to get back at the guy who rejected Momiji. She dressed up as Yamaguchi's favorite actress and acting exactly like her, pretended to be interested in him, even causing him to break up with his current girlfriend (although she did not mean to do this, Yamaguchi broke up with his girlfriend to show his love for 'Megumi' the person Keito was pretending to be.) She has a 'telepathic bond' with Kouichi, in which they can tell what the other is thinking or feeling. This causes Rei to feel extremely jealous.

After Kouichi tells her not to come see him anymore, she becomes very depressed, thinking that he probably hates her now. Rei cheered her up by telling her this was definitely not true, however, he showed signs of great jealousy that even when she agreed to go on a date with him, she couldn't think of anything but Kouichi. After finding out that Kouichi left El Liston, she was crushed, and realized that she had been vain to think they shared a telepathic bond, and that she really knew nothing about him, not even that he was 18. In chapter 23, Keito auditions for a movie, but her auditions don't turn out well because of auditioners that offered to translate the kanji script to hiragana and ended up translating it wrong. Though she ends up messing up, the lead actor, Ryosuke Mori, ends up saving her by telling the director and producers that the two auditioners translated the kanji wrong.

After auditioning Keito gets a call from Kouichi that Rei is leaving for Brazil to study soccer. She, Momiji and Kouichi meet up at the airport and find Rei in a check-in line, and see him off. One the first day of filming she gets cut in her lines many times, but she doesn't understand why, and Ryosuke says that her acting is good and it stands out too much so it doesn't blend in with their bad acting. Nako Sonada, the girl she ended up sharing the part of "Sunny" with when she was younger, ends up helping her with this issue since she is an actress herself.

Another day after a scene at the beach, Keito goes home and straight to bed not knowing Kouichi came over to see her and that her younger sister, Chika, told him the she didn't want to see him again. They finally finish filming the movie, but it didn't get good reviews although her parents saw it five times. At the end of chapter 26 it time skips to when Keito is 19, and she is now good friends with Nako. As Keito and Nako look at photos that Nako took in France, they talk about a photo where a cat-shaped ornament is on the roof, and Nako says that in the middle of the night, cats gather on the roofs and look down at people looking up at the sky and they call places like these "Cat Street". While driving to work with her manager, Keito looks out to the movie posters with her on it on the street and she sees someone whom she recognizes. She stops the car and finds out it's Kouichi.

In chapter 27, Momiji sets up a gathering for her, Keito and Kouichi at the restaurant Rei used to work at. As they talk, someone shows up, it's Rei and Keito starts to cry a little. Kouichi then shows up, and they all talk about the Principal of El Liston who is being hospitalized because of his liver. They end up being interrupted by Kouichi's secretary, Sumio Tanaka, who has feelings for Kouichi. Rei and Keito go home together, and she finds out Rei has started a relationship with another Japanese girl in Brazil and that Kouichi probably likes her because of his company name. In chapter 28 Chika tells her what she said to Kouichi after their relationship gets a bit better and she feels guilty for it.

Later on in the chapter she, Momiji and Rei go to visit the Principle together, and they eventually split ways and Keito goes to visit El Liston only to find Kouichi in the PC Room. Kouichi tells her that Midori got married and had a child right after they stopped seeing each other. When Keito tries to tell him about what Chika said, she gets interrupted by phone call for Kouichi. He says he has to leave, but she can walk with him back to the entrance.

Sumio then appears and Kouichi tells her to wait in the car, which she says "but" to. When Keito tries to speak again, Sumio interrupts her saying that she could tell him another time because he has a meeting, but Keito eventually confesses her feelings for Kouichi in front of Sumio. In the next chapter, it shows Sumio and Kouichi stunned, and when she looks at Kouichi he looks troubled so she gets nervous and runs off telling him that she isn't lying about her feelings. The next day Keito goes to visit the Principal by herself and they talk about Kouichi. When she leaves the hospital, Sumio is there and asks her for her time. Sumio talks about how Kouichi can't concentrate on work, so he has to work overnight to work on the software. A stranger then interrupts them asking Keito for a handshake, which she willingly does. Sumio then blurts out that she is too cunning as a celebrity with skills and looks and because she has so many fans that like her, Kouichi doesn't really have to like her also, and that Kouichi is troubling over her confession so Sumio asks her not to do anything to trouble him anymore.

Later on in the night, Keito gets a call from Rei that the Principal has died. She thinks about the first time she met the Principal and his encouraging words he gave her, and that it'd be last time she'd ever seem again just before the cherry blossoms started to bloom because they spoke about the cherry blossoms blooming together earlier in the day. A funeral is held, but Keito can not attend because she has to work. When she has three hours of free time before the next scene, she asks her manager if she could go to the rest of the funeral, her manager says she should get some rest but Keito runs off to the funeral anyway. When she arrives to where the funeral is held she see Kouichi there, and he tells her that funeral had ended so they all left.

He's about to mention about before, she interrupts that they shouldn't talk about it on a day like this and that she has to go to pay her respect, but Kouichi stops her by grapping her wrist. He confesses that he was always scared of having a strong connection with anyone and he doesn't want to ever leave her. Keito tells him to not leave and that if Kouichi isn't with her she wouldn't be happy, and they hug each other. While there, they talk about El Liston being demolish soon.

Before Keito leaves to get back to work, Kouichi asks her if she'd like to come to his house. She accepts the invitation and leaves. Keito leaves behind her manager's back leaving a note behind. She takes the train to Kouichi's house, and while sitting on the train a stranger stares at her. Once she reaches Kouichi's house, she invites herself in and he is sleeping. Keito figures out that Kouichi has a cat, and he explains he found it 2 or 3 years ago and it followed him home. Someone calls for Kouichi outside and it is Rei because Kouichi invited him to come also.

Rei tells them he's going back to England next week for training. Keito mentions that his girlfriend probably waiting for him to return and that she must be lonely. They eventually end up talking about why Rei's there, and Kouichi tells him that he's important as a friend and he has to be the first to know about them dating. Later on Kouichi walks Keito home, once he leaves an unknown person appears behind Keito.

The person surprises Keito and she claims him to be a stalker so she threatens to phone the police. A girl then appears and helps Keito by scaring the guy away. After that she claims herself to be one of Keito's former classmates from elementary school, Arai Yui. The next day Momiji and Maasa, Nako's former make-up artist, meet up with her and she eventually tells them that she and Kouichi are going out. Momiji gets shocked and almost yells it out loud. After their conversation Keito leaves to meet up with Kouichi, but Arai bumps into her and they all go to eat together. While they're eating, Arai leaves to take her phone call and goes outside into an alleyway where the person from earlier is. He tries to tell her that they shouldn't be following Keito and he tries quit but receives a whack from Arai's cellphone resulting in a nosebleed.

Arai comes back to the table after a long while and Keito immediately notices blood on the edge of Arai's cellphone. Arai uses a piece of paper to wipe the blood off and Kouichi suspiciously watches her. At home she gets a phone call from her manager asking her to come to the office. She does and she meets up with director Ebina Hikari, who she once met up with because Nako's manager tried to suggest her for a role in his movie but she ended up being insulted instead, and he offers her the lead role in a musical. She ends up taking it, and she finds out Nako is in it, too, but as a supportive role.

The next day, Keito moves and she says good-bye to her family. She arrives at her new home, and after her manager leaves Arai comes by because she missed her at her old home and Keito's mother gave her the address to her new apartment. Arai comes in and as they talk, Arai goes off topic and acts coldly toward Keito. Keito says that Arai is giving off the feeling people at El Liston give her and as she says that Yui is the same as her, Yui raises her water bottle and smacks Keito with it. Keito ends up on the floor unconscious.

The next chapter, 33, Keito is carried away by Arai's accomplice, Ryu, into an abandoned building as Arai follows. As they tie Keito up, she awakens asking where she is. Arai then tells Keito her real name isn't Arai Yui and it is revealed to be Natsumi. As Keito and Natsumi speak to each other later on, Keito gives her a cold stare and Natsumi smacks her. Ryu holds Natsumi back as she tries to beat up Keito. After their fight they finally let Keito go, when she gets out Kouichi is there and they embrace each other as she cries.

When Keito gets to work, she makes up an excuse that she fell down the stairs. Back at the abandoned building, Natsumi and Ryu think about whether Keito phoned the police and if they're coming or not. Keito then reappears in front of them in bandages, a sun hat and sunglasses. Keito takes out scissors and cuts Natumi's hair because she claims that she must've not cut her hair in ages. After that she abruptly leaves.

Before the musical starts, she get nervous in her dressing room. At the same time Sonoda, the bartender from the bar Keito used to go to, is at the theatre and Rei and Momiji see him. As she walks around backstage to calm down her nervousness, she receives cockscomb flowers from Kouichi. At the same moment, she visions her younger self dressed at Sunny and they join hands as the they walk onto the stage together.

Supposedly many days later, Keito's work has increased more after the musical. At the end of her work for one day, she leaves to go to El Liston to help with construction. As she waits to cross the street, fans approach her and congratulate her on getting married, and Keito reveals she and Kouichi are to be married in the next spring time. While on the construction site, Natsumi and Ryu are there helping out as well are many others. As they all walk to the restaurant, which Kouichi is treating everyone to, Keito mentions a shipment about decorations for El Liston's rooftop from France. It is four bronze cat decorations, and Rei comments it to be like them four, Keito, Kouichi, Momiji and Rei because they came to El Liston as it is a place for "stray cats". Thus it is the end of Cat Street.

A formerly famous soccer player. He said that he was a fan of Keito when she was acting back then and that he watched the incident which ended Keito's acting career. He is also the one that convinced her to attend the free school named El Liston. He becomes friends with Keito. Chapter 12 shows that Rei does have a girlfriend, but he was trying to break up with her on the phone which Keito hears but it didn't bother her. In later chapters, he disappears after confessing to Keito and when he returns he tells her to 'think about it.' In chapter 18 he discovers that Keito stayed overnight at Koucihi's watching a DVD. He got really jealous and punched Kouichi. he says that he looks only at Keito, and is very jealous of the 'telepathic bond' between her and Kouichi and kissed her, partially out of frustration, after she could speak of nothing but Kouichi. He leaves for Brazil to play soccer in chapter 23 and is gone for part of the manga.

Rei eventually comes back to Japan from Brazil in chapter 27, and is revealed to be dating another Japanese girl he met in Brazil. He thinks that Kouichi and Keito are together, but when he asks if they're not together Keito replies that they aren't. Rei then tells Keito that he thinks Kouichi likes her because his company named Coxcomb is the flower name for Keito. When he realizes that Keito never knew this for the past three years, he said he wanted to tell her, but he didn't know it'd take this long. In chapter 29, he gives the news to Keito that the Principal has died, and he is seen attending the funeral.

When he goes to Kouichi's place later in the day, Keito is there, and Kouichi tells him that he has to tell him first about him and Keito being together because he is an important friend. Later that night at bar, it shows him with his girlfriend, Miyuki, and it is revealed that he is his ex-girlfriend and he only used it to trick his friends so Kouichi and Keito could be together.

When Keito gets the lead role in a musical he comes back to Japan to see it. On the day of Keito's show, he is shown playing with Taiyou and the team he coached before he leaves with Taiyo and Hirano to see Keito's musical. After the musical, he is helping everyone to reconstruct El Liston and he has also joined the Japan's professional soccer team.

A genius at the age of 18 with an IQ of 200. He's usually seen with a laptop

Laptop

A laptop, also called a notebook, is a personal computer for mobile use. A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device and speakers into a single unit...

 and is a computer geek

Geek

The word geek is a slang term, with different meanings ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to...

, although when Keito called him that (not knowing it was an insult) he was offended, saying it was an insult. He saves Keito's sister when she was in trouble with other girls by using his laptop to make it sound like the police were near. He's one of Keito's friends, and when they first met Keito thought that they had a telepathic bond because she knew what he was thinking. First, 'Shut up!' and 'Go away' and then, after saving Keito's sister, 'See you tomorrow.' This bond was shown to be so strong that he could sense Keito's internal scream and fear when she was paralyzed in fear and unable to scream. Their bond is so strong that it makes Rei extremely jealous to the point that he asks Keito, "Why can you tell what Kouichi is thinking and feeling, but not me?"

Kouichi has a step sister since his mother got remarried and later in the story it shows that he actually likes his sister as a woman but not as a sister. Kouichi actually dropped out of school because he thinks it was boring to stay with too many idiots there. Keito saw him cry after finding out that his sister was in a relationship and that has created a stronger bond between them. Recently, with the influence of Keito, Kouichi hacked into Yamaguchi's computer, which had pictures of Momiji's humiliation posted online. He deleted Yamaguchi's files and crashed his computer with a virus.

Kouichi then allowed Keito to stay the night at his apartment while she watched a DVD featuring an actress that Yamaguchi had a crush on. When Rei jealously asked Kouichi if he thought it was weird that someone else's girlfriend is at another guy's house, he told Rei that it's Keito's own choice to stay at his place. This resulted in Rei hitting Kouichi across the face, thus causing some tension between the two. Later that night, when Keito came to see him, Kouichi told her that he would not be attending El Liston for a while, and then told Keito never to come to his apartment again. He is later seen looking up a picture of the coxcomb plant, which Keito had told him earlier her name meant, which represents "undying love".

From this chapter forward, it was implied that Kouichi had romantic feelings for Keito. Kouichi then graduated from the free school and a newspaper reported him having created a company named Coxcomb Company and that the "new generation security software" he has been developing is being adopted by many companies and is receiving worldwide attention. Recently Keito went to check on him (she was asked by Kouichi's sister) and asked him if he was going to keep going on like this, alone. She cries and Kouichi just asks her if she is done. Later he goes to his new apartment and hunkers down looking extremely sad.

In chapter 26, he reunites with Keito after two and a half years, because Keito's little sister, Chika, told him that Keito doesn't want to see him again. His company has gotten larger and he had started hiring people. It was revealed that his secretary, Sumio Tanaka, has feelings for him and has confessed to him many times although he can not return them because he likes Keito. In chapter 28, Kouichi visits the Principal in the hospital, and the Principal tells him that El Liston is going to disappear. Later on he goes to El Liston, and Keito finds him in PC Room sitting in front of the computer he always used. When Keito tries to tell him about Chika he gets a phone calls, and he says he needs to go because Sumio is already there at El Liston.

On their way to the exit they meet up with Sumio and Keito tries to tell him what she needs to say again, but when Sumio tries to get him to leave for meeting Keito finally confesses her feelings for him. In chapter 29, he and Sumio are surprised about what Keito said, and he gets troubled by it. Keito runs away, but he tries to run after her and only stops outside of the entrance. At the meeting he is not paying attention, and he tries to go to the hospital to visit the Principal, but one of his employees tell him that their projects needs to be released in three weeks and hardly anything has been done because Kouichi keeps on leaving to go to the hospital. So instead he asks for a five minute break.

He attends the Principal's funeral, and Rei comments he looks tired and replies that he hasn't been getting enough sleep. He waits at the place the funeral is being held at for Keito, and she eventually does come. He tries to talk to Keito about her confession, but she tries to get away from him and he stops her. He tells her that he was scared of having a serious relationship and that he doesn't want to leave her. Keito tells him not to leave and says that she wouldn't be happy if he weren't in her life, and they share a hug. After the hug they talk about El Liston being torn down, and he invites Keito over to his place before they leave and Keito accepts the offer.

He wakes up once Keito arrives, and he talks about the cat he had for about two or three years. Rei arrives and he tells him that he needs to be first one to know about him and Keito going out since Rei is an important friends. After Rei leaves he walks Keito home.

The next day he meets up with Keito and apparently she is with her former elementary school classmate, Arai Yui. Arai gets a phone call and leaves, and when she comes back there is blood on her cellphone. As she wipes the blood off with a piece of paper he watches her. On the day Keito moves from her home to her apartment, he gets a long distance phone call from Rei that he found out Keito is going to be in a musical and that he would come back to Japan to see it.

Later that day he visits Keito's former classmate Taiyou while he is playing soccer because Arai Yui is making him worry about Keito. Taiyou tell him that it's true there was an Arai Yui but when Kouichi tells him that Keito met her, Taiyou tells him that it couldn't have happened because Arai unfortunately got sick and died. After finding out he tries to call Keito, but she doesn't pick it up because she is unconscious.

When he goes back to his company's building his staff congratulates him because they get orders from a company in the United States. Sumio gives him a suit to meet the other company who are in Japan in the moment to meet him for a contract, but Kouichi says he can't go because Keito is in trouble and he promised to protect her. Sumio orders the staff to search for Keito. As he thinks of clues, it brings him to the piece of paper "Arai", who's real name is Natsumi, used to wipe the blood off her phone. It happens to be the rental of a room in a building. Kouichi goes to the building and Keito comes out, and they hug each other as she cries.

After he found Keito, he turned down the contract. Back at his home, Keito is over and they talk about their jobs and they think of other things they could do as a job. Keito then ends up saying embarrassing things and they kiss. Kouichi tells Keito after the kiss that he had also been thinking about what he did best at.

On the day of Keito's musical he signs a contract for buying the land El Liston used to be on, using most of his money on it. In the lobby of the theatre he sees Natsumi and Ryu, and Kouichi tells them that he'd tell Keito that they came and she'd be happy. He then invites them to help reconstruct El Liston.

Many days later from when Keito performed in the musical it is revealed that he and Keito are to be married the next spring.

A gothic lolita. She designs her own clothes and she came to El Liston since she hated having to wear the same thing everyday and when she wore one of her gothic lolita outfits to school she was shunned by everybody else. She becomes really good friends with Keito. She fell in love with a guy named Yamaguchi, but when she tried to confess Yamaguchi told her to put on some decent clothes and come see him later. So she did and since Rei and Keito were worried they followed her. Yamaguchi's girlfriend pushes her into a pond when she confesses. She gets a fever and hives and wants to throw away her sewing machine and all the clothes she has made saying "It doesn't matter anymore." Momiji's family notice strange differences in her, as she no longer dresses oddly when she goes out or puts on makeup. She recovers however, looking for a new love. She is last of the group of friends to graduate from El Liston, and after the time skip is shown to working at her favourite gothic lolita store, still designing clothes. In chapter 29 she attends the Principal's funeral. In chapter 34 she visits El Liston with Keito and Kouichi before it closes. At Keito's musical she sees Rei and Sonoda, the bartender from earlier chapters, and during the play she cries. She helps everyone reconstruct El Liston after the musical.

Keito's younger sister. She wasn't so close to Keito to begin with, but starts to hate her after having to listen to her parents fight. Not wanting to be alone like her sister, she pays people to be her friends. This gets her in trouble but she is silently helped out by Kouichi and Keito who were watching. In chapter 26 she tells Kouichi when he comes over that Keito doesn't want to see him again, and Keito and Kouichi end up not seeing each other for two years and a half. In chapter 28, when her highschool "friends" ask for Keito's autographs, she tries to do Keito's signature herself and Keito catches her but finishes signing it herself. Keito goes to have a bath, and Chika comes into the room and confesses that she told Kouichi that Keito never wanted to see him again from 2 and a half years ago.

Kouichi's step sister. She was Kouichi's first love, though he later finds out that she already has a boyfriend. She invites Keito to her college fair, and Keito performs in the college play. She is really happy when Kouichi finally calls her sis. After two and a half years, she is told to be married and a mother of a child.

The guy that Momiji likes. He already has a girlfriend, of whom Momiji didn't know, and he makes a mockery out of her when she confesses, even inviting classmates to watch. Momiji's friends decide to get revenge for treating Momiji so shamefully. First, Kouichi hacks into Yamaguchi's computer and deletes all of his files, then releases a virus that crashes his computer. Then, Keito pretended to look like an actress that Yamaguchi liked. This causes Yamaguchi to break up with his girlfriend so he can go out with Keito. Keito then takes Yamaguchi to the park, removes his shirt, and then pushes him into the same fountain that Momiji got pushed in. Yamaguchi then gets furious, chasing Keito through the park threatening to kill her. When he finally catches Keito and grabs her by the hair, police show up and arrest Yamaguchi for being an accused pervert. It was soon revealed that Keito had called the police earlier that night, warning them about a pervert in the park, thus making Yamaguchi's arrest all a part of her plan for revenge. This is the last we see of Yamaguchi.

Volumes

1. ISBN 4-08-847847-9 released on April 25, 2005
2. ISBN 4-08-847848-7 released on April 25, 2005
3. ISBN 4-08-846007-3 released on November 25, 2005
4. ISBN 4-08-846042-1 released on March 24, 2006
5. ISBN 4-08-846087-1 released on August 30, 2006
6. ISBN 4-08-846165-6 released on April 25, 2007
7. ISBN 4-08-846216-5 released on September 25, 2007
8. ISBN 978-4-08-846291-2 released on April 25, 2008

External links

• Official site (Japanese)