Reading Report / "The Cat's Prophecy Under the Tree" by Michiko Aoyama

Here is today's reading report💁‍♀️

"The Cat's Prophecy Under the Tree"
by Michiko Aoyama

Synopsis🍃🐈‍⬛
Seven lost protagonists wander into a shrine. Miharu, an apprentice hairdresser who just went through a breakup. Kosuke, a father who wants to get along with his teenage daughter. Shin, a college student who continues job hunting aimlessly without any goals. Tetsu, an elderly man who isn't liked by his grandchildren and doesn't get along with his son's wife. Kazuya, an elementary school student who just transferred and can't fit into his class. Chisaki, a housewife who can't give up her dream of becoming a manga artist. Comet Julia, a fortune teller who is popular in the media.
A cat called "Mikuji," who has a star pattern on its bottom, uses tree leaves to give them gentle "prophecies." When they are able to notice those "prophecies," the world begins to change in a warm way.

Impressions (Contains major spoilers)⚠️
The style is similar to "Kamakura Uzumaki Information Center," "What You Are Looking For Is in the Library," and "I'm the God on Duty," where a little bit of a fantasy world mixes into daily life, and the characters' worries are resolved or they are able to move forward as if guided by it.
However, as someone who had already read those three works, I felt a slight lack of satisfaction in a story where nothing is solved in a big way💦
It is true that saying that life doesn't suddenly change drastically within a short story (each chapter) accurately captures ordinary daily life, but as a novel, I wanted to read a bit deeper into it. (Though, this lack of satisfaction is resolved just a little at the end.)

As if to wipe away that lack of satisfaction, from the second chapter (the story of the father who wants to get along with his daughter), the overwhelming Aoyama world arrived✨
First of all, the idol group "Cubic," which also appears in "I'm the God on Duty," appears in this work as well🎲 Since "The Cat's Prophecy..." came out before that, perhaps it's more correct to say they also appeared in "God on Duty"!

And what surprised me was the fifth chapter (the story of the elementary school student who just transferred). This chapter was my favorite in terms of the story...
Kazuya, who likes moss, gathers the courage to invite a friend he just made to his house, but he is told, "This guy is growing mold!" and from the next day, he starts being called by a strange nickname.
Just because you like something or find it beautiful doesn't mean others will feel the same way. Similarly, just because someone laughs at something they find funny doesn't mean you will laugh at it too.
However, the things you like and the things you feel are definitely your own "axis," and I thought Kazuya-kun was very cool for an elementary school student for valuing what he felt regardless of what anyone said.

And the key to this story is... it took me a while to notice, but the school nurse,Sayuri Himenoteacher. Could she be the librarianSayuri Komachifrom "What You Are Looking For Is in the Library"...!!!?? 🥹😍 She had the power to gently guide someone even back then... Sayuri-san was wonderful as always.
And, although her name doesn't appear so I can't be certain, perhaps one of the girls who attends the nurse's office isNozomi Morinagawho was doing assistant work at the library...! Amazing!

I also really liked the sixth chapter (the story of the housewife who can't give up her dream of being a manga artist).
The father, Teruya, and his wife who appear in this story might be the same couple whose story you can read from the wife's side in the "Cocoa on Thursday" series...🥚 Teruya's works also appear everywhere. When I first read Aoyama's works, I was surprised by the overlap of characters in each chapter, but after reading multiple books, it has become the norm.
It's amazing that she uses a technique to show fine connections between different works so as not to bore readers like me (?). While feeling a strong message that the world is always connected somewhere, I am also made to think that perhaps this story is actually happening near me...? I really like being able to find hope in my own ordinary daily life by thinking that it would be nice if that were the case.

Finally, the shrine priest telling the behind-the-scenes stories of the characters resolved the slight lack of satisfaction I mentioned earlier.
In it, it is written that the daughter who appears in the second chapter came to a glass factory near the shrine during a field trip in elementary school... Weren't there kids like that in "Uzumaki"...?!?! The protagonists of the treble clef chapter in "Uzumaki" are middle school students, so maybe I'm overthinking it😂 It's in my nature to feel very suspicious about the fact that she went out of her way to write "glass factory" (lol). It's frustrating that I can't re-read library books immediately at times like this w

Also, cats appear quite a bit throughout Aoyama's works, so I want to re-read them including that aspect🐈‍⬛
It was a story that soaked in warmly‼️