Cat Street (manga)

Cat Street
Cover of the Japanese volume 1
キャットストリート (Kyatto Sutorīto)
Genre	Drama, Romance, Slice of life story
Manga
Written by	Yoko Kamio
Published by	Shueisha
Demographic	Shōjo
Magazine	Bessatsu Margaret
Original run	August 2004 – October 2007
Volumes	8
Television drama
Directed by	Sasaki Akimitsu Fujio Takashi
Produced by	Kurosawa Atsushi Komatsu Masayo Endo Satoshi
Music by	Watanabe Yuichi
Original network	NHK
Original run	August 28, 2008 – October 2, 2008
Episodes	6

Cat Street (キャットストリート, Kyatto Sutorīto^?) is a shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Yoko Kamio. It was serialized by Shueisha in the August 2004 to October 2007 issues of Bessatsu Margaret (Betsuma) magazine and collected in eight bound volumes under their Margaret Comics imprint.

It was adapted as a six-episode live-action drama broadcast on NHK between August 28 and October 2, 2008. To commemorate the broadcast of the drama series, Yoko Kamio created an additional manga chapter, which was released as a bonus with the September 2008 issue of Betsuma.

The story revolves around Keito Aoyama. By age nine she has already become a famous actress when events leading up to the premiere of a musical play cause her to freeze up on stage. In the aftermath of this traumatic experience she abandons acting, withdraws from school and isolates herself from others, including her immediate family, for several years. At age sixteen her life changes for the better after the principal of El Liston, a free school for people with social issues, accosts her when he finds her aimlessly wandering the streets. Gradually Keito reconnects with childhood classmate Taiyou, befriends new people, such as El Liston students Rei, Kouichi, and Momiji, and enrolls at the free school as she strives to escape from her isolation and starts searching for her own path towards the future. She successfully rekindles her acting career, re-establishes bonds with her family and eventually takes over the operation of El Liston, with the other three former students of the school. Together they continue to guide other people considered "stray cats" by society.