What's Michael?

What's Michael?
Cover art of the North American release of volume 4, Michael's Mambo
ホワッツマイケル? (Howattsu Maikeru?)
Genre	Comedy
Manga
Written by	Makoto Kobayashi
Published by	Kodansha
English publisher	US Dark Horse Comics
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Weekly Morning
English magazine	US Mangajin, Super Manga Blast
Original run	1984 – 1989
Volumes	9
Original video animation
Studio	Kitty Films
Released	November 25, 1985
Runtime	55 minutes
Anime television series
Written by	Masaaki Sakurai
Music by	Kōji Makaino
Studio	Daume
Original network	TV Tokyo
Original run	April 15, 1988 – March 28, 1989
Episodes	45
Original video animation
What's Michael? 2
Studio	Kitty Films
Released	July 25, 1988
Runtime	60 minutes

What's Michael? (ホワッツマイケル?, Howattsu Maikeru?) is a Japanese manga series created by Makoto Kobayashi. In 1984, it began its serialization in the Weekly Morning magazine. The manga shows Michael, an orange American Shorthair tabby cat, his feline friends, and other domesticated pets in a series of humorous episodes. It is currently released in the US by Dark Horse Comics. The manga was presented in the standard left to right American reading format.

In 1986, What's Michael? received the Kodansha Manga Award for general manga.

The manga was adapted into two anime OVA series in 1985 and 1988, and a 45-episode TV series in 1988–1989.

Most episodes of the series fall into one of two kinds of stories. The first portrays the cats in a realistic way, living out normal lives with their owners. It finds humor in how humans observe their pets' naturally quirky behavior. The second type of story is complete fantasy in which all the animals are given anthropomorphic characteristics such as walking on two legs, wearing clothes, and being able to talk to each other; these episodes place the animals in a clichéd storyline, and mixes up their human personae with normal animal behavior.