This is a very old mini-series that I dismissed as not important story. But I was very very wrong. First of all it’s written by Claremont, so it fits perfectly into X-continuity. Kitty leaves the X-Men in Uncanny 183, and this is where she ends up.
This story starts with Kitty finding out about her father’s involvement with the Yakuza, which brings her to Japan. It’s a very sad and scary situation for her, she’s homeless in a foreign country (though she can speak the language), she doesn’t have money and is chased by the police and the Yakuza.
Luckily for her Wolverine comes into the story, which again makes sense given his past in Japan. From here on it also becomes a sequel to the Wolverine mini by Claremont/Miller. There are some of the same characters (Yukio, Mariko etc..), and a new (is it new?) villain, his old mentor Ogun.
The transformation Kitty goes through was very well done, a dream-like sequence where Kitty grows up again trained by Ogun. Both Kitty and Wolverine have to go through many trials to find themselves again and defeat Ogun, both psychologically and physically. This bring Claremont I am sure Kitty will go back to the X-Men a changed girl. This is also where she decides to change her name to Shadowcat, which actually totally makes sense in the context of this story.
Allen Milgrom’s art style looks dated, but at the same time it really works for this story. His layouts are all very interesting and easy to follow. I was actually surprised by how much I liked his style here. Same goes for the story. I can’t wait to see how Kitty goes back to X-Men. She’s definitely grown a lot in this story.