Cat King

The Cat King (猫王, Neko-Ō), or the Meow King (みょうおう, Myō-Ō) in the book, is the main antagonist of The Cat Returns

Personality
He deeply loves his son and is willing to do good deeds on him, but is also somewhat ruthless. The Cat King kidnaps Haru Yoshioka and brings her to the Cat Kingdom, where she is transformed into a cat. When Prince Lune informs him that he already had a bride called Yuki, the King then tried to marry Haru himself, which she refused to do. When he chases her, he fights the Humbert von Gikkingen in a sword fight, which he loses, having both his gem eye shattered and his lowered half shaved off. His last appearance is on the ledge, where he tells his aide that he would like to retire.

Trivia

 * Myō-Ō literally means "bright king", or Wisdom King, a type of wrathful gods in East Asian Buddhism.
 * In the book, it is implied that Cat Kingdom is a sort of an afterlife for cats who died in living world. And all known residents of the kingdom differs from normal cats in the living world; they are bipedal, can perform deeds akin to humans, speak human speeches, and performs magics for some extent. Yuki, a cat who died in the living world and now resides in the kingdom, cannot travel to the living world while other residents including Cat King can travel in the living world. This indicates that these residents are either spirits or half-dead beings.

Katzenkönig Rey Gato 猫の恩返し 貓國王