First Impressions / Mayoi Neko Overrun! / Series Introduction

OP Sequence

OP: 「はっぴぃ にゅう にゃあ」 (Happy Nyuu Nyaa) by 伊藤かな恵, 井口裕香, 竹達彩奈 (Itou Kanae, Iguchi Yuka, Taketatsu Ayana)
Watch the OP!: Download, Streaming ▼

「迷い猫、駆けた」 (Mayoi Neko, Kaketa)
“Stray Cat, Dashed”

If you’ve been missing AIC and their great cat comedy Nyan Koi, then look no further than their new project this season involving the same felines we love, but of a slightly human variety too! Back in the Spring 2010 Preview (which seems like ages ago now with all the new shows that have aired), I mentioned how I felt this series was hard to recommend based on what I read in the manga. However, having watched this first episode, I realized I can showcase it from a very different perspective, which may just help you decide if it’s up your (cat) alley (more on this in a bit).

Fundamentally speaking, we have a story about an orphan high school boy named Tsuzuki Takumi (Okamoto Nobuhiko), his childhood tsundere and very dishonest with herself friend Serizawa Fumino (Itou Kanae), and his older sister Otome (Satou Satomi) who runs a run-down cake shop. Not quite the premise one would think of after I mentioned cats are involved, but Otome has a knack for helping out anyone in need (even gangsters) and taking in stray cats off the street. Things take an interesting turn here when Otome takes in a beautiful cat-like girl named Kiriya Nozomi (Taketatsu Ayana). So with that, we have cakes, stray cats, and a mysterious cat-like girl, which proved to be a lot funnier and enjoyable than even I was expecting. Given how I’ve kept a constant eye out for AIC’s work ever since Nyan Koi and Sora no Otoshimono last fall, this one is pretty much a shoo-in for me now, having seen the awesome animation quality I know and love. Throw in a few character stereotypes backed by a plethora of great seiyuu names and it’s great comedic fun, which at times is very reminiscent of the hilarious Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, whose short one-cour run just ended.

Now here’s the other side of things, which you may be able to relate to. As someone who instinctively picks up seiyuu voices and associates it with the characters they’ve played, I couldn’t help but tie in this series with various others and enjoy it more because of that. As a male protagonist who isn’t trying to be perverted yet “magically” gets caught up in it, Takumi is a lot like Yoichi in Asu no Yoichi. His childhood tsundere friend Fumino and her dishonesty with him is very reminiscent of Airi from Queen’s Blade, who just so happens to be my favorite character in that show. Nozomi on the other hand is “Azu-nyan” herself, so what more do I have to say about that then, AZUU-NYANNN!!

Those three merely are the tip of the iceberg however, as we then have the rich loli Umenomori Chise (Iguchi Yuka) and her two personal maids Satou (Satou Rina) and Shizuku (Arai Satomi), who no matter how you look at it, are Misaka Mikoto and Shirai Kuroko from a certain scientific railgun waiting hand and foot on Index from a certain magical index in disguise! That’s not all though, as we have Takumi’s otaku friend Kikuchi Ieyasu played by Yoshino Hiroyuki, who’s all types of awesome when he portrays the Saruyama role of To LOVE-Ru over a Gundam pilot or a secret agent. And finally, there’s the club leader of a light music club as Takumi’s older sister Otome, plus the Horie Yui x Tamura Yukari duo we haven’t seen too much of yet.

I realize those aren’t great reasons for getting extra entertainment out of this series, but if you’ve seen any of the ones I mentioned above and have an idea where I’m coming from, you may just feel the same way. Like I mentioned above, I enjoyed this first episode even before I made those connections, so it still does offer something in the way of a harem-esque romantic comedy. Animation by AIC looks spectacular, the series has a nice assortment of characters (Fumino is so cute when she’s dishonest and flustered), and there were some decent laughs, so this series is perfect for me. Throw in the cast mentioned above and then it’s just that much better.

Finally, I should note it didn’t quite follow Black Cat/To LOVE-Ru creator Yabuki Kentarou‘s manga adaptation of the light novel, meaning this may be the original source material. Either way, I liked the anime’s take in this introductory episode more and can now make a recommendation on it. Nyan Koi and BakaTest lovers, get on board!

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「イチャラブCome Home!」 (Icha Love Come Home!) by 伊藤かな恵, 井口裕香, 竹達彩奈 (Itou Kanae, Iguchi Yuka, Taketatsu Ayana)
Watch the ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

45 Comments

  4. Its pretty good, but i just cant seem to get used to Fumino’s voice… probably because i imagined it to be different, + the fact that i watch Shugo Chara.. so I keep getting reminded of Amu =/

    RFayt
    Reply

  5. One thing i will not watch this show because its a simple crap that a camel poo on a stick can imagine even a better story than cat girl and stupid girls flying around with guns and showing their tits and pantsu with robot arms and playing music while drinking tea and eating fried rice and while sponge bob masturbathes on them… so you see how much i hate stupid shows like this good night.

    gnomtastic
    Reply

  7. It was pretty good. I liked most of the characters and their interactions, especially when Fumino kicked some ass. Also interestingly enough, if they did decide to follow somewhat of Yabuki Kentarou’s manga adaption, we should see quite a bit of To LOVE-Ru cameos (in the manga adaption, Mikan is a frequent visitor of the Stray Cats cake shop).

    Click
    Reply

    1. The manga only started its run in earlier this year, but the series is actually based on a light novel by Matsu Tomohiro (from which Yabuki Kentarou adapted into a manga), which started its run in late 2008. There should be ample material there to use for this 12 episode series.

      divine
      Reply

  12. The main thing for me was that there weren’t really any of those contrived situations outside of the waking up scenes. Also, the fact that the main character is more or less indifferent rather than whining about his unwanted harem, and that so far, none of the girls are all hung up over him are positive points.

    Still, I’m not really a fan of generic harems, so I hope it will get better. AIC really surprised me in the fall with Sora no Otoshimono, which had an uncomfortable first episode but got much better. Nyan Koi was also decent, though I didn’t know that was AIC at the time (newb).

    I did laugh twice at this episode, though, which is more than I can say for a lot of straight-up comedy animes. Once was at “Welcome back, Master” from the otaku. The other was the fact that the six year-old was well known among kindergarten circles as a liar. Street cred starts early indeed.

    AuroraFlame
    Reply

  13. I liked it. It wont be listed as “Best Anime Of The Year” but still will be worth spending 24 minutes of your life each week to be amused. It has a really good voice cast and the characters seem like they will deliver on the laughs.

    Splash
    Reply

  14. Mmmm… what to say… I love the cast setup, especially that bit with Birbiri and Kuroko as the maids of Index… 😀 They have some sense of humour I guess 😛 The character designs are cute, the animation seems nice too. But… I don’t like the plot 🙁 So I don’t know what to do with this series.

    Jurkasz
    Reply

    1. Same here. I watched the first episode and didn’t laugh the whole time. Were there puns I wasn’t picking up on? I don’t know but it damn sure wasn’t funny. Baka Test was some high quality comedy and quite unique in my eyes. This show seems out of its league. I’ll be watching at least one more episode to be sure I’m not mistaken.

      M2
      Reply

  19. Yes!!! I’ve been waiting for this series since I saw the trailer a month ago. Romantic comedies are one of my favorites and this one is the more promising I’ve seen in a long time. But I also love Nyan Koi! so this’s going to great or I sure hope so.

    haseo0408
    Reply

  21. Fumino FTW! Itou Kanae is a master of tsunderes :3 I’m loving it already and it’s only the first episode. I do hope they keep some of the cameos too, they were pretty amusing. And I totally missed that her maids were Mikoto and Kuroko, that makes it even better.

    Nazarielle
    Reply

  26. To answer your question, I have read Chinese translations of the novel, and both the manga and anime adaptations deviate quite a bit from it. The manga is arguably closer, I guess.

    It’s not really fair to compare adaptations with the source material, but I really do think that they could have chosen a better way to start this. Even after watching the episode, I don’t feel like I know the characters any more than the impression that the monologue gave me at the start.

    Komma
    Reply

  27. Looks like a funny anime, and the main character isn’t the normal clueless or undecided dude, well, at least for now, I didn’t read the novel, so, I hope my assumptions are correct 🙂

    Sky
    Reply

  32. Muhahaha, this episode was so good, i was waiting for it since i learned about it from the manga o.o, and now this is a surprise, i certainly noticed that i recognized most of the seiyus involed…!! you just made my day with this!!

    Trejon
    Reply

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