is a Japanese

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series produced by

Tatsunoko Productions and often shortened to , is a Japanese animation company. The studio's name has a double meaning in Japanese: "Tatsu's child" (Tatsu is a nickname for Tatsuo) and " sea dragon", the inspiration for its seahorse logo. Tatsunoko's headquarters are ...

and Sotsu Agency. The series originally aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from February 1, 1990 to February 12, 1991, for a total of 54 episodes. Saban picked up the North American rights to the series in 1991, and produced an English version called '' Samurai Pizza Cats''. The creators stated that there was going to be a spin-off series, . The series is known for its cultural humor consisting of Japanese puns, pop culture, and fourth-wall breaking.

Plot

The series is set in Edoropolis (a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsEdo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

" and "

metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big c ...

"), a mechanical city that fuses feudal Japanese culture with contemporary culture populated by cybernetic anthropomorphic "animaloids" (or animal androids). The city is notionally led by ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamaku ...

'' Iei-Iei Tokugawa, but as he is a doddering eccentric, the actual leadership is in the hands of his neurotic daughter Tokugawa Usako and a council. The council is headed by the ambitious

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Kitsunezuka Koon-no-Kami, a fox who constantly plots to overthrow the Shogun with the help of his trusted advisor Karasu Gennari-sai, and Karamaru, the leader of an army of ninja crows. Unknown to the prime minister, council member Inuyama Wanko-no-Kami, the commander of the Palace Guard, learns of his designs on leadership, but is unable to prosecute him for treason because of his plausible deniability. Instead, Inuyama enlists the services of Yattarou, Pururun and Sukashii, cat

ninja A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance, espionage, infiltration, deception, ambush, bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts, including ninjutsu.Kawakami, pp. 2 ...

who work in the city's

pizzeria A pizzeria is a restaurant focusing on pizza. As well as pizza, dishes at pizzerias can include kebab, salads and pasta. Many pizzerias offer take-away, where the customer orders their food either in advance or at the restaurant and then take ...

, with their operator Otama. Known collectively as the Nyankī (a play on the Japanese word for a cat's

meow A meow or miaow is a cat vocalization. ''Meows'' may have diverse tones and are sometimes chattered, murmured or whispered. Adult cats rarely meow to each other, so an adult cat meowing to human beings is probably a post-domestication exten ...

and the term " Yankee"), they are assigned to stop Koon-no-Kami and his evil henchmen's plans to take over Edoropolis.

Characters

English dub

When Saban licensed the English version, '' Samurai Pizza Cats'', proper translations of and information about the original Japanese episodes were either of poor quality or non-existent. It was decided to write completely original dialogue for the English dub, playing the show as a wacky, Animaniacs-esque comedy in contrast to the less farcical original. Every episode excluding the two

clip show A clip show is an episode of a television series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. Most clip shows feature the format of a frame story in which cast members recall past events from past installments of the show, depict ...

s was dubbed into English. Some episodes of the dubbed version were never aired on United States television due to risque humor (at the time) and depictions of homosexuality.

Merchandise

Video game

In 1991, Tecmo (now known as Koei Tecmo) published a video game based on the anime for the Family Computer. It was officially released in Japan only but was bootlegged outside Japan as ''Ninja Cat''. Although the game was never officially released in the West, complete English adaptation (characters and places names changed to corresponding ones from Samurai Pizza Cats) are available via a fan-made ROM patch. A standalone handheld LSI game (similar to Nintendo's Game&Watch) was also made. Players take the role of the three main cats and ''Otasuke'' members, who can be switched to at any time and have special abilities to progress through the game. The game features most of the characters in the series as well as an additional villain, a mysterious scientist named Dr. Purple (Dr. パープ) who shows up later on in the game and appears to ally with Koon-no-Kami. The main characters were intended at one point to appear in the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...

fighting game '' Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars''. The game's producer, Ryota Niitsuma, was quoted in an interview as saying: "One of the main anime we got more requests for than any others was ''Samurai Pizza Cats''... I wanted to see that, but we couldn't reach an agreement."

Soundtrack

A soundtrack CD titled was released on September 21, 1990. A second soundtrack CD, was released on December 21, 1990.

Music

The incidental music was composed by Kenji Kawai ('' Ghost in the Shell'', '' Patlabor'', '' Ranma ½'', '' Fate/Stay Night'', '' Mobile Suit Gundam 00''). The opening () and ending ("To Be Yourself") songs were composed by Etsuko Yamakawa, Takeshi Ike and Anju Mana and sung by Reina Yazawa and

Ai Orikasa is a Japanese actress, voice actress and singer from Tokyo, Japan who is currently affiliated with Axlone. She has played a variety of characters, from young girls to women and boys, and is particularly good at voicing attractive, strong, and ...

. Ami Itabashi, the singer of the ending song of the '' Macross'' OVAs, sang the insert songs.

Home video release

Some episodes were released on video in Japan, but a complete release of the show was held up for many years owing to poor sales. It was rumored that the lack of a DVD release was due to the original masters of some episodes being lost, but this proved not to be the case.

Starchild Records , commonly known as King Records, is a Japanese record company founded in January 1931 as a division of the Japanese publisher Kodansha. It initially began operating as an independent entity in the 1950s. It later became part of the Otowa Group ...

released the complete series on DVD in Japan on August 8, 2012, as part of a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Tatsunoko Pro. The limited edition set sold well, placing second in the national animation DVD sales charts the week of its release. In North America, Discotek Media announced on March 12, 2012 that they had licensed the home video rights to the series with plans to release both the original Japanese version with English subtitles and Saban's English dub in separate box sets for each version. The Japanese language box set was released on April 30, 2013 while the English dubbed version was released on July 30, 2013. On May 16, 2016, anime streaming service Crunchyroll began streaming the show under license from Discotek with improved quality subtitles for at least six episodes while the rest used the DVD footage. As of May 23, 2016, all 54 episodes are available for free users.

Toys

Toys and model kits were released in Japan and Europe by

Bandai is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine ...

, the latter usually being reboxed versions of the prior. Action figures were made for the Nyanki and the Otasuke (the Japanese originals came as model kits while the European figures came pre-assembled). There were large and small ( Gachapon-sized), rubber-like figures, as well as playsets for the smaller figures, including the Nyago King and the pizza parlor.

Manga

A tie-in manga by Yoshimi Hamada was serialized in

Comic Bom Bom was a monthly Japanese children's manga magazine published by Kodansha. It was first published on October 15, 1981, and ceased publication in 2007. A web version of the magazine has been published on Pixiv Comic since the end of July 2017. Sim ...

in 1990. A sequel manga that took place after the end of the television series was released in 1994. The manga was made by Tatsuya Souma.

Other appearances

* In the 4th episode of the Tatsunoko magical girl parody anime '' Nurse Witch Komugi-chan R'', Komugi Nakahara is at a ninja-themed festival taking a picture of her family behind a standee of the Nyankee. Komugi shouts "Himitsu Ninja Tai" and her family responds "Nyankee".

References

External links

Official Starchild Records website

Official Tatsunoko website
* {{Tatsunoko Production 1990 anime television series debuts 1990s Japanese television series 1990 Japanese television series debuts 1990 soundtrack albums 1991 Japanese television series endings 1991 video games Japanese children's animated action television series Japanese children's animated comic science fiction television series Japanese children's animated science fantasy television series Anime with original screenplays Discotek Media Japan-exclusive video games Nintendo Entertainment System games Nintendo Entertainment System-only games Platform games Tatsunoko Production Tecmo games TV Tokyo original programming Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring female protagonists