Fantasia XXIX Review: In NYAIGHT OF THE LIVING CAT, Terrorizing Mankind With Cuteness!
Fresh from the pages of mangakas Hawkman and illustrator Mecha-Roots is the kind of animated series that’s befitting for audiences in the 21st century. Alas, leave it animation studio OLM, and celebrated auteur Takashi Miike, never one to shun at an opportunity to dive into something different to turn heads, this time with Nyaight Of The Living Cat which is now streaming on Crunchyroll. Thanks to comminications with Fantasia Festival PR, I’ve seen the first four episodes.
Miike shepherds the series which is directed by Tomohiro Kamitani, and follows a small band of survivors in the year 20XX: The world is consumed by a global viral “nyandemic,” in which anyone touching a cat ultimately turns into one. Sabioto High school student Kaoru (Reina Ueda) finds herself on the run when her brother Gaku’s (Ryota Takeuchi) cat café, is lost to the swarm of cats overrunning the city, with muscle-bound and cat-loving café patron Tanishi (Hiroki Yasumoto), and café worker Kunagi (Masaaki Mizunaka) running in toe.
Much of the show so far toggles between flashbacks to coalesce the story as to how the “nyandemic” came to pass, while the core character of interest is Kunagi, who Kaoru first meets long prior to the global incident. Kunagi has no recollection of his identity or his past, but all he knows beneath his warrior-like appearance is his near-crippling love for cats.
Kunagi also has the craziest agility and superhuman strength which tends to kick in when he’s caught in tight situations. Additionally, he’s committed to protecting Kaoru and honoring her brother’s request. Even so, Kaoru is hellbent on not being a helpless damsel, particularly when coming to the aid of her friends. One such friend is Tsutsumi (Yu Serizawa), one of Kaoru’s classmates and who also works part time at the local supermarket, and who loves cats all the same, allergies be damned.
Nyaight Of The Living Cat is a bizzarely fun oddity, chiefly from the mind of an auteur who’s been in the game way longer than I’ve been writing about it. It’s a story that builds a world in which mankind is forced to find a way to protect itself with zero lethality to its irresistibly cute feline invaders. At least one main character we meet in the first episode is turned before we learn more about them in later episodes, and the fourth episode leaves things off with plenty suspense to keep you hanging by a toebean until the next episode.
Nyaight Of The Living Cat: Episodes 1-4 played before audiences at the 29th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival, and is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
