Nekojiru Gekijou

Japanese Title: Nekojiru Gekijou – Jirujiru Original
Genre: Comedy
Format: 27 Episodes
Allegiance: Multi Angle Create/Japan Home Video/Kent House
Director: Fukutomi Hiroshi
Vintage: 1999
Intelligence Agency Report by: The Macaque
If you were to think of the most brutal and sadistic duo ever, who would you come up with? Hitler and Stalin? Darth Vader and Sauron? Martha Stewart and Donald Trump? I suggest you think again. Nekojiru Gekijou describes the everyday life of Nyatta and Nyako, two seemingly lovable kittens. There are also pigs, humans, and other animals in this series, and they’ve all got one thing in common: they all fall victim to vicious verbal and physical assaults from these cute looking cats. Nyatta and Nyako could be described as the most racist, most ignorant, most hateful, most politically incorrect characters seen in any show so far and it would still be an understatement.

Field Agent Report by: The Macaque
Plot
Characters
Impact
Visual
Audio
9.00
8.00
9.25
9.25
8.00
Overall 9.00
(not an average)

What were the makers thinking? That’s a question only a few can answer. I mean, let’s consider what this series is all about. You have your socially deprived, unemployed, misfortunate, poor SOB as represented by the pig. Then you take the cat: the winner in life; the rich and successful animal. Now, in any humane portrayal of our society the cats would not make fun of the pigs, the cats would not beat the pigs up, and most importantly, the cats would not eat the pigs. Well, guess the makers forgot about humane portrayals, because that’s exactly what the cats keep doing throughout the series.

There’s no end to all the downright bigotry here which is one of the reasons why it’s so hideously funny. Think South Park, but instead of making fun of everyone and everything, Nekojiru Gekijou concentrates on just making fun of the less fortunate. It’s a “point and laugh at the losers” mentality all the way. In fact it’s so overly racist and mean the brutality actually turns on its head and becomes hilarious.

The simple, albeit extreme, premise is well presented with a very fitting naive style of animation. All characters look cute, even when they’re committing the most horrendous of acts, adding to the comedic value of the series. The voice acting is also done in a brilliant fashion. It’s cute enough to throw the viewer off every time one of the cats starts pounding away with racial slurs.

All in all I find Nekojiru Gekijou to be much like McDonalds. Basically, you hate everything it stands for, but come lunch time you don’t really care to think about some dumb parrot living in the Brazilian rainforest when you’re munching on your overpriced Big Mac – Le Big Mac if you’re from France. Nyako and Nyatta would probably point and laugh at you for that.