Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Cat's Eye: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Cats Eye: Season 1 is an exciting and action-packed adventure series with plenty of creative charm for fans of sleuthing. Produced by Norio Hatsukawa (Ninja Robots, Dirty Pair) and Shunzō Katō (Space Adventure Cobra, The Adventures of Gamba), Cats Eye: Season 1 offers a nice mix of animated fun alongside compelling storytelling. Based on the original manga by Tsukasa Hojo, Cats Eye was originally broadcast in Japan on the Nippon Television Network. Fans of classic anime series with a traditional art styles will appreciate the creative energy of the production and will want to check it out.

The notorious Cats Eye: the gang of mysterious art thieves. While no one really knows the true identities of the famed Cats Eye, the gang is one of the most hip and cool groups in Tokyo: bringing mystery and suspense to the world of art. The city of Tokyo finds the Cats Eye enormously entertaining. As the bumbling and headstrong detective Utsumi (Yoshito Yasuhara) continues to work on the case, unraveling the mystery surrounding who exactly is involved with the Cats Eye becomes one of the biggest obstacles Utsumi faces!

Challenges lie ahead for the detective as the Cats Eye continually outsmarts him time after time. Little does Utsumi know that his beloved girlfriend Hitomo Kisugi (Keiko Toda) is the famed art thief – with the accompaniment of her dear sisters: Ai (Chika Sakamoto) and Rui (Toshiko Fujita). As romance complicates the dynamics, the Cats Eye faces some unexpected challenges as well.

Yet the Cats Eye won’t be stopped from their goals – and even have their base headquarters right next to the police station. As romance and adventure intertwine, will Utsumi ever discover the true identity of the Cats Eye? The mysterious adventures continue.

One of the most charming elements of the production is the enjoyable cast of characters at the charge. The characters are fun and unique. The cast certainly helps to imbue the production with more depth, excitement, and originality. The Cats Eye group are fun to spend time with and each of the sisters are essential to the group. The cast of characters certainly work well alongside each other and this adds to the charms of the production. Utsumi is also a fun character and one can’t help but feel as though he is in over his head alongside his girlfriend and her sisters. The character dynamics add something nice to the series and make it stand out even more.

The production benefits from noteworthy character designs by Akio Sugino (Ashita no Joe, Black Jack). The character designs on the production are essential to the series success. The art style given to the central protagonists is compelling. The aesthetic certainly reflects the time period of the production well. These elements aid the series and its sense of suave cool. A nice effort on the designs by Sugino.

The animation on Cats Eye is stellar as well. The chief animation direction by Satoshi Hirayama (Sonic X, Soccer Fever) certainly provides the series with a compelling aesthetic. The aesthetic aids the series and keeps things invigorating. The traditional animation art style and the type of design elements used for this production are a great reflection of the era in Japanese animation.

The style is more fun and far more immersive looking than CG or computer-based animation. The hand-drawn aesthetic gives the production a more organic, alive, and meaningful energy and the animators clearly put forth their best with the series art. Cats Eye is all the more visually rewarding as a result.

The cinematography by Hirokata Takahashi (The Rose of Versailles, Sherlock Hound) strikes a wonderful balance between the charming aesthetics the series requires for the fun-quotient to work as well as provide a nice and dark aesthetic for the grittier heist elements. The results are fantastic. Takahashi delivered a visually rewarding aesthetic for the production. Fans of old school anime will be quite pleased.

The score composed by Kazuo Otani (Glass Mask, Three-Eyed One - Prince in the Devile Island) is an entertaining element of the production as well. The score is charming and the sense of creative fun imbued with the series music is something that keeps things invigorating. The series certainly has a knack for music that fits the tone of the heist genre and the results work well for the dynamics of the cast of characters and the situations the cast members find themselves in. Kudos to Otani for a job well done.

Written by Junichi Iioka (Soccer Fever, Lupin III: Part III), Cats Eye is a thrilling adventure. The series has a great concept and it is well developed. The concept is not the only successful element, though – the head script writer does a great job with balancing the characters and the action scenes. This makes everything more enjoyable. The production certainly benefits from the talents of Iioka.

Directed by Yoshio Takeuchi (Harlock Saga, Space Adventure Cobra), Cats Eye springs to life with a nice balance of action-adventure and intriguing drama. The production is well ushered in and the director capably handles the material. Bringing forth great results from the team of animators and other members of the production team, director Takeuchi helps shepherd in the first season. This is undeniably compelling – director Takeuchi has fun with the series and the characters.

Cat's Eye: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Discotek Media, Cats Eye: Season 1 is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high-definition presentation in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame. The presentation impresses overall and offers viewers a generally solid and clean print with exceptional color reproduction. The colors look organic and beautiful on the release. The print does have some occasional dirt and minor print damage – but nothing too severe and it isn’t distracting from the presentation overall. The transfer is excellent and a nice effort from Discotek.

The Blu-ray also has exceptional encoding and it is significantly improved over lackluster streaming options, with sub-par bit-rates that make streaming services seem like nothing more than worthless fast food compared to a quality meal. In the age of inferior streaming, it is nice to continue to see such wonderful encoding efforts on the Blu-ray format. It is certainly a testament to the strength of Blu-ray as a format that it continues to offer a significantly better presentation quality than anything on streaming services.

This is an example of how the format helps to preserve titles for the future. Why should someone stream something in a decidedly inferior version with lackluster streaming counterparts – which offer disappointment and frustration – compared to the much better presentation quality offered by the physical home media product? 

Cat's Eye: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a lossless audio presentation. The release is presented in Japanese uncompressed PCM 2.0 (with English subtitles). The presentation quality on the release is top-notch. The audio has exceptional clarity and detail. Dialogue reproduction sounds exceptional. The track does a great job showcasing the sound design and the original score. The lossless encoding allows for a significantly more immersive soundstage and the track has much more "oomph" and detail than inferior options found on streaming services.

Cat's Eye: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

If there is one area in which the release disappoints, it is the sub-par selection of bonus features. The release could have benefited from some extensive behind the scenes material, audio commentaries, or other making-of materials. Instead, the release is lackluster in the supplemental department and doesn't offer much of interest at all. The extras are as follows:

Clean Opening (HD, 1:32)

Clean Endings (HD, 3:05)

Promo (HD, 00:37)

Cat's Eye: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cats Eye: Season 1 ushers in a fun and charming anime production. The series has a fun and upbeat cast of characters. The animation on the production is beautiful and the traditional hand drawn art style is wonderful. The efforts from the production team are superb.

The results are certainly impressive. A fantastic video and audio presentation from Discotek Media. Though the supplemental package is disappointing, fans will want to pick up the release for the quality video and audio encoding. Cats Eye looks great on Blu-ray and fans will want to own it with this quality presentation from Discotek Media. Recommended.