Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Nyan Koi!: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Cat-chy.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 30, 2013

Are you a dog person or a cat person? Humanity seems to be firmly divided into camps that prefer one kind of pet over the other, and I personally make no bones about the fact that I am resolutely in the canine camp, though I certainly have nothing specific against cats. But I’m beginning to wonder if some Japanese cat deity (and there are evidently such things) has cast a spell over current anime production houses, for there have suddenly been an absolute glut of recent anime which feature cats in some way, shape or form. Nyan Koi! is one of the most overt of this seeming new subgenre, for it deals specifically with a kid who can’t stand cats, but who of course ends up having to deal with them in an almost absurdly up close and personal way. Jyunpei Kousaka is a more or less typical high school kids whose severe allergy to cats is hampered by the fact that the rest of his family seems to absolutely adore the species. This sad state of affairs obviously frustrates Jyunpei, who wants nothing other than to stay as far away from cats as humanly possible. Jyunpei manages to take his mind off of his cat troubles by concentrating on his pretty schoolmate Kaede Mizuno, but that all changes drastically when one day Jyunpei manages to break a sacred totem of a cat deity (see, I told you there are such things) and as a result suddenly finds himself privy to the thoughts of every passing feline. That sets up the “quest” of sorts around which Nyan Koi! is structured, for Jyunpei is conscripted more or less to perform one hundred tasks for various cats as punishment for having broken the cat deity statue. Furthermore, if he doesn’t manage to complete this five-score quantity of activities, Jyunpei himself will be turned into a cat, which will instantly kill him, perhaps either due to his own self loathing or (truth be told) from his horrible allergy. Nyan Koi! is a patently silly goof of a show, but it’s frequently pretty funny, especially if you tend to look at least slightly askance at the imperious attitudes that cats frequently seem to have. The series has a few pacing issues which get in its way from time to time, but it’s unpretentious and delivers a fair amount of whimsical enjoyment.

Nyan Koi! begins in media res with a pretty funny opening that sees Jyunpei dreaming about Kaede, only to be awakened with a start by a sneeze, due to his family cat Nyamsus being perched rather indelicately on the poor boy’s chest. Nyamsus would give Garfield a run for his money in the disaffected attitude department, and in this case that facet is made even worse when Jyunpei is shocked to realize he can understand Nyamsus’ dismissive comments about Jyunpei’s dream, telling the discombobulated lad that Kaede “just isn’t that into you”. That understandably freaks out Jyunpei, who only slowly then begins to remember the chain of events which caused him to have this new “ability”. The day before Jyunpei had inadvertently decapitated a shrine to a cat deity, and his curse is now not only to understand cats but also to have to complete a laundry list of “favors” that cats are asking of him. It just so happens that the first favor is getting Kaede to stop manhandling them, for she’s so enamored of the little neighborhood felines, she goes a bit overboard in her affections toward them.

The first task seems to be on the easy side, though this series, which tends to wring as much comedy as possible out of pretty small scale situations, takes it to hyperbolic levels as Jyunpei struggles to tell Kaede just to leave the darn cats alone without simultaneously scaring the girl off at the same time. Nyan Koi! actually keeps things relatively well balanced in the long run, though, where even these initial crazy interchanges settle down, people come to their senses (if only momentarily), and life continues apace without any lasting emotional turmoil standing in the way. But this agreeable enough approach actually is at least a partial detriment to the series, for there’s not a lot of conflict or even suspense here, just some snarky humor from the cats and things like pratfalls for Jyunpei.

There are some bare hints of the harem genre in this piece, though it’s to Nyan Koi!’s credit they’re played mostly for laughs, as Jyunpei finds himself surrounded by at least a couple of other girls, one of whom is as interested in him as he is in Kaede. But the bulk of the humor here comes from the cats, and probably mostly from Nyamsus. Nyamsus is both horrifyingly unctuous as well as downright hilarious, treating Jyunpei like a second class citizen who is barely worth paying attention to, other than using the young man to get some of the feline favors accomplished. In fact, it’s probably the characters—and not necessarily just the cats—that ultimately give Nyan Koi! its delightfully wacky allure. While the series tends to become repetitive (how it could not given its premise featuring Jyunpei having to repeatedly come to the aid of cats?), the goofy characters manage to keep the series feeling surprisingly charming most of the time. Even “dog people” may end up getting a kick out of this crazy series.

Nyan Koi!: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Nyan Koi! is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The character designs are probably the most distinctive feature of this anime, and they look quite good—if not totally spectacular —in high definition. Jyunpei's oddly angular features pop well enough, with solid line detail, and some of the curvaceous aspects of the female characters (which never quite tip into fan service territory) also look great. But it's the several cat characters that are the most fun here, none more so than pudgy Nyamsus, whose disapproving glare from pale blue eyes and bright red bandana help to make the character one of the more visually interesting in the series. While there's nothing truly remarkable about the look of the series or its high definition presentation, it's nicely sharp and well detailed and has no egregious issues like banding or macroblocking to be concerned about.

Nyan Koi!: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Nyan Koi! is trumpeting its new English dub as a major selling point, and both it and the original Japanese track are presented via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. There's actually some decent channel separation here, with sound effects clearly emanating from the right or left channels. But this is a fairly resolutely dialogue driven show, and so there's not a lot of depth or aural "wow" that will impress most audiophiles. Instead, what's here is solid, if unspectacular, with absolutely no issues of any kind to report. The English dub is quite good, for those who don't care to read subtitles. Marcy Bannor's Nyamsus is a hoot.

Nyan Koi!: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animation (1080p; 1:31)


• Clean Closing Animation (1080p; 1:32)

Nyan Koi!: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Nyan Koi! is silly, unadulterated fun, without much in the way of moralizing or other similar nuisances. The series takes on a kind of quasi-shōnen feeling while never really delving into some of the clichés that that subgenre regularly offers. The cat characters here are quite a bit of fun, especially Nyamsus, who should really settle down to a bus and truck company version of The Odd Couple with Garfield. While the video and audio here can't be lauded as anything special, they look and sound fine given reasonable expectations, and Nyan Koi! comes Recommended.