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にゃんこい!
12
TV
Finished Airing
Oct 2, 2009 to Dec 18, 2009
Junpei Kousaka is a second-year high school student who has an allergy for cats—a predicament that has made him hate cats and everything related to them. Unfortunately for him, though, he is surrounded by cat lovers: his family, his estranged childhood friend, and even his crush Kaede Mizuno. One day, while returning home from school, Junpei nonchalantly attempts to kick an empty can into the trash, but miserably misses. Instead of making it to the garbage, the can ends up breaking off the head of a cat deity statue. That fateful day, he is cursed with the ability to understand cat speech. However, he must keep his curse a secret from everyone else, because anyone who finds out will become more accident-prone and share the same fate as him. With the guidance of his cat Nyamsus and with no other choice left, Junpei now has to do a hundred good deeds for cats to lift the curse. If he is unable to complete this task, he will turn into a cat, and considering his allergy, that would be a death sentence for him! [Written by MAL Rewrite]
7.3/10
Average Review Score
70%
Recommend It
20
Reviews Worldwide
One of the problems with harem rom-coms these days is the tendency to try and be creative in unusual ways. The problem, specifically, is that the writers and mangaka assume that by simply including something like aliens, youkai, body switching, etc, etc, then the story automatically becomes new and innovative. Fujiwara Sato, the creator of the manga upon which this anime is based, decided to adds cats. No, not catgirls, just cats (although girls are present in the story as well). Nyan Koi follows the life of one Kousaka Junpei, a high schooler who lives with his mother, sister, and pet cat, but who suffers froma severe allergy to all things feline. One day he accidentally knocks the head off a statue belonging to the local cat deity, and from then on he can understand everything every cat is saying. His pet Nyamsus tells him that he has been cursed by the cat god, and that unless he helps 100 cats he will be turned into a cat himself. The only problem though, is that his allergy will kill him at that point. Now, I will admit to a certain bias here. This past year I have been following two particular manga dealing with cats and humans - Nyan Koi and Koi Neko, and of the two, Koi Neko has the better story. That's not to say that Nyan Koi is bad in terms of it's plot, but it does suffer from a certain genericism brought on by the fact that it's a harem story. That said, the anime adaptation follows the manga pretty well up to the last couple of episodes, at which point it goes off at a tangent. That's not a bad thing mind, but in the case of Nyan Koi it feels more like an attempt to entice the viewer into watching the second series, especially as, aside from one or two hints, the events in the show don't really support most of the final episode. However, the plot does have some redeeming qualities in that the humour from the manga has maintained, especially where the cats are concerned. The scripting is also well handled for the most part, barring a few odd inconsistencies come the last few episodes, however this should be no surprise given that much of the show is the anime form of the manga. The bright and cheery colour scheme reflects the fact that this is a fairly simple harem comedy. The animation is well handled and choregraphed, and the show makes good use of different animation techniques to emphasise the humour. That said, Nyan Koi does suffer from a degree of genericism when it comes to presentation. Certain scenes are reminiscent of many other harem anime, and the characters themselves are formulaic in their designs, and this includes the cats. In terms of sound the series is well served with it's cast of voice actors, all of whom are very talented in their own right (for example, Tanaka Atsuko, who plays the role of Nyamsus, is also the actress behind Kusanagi Mokoto of GitS: SAC, 2nd Gig, 2.0 and Innocence). The one problem though, is that their talents are underused, however this is purely an outgrowth of the fact that this is a comedy show rather than a serious tale. That said, they do portray their respective characters well, especially in the more humourous moments. The OP is a simple J-Pop ditty sung by Sakakibara Yui called "Nyanderful" that, while being upbeat, is nothing particularly special. Likewise the ED, "Strawberry ~Amaku Setsunai Namida~" (sung by Imai Asami), while being a more melodic than the OP, is again, nothing to write home about. In all honesty the music, although being reasonably well composed, is fairly generic throughout the series, and while the choreography is fairly well handled, there is a certain lack in terms of impact because of this. As far as the characters go, they're all pretty much what one would expect from a harem comedy. That's not to say that they're bad though, as they're nicely presented for the most part. It simply means that they're formulaic and, because of this limitation, they are only allowed to develop in certain ways. However, given the mass of harem comedies appearing over the last few years it has to be said that while Nyan Koi does have generic characters, they're nowhere near as bad as some I could mention. One thing I will point out though, is that the addition of cats, and their effect on Junpei, is actually beneficial for the series as a whole. While the overall effect isn't really telling to the viewer, the relationship between Junpei and the various felines he helps allows the viewer to relegate the harem aspect of the series, and this allows the humour to come to the fore. Now I will admit that I did find myself chuckling to this show, as many cat owners might find themselves doing in certain scenes. While I'm not a big fan of harem anime in general, the cats allow one to appreciate the humour in amore defined manner, and the show has less of a need to place the lead male in various ecchi sitautions in an attempt to get some laughs - something which is a big plus in my book. While the series isn't a complete transposition of the manga, it does have the benefit of allowing the viewer to appreciate the visual humour in a way that the manga just couldn't convey. That said, the last few episodes, being anime originals, do suffer because the writing in them just isn't as good as it is in the rest of the series. Fans of harem comedies may be of two minds about the show to be honest. There's a number of good points to the series, however there has been no real attempt to step away from the generic nature of the typical harem anime, and this places limitations on what can and can't be done. This is actually one of the reasons why I prefer Koi Neko over Nyan Koi as, while both include cats talking to humans, Koi Neko takes a completely different approach. Nyan Koi is enjoyable though, and it's the humour that most will appreciate come the end of the series. It's just a shame that the lesson of Ai Yori Aoshi (i.e. the lead male doesn't have to be generic, mediocre, or a loser), still hasn't been learned.
Click an episode to read its synopsis.
“Yo Kou-baka, I heard you’re cursed. Wahahahaha!” If you were like me, not sure whether to try watching a show about talking cats, then rest assure because Nyan Koi is more than your average pet-talking anime! Produced by AIC, it should come as no surprise if Nyan Koi manage to remind viewers of another “semi” AIC production known as Seto no Hanayome. Both are considered rom-com harem and they share many common traits in my humble opinion. Thus it is very tempting to make comparisons between them, but I will restrain myself to the best of my ability to not do so too often in thereview. Although the talking cats may not be the most adorable pets you have ever seen, but they are significant to the anime as they are used to push forward story events and in some cases, help develop character relations. While cats obviously do not talk like human do, but due to a curse on our protagonist Junpei, he gained the ability to communicate with them (hence the talking cat you have heard about). The story follows Junpei with his daily struggle with school, friends, love, and helping cats in need. While the plot may sound a bit generic, but what makes the show entertaining is the interaction among the characters. “Misfortune-moe” is a silly term used to describe the character behavior of one of the twins in the story. As one can probably imagine, those who finds misfortunate (or sheer bad luck) to be something liked about is pretty sick and cruel as far as their character is concerned. But viewers will often find themselves helplessly laughing at the cruelty of the “misfortune-moe” twin. Nyan Koi is the type of show that can bring out the funniness in even the weirdest of situations. Another entertaining character, who sadly did not have as much impact to the story as I would have liked, goes by the name of Nagi Ichinose. Here is the one flag that should make all Seto no Hanayome viewers go “ah, that looks (and the background music sounds) familiar … now where have I watched a similar show like that before?”. All in all, characters in Nyan Koi all contributed in their own unique way. However one thing that seems lacking is the character growth for the “slightly less important” characters. We certainly witnessed development to Junpei as a character, but other equally important characters like Kanako could have had more screen time for development. Anyhow, I understand that it can be very difficult for a short 12 episodes series to have much development for its second class heroes, but it has been done before in many shows. Thus in that regard, Nyan Koi may be a bit unsatisfactory. The animation style is mostly refreshing and unique, but once a while there will be scenes that look rather similar to Seto no Hanayome (not the art, but the technique used to create certain atmosphere). Although not a masterpiece level in terms of animation, there isn’t much that one can truly complain about. Smooth scene transition? Check. Non-repetitive scene usage? Check. Consistent animation quality? Check. Well drawn, well animated characters and pets? Check. The animation certainly is one of the stronger points of the show. The OP and ED both are pleasant to hear; just don’t expect anything catchy that could stay in your mind for more than an hour. The music department deserves some credit for matching hilarious scenes with funny BGM and so on, but they pale in comparison to the hard work of the voice acting screw, the seiyu. With great talented seiyu like Yuu Kobayashi, Ryoko Shiraishi, and most of all Jun Fukuyama, there are enough big names in the anime to attract a large number of fans (yes, in Japan seiyu are practically celebrities and have their own fan clubs etc). These skillful voice actors/actresses give life to the characters and made them much more enjoyable to watch. Nyan Koi certainly brought a great deal of joy and entertainment to the viewers. The one thing AIC could work on to improve the anime is the somewhat simple, linear plot. Otherwise, the animation and characters, combined with skillful seiyu, makes this show a worthy candidate to spend your time.
Mmmm, I see quite a few of Nyan Koi! reviews being presented at this present moment, and to be fair, if you want to read a well written review; read Archaeon's review. My review will not be as fluffy, nor as well written. Now let's start with Nyan Koi!'s biggest problem; it's a harem. Apart from harem fanboys, are there actually people that watch anime fairly objectively who enjoy harem anime? No, probably not. You know there's this thing about harem, mmm,..... what's it called? Generic? Ah yes, generic. This anime is no exception, it's generic, has a weak storyboard and try to save this alreadysinking ship (and I mean this ship, which is an analogy for the anime of course, was sinking as soon as it embarked and tried getting out of the port it was docked to) by quirking it up with cats. (The paragraphs that follow mays contain minor spolers, nothing big though.) What's worse is that it's not a consistent plot carrying feature in the anime apart from the initial introduction of this feature which causes it to become a gimmick, a side thing that takes up too much space since it's not actually important to the plot. They just sort of dropped it on the way out of convenience. Why? Because of harem, because the male main protagonist has to be loved by a horde of all the stereotypical female harem characters that the producers could find. We have the sweet girl next door, the tomboy x 2, one being a hybrid between a tomboy, tsundere/yandere and childhood friend, the other one being a sempai (in one grade higher at high school, oh!, oh! and guess what she's actually a daughter of the yakuza!) then we have the twins, one completely open with the undying love she feels for the guy, being a bit on the freaky side with some emo stuff going on then we have the tsundere/yandere that absolutely hates him, but she it's so cute when she gets those red cheeks as she blushes when she's fighting her inner self, because she just knows she really likes him. I probably forgot someone, but that's the thing, the characters are so forgettable they lose all importance and since the characters lose all importance so does the anime itself. Now please, let's not fool ourselves fanboys and others, there existed no plot to speak of in this anime, if you thought there was a plot or story to talk about in this anime, you either generally have really bad perception abilities, you're a complete fanboy of harem and/or cat shows or you've simply not watched many good anime series, which is unfortunate. The general concencus seems to be that this anime is worthy of a rating of 8 here on mal. I mean I know the toplist here on mal is pretty biased what with the making of multiple accounts and whatnot for the purpose of messing with the toplists, but 8? I gave GTO an 8. G. T. O..... (I chose GTO arbitrarily, could have been any other of my 8's, but I think GTO speaks even more for itself than perhaps many others.) Yes, I did watch this mainly to have something to bash on when it had finished airing, but I watch all shows objectively, I welcome all genres to try and surprise me, but Nyan Koi! did not surprise me, it is not the worst harem I've seen, but it certainly is not something I'd want to hang up my christmas tree. Thank you for reading, I doubt you read all of it though, if you did I am sorry for any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes, it's just that I never recheck these reviews of crap anime I write because I simply don't care. Please do not share with me your opinion if you disagree with me because if you do you are not on the correct side of this battle we fight.
I must say that after the first 3 or 4 episodes I was really going for an 8 (Very Good) , but slowly I dropped at 4-5.This "romance/comedy" anime was one of those dissapointing shows where the producers failed miserably to develop new and unique ideas that could attract watchers. Story: 3 - Poor Yes it's the same old storyline with a boy , that is surrounded by girls and has an unexpected experience that changes the way he interacts with others.Nyan Koi has by far 1 or 2 romantic moments and the "comedy" moments can only make you laugh about how bad these scenes were made. Therelations between the characters is simple , as Junpei doesn't get to approach them very much (few exceptions).And when you think finally something interesting happens the moment gets ruined by another character (including the cats).In some cases this could be considered funny (depending on what's happening) but after countless times it gets boring and it's not even "funny" , so we can't even think about enjoying this. Art: 6 - Fair When I watch an anime I don't really care about art but indeed there are a few points that need some attention. Well, the characters were pretty easy to remark since they where indeed made to look different from each other , but nothing that can catch your eye was in. The design of the cats was better (um..yes better) then the characters' one: a twist of colours for each cat making it easy to remark even in a croud of cats and again, everything was defined in a boring way that doesn't attracts your eye. Sound: 3 - Poor The opening/ending songs are pretty lame and practically sends to the watcher "waves" of confusion (I mainly talk about the lyrics of the opening song) since it's not even a true love triangle (if you watched animes where there is a good accent on love triangle you know what I mean) and the curse is not an opportunity or even help to Junpei for almost all episodes. Character: 5 - Mediocre The characters of this series are totally predictable after watching them in action for like 5 minutes.Junpei is your nice doggy when he's around Kaede that is happy but still doesn't know how to express this (well he's a human in this anime so being incapable to discuss with the person you like it's not comic or romantic). Kaede is your innocent anime girl, with a childish look that could make almost all boys fall for her (in the anime of course).Of course , this innocence is taken to an extreme in situations like: talking about love, discussing with the boy she likes, understanding the meaning of things related to love, etc.She's the type of girl that would say in the middle of a Nyan Koi episode:"Junpei, will you let me wait for you in season 2 , too?". "Kana-chan" is the final person completing the so-called love triangle that realize that she loves Junpei , can't confess , but she manifests in different ways.I would say that she is the most normal person from the love triangle when taking things serious and her "cons" are excessivly "attacking" Junpei and of course incapacity to make him understand what she feels. (but I guess that goes for this kind of anime , excepting one thing: see Nyan Koi , genres, ROMANCE). In this case, Junpei it's the brainless one too because he tries figuring out something at some point ..but of course fails. Kotone and Akari are just 2 more characters added to fill the story and make it more boring.Of course they chain some events to them so we can't say they can miss from the anime. After watching the whole anime I really think the best character was Nyamsus (seriously). Overall: 3 - Poor I can't say I enjoyed this anime.For normal people that aren't addicted to this genre and just look an anime I frankly tell you to search another one because this isn't worth wasting your time.For people addicted to comedy/rom/harem I tell you the same thing a bit more detailed.This isn't your com/rom/har anime , it's just a pathetic fail that tries to impress the watchers with lame and hilarious scenes. In conclusion I truly regret watching this and I don't recommand it to you!
First of all, i must said, this review based on my opinion and the enjoyment i got from the anime, if you think i am wrong, well,,, thats just my opinion. and i am gonna just straight to the point without any babbling in my review, so, here we go! Nowdays, harem is the kind of mainstream genre that easily can make it into a top anime. since, what do you need is big boobs, pantsy scenes, and of course beautiful girl.... well, thats the truth. Including Nyan Koi, this harem anime is maybe like another harem anime that you've ever watch, BUT WAIT! how about harem +cat? hmm..... thats WORKS! STORY : 8/10 The story involves about the man who is been cursed by cat statue because of some accident, and for erase that curse, that man aka Junpei, must grant 100 wishes from cats or he will turned into a cat! - The story itself makes me interest to watch it, since usually harem anime is focussing on the development between each character, and for this anime is focussing on how Junpei cure the curse but i didnt said there aren't any development, there are. but its just the "side dish". - The jokes itself is refreshing, i mean i laughed a lot when watching this anime. the jokes really got the spot. - Its a light story, so its easy to understand. you dont have to think too much to see this anime. - Usually, based on what i seen, the "main story" just come in early minutes. like when minutes 1 - 13 and the others is just the fillers. but i didnt mind, since what i seek is "Enjoyment" ART 9/10 - Here is, the strongest point of this anime. the artwork of character seems so mature, and its so different between another harem anime which is usually using "kid" character. - The background is so well made. rich colours,and again, the character artwork. SOUND 7/10 - The opening of the nyan koi, is surely attractive. "Nyanderful" is so fit with the anime itself. The lyrics i mean. - As for BGM, i think its just so so. there is nothing special on it. - The OP and ED is surely attractive, but for myself, but it doesnt so catchy. so dont expect too high on this OP or ED. CHARACTER 8/10 - In this anime, we have a tsundere girl, a twin, a machosist, and a cute girl. What else? its just full of unique girls. Well, Typical of harem anime. - The development between the character is maybe the biggest problem in this anime since it just got 12 episodes, but it doesnt really matter, since once again, the attractive of how Nyan Koi presents of the character is surely interesting in so many ways. Overall 8/10 - If you really like with harem anime, this will be worth to try. since, it was interesting for me if i should say, i've never enjoyed harem anime this much. - one more thing, You better put this anime into your PTW. lol.