Nyan Koi Review

Nyan Koi Review

Warning: The following review may contain spoilers. If you wish not to know some events in the story, or simply don't wish to find out what happens in the series, please leave the page, since I don't want to damage a watching experience for you. 

With that said, thank you, and onto the review:

My opinion on cats is on the fence. While I do think they're super cute, and that I like seeing them, I don't normally like approaching them, because a pretty white kitty scratched me at a shelter when I was young. And since then. I've been a little wary.

This anime has been floating around in the Youtube atmosphere because of the twin sequence with the tails and cat ears has appeared in who knows how many MEP's. When looking at the show on it's own, this looked like a unique harem, and I was looking forward to watching it.

When my local library ordered it from a request I filled, I was super ecstatic, and even convinced a friend to watch it with me. And man, this anime flew by. But then again, 2 episodes nearly per night is extraordinary. XD

This anime is a super light comedy that I'm sure will have people chuckling in there seats, and possibly get intrigued (or creeped out) due to it's storyline. But even though it isn't perfect, I found things to enjoy when I watched it.

Story

The story all begins with Junpei Kosaka, a second year high school student. He has always not liked cats due to him getting sever allergies from them, which mainly involves sneezing. This backfires to him because his childhood friend and secret crush, Kaede Mizuno, adore cats, and can be seen at the park once a week, accidentally scaring the cats because she's a bit TOO cuddly to them.

After school one day, while listening to the show's theme song via headphones. (Breaks the fourth wall!) Junpei kicks a soda can and accidentally breaks the local cat jizo statue. A week later, he can now understand cat's conversations, what they say, etc. It's CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZY!

According to an old legend, Junpei must now grant 100 wishes to cats. However, if he can't do this within a set period of time, Junpei will turn into a cat himself, and will most likely die because of his own allergy weakness.

As you can see, the story might sound a little freaky, but it also tries to make this act as hilarious as possible, which it does do well. 

The best part of the story is when the breaking of the jizo statue is found out towards the end of the series, and when Kaede wonders why Junpei seemingly "talks" to cats, causing the jizo statue to become pissed as hell as Garfield would be on a Monday. Thus giving Junpei cat features until becoming a cat for about two minutes before being saved by Kaede who re-questions her thoughts.

With all due accord, I think the story does have unique elements to it that make it quite charming. However, people who think some unique elements are over-rated, might not find some enjoyment in this.

Characters

The characters in Nyan Koi are all lovable in there own way. I didn't really find any bad characters at all, and there's a interesting part to each character.

Junpei's up first:

Junpei's unique quality that holds him apart from other harem protagonists is that he has a constant allergy to cats. Although, majority of his friends, and his mom and sister (his dad's never around) LOVE cats. and with the whole cat deity being broken, Junpei's gotten the worst strain of bad luck ever.

The curse has very simple rules: Preform all of the requests, or turn into a cat. If you let anyone find out about the curse, not only will the curse activate more for you, but the person who suspects or knows of the curse will get more bad luck from them.

So yeah, the whole system is complicated.

Wait, did I forget that Junpei's family owned a cat?

Nyamsus is the cat who gives Junpei the requests of other cats, The other cats know her pretty well, since they see her as an older sister figure. While Nyamsus does care for Junpei, she rarely shows it. for example, in one episode where she locks him outside to gain ownership of the living room, causing Junpei to get a cold, later on having Kanako to take care of him. Ouch

Junpei is quite interesting if you mix in the whole mysterious cat curse, But overall, he isn't the most unique male protagonist ever.

Let's go to Kaede:

Okay seriously, she charms me just with character design alone. ISN'T SHE ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kaede has been friends with Junpei since his childhood, however doesn't know of his feelings to her. However, she later develops feelings for him over time. She is on the school's track team, and is also pretty smart. not to mention cute, but I think I've already gone over that. XD

Despite having a love for cats, she can't own one, due to her family already being bundled up with four dogs to take care of. She bought a cat when she was young, but couldn't keep it. (This cat is Nyamsus)

So when cats see her now, they either bolt because of the dog scent, Or if she picks them up, and gets WAYYYYYY too excited about them whilst cuddling, and leaves some of the neighborhood's cats scarred for life. Until Junpei convinces her otherwise.

Being on the track team, she can easily outrun a lot of people. and on two occasions, runs away from Junpei after mistaking when he yells at Nyamsus and Tama that it takes to her. Both of these moments are icing on the cake in the funny moments department.

Besides this, Kaede seems like a very friendly person, and some people in real life who just die to be her boyfriend. For me, she'd seem like a really close friend.

 Kanako's turn:

Kanako was another one of Junpei's childhood friends, but they became feuding after Kanako misinterpreted Junpei after she got him a gift, in which he was giving it to another female classmate, when he was actually showing it to her. This feud has led up to the point of high school, which they later re-kindle there friendship.

At first, Kanako hides behind makeup, a look known as manba. However, she later ditches this makeup because of, like  I said earlier, she's friends with Junpei again. 

Since then, while Kanako and Junpei still have the occasional bicker or two, she still manages to have feelings for him. She also is pretty persistent, often forcing Junpei to buy food for her. Oh, childhood memories. *sighs*

Kanako, you got spunk, and in a alternate universe, I'm pretty sure Junpei will date you. Right now, let's focus on the good times of just having your friendship back, kay?

TWINZIE TIME!

Akari and Kotone are the daughters (and are twins, with Kotone being older) of a local monk that the temple actually has the jizo statue that Junpei broke. Even though they both know that Junpei is cursed, they don't become affected, due to having anti-magic abilities.

Unlike Takeru and Tsukito who were close to being opposites, these girls are. And they're probably the best examples of anime twins I've seen since I started anime. 

When first seeing Akari and Kotone separately, Junpei accidentally mistakes them for the same person, even though viewers (myself included) will notice that there is a difference. While they both have blonde hair, Kotone's is a shade darker. And they each have the opposite color of bows, with Kotone's being black, and Akari's being white.

There personalities can be summed up in at least a couple sentences: Kotone does have a sweet outward demeanor, but is mainly interested in Junpei because of his constant misfortunes, and is somewhat of a stalker. Well, she did write a fantasy journal about him.

Akari is a tsundere, as she had a hard time trying to communicate with people at a young age. Thus causing her awkwardness around other people. She is also a bit possessive over her twin, as Kotone seems to have no problem communicating with Junpei. Like her sister, she also harbors some feelings with Junpei, but tries to conceal her feelings more.

The twins are some of the most entertaining characters in the show, and I liked seeing them on screen every time they appeared. I love how the twins connect with the series, and in one episode of the series, you get to see there magic powers  And those were pretty cool.

Other characters include Kaede's senior (part of the main harem), the monk, the third-year college student who's a mail carrier, the monk's cat, Nagi's cat who in Japanese, speaks in a Kansai dialect, the twin's cat, and a cat who's a bit over-weight who threatened to run away from home because his owner wanted to put him on a diet. There are also other cats that Junpei helped from around the neighborhood.

All of the main characters are very interesting, and Nagi actually adds a lot of humor into the show. Some of the cats are entertaining, some of them aren't that memorable.

Animation

The animation for this series was done by AIC, who are also famous for the Tenchi Muyo franchise, Haganai, and Heaven's Lost Property.

The animation isn't on the top list to win any awards anytime soon, But it does well with what it manages, giving great character designs because of this.

I did like what AIC did, but it isn't jaw-drooping.

Sound

The score was composed by Manabu Miwa and Shingenobu Okawa. Miwa is most famous for Little Busters and Yosuga No Sora, while Okawa is most famous for Miss Monochrome and Tayutama.

While it does provide some interesting tracks, and has some good upbeat ones to go along with funny moments, the score isn't as memorable as the rest of the series. Music wise, the opening sung by Yui Sakakibara is very heart-felt, and I found myself singing along to it every single episode. It was super fun to look forward to, and it's such a fun little treat to dance to. The ending, which is sung by Asami Imai, who some might remember from the anime Steins Gate, sings a very relaxed ending that's very smoothing. It may not be memorable to everyone, but I did have some sort of liking to it.

The original Japanese is very fun, and you can tell that the seiyuus enjoyed there roles to some extent. On the other side, the English dub of this show is leaning towards being good to being complete and utter s**t.

The dub keeps all of the honorifics, which makes everything sound a bit too forced and sometimes awkward. And the dub cast doesn't do as well with the material. Also agitating for me was the choice to have the twins be voiced by separate voice actors, This might not bother some people as much, but I still find it extremely confusing. 

So, just go watch the sub. The dub will involve more cringing.

Highlights of the original Japanese are Shintaro Asanuma, Ryoko Shirashi, Yu Kobayashi, Haruka Tomatsu, Rina Sato, Atsuko Tanaka, Jun Fukuyama (as both characters he voices), Koji Yusa, and Yukari Fukui.

Highlights in the English dub so far are Maggie Flecknoe, Emily Neves, Andrew Love, Monica Rial, and Jay Hickman.

Verdict

This show is cute and cuddly, and if you're a harem fan, I recommend it to you. It may not be anything cool, like girls from space, but it's a nice way to balance your time when you have no clue which anime to watch next.

One more point: If you don't like cats, this is not for you.

Score: 9/10

Positives:

Cool and original story.

Unique characters.

The variant personalities of the cats.

Great Japanese dub.

Negatives:

Score not as memorable.

Disappointing English dub.

As this is my 10th review, next up will be a special post. Stay tuned!