Nyan Koi!

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]

Sumiyoshi, Kanako Main

Shiraishi, Ryouko Japanese

Kousaka, Junpei Main

Asanuma, Shintaro Japanese

Mizuno, Kaede Main

Iguchi, Yuka Japanese

Nabeshin Supporting

Watanabe, Shinichi Japanese

Kirishima, Kotone Supporting

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Ichinose, Nagi Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Kirishima, Akari Supporting

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Nyamsus Supporting

Tanaka, Atsuko Japanese

Tama Supporting

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Mochizuki, Chizuru Supporting

Satou, Rina Japanese

Nakamura, Shinichi Producer

Tanaka, Junichirou Producer

Ougi, Jiyuu Producer

Kawaguchi, Keiichirou Director

Reviews

Dec 18, 2009

Archaeon

Recommended

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 from ... a 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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 29, 2011

Gilgaki

Mixed Feelings

Well, I just finished Nyan Koi! and well I thought it was really cute at the beginning, near the end I was just watching it non-stop to move onto something else. (I like to finish what I start, okay?)

Other than talking cats, there's really nothing new here. It's just a generic anime about a guy who for some ungodly reason has a plethora of cute girls are who are into him. Like a lot of harem anime, there are moments of big-breasted-ness, panty shots, accidental groping and purposeful groping (girls groping girls) but most of the comedy in this series is supposed to be from ... the interference of Junpei's life from the cats, which he is severely allergic too. A lot of the anime is focused on Junpei juggling his need to lift his curse by helping cats and doing everyday things while the girls (Mostly Sumiyoshi and Nagi-sempai) make his life even more difficult.

The characters... ugh. Sumiyoshi and Mizuno were both unbearable to watch. And they were the two main love interests. Sumiyoshi is the tsundere childhood friend and Mizuno is well... the girl that's good at everything, exceptionally beautiful, feminine and loved by all... blech.

The ending... what ending? This series just should have ended but they left it open with no confessions of love from any character so they can have a second season. This show doesn't need a second season. Everything that's been done in it has been done before, I doubt a second season would make this any fresher than talking cats.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 18, 2009

Credulous

Not Recommended

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 already ... sinking 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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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