krofire

What happens if you cross “Is the Order a Rabbit?” with “Cat Planet Cuties”? You end up with Felix Film’s 2020 comedy show “Nekopara” (Cat Paradise). The “paradise” is actually a café where all the staff (apart from the chef/owner) are Cat Girls. That is pretty much it - as there is little in the way of plot. The main thrust of the story dwells upon a homeless stray kitten who follows one of the girls home one day. Other than that, it propels itself along based mainly on being extremely cute. The Cat Girls are all owned by a girl called Shigure who is the sister of the Cafe’s owner Kashou Minaduki. It all sounds pretty wholesome and the show could largely be confused with a children’s cartoon at times. However, the Cat Girl anime/manga/game phenomena sits outside Western cultural conventions. Although superficially family-friendly there are various scenes in which the appearance is more ecchi. One of the Cat Girls, Cinnamon, has a catchphrase “That makes me so wet!” which she seems to say several times per episode. Try explaining that to your kids. This confusing blend of adult eroge and child-friendly imagery makes it hard to place outside of context. Yet this is Japanese anime so it all makes sense. You just have to go with the flow. In this erotic universe it is normal for Shigure to describe her cat-loving feelings with pervy and suggestive overtones.

To make sense of this little slice of Cat Girl heaven you have to realise that the anime was adapted from adult visual gameplay developed for Windows, PS4 and Switch back in 2014. In 2017 a family-friendly anime OVA was also released by Felix Film. A manga serialisation started publication in 2018. Cat Girl universe rules apply: the girls are always young, sexy & horny whilst there are no Cat Boys. How this Cat Girl society works is never disclosed although this anime has an intriguing detail: the Cat Girls need a licence to leave home without their master. So, they are truly chattel yet they display high levels of intellect and education. The little stray kitten appears in the story with a full ability to both talk, read & write. Hence, they are fully sentient sapien creatures with some cat-like attributes. Quite why they are happy without full independence from the human race is not explained. This entire aspect of the cat-universe is something that surely could be explored. We imagine paying good money to watch a story about the rise of the Cat Revolution and resulting civil war. But that will be a different show entirely and not in keeping with the philosophy of Cat Girls. They are simply bunny girls from a different genus. Dress them in maid uniforms and we are in full sexy-kawaii heaven. There is nothing offensive about this. It is all fun, quite funny, yet obviously undemanding. It’s anime chewing gum.