Nyan Koi! - Review

Duration: 12 Episodes (24 mins each)
Genre: Slice of Life, Harem, Romance, Comedy

For anyone who has watched a decent number of anime in the last few years, there was been a significant amount of harem anime. In an already saturated market, writers and companies must integrate a certain 'hook' to make their anime stand out above the rest. Probably not the most original idea, Nyan Koi combines cats with some degree of supernatural phenomenon to hook possible cat and sci-fi fans to the show. As a person who has a slight interest in cats and fascination for the supernatural, I decided to give it a watch.

Story

Kousaka Junpei is your typical second year high school student who just happens to have a deep hate for and dangerously sensitive allergy to cats. Ironically, Junpei's love interest, Mizuno Kaede, simply adores cats. On a nonchalant walk home from school, Junpei kicks an empty can , accidentally beheading the cat statue of a guardian cat deity. As a result, he can understand and communicate with cats including his cat Nyamsus. However, he has to fulfill 100 wishes from cats to atone for his deed, otherwise a curse will set upon him where he will become a cat himself. The story develops as he tries to balance out his school life, his love interest with Kaede, and his ongoing duty to fulfill various cats' wishes. It's important to keep in mind that it is a very straightforward story; it's not meant to have serious plot twists or thrilling drama.

Characters

(From Left to Right: Kaede, Kirishima twins, Junpei, Kanako, and Nagi)

Kousaka Junpei: Our harem protagonist, he's just as dense as you would expect him to be. A typical high school student with awkward social skills; he's simply stumbling through his adolescence like a confused animal.

Mizuno Kaede: Mentioned above, she's Junpei's main love interest, but aside from her very good looks, she's awfully normal as far as harem girls are concerned. Having a fanatic adoration for cats, ironically Kaede has numerous dogs. She is involved in various athletic clubs/teams and what I would consider a 'nice' girl.

Sumiyoshi Kanako: The former childhood friend turned incredibly hot character. Introduced as a bitchy tsundere character with Yamanba makeup (a simple Google image seach brings up some interesting examples), she comes to her senses and is a decently well-balanced character. She's not just a pair of boobs thankfully; although the show likes to poke fun at them a lot--literally.

Nyamsus: The Kousaka's family cat. She's usually introducing other cats to Junpei who need help. Arrogant and full of herself, she's often very frank and blunt with Junpei. Just look at those intimidating eyes of hers (right). Not too integral but often times accompanies Nyamsus is her friend Tama. (left)

Ichinose Nagi: A super energetic and tomboyish character. Part of the track team with Kaede, she becomes jealous of Junpei when Kaede is distracted by him. Her sexuality is quite ambiguous to say the least, but honestly, I don't think we're interested in that. Nagi is somewhat of a comic relief character during the few dramatic scenes.

Kirishima twins (Kotone, Akari): Showing up in the latter half of the series, they help out Junpei on several occasions. Kotone is incredibly creepy with her stalker-like obsession with Junpei. Contrastingly, Akari completely despises him for some unknown reason. They appear basically to make the supernatural events come full circle, but in hindsight, they are part of the cast merely as fanservice for those with twins fetish.

Voice Acting/Sound

As far as I could tell, the voices were well suited for each character. No voices really stood out except for some of the cats. As the episodes progressed, every cat Junpei encountered seemed to be a female one, or at least they all sounded like they were. I didn't notice Nyamsus's companion Tama was a male cat until it was recognized directly in the latter half of the show which was pretty disappointing.

The soundtrack comprises some very easy-listening music. As far as I can remember, there aren't too many tracks that stand out. Dramatic scenes are distinguished by high-tempo tracks and sad emotional scenes are evoked with slow piano-themed songs.

Loved
T&A: Does this need any explanation? Nyan Koi seems to emphasize a lot more on curves than a typical harem. It's tasteful (most of the time) and contains no nudity, leaving more for your imagination, which I personally like. It just makes the show less embarrassing to watch in front of others.

Correlation to Cats: Although a fairly weak gimmick to hook in viewers, I thought the incorporation of cats was suitable. We may not understand how cats communicate, but this series made me believe that they have problems similar to humans; most of the times it is with food/hunger, but I think they have relationship problems with other cats as well.

Hated
Junpei: I honestly can't figure out why most harem lead characters must be overly dense. Junpei isn't necessarily dull as dirt; for example, Junpei is not bad when he's helping out each cat he encounters. However, when you consider the blatant advances by the girls in the series, it's simply hard to bear every time Junpei responds in his bland, irrelevant, and expressionless tone. He is stern on the matter of who he likes though, which I can accept. I can't say he's the most dense harem lead ever, but let's just say he's noticeably dense like the others.

The Lowdown: If you have a weekend to spare or if you have some kind of affinity with cats, give this harem anime a look. It's cat-themed plot takes a back seat to the slice-of-life-ness of the series sometimes, but I found it to have a distinct charm despite its standard harem cast. Enjoy it...it won't last that long...unless there's a second season.

Notes: Watched all 12 episodes from beginning to end (Frostii fansub)