Sean Parker
When I wrote about Takashi Miike directing an episode of anime cat series Nyaight of the Living Cat in my Fantasia preview article, I had no idea what the show was about. I’ll be honest, I assumed it somehow mashed up the principal pieces of George A. Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead to incorporate cats, but I really didn’t think very far beyond that. Like, what that would look like or how it would be done. I guess I assumed “zombie cats” and moved on to whatever was next to discuss. Having now finished the first four episodes of the Crunchyroll series, I can assure everyone that it is far more hilarious than anything I could have dreamed up.
First off, Nyā and Nyān are the Japanese words representing the American “meow,” giving the show its name, in case you were wondering about the title. Nyaight of the Living Cat begins with Kunagi (Masaaki Mizunaka), Kaoru (Reina Ueda), and Tanishi (Hiroki Yasumoto) running as if their lives depend on it through a dark sewer, the Nyandemic already underway. Behind them, a stampede of cats. Cute. Cuddly. CATS! They can’t turn around, or else they risk being lured to their doom from an insatiable need to pit the critters. One pat. One stroke. One nuzzle. That’s all it takes. One touch and you’re a part of the pack.
After I finished episode one of Nyaight of the Living Cat, I went right to my phone to text a friend who’s an anime lover to tell them about what I just beheld. A well-animated and ludicrously absurd television show about people being turned into cats by the overwhelming need to show them affection. I then had to tell them about Kunagi’s amnesiac backstory, which is revealed later in the episode.
Kunagi is found holding a cat bell face down in an alley, having no memory of events prior to waking up inside Kaoru and her older brother Gaku’s (Ryota Takeuchi) cat café, Megokoro Nekome. Kaoru and Gaku are no strangers to strays, and Kunagi fits right in with the noticeable number of muscular men inhabiting the cat café. Kunagi ends up working at the place, knowing a vast number of facts about the animals, even if his frame of reference is skewed by not remembering much else. For example, remembering the breed of cat called Russian Blue, but having to ask what “Russia” is.
All of the human characters have soap opera qualities. The men have balloonishly inflated personalities, Kaoru has a crush on Kunagi but hides it, and Tsutsumi (Yū Serizawa) may either be genuinely excited to have Kaoru’s attention or have complicated feelings for her, priming a whole heap of future drama. But showrunner/series composition writer Shingo Irie takes the show out of a serious space, letting it soar with purr-fect silliness. It’s a lot of puns and situational cat humor, mostly. Yet, in the context of a show where people are being hunted and transformed into cats, it’s over-exaggerated just enough to have fun with—a tonal contradiction of nightmarish adorability, fueling internal struggles not to snuggle and assimilate with.
The animators also get in on the action, as Nyaight of the Living Cat also has a ton of visual references, including a plethora of faux movie posters during the end credits meant to resemble those from well-known films. There are even little character references to spot, too. I didn’t take notice ahead of episode three when a character looked suspiciously like Freddie Mercury at Wembley and eventually had the line, “Ayo!” That episode also featured a plot line about Kaoru meeting Tsutsumi for the first time, who, despite being allergic to cats, attempts to help a cat out of a tree for a lady in the park. That lady looks suspiciously like Home Alone 2’s Pigeon Lady Brenda Fricker. What’s more is that they begin adding unforgettable moments from movies that have seared themselves into our minds, little nods to Alien, Titanic, The Shining, and, of course, Night of the Living Dead abound.
Tssutsumi’s allergies are later used as a radar system for the group to avoid the cats roaming the streets. Kunagi, in an effort to force the cats to follow him, uses a cat toy to herd the horde, and later, he uses a cucumber to distract them. The cops set up blockades of spikes and bottled water. The situation becomes pretty farcical, and its dry tone helps set up laugh-out-loud moments, like when they pull out their phones to photograph a sleeping kitty, potentially alerting it via their camera noises and flashes.
There isn’t a lot of outright social commentary, but bubbling beneath the surface lies a bit of subtext about the overworked and stressed-out nature of life. The first clue is the beefcakes searching for affection at the cat café. One of these big dudes has problems not picking up the cats, and when he’s disciplined, he apologizes and begs to stay instead. Even Tanishi has some unresolved PTSD or something that makes him spend an ungodly amount of time and money at the cat café. Even when the show reveals what has happened to the country’s leadership, a comment about how the government is supposed to rule over cats comes up. While it’s funny, I’m sure plenty of people who’ve ascended ladders of power would be thinking exactly that. Meanwhile, the rest of us would probably be psyched not to go to work.
Nyaight of the Living Cat also ponders what it would be like if we treated each other with the same affection as we treat our pets, and, for as funny as that sounds to some degree, the idea makes sense. Think of how gentile and warm seeing and petting a little furball when you come home after work could be. Think of the instant serotonin. If we could apply that feeling to everyone we meet, the world might be a nicer place.
The first four episodes of Nyaight of the Living Cat feel like a contiguous introduction. The show weaves back and forth between before the nyandemic, when the group was fulfilled by caring for cats at Megokoro Nekome cat café (and after the credits of each episode, there’s an extra cat café scene), to after the furry felines have taken over their city. I have to wonder if the show was initially pitched as a film concept from the manga by Hawkman and Mecha-Roots, and Irie pivoted toward a series instead. At the end of episode four, it feels like the reset button has been pushed, flashing forward to a new landscape that has a Mad Max: Fury Road or Borderlands feel to it.
By the end of episode four, I was a little taxed on the binge. Nyaight of the Living Cat is very funny, riotous at times, but the joke can feel rather one-note after an extended period. Regardless, I’d have no problem tuning in week to week to find out what becomes of these survivors of the catpocalypse. The show’s extraordinary creativity and its utilization of an abundance of cat facts and internet content are major reasons to tune in alone, and how they frame this in the guise of art and media is just as alluring. Nyaight of the Living Cat is just a relaxing and irreverent break from reality, much like sitting in a cat café might feel.
The first four episodes of Nyaight of the Living Cat played at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival on Friday, July 18. Check out the film’s page on the Fantasia website for more information. The show’s first three episodes are available to watch now on Crunchyroll, where even non-subscribers can preview the series and watch the first two episodes right now. New episodes premiere on Saturdays.
Nyaight of the Living Cat | Official Trailer | Crunchyroll
Watch Nyaight of the Living Cat on Crunchyroll! https://got.cr/cc-notlvpv Run! The Adorable Cats Are Here! In 20XX, the world is dominated by cats. A virus which turns anyone who touches a cat into a cat has spread into a worldwide nyandemic. Cats rub against people, turning them into cats.
