Welcome to Little Tokyo, where everyday is filled with
hustle and bustle. But there’s sinister
plans afoot. The duplicitous Big Cheese
is plotting to overthrow Emperor Fred with the help of his criminal gang of
Ninja Crows. Only one thing stands in
his way: a trio of Little Tokyo’s most beloved delivery cats who also happen to
be Samurai Super Heroes. They’re Speedy,
Polly and Guido: The Samurai Pizza Cats.
Whether evil is afoot or youre desperate for a late afternoon pizza,
these crime fighting felines are here to save the day, guaranteed or your money
back.
The morning of my third day at Katsucon (Saturday), I
wandered up to a viewing room after eating breakfast to see if there were any
fun, Saturday Morning Cartoon style screenings I could check out and I lucked
into a good blast from the past.
Adapted
from the early 90s Anime Cat Ninja Legend Teyandee, Samurai Pizza Cats could be
considered Ghost Stories before that infamously hilarious dub ever came
about.
The dialogue is random, the jokes
are a bit dated but also get plenty of chuckles and its just a fun show to
check out to kill time.
This isn’t a
show that requires a lot of brain power to enjoy and I’m surprised I never
watched more of this when I was younger (probably because it was aired at like
6 in the morning on Saturdays when I didn’t dare wake up if school wasn’t a
thing).
Whether you’re a die hard viewer of the original Ninja
Legend Anime or just aware of Pizza Cats from nostalgia, the premise looks very
much the same no matter the spoken language: three Pizza delivery Cats battle
the minions and plots of a villainous crime boss week after week and
schenanigans ensue.
No lie, this show
actually looks pretty good for the time it was released.
Samurai Pizza Cats arrived at the turn of the
decade so it’s still got a very polished look reminiscent of a classic 80s
style Anime.
The action isn’t
spectacular but its basic enough to be fun regardless.
If you’re wanting me to get any deeper into a
show where armored kittens kick the crap out of ninja crows while battling
giant robots, well reread that sentence and just know that you need to know
very little going into any episode.
Like
I said, I haven’t seen this show in decades and it still felt very accessible
to me because of the stand alone nature of the two episodes I watched,
continuity isn’t much of an issue, at least at first glance.
There were moments during the screening where I asked
myself, “All of this dialogue is so random, it’s reminding me a lot of Gundam:
Reconguista in G…so why am I loving watching this much more than that disaster
of a Gundam series?”
The answer is
simple: G Reco was trying to be a serious Gundam series and failed all the way
based on its nonsensical and random dialogue, it might as well have been a
parody.
Samurai Pizza Cats, however IS a
parody and so was the original Anime.
The puns and references feel like straight up improv, like the Voice
Actors just said whatever came to mind based on what they were watching while
recording.
It’s the kind of stuff you
get when you’re maybe sitting in an Anime panel and you can volunteer to dub a
scene for the audience.
Even if some
jokes are a bit dated, others are so simple and effective you cant help but
laugh at the absurdity.
Is this show worth a watch from beginning to end?
Ehhh depends on your milege and sense of
humor.
Me, Samurai Pizza Cats is a fun
one to revisit from time to time (though I almost did buy it from a Dealers Room
Vendor at Katsucon).
It looks great,
plays fast and loose with its lack of proper translations, and it just enough
wackiness that can probably be enjoyed in small doses.
Whether its with actual pizza or milk and
cereal, this is one Saturday Morning classic worth revisiting at least once for
any old school Anime fan.
Now if you can
recite that Samurai Pizza Cats Fan Club oath at the end (or the catchy theme
music), I’ll be really impressed.
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