Recent animes are all about cats.......and fanservice

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Otakus out there (yeah, I'm talking to you!). Surely you noticed this, right? This cat anime (anime-based cats or cat-based anime? I wonder...) is a weird phenomenon. Is cats the "in" thing in Japan now? What the heck?! I'll feel sorry for dogs if this is true. Intriguingly, its not just 'cat' genre alone. It's 'catecchi' (cat+ecchi)! I can't say there was sudden burst in number of this anime but I can see the continuation of this hype or fever or whatever you call it.

The first outbreak : Nyan Koi!
Number of Episodes : 13
Those I blame : Sakakibara Yui (Why Nyanderful?!), Ryoko Shiraishi (Fan of her. Part of reason I watched it)
What's it about :
The main character, Kousaka Junpei who's allergic to feline knocked over a cat-god statue by accident and due to this, he was cursed to become a cat. It's a total nightmare since being allergic to yourself means a pitiful death (I think so). However, he can undo the curse by helping out the cats around him with their cat-tastrophic cat problems (get it??get it??).

This is the first which will be entailed by other horrificly-lame-why-the-heck-I-watch-this cat animes. There are good points of this anime. First, is the fanservice is kept to minimum (the level's too low that some of you won't label it fanservice). Second is that the voice actors did an awesome job living up the characters. Then again, most of the voice casts are actually famous folks well-known from other series. Without saying, it have to be good in terms of that! Third, less moe. Moe is great for newcomers but people will just get tired of it. Great that the characters didn't have much of those moe traits but still, its generic.

Bottom line, I had to say though this brings a bad aftermath, I do recommend this to those who are new to animes. The comedy is great to brighten up one's day.

The second outbreak : Oomamori Himari
Number of episodes : 12
Those I blame : Q (my pal), AyaRuka (Great theme song. Thumbs up on that), Stereotypes that think if a female cat becomes a teenage girl, she'll be one heck of a flirt.
What is it about :
A normal, average 16 yo kid Yuuto was taken care by his childhood friend Rin who obviously has secret feelings towards him (yeah, justa another tsundere) since Yuuto parents died. Then, a samurai girl, Himari suddenly appear in his life and she swears to protect Yuuto. Ironically, Himari is a cat in form of a human (a sexy one, that is) and Yuuto is allergic to cats.

Average guy, pretty girls, guy allergic to cats. Yeah, sort of like the above Nyan Koi but 10 times the fanservice level. I stopped watching this series at episode 3, I think. Though cat is kind of one of the theme here, I'll say this anime is 5% cat, 90% pantyshot, 5% fighting (Well, katanas have to be used in something). I can't really rant much else about this as I did not finish the series.

Nutshell, this anime this moe-overwhelmed and pretty much weak at everything else except the theme song, and lingeries (I'm bering brutally honest here). Though if you're into this sx materials, I still say you don't need to go after this series. Queen's Blade and Seikon no Qwaser would really satisfy your weird fetish.

Third outbreak : Mayoi neko overrun
Number of episodes : Still ongoing. I'm betting 12
Those I blame : Myself (for using the free time on the net rather than books), Kanae Ito (Really, I love your works but still I dissed on Happy New Nyaa), Taketatsu Ayana (you = cat eh?)
What's it about :
Tsuzuki Takumi, a generic highschooler + orphaned works and live in confectionery called 'Stray Cats' which the place is owned by his 'step sister' Otome (Well, she adopted him. Shouldn't she become the stepmother instead?). Otome is brutally good-natured that she travelled around the world just to help others (She really makes Nao in Liar Game looks lame). His childhood friend, Fumino, super-bossy-egoistical-obviously-tsundere type girl work part time at the shop. One day, Otome returned from her journey and brought back, a cat-girl, Nozomi.
Honestly, I love this anime.The storyline is pretty much like Seitokai no Ichizon; its drama that matters. Plots can go to hell. For once, the male protaganist is not clueless nor unbelievably dense. He really know what tsundere is! Rather than being clueless and beating around the bush like other moe protaganists, he knows how to handle Fumino ice queen behavior. Nothing much to say about Nozomi except that she's totally clueless at times (that's what makes her cute). Otome is pretty much conform to the rule of size of breast is inversely proportionally to common sense or intelligence.
Yes, there're elements of fanservice in the series but it's not overwhelming (except the hotspring episode. It's nudity all the way;both guys and girls). This series also has an otaku who hates 3D girls and love 2D girls who always gets into fight with Fumino (It makes one to think how weird this is) and another guy who is more mature and happens to be involved in Judo. What makes me really hooked in this anime was Umenomori Chise! She's such a brat! A very adorable brat, that is. She's filthy rich but has the problem of lacking love from her familes and she's totally lonely since everyone in school is afraid of her due to her parents' influence. She made me go awww when she was angry, beating up a doll and then cried in episode 5.

So I think it is appropriate that I share their singles for this post. Here you go!

Nyan Koi :
Nyan Koi ED 
Nyan Koi OP

Omamori Himari :
Omamori Himari OP
Omamori Himari ED

Mayoi Neko Overrun :
Mayoi Neko Overrun OP + ED