Nyaight of the Living Cat – 04
More fun with apocalypses this week on Nyaight of the Living Cat, which I think is the best of anime’s many takes on the trope. The genius here continues to be the clash of survival and nekozuki instinct, with the latter seeming to win every time. Like, for example, when Kunagi propped open the door of the building after the group fled, so the kitties wouldn’t be trapped inside. Or when, in the midst of fleeing for their lives, everyone whipped out their cell phones when they stumbled on a cat vamping in the street.
In terms of plot. we have the group finally making it to the roof of the nearby tall building, but only when Kunagi scavenges a bike and leads the cats on a merry chase. This comes after a squadron of helicopters arrives just in time to make things much worse and get a bunch of people infected (the best part of this is the cats going crazy playing with the rescue ropes). Up on the roof Tanishi manages to attract the attention of a straggling chopper (“It’s a macho!”) but they only have room for one more. So he and Kaoru insist they take the ailing Tsutsumi (those allergies) and the pilot leaves them with a list of shelters.
It seems there’s a king cat, or some sort of leader at least – I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of him. We also meet a “ninja” named Arata who Kaoru and Kunagi (don’t forget Tanishi was infected in the first episode, and this was all flashback) rescue on the way to the shelter where they believe Tsutsumi was taken. But that shelter has been cattified, so the search continues on that front.
Hotel Inhumans – 04
I must confess this episode lost me in a big way. “Silly” is a funny word when it comes to anime. Context is everything. For some series it’s a desirable quality, even an essential one (Dekin no Mogura and Witch Watch spring prominently to mind). But Hotel Inhumans is the sort of show where it’s a curse, I think. It’s a fanciful premise to begin with to be sure, but there’s a line I don’t think it can cross while still maintaining any structural integrity.
The other thing I feel I have to mention is – wasn’t that idol performance like, strikingly bad? I admit I’m a poor judge given that I dislike almost all examples of the genre, but generally when we get mock idol performances in anime they achieve a sort of bland uniformity (which is pretty much what the real ones sound like). This was kind of… amateurish? Kind of like a school talent show level.
As for the case study this week, I don’t have a lot to say about it except that the whole thing – from the killer’s backstory to the reason for the hit – was (to use that word) silly. The weakest of the three serials so far for sure in my view. This show is on the Patron Pick ballot (and getting votes) so I have to say from a selfish perspective I hope this is an aberration and not a trend.
The post Weekly Digest 7/29/24 – Nyaight of the Living Cat , Hotel Inhumans appeared first on Lost in Anime.
