Welcome to Anime Rants with Mono (7Mononoke). One of the shows I chose to watch for Summer 2025 was Nyaight of the Living Cat. Despite its current low score on MAL, I enjoyed this anime a lot, especially since I watched it with a friend. ❤ You can read my thoughts on the earlier episodes by clicking the article link under the contents table. As for now, it’s time to review and discuss the later episodes and conclusion. Let’s rant!

1. Episodes 8 and 9
2. Episodes 10 and 11
3. Episode 12 and Closing Thoughts

Link: Nyaight of the Living Cat Episodes 1 thru 7

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Episodes 8 and 9

Episode 8 was amusing. It’s the one where they fight the bear being controlled by the cat. Kunagi tried to beat the bear by acting like a cat. In the end, the Devon-Rex cat was the one who saved the day. He knocked the other cat off the bear, shaking its mind control. What a little action hero! Kunagi then stunned the bear by clapping his hands suddenly. I seriously doubt that would work, but it was funny. Likewise, it was humorous that Kunagi wouldn’t recognize the bear as anything but a cat.

I noticed some nice background music during some of the action scenes. The composer for Nyaight of the Living Cat was Kouji Endou. I don’t know any of his other work, but he obviously made good music for this anime. Speaking of audio, the voice of the narrator, Shigeru Chiba, was strong and memorable in this episode. Chiba is probably most recognizable as the voice of Jougo in Jujutsu Kaisen, but his roles are numerous. He’s capable of raising his voice to a high pitch that’s funny as fuck when done right. I loved his narration for the bear fight.

It was hilarious when Masaki and Len came out dressed in inflatable dinosaur suits to scare away the cats. You know those gifs with the inflatable t-rex who does stunts and dances? I also think those are insanely funny. In other notes, I like the character designs for Masaki and Len. They look cool enough to be main characters. I’m also a fan of Subaru Kimura, the voice actor playing Len. I know him best as the voice of Kanba Takakura from Penguindrum.

The group of survivors escaped the cats with teamwork and creativity. They took the Devon-Rex cat back to the compound with them. After some deliberation, Grandma decided the new pet could stay. She named him Jones. I love Grandma and I think she’s so fucking cool. Her character design and voice are perfect. Grandma can be intimidating and is a true girl-boss, but she’s also got a soft side and plays the accepting grandmother for everyone. And of course she’s a cat-lover. I think she might be my favorite character now.

In episode 9, most of the time was spent around the compound, caring for Jones. We also saw a lot of scenes about two young women traveling together as they try to survive the cat apocalypse. At the very end of the episode, we saw a glimpse of Tsutsumi. This entire episode felt like a movie reference, but most of it was lost on me. I have seen very few world-famous action movies and even fewer Japanese ones. In many ways, Nyaight of the Living Cat is paying homage to action films.

Personally, I didn’t like the action movie translator voice thing. It’s a device that uses AI to translate Jone’s meows into Japanese action film quotes. It’s a funny idea, but it got old quickly, especially since I did not understand most of the references. But there was plenty of good content in this episode too. I loved the scene where Kaoru and Grandma gave Jones a bath. So much cuteness and heart-warming in this scene. Jones is so cute!

We don’t know the names of the young women yet, so I will call them Pixie and Tomboy. Both are quite attractive. They seem to be gay for each other and may be queer-coded. Pixie, at least, said she’d rather become a cat alongside Tomboy rather than continue her life alone. Bonus points for not adding a bunch more fanservice shots. Yes, they were running around wearing nothing but towels, but it didn’t feel like the shots were pandery at all. There was not so much as a titty slip – unlikely, with all the running around those women did.

It was crazy that they had to fight monkeys being controlled by cats. These two episodes taught us that the infected cats can use mind-control on other animals. They no longer seem like normal cats, but a more evolved species humans are trying to understand before it’s too late. I don’t know if this show will ever explain the virus further or resolve the worldwide apocalypse. But I speculate that there’s a supernatural element to all this. That’s all for my thoughts on episodes 8 and 9.

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Episodes 10 and 11

In episode 10, we heard Tsutsumi’s story. After parting with Kaoru, she stayed in a shelter and tried to be helpful. Soon, the shelter was overrun by zoo animals being controlled by cats. Most of the people turned into cats, but a handful of men followed Tsutsumi and her allergy superpower and thus survived. The men praised Tsutsumi as their leader and put her on a pedestal. Tsutsumi was humble and didn’t think she was worthy, but she was, in fact, extremely useful and a fine leader.

Along her journey as a leader of survivors, Tsutsumi met and lost many companions. In the end, the only ones left were Tsutsumi, a few men, Gunslinger, and Last Samurai. As they wondered through the wasteland, they were starving and in danger of dying of thirst. Finally, they reached Wendelstein – the fort ruled by Grandma. When Kaoru and Tsutsumi reunited, it was actually touching and powerful. I thought I wasn’t taking these characters too seriously, but in a way, I do care about them and the bonds between them.

This episode also had a hilarious but beautiful song sung by Gunslinger. His voice is genuinely good. Meanwhile, Arata was training with Last Samurai. When she removed her helmet, it was clear that Last Samurai was a young woman. She’s so pretty! Speaking of pretty, I get the feeling that Suoh is supposed to be adorable – and she is quite cute – but to me she seems over-the-top with the cutesy femininity. It was annoying.

This episode was more serious and emotional than the previous few installments, but it still had plenty of absurd comedy. Anyway, there wasn’t a lot of peace time in the fort before the war of survival resumed. One fateful day, Tsutsumi detected incoming cats. Not just any cats – the same cats controlling zoo animals that destroyed her previous shelter. Grandma made the official announcement: prepare for battle. That’s it for episode 10.

Episode 11 focused on the great battle between the humans of Wendelstein and the cats with their zoo animal mounts. The battle was both ridiculous and entertaining. Kaoru sniped a cat (with a water gun) off the back of a running cheetah. Last Samurai wrestled a gorilla and got thrown yards away. There were many small moments of victory and defeat. Unfortunately, the battle came with heavy costs. Gunslinger was lost after a gorilla threw two cats directly onto him. He became so cute! But it’s sad that we won’t get another song by this man.

In the midst of the battle, something truly weird happened. Episode 11 had the huge reveal that Suoh – the sweet office lady – was working with the cats. In fact, she was a cat. This means that cats have found a way to imitate humans perfectly. God, this anime is weird. But I’m enjoying it! I loved the dark energy of evil cat lady Suoh.

She stole Kunagi’s bell and knocked him out with a single strike to the face. Then she escaped, leaving only a few survivors in the fort, trying not to become cats or get mauled by zoo animals. So yeah, Suoh apparently came all this way just to acquire the mysterious bell worn by Kunagi. For a long time, I’ve wondered if Kunagi was a cat who changed form into a human and forgot his true nature. I now think Kunagi might be some sort of Cat Messiah and his bell is a magical or sacred token to the newly evolved cats.

Anyway, the battle wasn’t over yet. Kaoru, Tsutsumi, and Jones were still facing off with an angry cat and gorilla. To their surprise, Grandma joined them. She asked for Tsutsumi and Kaoru to buy some time while she talked to Jones about an idea that could save the day. We don’t yet know Grandma’s plan, but I think she realized something big. Speaking of Grandma, we also got to learn about her backstory in this episode, which was a plus.

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Episode 12 and Closing Thoughts

As a season finale, this episode was acceptable. I sincerely hope there will be a season 2, because there are still so many unanswered questions and so much character potential. Anyway, in this final episode, rather predictably, my favorite character turned into a cat, thus essentially “dying” as far as the story is concerned at present. (However, hopefully, there will be a way to turn cats back into humans eventually.) I’m slightly sour about losing Grandma, but at least her last moments (as a human) were impressive and memorable.

Grandma was able to fuse her mind and abilities with Jones temporarily. In that state, she could understand cats as clearly as if they were humans having a conversation. Thus, she convinced the cats and zoo animals to follow her to a better place to play. One woman led a hundred beasts away from Wendelstein. But because she had so much close contact with Jones and the other cats, Grandma was also infected. She became a beautiful, fluffy, silvery-white cat with cool black markings. As Grandma sacrificed herself, the survivors wept and saluted her.

Side Note: It was interesting to see Grandma change partially into a cat while she was bidding her goodbyes to Jones and the humans. I’m attracted to Grandma as a character, and I’m also generally attracted to anthro-animal characters – so, Grandma’s partially transformed version was pretty hot. Cat claws, eyes, and fangs all the way, baby!

The remainder of the episode was about Kunagi. While unconscious for several days, he uncovered some of his missing memories. In particular, he remembers being a test subject in a lab. It sounded like they were studying “The Origin,” the cat that started the virus. As Kunagi ran away from that facility, someone entrusted him with the cat bell. Shortly after waking up in the repaired Wendelstein, Kunagi announced that he was leaving to solve the mystery of his past. In particular, he will search for the building from his memories.

Jones and Kaoru decided to go with Kunagi. Before long, they departed on a motorbike with a side cart. While the heroes raced across the wasteland, something mysterious was happening elsewhere. We saw a brief scene of Suoh and an unknown man in a dark room. The man used the bell Suoh brought as a key to open some kind of device. While opening it, he said, “At last, we can reunite. Now, let us begin Project Living Cat.”

The implications of this episode and its reveals were certainly interesting. For being a goofy parody anime about cat-lovers in a cat-apocalypse, this series has managed to hold my interest and get me genuinely invested. My personal enjoyment score – on the first watch at least – is a strong 8/10. Again, there had better be a second season! Eventually, I’ll write a full review of Nyaight of the Living Cat. For now, however, that’s all the thoughts I have time to divulge. Sayonara until next time~

~Thanks for Reading~

Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants

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