Samurai Pizza Cats

Samurai Pizza Cats, known as Cat Ninja Legend Teyandee (キャッ党忍伝てやんでえ Kyatto Ninden Teyandee^?) in Japan, is an anime series produced by Tatsunoko Productions and Sotsu Agency.^[3] The series first aired from February 1, 1990 to February 12, 1991, containing a total of 54 episodes. The series is directed by Kunitoshi Okajima and music done by Kenji Kawai. Saban introduced the show to western audiences in 1991 and held the license to the series until 2002. As of 2012, Discotek Media currently holds the license to the series.

Plot

See also: List of Samurai Pizza Cats episodesThe series is set in the mechanical city of Edoropolis (a portmanteau of "Edo" and "metropolis", called "Little Tokyo" in the dub), a mechanical city which fuses feudal Japanese culture with 1990s culture and is populated by cybernetic anthropomorphic "animaloids", or animal androids. The city is notionally led by Shogun Iei-Iei Tokugawa ("Emperor Fred" in the dub), but as he is a doddering eccentric, the city's actual leadership lies in the hands of his daughter Tokugawa Usako (Princess Violet) and a council headed by the ambitious prime minister Kitsunezuka Ko'on-no-Kami (Seymour "The Big" Cheese; identified as a fox in the original, but a rat in the dub), who constantly plots to overthrow the Shogun with the help of his trusted advisor Karasu Gennarisai (Jerry Atric), and Karamaru (Bad Bird), the leader of an army of ninja crows.

Unknown to the prime minister, council member Inuyama Wanko-no-Kami (Big Al Dente), the commander of the Palace Guard, learns of his designs on leadership, but is unable to prosecute him for treason because of the plausible deniability he maintains. Instead, Inuyama enlists the services of Yattarou (Speedy Cerviche), Pururun (Polly Esther), Sukashii (Guido Anchovy) and their operator Otama (Francine), four cyborg cat ninjas (samurai in the dub) who work in the city's pizzeria. Also known as the Nyankī, they are assigned to stop Kitsunezuka Ko'on-no-Kami and his evil henchmen's plans to take over Edoropolis.^[4]

Characters

See also: List of Samurai Pizza Cats characters==Music== The series's music is composed by Kenji Kawai, most famous for composing songs in the Death Note movies and Mobile Suit Gundam 00. It's considered as one of Kawai's earlier musical works in the anime business.

The music in the English dub were both done by Shuki Levy and Haim Saban. It was then edited by Barron Abramovitch, Nick Carr, Xavier Gracia and Mark Ryan.

Theme songs

English version: The theme song for the English dub naturally differs from the original, a common practice for dubbing at the time. In keeping with the parodic nature of the show, the lyrics of the new theme song make a number of references to American pop culture. For example, the lyrics "they've got more fur than any turtle ever had" imply that the Samurai Pizza Cats are better than the similarly themed cartoon series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, while the lyrics "they're stronger than old cheese, tougher than dirt" refer to an advertising slogan once used for the industrial cleaner Ajax. The theme song also contains the line "As soon as someone finds the script, we might begin the show", which can be interpreted as a reference to the lack of transcripts.; Michael Airington under the name of "Googie Gomez", one of the show's writers, also sang the theme song. According to Andy Thomas, Airington had a few drinks before the recording session for the song started, and as a result, accidentally repeated some of the lyrics (i.e., "this cat gets down down with a love hang over"). Airington recorded this doing his Paul Lynde voice.
Japanese version: Both the opening and ending songs were composed by Etsuko Yamakawa, Takeshi Ike and Anju Mana and sung by Reina Yazawa and Ai Orikasa. Ami Itabashi, the singer of the ending song of the Macross OVAs, sang the insert songs.; Opening

A Time for Beautiful Japanese Days (おっとどっこい日本晴れ O~tsu to dokkoi nihonbare^?)

- Lyrics: Mana Anjou
- Composition: Takeshi Ike
- Arrangement: Etsuko Yamakawa
- Artist: Reina Yazawa

Ending

To Be Yourself
- Lyrics: Mana Anjou
- Composition: Takeshi Ike
- Arrangement: Etsuko Yamakawa
- Artist: Reina Yazawa

Insert

Battle In Flash (insert 1)
Teyandee Special Express (insert 2)
- Artist: Ami Itabashi

Releases

Broadcasts

Samurai Pizza Cats has been broadcast in Australia and New Zealand, as well as various countries in Africa, Eurasia and the Americas, most notably the United Kingdom, India, Spain, Finland, France, Italy, Poland, Greece, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Chile, Peru, Panama, Hong Kong, Thailand, Mexico, Brazil, Israel, Kenya, South Africa, Sweden, Armenia, and the United States, from 1991 onwards. The anime is famous for the fact that the translations of the original Japanese episodes were poor or non-existent, and so Saban decided to create original material, playing the show as a comedy rather than the less farcical original Japanese version.^[5]

Of the 54 episodes that were originally produced in Japan, 52 were translated into English. The two untranslated episodes were clip shows that did little to further the series' plot. A few episodes were never aired in The United States due to censorship and only 40 episodes were shown.

Syndication Run List

STATION	BRANDING	MARKET	DAY	TIME
WPIX	WB11	New York, NY	MON-FRI	2:00 PM
KCOP	UPN13	Los Angeles, CA	MON-FRI	7:30 AM
WPWR	UPN50	Chicago, IL - Gary, IN	MON-FRI	2:30 PM
WPHL	WB17	Philadelphia, PA	MON-FRI	8:30 AM
KOFY	WB20	San Francisco, CA	MON-FRI	7:30 AM
WLVI	WB56	Boston - Cambridge, MA	MON-FRI	6:30 AM
KTXA	UPN21	Dallas - Fort Worth, TX	MON-FRI	9:30 AM
WBDC	WB50	Washington, DC	MON-FRI	7:00 AM
WUPA	UPN69	Atlanta, GA	MON-FRI	8:30 AM
WXON	WB20	Detroit, MI	MON-FRI	8:00 AM
KTXH	UPN20	Houston, TX	MON-FRI	8:30 AM
KCPQ	FOX13	Seattle - Tacoma, WA	MON-FRI	7:30 AM
WFTC	FOX29	Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN	MON-FRI	8:30 AM
WTTA	IND38	Tampa - St. Petersburg, FL	MON-FRI	6:30 AM
WDZL	WB39	Miami - Fort Lauderdale, FL	MON-FRI	6:30 AM
KUTP	UPN45	Phoenix, AZ	MON-FRI	8:00 AM
WBNX	IND55	Cleveland - Akron - Canton, OH	MON-FRI	6:00 AM
KWGN	WB2	Denver, CO	MON-FRI	9:00 AM
KTXL	FOX40	Sacramento - Stockton - Modesto, CA	MON-THURS	6:30 AM
WKCF	WB18	Orlando, FL	MON-FRI	6:30 AM
WPTT	UPN22	Pittsburgh, PA	MON-FRI	6:00 AM
KPLR	WB11	St. Louis, MO	MON-FRI	1:30 PM
KPDX	FOX49	Portland - Salem, OR	MON-FRI	8:30 AM
WBFF	FOX45	Baltimore, MD	MON-FRI	8:30 AM
WXIN	FOX59	Indianapolis - Marion, IN	MON-FRI	6:30 AM

Video/DVD

The series has a video release in Japan, though it only spans up to 20 episodes. Being enumerated as these causes has lost the master tapes from which the broadcasting station in the United States was being lent by Japan for broadcasting. A French language version is also available. Discotek Media announced on March 12, 2012 that they had licensed the home video rights to the series and plans on releasing both the American series, as well as the Japanese series with English subtitles on separate releases.^[6]^[7]

Video game

In 1991, Tecmo published a video game based on the original Japanese version, Kyattou Ninden Teyandee,^[8] for the Famicom. It was released as a Japanese-only release, but was bootlegged outside Japan under the title Ninja Cat. Players take the role of the three main cats and otasuke (Rescue Team) members, of whom can be switched to at any time and have their own special abilities to progress through the game. The game features most of the characters in the series as well as an additional villain, a mysterious scientist named Dr. Purple (Dr. パープ) who shows up later on in the game and "appears" to team up with Ko'on-no-kami (the Big Cheese). Also noted, the creators (of the KNT) stated that that the new villain Dr. Purple (Dr. パープ) was going to appear in the KNT TV series and meant to replace Ko'on-no-Kami (Seymour Cheese) as the new main villain. However, it never happened since the show only ran for one season and was cancelled soon after. Although the game was never officially released in the West, an English translation of the full game plot is available via a fan-made patch.^[9] A standalone handheld LSI game (similar to Nintendo's Game&Watch) was also made.

The characters of the series were also supposed to appear in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars.^[10] But according to an interview with the game's producer, Ryota Niitsuma said that "One of the main anime we got more requests for than any others was Samurai Pizza Cats," he said. "There were a lot of people who wanted to see that. I wanted to see that, but we couldn't reach an agreement."^[11]

Merchandise

Toys

All manner of toys and model kits were released in both Japan and Europe by Bandai, the latter usually being reboxed versions of the prior.

Action figures for the Samurai Pizza Cats and the Rescue Team. The Japanese originals came as model kits comparable to today's Gundam toys, while the European figures came pre-assembled.
Both large and small (Gachapon-sized), rubber-like figures.
Playsets for the smaller figures, including the Great Catatonic and the pizza parlor.

Manga

Aside from two official books, a number of doujinshi that was also made in the early nineties. However, the manga does not follow the TV series story. In this story, Ko'on-no-kami never left Edoropolis after the comet incident (final episode). Instead he remains at Edoropolis and plots another scheme. Yattaro is still in love with Omitsu, instead of Pururun. The creators stated that in TV show Ko'on-no-kami left Edoropolis for good showing no interest of returning to Edoropolis, but in the manga he never left. As a result, the manga is mostly a "what if" story, or a parallel story. The creators stated that the manga is a "what if" story.

However, all of the doujinshi and the books were only available in Japan and also the doujinshi and the books contain adult contents.

References

^ "キャッ党忍伝てやんでえ". Tatsunoko Productions. Retrieved 2009-08-16.(Japanese)
^ Clements, Jonathan; McCarthy, Helen (2006). The Anime Encyclopedia. California: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 1-933330-10-4.
^ Cats Legend Teyandee
^ Clements, Jonathan; McCarthy, Helen (2006). The Anime Encyclopedia. California: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 1-933330-10-4.
^ Chipman, Bob. "Found in Translation". Escapist Magazine. The Big Picture. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
^ "Discotek Licenses Samurai Pizza Cats/Cats Toninden Teyande". Anime News Network. 2012-03-12. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
^ "Samurai Pizza Cats - Discotek Media Announces DVD Plans for the Classic '91 Series!". tvshowsondvd.com. 2012-03-12. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
^ Kyatto Ninden Teyandee (NES)
^ Samurai Pizza Cats NES game translation patch
^ "Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Producer Niitsuma Discusses Characters". Anime News Network. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
^ "The Lost Characters of Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom". Kotaku. Retrieved 1 April 2012.

External links

Samurai Pizza Cats (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia

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