Nekojiru Gekijou Jirujiru Original

Don't let the looks fool you, this is no simple children's show. While the setup is the same, this show has very mature humor and even a decent amount of death and gore. Anyone who doesn't mind somewhat dated animation and dark humor should be in for a real treat with this series...and it only takes about 30 min to watch the entire thing.

Animation - 7
The art is pretty old fashioned as well as simplistic since it's portrayed similar to a children's show, but I think it adds to the appeal. The simplistic style lets the viewer take in everything that's happening on the screen ... easily, allowing for maximum enjoyment of the content. When comparing this animation to a show like Chi's Sweet Home, there is quite a bit of difference so I felt a 7 was justified.

Sound - 10
The sound is approached in a very simplistic way similar to the animation. The tunes are very simple, yet catchy and the sound effects combined with the background music does an amazing job of capturing the atmosphere and mood at the moment.

The voice actors are really amazing in this show. Nyako's voice is just spot on to how I would expect a female adolescent cat to sound and I love the feline accent she gives to words like nani by saying nyani. While her little brother Nyatta doesn't actually speak much, he is a very prominent member of the brother/sister tag team and constantly chimes in with a timely "nyaa" to show his agreement with Nyako. All of the voice actors are really dead on and capture the character whether it be a bum dying in the street, a wacky old scientist, or a matronly mother. I gave a 10 for sound because honestly I can't imagine any part of it being done better.

Character - 10
While there really isn't any character growth to speak of, I don't consider this a negative since the show revolves around the interaction of a multitude of unique characters in short episodes. Nyako and Nyatta are very enjoyable to watch as a team. The duo is very curious which leads them into various situations which often become more and more wacky due to Nyako's easygoing nature and often very disastrous due to her child-like innocence. The father never actually says a word in the series, but his actions speak louder than words and provide many moments of entertainment. The same goes for Nyako & Nyatta's mother who pulls off an aloof nature combined with the natural desire to supervise her children. She is very accepting when a woman throws dumplings in her face, but quick to admonish her children for giving pudding to a pig.

Story - 8
This series is comprised of several short episodes, each about a minute long. While there is no overarching plot, each individual episode is amazing considering how much is stuffed into it. Each episode focuses on Nyako and Nyatta and their experiences such as going to a haunted house, hunting with their dad, or stealing a garbage truck. Often these episodes show what happens when children apply the lessons they learn to the real world often with devastating consequences such as when little Nyatta believes the etiquette for taking a bath also applies when someone is drowning in a lake.

Enjoyment - 10
This show really appealed to me and its dark humor had a smile plastered across my face for the duration. The fast pacing of each episode means that there is basically no excess to be found, the fat has been trimmed and what's left is an ingenious combination of mature and dark humor that is only made more hilarious by the child-like presentation.

Overall - 9

This show tends to get compared to Happy Tree Friends, but it comes from a very different place from that.

People tend to label violence and alcoholism and the like as "adult" themes and teenagers particularly will gleefully consume things that are "adult" because it's cool and edgy. This appeal of deviance explains the popularity of "Happy Tree Friends". But that's not what Nekojiru is about.

Childhood is not as sanitary as western media would have you believe. Nekojiru comes from a place that is thoroughly childlike and innocent. Children are morbid and curious, brutal and cruel, innocent and nonjudgmental. Children like to kill bugs, and ask ... difficult questions. Children grow up with flawed adults and observe their world without a sense of right or wrong. Nekojiru shows the world unsanitized through the subjective experience of a couple of children. There is no judgment, only brutal observation that happens to be really funny. It shows real things without saying "This is wrong" or "This is right", and the main characters experience it in their raw and childlike (innocently horrible and horribly innocent) way. This sort of matter-of-fact voice is refreshing to me. At times it seems cruel and brutal, but really it's no more cruel and brutal than the reality of things, and, like a child, the show has no qualms about personifying those animals and/or unlucky persons which it later turns out were standing on the wrong side of the food chain and/or society. This curiosity might be called morbid, but on the other hand curiosity is innocent, and it is only from a standpoint of resigned knowledge that personifying a pig that is to be slaughtered might be labeled morbid. Maybe a dash of black humor and a bit of childish exaggeration.

This work probably isn't targeted at children. Like most works worth a damn, it's not targeted at any demographic. All it is, is a real expression of the subjective experience of the world through childrens' eyes. It's really kind of adorable in its childishness, and completely hilarious. All in all, it's more akin to Beavis and Butthead (in its observational humor. particularly in chapter 18) or Calvin and Hobbes (in its freshly subjective child's point of view) than to Happy Tree Friends.

This show also has some really great delivery and overall voice work. It's beautifully blunt and unrefined, fitting its characters.

Nekojiru is about a family of personified cats, focusing primarily on the older sister and her baby brother, as they interact with humans and other talking animals. The duo is selfish and cruel, beating up anyone who gets in the way of their fun.

As a result, these episodes often feature brutal mutilation and death, especially when the much-maligned pigs are involved. At first, this type of bloody gag comedy is fresh and funny, especially considering the cute and childish animation aesthetic.

However, very quickly, the humor starts to feel over-used, boring, and worst of all, predictable. The first two times pigs get killed, it`s funny, but ... by the twelfth time, the audience is sick of it. It`s almost like the creators had two really funny ideas, and then decided to use each one multiple ones, because they had nothing else. A one-dimensional joke can only work so many times.

It should also be noted that Nekojiro is 27 1-minute shorts. There's no music, and the simplistic art is precisely what appears on the database page. Those categories don't apply or affect the series in the slightest. Hence, overall, Nekojiru is one of the weaker brutal humor shows I`ve seen.

If you want a black comedy with more variety, funnier jokes, and far more violence, check out "Metalocalypse".