Nekopara: Koneko no Hi no Yakusoku

I watched this rather short ONA right after I finished reading the Nekopara extra VN and I can say that this ONA is much better compared with the one we got for Nekopara 1.

Story
There isn't much of a story it's mostly about Chocola and Vanilla and how they adjust to their new life at the Minaduki household and how they open up to Kashou and the other catgirls. Which is in a pretty fast pace and mostly just in short events.

Art
The art in this ONA looks pretty good and it really improved compared with the art of the nekopara vol 1 ONA.

Sound
The ONA didn't had ... an opening, but the ending song was really nice and the OST they used in the different scenes was pretty fitting too, but nothing really outstanding.

Character
The characters are the same as we know from the VN already and it was nice to see them all when they were a bit younger and they were all super cute. It was interesting to compare their looks with the later entries and how much they grew especially Coconut.

Enjoyment/Overall
It was a pretty fun ONA and I can really recommend the ONA to people that have read the Visual Novel and want to see some of the scenes from it animated, but I could still recommend it even if one is only familiar with the Nekopara vol 1 ONA.
Overall was the ONA a 6/10 for me.

Thanks for reading!

Set 6 months before the opening the the bakery. Nekopara OVA Extra gives information about Chocola and Vanilla when they first starting living with the other cat girls.

The plot has two different stories that make up the entire episode, Chocola and Vanilla timidly accepting Kashou and the other cat girls as their family. And the second is them celebrating Christmas. It does well with the serious moment and with the hilarious parts. With the majority being funny moments.

The art is on the same level as the original ova that got released back in 2017. So it still looks very good. Every character looks completely adorable.

As ... an fan of Nekopara this was a very enjoyable and very adorable inclusion to the overall story of Nekopara.

We are once again blessed with more catgirls, this time it's a christmas party!

Long story short, if you were expecting some fanservice or H-scenes, then turn away now, this is not the ONA for you, however, if you're looking for a cute, fluffy ONA filled with adorable catgirls and have 25 minutes to spare, then take a seat.

Once again, we return to our family of catgirls, who look just as cute as ever. Set half a year before our main character Kashou opens the patisserie, this ONA depicts them at a younger and more delicate stage than before. Besides from being a bit younger, their ... personalities are the same, Chocola being a bit of an airhead, Vanilla being one of the more level-headed catgirls, you know the rest.

For what it tried doing, I can't say it failed, since it was a pretty nice and laid back watch, however I would've liked to see some more development for the catgirls.
There's not really much else to say apart from that if what I've described sounds like something you might enjoy, then go for it, the catgirls are waiting for your arrival. If you haven't already, there's a 1 hour long OVA to watch for that extra layer of fluffiness, and if that isn't enough, there's also a fairly long set of VN's to read if you wanna go that extra mile.

So after the widely anticipated for anime "nekopara", with some success and a bit of budget left over, we are blessed with the extra episode. Lets see if it holds up to the 1 hour movie that brought us here in the first place in this review.


Pros:

Comparing it to the movie, all i can say was is that it's less dark. No elements of loneliness, desperation, or sadness significantly appeared in this series apart from that one minute of it as compared to the 30 or so minutes put into highlighting the desperation of "Not finding a hospital when your master is sick". It's ... slightly different and I think while it's not true to the story, it at least suits the more light hearted themes of the visual novels. Unfortunately I can't credit that a lot since I have to really oversee a lot.

The audio is rather nice to listen to. Quite spacious with an average sense of where the sounds come from. It's a touch warm, and I never felt the need to turn down the volume because someone's voice sounds shrilly.

The eyes of every character looks very nice and decently designed.


Mehs:

The artwork to my surprise was different. I complained about the edgy lines and jagged frame rate of the movie and this totally fixed it. Lines are nice and smooth and easy to watch while things are a lot smoother to my eyes now. The issue comes in at the sacrifice. Everything looks super simplistic. Kinda like slapping beauty mode. There's not a lot of detail in anything really. So while it doesn't offend my eyes, it doesn't help its case either.

Characters are generally inoffensive but bland. They are very likeable especially if you like me, already played the visual novel so you don't have to worry about one of the cats getting on your nerves. Issue being that they are extremely simplistic and one dimensional. They are as bland as it can get.


Cons:

Artwork while being extremely bland, the bigger offender is the inconsistency. I noted that around 9 minutes or so when Coconut, Azuki and Maple were sitting on the wooden floor, you can note that their bodies are way off proportions. Asked a few friends and they also knew what i meant. Coconut's head for the past 15 seconds look way too big for her extremely small body. Like botched photoshop.


How to improve your experience with this anime:

Firstly, put more attention into their eyes rather than their entire body and maybe you might not be as critical about the proportion issue. Secondly, constantly telling yourself every 5 minutes that the visual novel is a lot better. It helps. Thirdly, watch the movie, it may make the blandness a bit more tolerant.


Conclusion:

I think that if i were to describe this and the movie in one word, it would be "unjustified".

I would understand if the story didn't have enough time to elaborate and so on yes. But the issue is that everything from the story, artwork, sound, character development etc, all felt like they are lacking so much that it didn't do the visual novel any justice.

The visual novel has a much better and more developed story, way better color and art style, better quality sound and much better character development. It didn't make any sense that the difference between this and the visual novel is like heaven and the taco bell bathroom. The anime in itself isn't bad, but it certainly wasn't good enough to warrant its existence. It felt cheap.

Maybe next time. Maybe.

Story: really no story here you just get a bunch of like different things in the OVA like measuring the cat girls weight and height to having a Xmas party so yeah nothing really interesting here its just them before they grew up.

Art: the art is actually really good from the character design to the overall feel of the anime good art done here.

Sound: there was no Op in this but they did have a Ed song to it and that was pretty decent as well the overall voice actors were really good and done well as well.

Character: Kashou is the owner of La ... soleil and well owns Chocola and Vanilla otherwise hes a pretty nice and chill dude. Chocola is one of the female leads and well she is a pretty up and happy person also just really cheerful and well really loves her master like the other girl. Vanilla is well she really doesn't show a expression as much as Chocola but she is pretty quiet and well nice as well. (only the ones im reviewing honestly)

Enjoyment: what i liked: i mean the only thing i could say i liked about it was that the enjoyment was there and just the art and characters being really well done as well for the Ed song. What i didn't like: the comedy is not here i maybe laugh or giggled and honestly my enjoyment wasn't as there but was still pretty there also kinda gets a knack for not having a opening song as well.

Overall: id give this a 5 (might give it 6 later but more than likely no) the OVA is decent for me if you have played the visual novels and loved them or at least played them you'll like this OVA the enjoyment was kinda not there but was at the same time that's why i give this a 5 and not a 6 but i still enjoyed myself some what.

to be honest I just watched the ona because i was bored and because catgirls.

I think the nekopara franchise is great and all but this was just mediocre at best. The story is rather slow and we aren't really given alot of details about the life of chocola/vanilla before they arrived/were adopted.

Don't get me wrong it has good plot and they could've easily stretched it longer (ie 30 minutes).It was good to see baby verisons of the catgirls but besides that theres not alot of reason to buy this ona/watch this ona. Then again you could always buy the offical ona to support sekai.

overall : ... 6-8/10
reason:slow story and short one at that