Nyaight Of The Living Cat
Japan | Japanese, English subtitles
2024 | 105 Minutes
Director: Tomohiro Kamitani
Cast: Masaaki Mizunaka, Reina Ueda, Reiji Kawashima
This year, as is the case every year, the festival is handing out a lifetime achievement award and showing a collection of the nominees films – including tonight’s presentation of Nyaight Of The Living Cat. This screening is in honor of the great director Takashi Miike, who was a producer for the Nyaight Of The Living Cat series.
While Nyaight Of The Living Cat’s first two episodes have already aired over on Crunchy Roll (and yes that’s a name drop so you too can go see this awesome show) – the Fantasia festival crowd tonight witnessed the third and fourth episodes which have not yet aired anywhere else, and are the first audience to have the chance to see them anywhere. Everyone else will have the chance to view the third episode this coming Sunday and a new episode is expected to drop every Sunday after that.
See Also: Fragment at Fantasia Fest 2025
I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to anime, I’m just a casual on the outskirts looking in here and there. It’s a genre of film that I love but don’t spend quite as much time on as I maybe should, and even though the time I allot to this medium seems to be growing as time passes, I would be wrong to label myself as any kind of expert on the subject. But I know film. I know storytelling. I know what makes something worth watching and what doesn’t.
I was originally drawn to this film based on two quirky factors; it has the incredible Takashi Miike attached to it, if only as a producer – and cats. Anime cats. I hadn’t read the manga upon which it was based; I hadn’t even watched any trailers prior to showing up at Fantasia festival in Montreal to watch these first four episodes of Nyaight Of The Living Cat. In short, I went in blind and expected to see something akin to the realm of Takashi Miike that I have grown to both love and fear over the years.
What I saw was something I couldn’t have imagined.
In my head, I had the premise that the title must have been based upon the classic zombie film The Night Of The Living Dead – the grandfather of all zombie films and a title that has been expanded upon more times than I can count. It made sense. I thought I was about to see zombie cats ripping people apart in all manner of violent ways possible. How wrong I was. In fact, I’ve never been so happy at being so wrong.
Instead, Nyaight Of The Living Cat shows just how much love the world has for cats – and how easily they would take over the planet, if they wanted to. Or if say a virus was to erupt that turned humans into cats in they touched you. Which, yes, is the premise here. They aren’t zombies, per say, and they don’t eat your flesh or crave your brains. They’re just cats, playful cats, that turn those that they touch into other cats until there nothing but cats, cats, cats!
I know for fact that there are humans amongst us that would gleefully lay down and become a feline of their own free will. Which is also where the comic genius of this show comes into play. Our heroes, who like in any zombie film are back a group of rag tag strangers brought together through tragedy and a sense of survival, are powerless to fight back due to their love of cats. In fact, they take measures to ensure their cat assailants are safe but leaving doors that would otherwise trap them in a building, for example, wedged open.
Because everyone loves cats.
The first notion that struck me was that Nyaight Of The Living Cat is absolutely ludicrous and bordering that fine line between sanity and madness. A line that I often like to cross when it comes to cinema. Its basic premise is sheer lunacy. The probability of such a thing accruing, practically nil. Yet everything about this show is damn right perfect. It’s hilarious. The animation is brilliant. It manages to show humans at their best despite the characters being in peril. Must importantly, this is the most fun I have had sat in a cinema in… well, maybe ever.
I laughed with reckless abandon – as did everyone in the packed theatre. Nyaight Of The Living Cat is ridiculously cute and funny. I can’t imagine how anyone wouldn’t fall in love with this show as quickly as I had. Tears rolled down my face and my ribs hurt from laughing. Having seen this at the always incredible Fantasia festival was a treat beyond words, and already, just three days into this years programming, we have been priviledged to some absolute gems (see my review of Fragment).
I’m not sure if the intention was to poke fun at the zombie genre or if it was just low hanging fruit, to transform that into something so silly as cats turning people into cats – and I don’t care either. This is such a gloriously great idea that has turned out so brilliantly, and there’s still more to come. Everyone and their cat needs to see this. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.
Read More:
>> Deep Sea at Fantasia Festival 2023
>> Hundreds Of Beavers at Fantasia Festival 2023
>> The First Slam Duck at Fantasia Festival 2023
Even the title, a pun on the word “nya”, the Japanese equivalent of “meow”, was perfect for Montreal’s Fantasia festival which meows before the start of every screening shown at the festival. No really. (Find out why here!)
Episodes of Nyaight Of The Living Cat air every Sunday on Crunchy Roll and I personally can’t wait to see where this wacky show goes – I am fully hooked on Nyaight Of The Living Cat. I hope there’s a blu ray release in the future, and if there is, I will be buying a copy for sure.
