English Dub Review: Cat’s Eye “I Wish We Could Stay As We Are”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Hitomi’s role in Cat’s Eye strains her relationship with Toshio, her lover and a detective.

Our Take:

At this point, we’re all aware that the sisters’ secret identities would affect their everyday lifestyles in some capacity.  While that’s certainly the case in the previous episodes, especially with Detective Asatani around, this episode seals this deal the most, notably through Hitomi’s forbidden romance with the detective who’s trying to catch her.  It certainly doesn’t help that Asatani is stuck in Toshio’s brain while they’re working together to catch Cat’s Eye, leading Hitomi to question her relationship.  With this forbidden love in play and a few obstacles beyond the robberies, the series injected more suspense into the sisters’ attempts to conceal their identities and the challenges that test their bonds.  It’s enough to compensate for the repetition in the episode’s structures, even if some of those elements aren’t as effective as others.

This episode marks another compelling example of this case, with Hitomi and Toshio having to join forces to escape from the pit after an escape plan gone wrong.  Fortunately for Hitomi, Toshio’s temporary blindness kept him from seeing her true identity, resulting in her relying on writing on his palm to communicate with him.  There were also some moments where Hitomi was talking in her mind without writing on Toshio’s palm, and he was able to pick up on that for some reason.  I didn’t realize that Toshio is also a mind reader, though that may not excuse him for being a big idiot.  

Those moments didn’t make much sense from a writing perspective, but they provide enough tenderheartedness to underscore Toshio’s love for Hitomi despite him being paired with Asatani.  Although that doesn’t mean this will be the last time we won’t see any more instances that’ll test their forbidden relationship.  It’s also a suitable way to cap off the first six episodes of the latest iteration of Cat’s Eye, with the series scheduled to return the day after Christmas.  While I can see where the narrative repetition came from, I still find it to be both an entertaining reboot of the franchise and a welcoming introduction worth stealing for newcomers.