English Dub Season Review: Cat’s Eye Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Three Kisugi sisters—Hitomi (Erin Yvette), Rui (Alejandra Reynoso), and Ai (Ari Thrash)—run a successful cafe called “Cat’s Eye” in Tokyo.  But at night, they lead a double life as formidable art thieves, stealing valuable works of art that belonged to their missing father.

Our Take:

Cat’s Eye is an ONA adaptation of a manga series written and illustrated by Tsukasa Hojo.  It is directed by Yoshifumi Sueda, with Hayashi Mori writing the screenplay.  It is produced by Liden Films, known for producing shows such as Senyu, Berserk, Tokyo Revengers, Call of the Night, and Kotaro Lives Alone.  Chief animation director Yosuke Yabumoto designed the characters, while Yuki Hayashi composed the music.

We’ve had a pretty impressive run with anime remakes recently.  Based on what I’ve seen, they not only reintroduced the classic anime IPs to a new generation of fans but also highlighted aspects of their previous adaptations that made them memorable years ago, for better or worse.  Such remakes as Yaiba: Samurai Legend and Ranma 1/2 effectively utilized upgraded animation styles to give their old-school finesses a fresher yet similar coat of paint.  While some elements may be a bit discomforting in today’s context compared to previous adaptations, particularly those in Yaiba, they still prove to be entertaining adaptations that reinvigorate the manga from the late 80s.  Now, we have another anime remake of an 80s manga seeking to continue this booming trend by stealing the hearts of fans old and new.  

Cat’s Eye is a manga series about three sisters, Hitomi, Rui, and Ai, who run a cafe while hiding their true identities as art thieves attempting to steal artifacts belonging to their missing father.  At the same time, they strive to evade capture from Toshio Utsumi (Alex Bankier), a clumsy police officer who’s also Hitomi’s boyfriend.  It’s a straightforward cat-and-mouse chase that’s successful enough to transition from the pages to the screen, including an anime series that ran from 1983 to 1985.  It also received three live-action adaptations, including the 1997 film by Kaizo Hayashi and the recent French television series, as well as a crossover ONA movie with Lupin III.  So, you could say that these formidable women have made their presence known through their calling cards for years in the media.

Following the crossover film, the Cat’s Eye sisters returned from their retirement for a new ONA adaptation in hopes of retaining their existence.  Simply titled Cat’s Eye, the ONA follows the same premise as the previous adaptations of Tsukasa Hojo’s manga: the trio secretly tries to steal back the art that belonged to their father, Michael Heinz, while evading the clueless police force led by Toshio.  As they strive to maintain their identities, the sisters eventually confront the organization behind Michael’s disappearance, the Cranaff Syndicate. 

Much like my experience with the recent Yaiba remake, I hadn’t seen a single adaptation of Cat’s Eye before the latest ONA version.  In fact, this version was my first exposure to the source material, which seemed to have inspired similar “girl trio” media like Totally Spies and even KPop Demon Hunters.  So, this review will be coming from a first-timer who has never seen the 1980s anime or any other versions of Cat’s Eye.  Like other recent anime remakes, the newest version of Cat’s Eye faced the challenge of respecting the source material while delivering a worthy adaptation that would appeal to newcomers as well as its fans.  As a newcomer myself, I thought it did the job well, providing an entertaining and consistently charismatic addition to the action-crime genre.  However, it’s not without a few bumps that threaten to derail this heist.

The series, consisting of twelve episodes, follows a typical episodic structure.  The sisters run the cafe, they discover that one of their father’s paintings is stored in a museum, they retrieve it while outsmarting Toshio and the police, and boom!  Roll credits.  The sisters do run into a couple of challenges that risk their exposure, including those involving special investigator Mitsuko Asatani and the gentleman thief Masato Kamiya.  Besides that, the series showcases that it’s business as usual for these thieving sisters, mainly in the first six episodes.  The 1980s anime has received similar criticism for its repetitive episodic plots, and I can understand why someone would feel the same way about this version’s familiar approach.  Fortunately, it has enough merits in its stakes, comedy, and the sisters’ endearing chemistry to make these repetitive heists less of a chore than actually catching the thieves.

The second half improved on the series’s repetition a bit by raising the stakes of its overall plot.  With the reveal of the Cranaff Syndicate, the girls’ undercover skills are put to the test further as they strive to retrieve Michael’s paintings that Cranaff stole and passed off as his own.  It still follows the same structure as previous episodes in terms of their heists, but the second half offers plenty of moments that are more valuable for those patient enough to endure the first six episodes, especially the final three.  Those last three episodes involved the Cat’s Eye investigating a private island owned by the Toyo Foundation and confronting the Syndicate’s leader, Kaibara.  They may not deliver a perfect conclusion to the season, but the stakes provided were entertaining enough to retain the anime’s fun quality.

Previous adaptations of Cat’s Eye featured numerous voice actors portraying the titular trio and their personalities.  Hitomi’s athletic side matches her compassion; Rui’s elegance and strategic mind complement her leadership; and Ai’s tomboyish, inventive side adds levity to the team.  Erin Yvette, Alejandra Reynoso, and Ari Thrash took over those roles in the ONA version, and they did a pretty decent job conveying the personalities that define these characters.  They delivered plenty of charm, humor, and even warmth in their chemistry, making the thieving sisters fun to steal the paintings with, especially Thrash’s charismatic take on Ai.  Alex Bankier also did well with his vocal performance as Toshio, conveying the detective’s clumsy, gullible nature with amusing results.  As for the animation from Liden Films, it’s a suitable display of color and style that complements the action, notably the chase sequences, and the character designs seen in previous adaptations.  In short, it has the same presentation as the 1983 anime, with updated visuals that make it both modern and nostalgic.  There is some CGI in certain scenes, but they’re passable enough to make them look less uncanny.

Overall, the ONA adaptation of Cat’s Eye is another valuable painting worth stealing, serving as a welcome return for the titular cat burglar trio.  Like the previous adaptations, the episodic heists in this version can be a bit repetitive in structure, especially in the season’s first half, only to be saved by the last six episodes.  Fortunately, they’re not to the point of being criminal.  It’s an entertaining, light-hearted series of heists that falls in line with other projects in the action-crime genre, yet it packs enough amusement and charm to pardon its similarities.  Those familiar with the franchise, notably the 1983 anime, would be more than willing to rejoin the Cat’s Eye trio in stealing more paintings.  As for the newcomers, including myself, they’ll be impressed by the cuddliness of its voice cast, concept, and presentation long enough to join in on the action as well.  If a second season were to happen, I wouldn’t mind returning to this anime to confront the sisters once more.