Samurai Pizza Cats

File:Samurai Pizza Cats logo.png

Cover of the Region 1 DVD box set by Discotek Media.

Template:Nihongo is a Japanese anime series produced by Tatsunoko Production.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Usurped (dead)</ref> The series originally aired in Japan on TV Tokyo from February 1, 1990, to February 12, 1991, for a total of 54 episodes. The creators stated that there was going to be a spin-off series, Template:Nihongo. The series is known for its cultural humor consisting of Japanese puns, pop culture, and fourth-wall breaking.

Saban Entertainment picked up the North American rights to the series in 1991 and produced a 52-episode English adaptation.

The dub initially aired on YTV in Canada in 1992–1993, then later aired in US syndication in 1996–1997. Saban's distribution rights to the series expired on November 12, 2000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Crunchyroll began streaming the series on December 27, 2015.<ref name="Crunchyroll">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The series was removed in 2025. The series became available for streaming to Amazon Prime subscribers in late 2018. In 2020, it became available on Tubi. In 2021, it became available on Peacock.

Plot

The series is set in Little Tokyo (Edoropolis, a portmanteau of "Edo" and "metropolis"), a mechanical city that fuses feudal Japanese culture with contemporary culture populated by cybernetic anthropomorphic "animaloids" (or animal androids). The city is notionally led by shōgun Empreror Fred (Iei-Iei Tokugawa), but as he is a doddering eccentric, the actual leadership is in the hands of his neurotic daughter Tokugawa Usako and a council. The council is headed by the ambitious prime minister Seymour "The Big" Cheese (Kitsunezuka Koon-no-Kami), a fox who constantly plots to overthrow the Shogun with the help of his trusted advisor Jerry Atric (Karasu Gennari-sai), and Bad Bird (Karamaru), the leader of an army of ninja crows.

Unknown to the prime minister, council member Big Al-Dente (Inuyama Wanko-no-Kami), the commander of the Palace Guard, learns of his designs on leadership, but is unable to prosecute him for treason because of his plausible deniability. Instead, Inuyama enlists the services of Speedy Cerviche (Yattarou), Polly Esther (Pururun) and Guido Anchovy (Sukashii), cat ninja who work in the city's pizzeria, with their operator Francine (Otama). Known collectively as the Samurai Pizza Cats (Nyankī, a play on the Japanese word for a cat's meow and the term "Yankee"), they are assigned to stop The Big Cheese and his evil henchmen's plans to take over Little Tokyo.<ref name="clements2006"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Clements">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Page needed

Production and release

English-language version

When Saban licensed the Japanese version, they learned that because the original show hadn't performed well in Japan, Tatsunoko had not preserved the original production documents.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> This led to the localization team being handed scripts that were either translated poorly, not translated at all, or missing entirely. The writers essentially had to assemble a show out of 54 episodes of raw Japanese footage and what little production materials they did have. However, they were also relatively unrestricted in how they produced the dub and chose to make it more blatantly comedic with contemporary pop culture references, puns, meta-jokes, sardonic humor, and fourth wall breaks in almost every episode. Script writer and voice actor Michael McConnohie commented in response to a fan question about the production: "There were no chains upon us. We were free to look at it and say 'That would be funny... that might work... we'll do that! Who's gonna tell us not to?'"<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The theme song contains the line "As soon as someone finds the script, we might begin the show", a reference to the lack of proper translations given to Saban for production on the American version.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

The English version of the series first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on August 31, 1991,<ref>Date: Saturday, Aug. 31, 1991 Publication: The Times (London, England) Issue: 64113</ref> with repeats continuing until 1995. In Canada, the series first appeared in 1992, on YTV,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and in 1996, in the United States, on first-run syndication.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The series was broadcast on Australian television on the weekday Seven Network morning kid's wrapper programme Agro's Cartoon Connection, from April 1992. A repeat run occurred in the same time slot in early 1994.

Madman Entertainment released the show on DVD for Australia initially in two collections, with four discs in each set. Collection 1, containing episodes 1–26, was released on October 16, 2013;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> collection 2 containing episodes 27–52, was released on December 4, 2013.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A box set of the complete series was released by Madman on April 6, 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2012-13, Discotek Media announced the release of the show in both the original Japanese-language version and the North American English-language version dubbed by Saban. DVDs were released in region 1 format, with the Japanese version in Dolby Stereo 2.0 and English version in Dolby Digital Mono. The Kyatto-Ninden Teyandee: Complete Uncut Japanese Language Collection was released on April 30, 2013 and the English-dubbed version, Samurai Pizza Cats: Complete English Language TV Series Collection – 8 Disc Set, was released on July 30, 2013.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Kyatto-Ninden Teyandee: Complete Uncut Japanese Language Collection set includes all of the 54 original episodes (including the two clip-show episodes that were never dubbed into English) while the Samurai Pizza Cats: Complete English Language TV Series Collection set includes all 52 English-dubbed episodes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

A Blu-ray version, titled Samurai Pizza Cats: The Complete Collection, was released on January 19, 2016. This release featured every episode in standard definition on a single disk.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Music

The incidental music was composed by Kenji Kawai. The opening theme was titled Template:Nihongo) while the ending theme was titled "To Be Yourself", both performed by Reina Yazawa. Ami Itabashi, the singer of the ending song of the Macross OVAs, sang the insert songs.

Soundtracks

A soundtrack CD titled Template:Nihongo was released on September 21, 1990.

A second soundtrack CD, Template:Nihongo was released on December 21, 1990.

Merchandise

Video games

In 1991, Tecmo (now known as Koei Tecmo) published a video game based on the anime for the Family Computer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was officially released in Japan only but was bootlegged outside Japan as Ninja Cat. Although the game was never officially released in the West, an English fan-translation (with characters' names and places adapted to those from the Samurai Pizza Cats dub) is available via a fan-made ROM patch.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A standalone handheld LSI game (similar to Nintendo's Game & Watch) was also made.

Players take the role of the three main cats and Otasuke members, who can be switched to at any time and have special abilities to progress through the game. The game features most of the characters in the series as well as an additional villain, a mysterious scientist named Dr. Purple (Dr. パープ) who shows up later on in the game and appears to ally with Koon-no-Kami.

The main characters were considered at one point to appear in the Wii fighting game Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The game's producer, Ryota Niitsuma, was quoted in an interview as saying: "One of the main anime we got more requests for than any others was Samurai Pizza Cats... I wanted to see that, but we couldn't reach an agreement."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

An action-platformer game titled Samurai Pizza Cats: Blast from the Past! is under development, set for a 2026 release on Windows and home consoles.<ref name="NL25">Template:Cite web</ref>

Speedy is also playable with Guido and Polly as supports in the arcade version of the game Jitsu Squad that was unveiled in Amusement Expo 2024 in Las Vegas.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

An action role-playing video game, known as Samurai Pizza Cats: Blast from the Past!, is currently in development. Developed by Blast Zero and published by Red Dunes Games, the game is slated for a 2026 release on Windows and all major home consoles.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Almost all of the show's English and Japanese cast is set to reprise their roles, with the known exception of Guido Anchovy (Sukashi), who will be voiced by Seiichiro Yamashita in Japanese.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Home video releases

Some episodes were released on video in Japan, but a complete release of the show was held up for many years owing to poor sales. It was rumored that the lack of a DVD release was due to the original masters of some episodes being lost, but this proved not to be the case. Starchild Records released the complete series on DVD in Japan on August 8, 2012, as part of a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Tatsunoko.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The limited edition set sold well, placing second in the national animation DVD sales charts the week of its release.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In North America, Discotek Media announced on March 12, 2012, that they had licensed the home video rights to the series with plans to release both the original Japanese version with English subtitles and Saban's English dub in separate box sets for each version.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Japanese language box set was released on April 30, 2013, while the English dubbed version was released on July 30, 2013.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On May 16, 2016, anime streaming service Crunchyroll began streaming the show under license from Discotek with improved quality subtitles for at least six episodes while the rest used the DVD footage.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As of May 23, 2016, all 54 episodes are available for free users.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Toys

Toys and model kits were released in Japan and Europe by Bandai, the latter usually being reboxed versions of the prior. Action figures were made for the Nyanki and the Otasuke (the Japanese originals came as model kits while the European figures came pre-assembled). There were large and small (Gachapon-sized), rubber-like figures, as well as playsets for the smaller figures, including the Nyago King and the pizza parlor.

Manga

A tie-in manga by Yoshimi Hamada was serialized in Comic Bom Bom in 1990.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A sequel manga that took place after the end of the television series was released in 1994. The manga was made by Tatsuya Souma.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Comic books

Samurai Pizza Cats comics were released as back-up stories in Saban Powerhouse (published by Valiant/Acclaim) which ran for two issues in 1997.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In August 2025, it was announced a graphic novel series is currently in the works from Nakama Press and Mad Cave Studios. The first volume will be published on April 7, 2026.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Other appearances

• In the 4th episode of the Tatsunoko magical girl parody anime Nurse Witch Komugi-chan R, Komugi Nakahara is at a ninja-themed festival taking a picture of her family behind a standee of the Nyankee. Komugi shouts "Himitsu Ninja Tai" and her family responds "Nyankee".
• Yattarou makes an appearance as a playable character in the video game, Jitsu Squad. Pururun and Sukashii also make an appearance as his assist characters.

External links

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• Template:Anime News Network