I’ve been hearing rumblings about this one for quite some time but since my brain makes connections in the most arcane and awkward ways I attached a bizarre preconception to it (something to do with it sounding similar to Cat Soup, which is a show I’ve considered watching for the Yuasa factor but never summoned the courage to try…go figure). It turns out to be nothing like whatever I expected, anyway. It’s all about rabbits with guns.
Cat Shit One is very, very different from pretty much everything else around right now, which is reason enough for me to recommend it on its own. The idea of anthropomorphised rabbits rescuing hostages from armed terrorist camels is indeed absurd but it was surprisingly easy for me to forget the sight of cottontails twitching prior to an all-out firefight because it was, with this quirk aside, hell of a lot of fun. So much so that I was able to accept the concept and simply enjoy the action.
I’m reluctant to call the character designs a gimmick for a number of reasons. Firstly, the very sight of them looks bloody weird and plays into the hands of my twisted sense of humour. Secondly, the use of animals’ facial features cleverly avoids the Uncanny Valley you often encounter with CGI/motion capture efforts featuring human characters. The third reason wasn’t evident in the opening episode, but it leaves things open for a deeper message later on: portraying the various factions as different species of animals avoids sensitive issues and potentially serious ramifications for the production team.
That is to say, it’s fine to see rabbits and camels slugging it out but using different nationalities and/or ethnic groups of humans in a similar situation would pretty much force the writers down a serious route and run the risk of offending people (and let’s face it, offending people in this day and age is like shooting fish in a barrel. If the barrel was small. And the fish were already dead). This way, they can be as serious or as jovial as they like and choose whether or not to make genuine Real Life social or political statements as they see fit.
I didn’t detect any meaningful subtext at this stage – it’s basically twenty or so minutes of Rambo-style military action and very few clues concerning the background, but for now that’s enough for me to declare it to be excellent. I suspect this first episode is merely an introduction to the main characters, plus a good advertisment for funding of later instalments; with it being an ONA like Eve no Jikan, we can only speculate about when the subsequent outings will be ready for airing. I reckon there’s a merchandise opportunity for Cat Shit One plushies…
It’s more Black Hawk Down than Watership Down to be sure, but I was really impressed with the way everything was rendered. I used to play Operation Desert Storm 2 with friends at uni, and the general feel of Cat Shit One is like that and the war movies I sometimes watch with my dad (although it might take some convincing to get him to watch CGI rabbits). Considering how it’s an indie piece a la Studio Rikka I was mightily impressed with the CGI – it’s near as dammit to flawless visually, which is no mean feat considering how the big-budget Appleseed led the field five or six years ago.
This includes the details regarding the weaponry and vehicles: it’s telling that the closing credits include a name for the role of ‘military research’, and damn does it show. The terminology, tactics and equipment all look wonderfully convincing, just like a classy first-person shooter or bona fide war movie. The support chopper for instance looks like one of the Russian Mi-24s, which made me wonder who these guys really work for…a private organisation kitted out with export gear, I expect.
The opening credits are, ignoring the obvious factor of the animal cast, just like a proper war movie too. It comes across as being a pastiche with every sign of a few tricks up its sleeve, but is holding them back while the audience adjusts to its quirky premise. The pacing makes the whole episode one long adrenaline rush but at this point it doesn’t really tell you one hell of a lot: Perky is GAR, Botasky is a bit of a wimp but delivers the goods when it matters and the overall experience is a lot of straighforward fun.
Even so, there isn’t much plot to speak of here. Perky and Botasky are sent in on a mission that we see them carry out from start to finish but we’re told nothing about who the CMS are, why they’re there or even the enemy’s objectives. I really ought to read Kobayashi’s original manga because the potential for that socio-political commentary is really interesting to me and the Vietnam era story arcs might fill in the gaps plot-wise. Sadly initial searching suggests that it fell into Out-Of-Print Hell along with a lot of ADV’s titles so it’ll be scanlation-only for the time being.
So, yeah. Cat Shit One has my wholehearted approval. It’s bad-ass and tremendously entertaining, but how the follow-up episodes can build on this is anyone’s guess. I’m certainly expecting a long wait before anything of the sort happens because the artistic side of things strikes me as very time-consuming and labour-intensive. Because such a lot of care and attention has been poured into the production, it’s worth checking out but if the characterisation and plotting can keep the pace I reckon we’ll have another cult classic on our hands.
I’m glad to see there were others who thought it was badass. I saw a lot of people saying it was ‘fluff’ or that the lack of a plot made it ‘weak’. I think that those accusations are trying to judge the thing by a metric it was never meant to fit into. This isn’t your standard anime series trying to tell a story as best it can with what little it can use of the animation medium. This is a thing that actually needs to have this kind of CGI and high-grade animation in order to show what it wants to show, which is a battle. A story was never the point.
I thought this thing was amazing because it was the perfect battle, something I’ve longed for, for a very long time. Actually, I think one of my issues with action films is when they try too hard to have a plot and don’t have enough focus on kick-ass battles (this is part of why 300 ruled so hard, because the plot was more of a footnote.) Cat Shit One put all of its energy into making one of the coolest, most well-directed and intense military firefights I’ve seen in any medium, and accomplished it with excellent CG and a couple of superb vocal performances. I couldn’t have asked for anything else.
My concern is that the novelty of seeing furry creatures brutally shooting each other up isn’t going to last for very long (it was pretty much up by half way through this episode, for mine), so they really need to fall back on a solid plot for it to remain interesting. I really liked the first half because the gritty tone and unapologetic violence made for a great contrast with the small, cute and furry character designs and aesthetics. The second half was really predictable, though, in large part because the situation and the odds became ridiculous. It lost a lot of tension, because the more numbers they were fighting against, the more likely it was going to be that they were going to “miraculously” escape unharmed (which eventually happened). The slow-mo scenes were particularly poorly done, because they telegraphed exactly what would happen.
War stories should never be predictable, because war on the front line isn’t predictable. The best war movies are incredibly tense and thrilling because anyone can die at any moment, without warning and often without reason. The situations and events are believable. The second half of this episode wasn’t. There’s a counter-intuitive trade-off in war stories, because, given the conventions of the genre, the less believable you make a battle, the more predictable it becomes.
So yeah, I don’t think this works as a comedy because the humour relies on the novelty of the contrast which isn’t going to last much longer (if it even has lasted to this point), and I don’t think it works as action if the battle scenes are unbelievable and/or predictable. I so badly want for this to be good because it’s easily the most distinct and creative new anime. But it absolutely must be more than just rabbits with guns to get there. I think I can see some influence in it from the recent wave of relevant American films about the current Middle East conflicts. I just hope it takes more inspiration from Kathryn Bigelow than Michael Bay.
“…let’s face it, offending people in this day and age is like shooting fish in a barrel. If the barrel was small. And the fish were already dead.”
What the animals are perceived to represent is already being picked apart. I could care less though, this was a mini action movie to me and I couldn’t have been more entertained. I’m not familiar with the manga material, which is fine by since I like to be surprised, so I’m wondering how these animals are going to progress as characters. Or even if they’re going to progress as characters. Regardless I’m excited for the next installment.
@digitalboy: yeah, this worked for me in the same way that 300 did. Improbable, comic book-style but wonderfully cool action that makes no pretence at being anything other than what it merely *is*.
@sorrow-kun: as far as action is concerned, I suppose your mileage may vary in terms of how well the battle scenes work for you. If later episodes recycle the same thing over and over I could well agree that it’s no longer interesting, but in a mere twenty minutes I think all the writers intended was to show a bit of cool looking combat and leave the explanations and storyline for another time.
@DonKengolJones: from what I’ve read about the manga, it’s very thoroughly researched, the choices of animals are significant and and generally it has a lot more to say. This ONA episode looked and sounded great (which is why I can see Digitalboy’s point), but there’s plenty of potential still to be tapped (which is why I can see Sorrow-kun’s point too). Time will tell!
I honestly rolled around on the floor laughing when I saw the title for this one, but under your recommendation gave it a shot anyway, and damn was it entertaining. There’s little in the way of genuine substance yet and I’m not quite sure I’m fully over the whole ‘rabbits with guns’ thing, but as far as 20 minutes all out action goes it was pretty awesome. Now to see where it goes…
The usage of rabbits is actually an intentional pun – in Japanese, rabbit is “usagi”. If the romanization is restructured just so, it reads:
U.S.A. G.I. – “United States of America Government-Issue” (or General Infantry, if you prefer).
this should be on the next Call of Duty game as a hidden accomplishment, like nazi zombies was for COD:WAW! rabbits with guns=coolness!