Do I have a thing for anime Cat Girls lately?

 

I grew up with dogs. My family always had dogs. One or two at most. But cats were not something we had as kids. I think it might be a Scottish thing. My dad, and my uncles, all seemed to hate cats. I did have a cat when I was around 18. A black tailless Manx. I don't remember how I got him. Maybe a relative (they are originally from Scotland). I named him Salem, after Sabrina the Teenage Witches cat in the comics. I got him right after a bad breakup with my high school sweetheart. Salem barely made it out of kittenhood when I got home from a weekend trip and got told by my parents he got smooshed by a car. Knowing my parents, there was probably a 50/50 chance they just didn't want a cat around the house. Or since they were Scottish, I should say "hoose."  It was a period in my life I thought the world was trying to get me to off myself. And since I was raised by European immigrant Catholics, I thought God was too. Man, we sure had it easy as teens, eh? But anyway, I never had another cat. 

I did like cat things though. I remember using Cat Lord for one campaign or another back in the day. I think as some tie in with Lovecraft's Cats of Ulthar or whatever it was. Of all the cool things in MM2 he might have been my favorite entry at one time. 

Dogs had a superpower or two, but to me cats were off the charts. The flexibility, the agility. When they got stuck in a tree I was all like "you're Spider-Man. Just climb down!"

Yeah, for most of my life I occasionally had cat things pretty much just in games. In the 80's I played in some sessions on and off of the supers rpg "Supergame" over a couple of years, being a part of initial play testing at Aero Hobbies in Santa Monica as a kid, and a couple or three years after that a few times at the home of some friends of Aero owner Gary Switzer. (look here for some tidbits on my youthful Aero days). It used Supergame as the system, since they were all friends with the creators. I remember almost nothing. Well, two things. One, when I scribbled a pic of my character (I am no artist), one of the "ladies" declared that Aimee, the co-creator and artist of the game had "nothing to worry about." 

Her work was so groundbreaking,
everybody should have worried

The other thing I remember is my character Manx. I don't think I had an origin, he was simply a young cat human hybrid. A year or two later, when we were doing V and V or Champs, one of my buddies tried his hand at some sessions, and I used Manx for them. That would be it for Manx for several decades. He left my gaming zeitgeist. 

Until summer last year, that is. I was getting in on a handful of games to learn the system. One of them was set in Marvel 1980 (two guys from this would form the beginning of my current group). It was an eager effort by the GM, who was new to it as well but giving it a go. The games were OK, but the three or so session we had only occurred every month or so. The guy had young kids and school or something. Also it was based on stuff going on in the comics, and our characters to me felt like sidekicks to existing ones. 

But what came out of it was me using Manx again after all these many years. I gave him a last name: McAllister. And a full origin. Manx had a Scottish Father and a German mother. The dad was a physicist, and she a bio-chemist. World renown, and pioneers in Quantum science. They had built prototype teleport pods in the late 1960's. As a kid Manx and his pet cat went inside a pod and it got activated. Boom, catman. 

Yep. 

At 21 years old Manx McAllister was a child of rich and famous scientists, and going to college in New York, himself a brilliant scientist. I reconsidered his look, which back in the day was a black manx (like my old cat Salem) covered in fur. For this I considered a look akin to Fritz the Cat.

Yeah. No. 

I settled on a far more human look. I yoinked the appearance of Manx from a character from another pornographic source, an old funny animal comic Omaha The Cat Dancer. 

I will post deets about those Manx related sessions of the current campaign next, but during the games last year I was already planning to use Manx, and his family, for this campaign. But its 2046, so Manx McAllister is 86 years old. 

Got a little more human looking in old age.

For me the fun was not just revisiting Manx, but was in creating his family. Manx was CEO of McAllister Scientific, a research compound that are pioneers in Quantum engineering. I conceived of his son Manx jr, who I decided would be a biologist like his grandmother. He only appeared on a view screen in the sessions at Manx's birthday party, as I had him doing research in The Savage Land (hopefully to be a place visited in future sessions), but I imagined him as a bit of a hedonist and ladies man.

"Hello, laaaaadies..."

But now we get to the Cat Girls thing I promised in the post title. I needed Manx to have grandkids. I looked back and remembered two of my first cat girl crushes from way back. The were named Una Puma and Ana Puma, from an anime called "Tank Police".

Their most iconic scene was this (NOT work safe):

They were murderous criminals. My McAllister twins would be brilliant quantum scientist outside of party-happy "woo girls" the world's foremost physicists, and actual good girls. 

Party time.

Science time. 

I just wanted interesting relatives of Manx, was not necessarily going for the sexy. But this may have been when I started realizing, though no furry I, that I might like cat chicks. 

And as the fates would have it, weeks later I discovered Chainsmoker Cat. 

She's not the sexy one on the show. 

from the Wiki:

Set in a modern-day world where cat-people, known as "beastfolks", co-exist with humans, the series follows the daily misadventures of Yaniko, a catgirl who lives in a small apartment building in Nyagamihara (based on Sagamihara), Japan, and is addicted to smoking, regardless of the damage to her environment, her psyche, or her family. As the series progresses, Yaniko's friends and other troubled catgirls with their own issues are introduced, along with their human landlord, who tolerates their antics.

That's it. I watched a ton of youtube clips before watching a couple episodes (its on Netflix, but I watched elsewhere). But the opening titles I saw on youtube had me hooked right off the jump.

Despite being about addiction, poverty, and opression, the show is funny as hell. Yaniko cares about nothing but smoking ciggies. As the title would suggest. She cannot go more than a few minutes without lighting up. It is her one true joy. 

The addiction: Yani's entire life is cigarettes. I have never seen a ciggy addict like her. Heavy smokers have stinky house from the smoke, but otherwise normal people with a life and job etc. But I think Yaniko is also chronically lazy. And very Gen Z. She gets anxious to the point of being sick from the thought of having to clean her place and take a bath so her sister can visit (which young, put together sis does. While wearing a hazmat suit). 

The poverty: Yani can't keep a job because she can't go very long without a smoke. "When I smoke I forget my worries" she says. Most of the other cat girls, addicts or now, can keep themselves together. But none of them make much money when they do work because...

Opression: Maybe the most interesting thing about the setting, a normal Japanese working class neighborhood, but apparently in this Japan there are "Beastfolk," and they are an underclass. They can have jobs, but only menial labor. They go to school with humans, live with humans, go to bars with humans, but in one scene where Yani plays soccer with some kinds (these scenes happen on the way home from a ciggy run), and a couple of cops put an end to it. And there are rules about cross marriage. 

So the beastmen, or "Anthros" which I think is the in setting scientific name for them, often dress well and try to fit in. I'm only like three sessions in, so not sure if their are different drinking fountains, bus and train sections, and race specific diners. But I don't think so. It's just sort of a part of life. The cat girls are second class like its just the nature of things. I have yet to see human on anthro violence. But there was a mention that the cats can jump 8 meters. They have fangs. So maybe the humans are just keeping them down enough to not get killed by them.

Over episodes new cat friends appear, some living in Yani's building. Most have their own addictions going on. Alcohol, drugs, video games. I assume later episodes have sex and other addictions. 

The show is super controversial right now. In Japan for sure. "Freeters" are looked down upon like the cat girls in that world, and there is fear it is glorifying a "nothing" lifestyle. In the US Netflix is getting hit by complaints about the show. Can you imagine? All the shit Netflix gets up to. 

OK, I don't think I have a cat lady thing. No more than other things. I mean, a cat girl is better than a dog girl, I love dogs, but. Sort of unclean. A couple of cat girls in an old anime, Maxine and Tabetha McAllister in the game, then discovering this show is a coinkydink. I like a lot of anime girls. Female images in real life or in art are appealing to me. Nothing wrong with that. And the thing is, looking at aime versions is where its OK to stare. 

I grew up in Los Angeles. Downtown. Hollywood. My native Venice Beach. So I have seen and know people like on this show. Folk with demons. Maybe like us.  If you live in a big town or a city then you know. I can handle it and think its funny to see how Yani fails. You prob can too. But farts, poops, vomit (oddly always rainbow colored) are the order of the day. But Ren and Stimpy prepared us for that stuff, eh?

Next post will be about the session where I introduce the group to the McAllister Family and the scientist shenanigans they get up to. My version of "The Backrooms" is involved. Its where the first real bloody combats goes down, with some characters getting severely injured. They got tested hard. Stay tooned.

Cheers

Inuyasha - my latest Anime Obsession

 

Inuyasha is a manga and anime from the early 2000's. The manga was created by Rumiko Takahashi, the same lady who created one of my long-time guilty pleasures from way back, Ranma 1/2. Though Inuyasha has some familiar humor as found in Ranma, this work is far more dark in tone. 

I first noticed the anime years ago. It was on Fox Kids or Toonami or something. I just looked for a couple minutes, shrugged, and moved on. There were so many animes on in these TV blocks at the time; Yugi Oh, Pokemon, etc and most did not appeal to me on the surface. 

Then the same thing happed that happened to me with Lupin the Third and Sailor Moon the last two or three years: Pluto TV added a channel dedicated to Inuyasha. On Pluto you get commercials, but you also get uncut and uncensored original Japanese versions with subtitles. 

So I started watching. And it only took a couple of episodes to hook me in. Epic combat, an interesting backdrop, amusing humor, and cute female characters. It has been maybe three weeks, and just like those other anime properties I got to love through Pluto, I'm pretty much just watching episodes here and there more or less at random. The channel left on as I go about my day around the house. I'm fairly hip to the basic story and characters and am still learning. I may actually start watching from the beginning, I'm so into it at this point. I think it will appeal to DnD folk in large part because the battles seem like high level DnD...strong characters using abilities and powerful weapons. 

So the story is set against the Sengoku Period of Japan. This was a chaotic and violent time in the 1400's that went on for a long time. No central power and feudal warlords in endless battles against each other. You actually do not see a lot of that, the human factor mostly being encountered in small put upon villages or bandits in out of the way places. Farmers and such trying to get by during these troubled times.

During this time there is also the threat of demons, or more traditionally "Yokai" which is a term that encompasses a great range of supernatural entities which includes various spirit folk including ghosts and traditional Oni demons. The presence of a powerful wish granting item called the Shikon Jewel has masses of demons appearing to claim it. 

50 Years prior to the start of the main story, a half demon dog half human named Inuyasha and the human priestess he loves, Kikyo, are manipulated by the powerful spider demon Naraku into a confrontation over the jewel that ends up with Inuyasha being pinned to a tree by an arrow. He hangs there for 50 years. 

Kagome is a 14-year-old schoolgirl in our time period who lives at a shrine her family runs. 

She discovers a magical well on the property that is a gateway to the era of Inuyasha, and she also happens to be the reincarnation of Kikyo. Kagome enters the well and is transported, and almost instantly encounters Inuyasha on the tree. She frees him, and the half demon at first thinks it is Kikyo. The jewel ends up shattered into many pieces, and those shards are cast out across the lands. And there is your hook. 

Inuyasha and Kagome set out to find the shards, and at the same time Naraku the demon lord and pretty much every demon in the land go searching for the shards. Some already have pieces, and often gain great power from them. Kagome has the power to sense the shards, which makes things a little easier. 

 

One of Narakus many forms

Inuyasha and Kagome are of course the romantic leads. With Kagome being smart and pragmatic, and Inuyasha being a bit of a wild child prone to violence, they are often at odds. I'm not sure how yet, but Kagome early on is given the power to make Inuyasha faceplant to the ground when she utters the command "sit!" It happens a lot but is always funny. 

Miroku is a young Buddist monk and demon exorciser who joins the group first. He seem lecherous as he is always asking young women to bear his child. But it turns out he wants to continue his bloodline as he inherited a dimensional portal in his hand he calls his "wind tunnel" that can suck in hordes of demons but is also slowly killing him. 

A warrior from a tribe of demon killers names Sango joins up. She usually travels in traditional garb but puts on her cool ninja suit when combat is called for. 

Sango wield a large magical boomerang 
made out of demon bone

And of course there is Inuyasha himself. 

He is a half human, half dog demon who possesses great strength and speed, whose only real weakness is the night of the new moon when he becomes full human (with black hair). Oh, and the aforementioned face planting courtesy of Kagome.

One of Inuyashas ongoing enemies is his full demon Brother Sesshomaru, a yokai lord and one of the most powerful individuals in the series. Sess has a beef with Inu because of some inheritance issue from their late father having to do with twin swords. Sesshomaru thinks he should have gotten the powerful killing weapon Inuyasha has, whereas Sess is stuck with a sword that is not as good for fighting but can heal and resurrect individuals. Though the aloof Sesshomaru claims to not care about anybody and especially humans, he at one point uses the sword to resurrect a little village girl he takes pity on named Rin who was killed by wolves. The grateful girl follows him around for the rest of the series, and years later (in another series) he marries her and they have children. 

Sess is very protective of Rin
which ends up being his one 
true weakness. 

There are many demons to hunt and kill in the episodes, whether to collect Shikon shards or just to save a put upon village. But Naraku is the main villain throughout. Naraku, being made up of many demons (long story), he can produce offspring to serve him. My favorite I think is Kagura from the early seasons. Often called The Wind Sorceress, she can indeed control the wind and is very powerful. For whatever reason she takes the appearance of a barefoot dancing geisha girl.

She also possesses feather earrings that can turn into a giant feather she can fly around on.

Kagura is a very deep character. Though created out of Naraku's flesh, she is immediately fiercely independent of him. While carrying  out his schemes grudginly, she constantly schemes his downfall, even covertly assisting Inuyasha and company when she can. She has even outright attacked the demon lord out of anger. Kagura is enamored of Sesshomaru and believes he is the only one powerful enough to take on Naraku so also seeks his help.

There are several seasons of the show, and some years later there was a follow up a about the children of Sesshomaru and Inuyasha and Kagome.

I'm still exploring it, but its not bad. Too much of it takes place in the modern era (for some reason the kids were hidden in our time as infants and only went to the feudal era as teens). But characters from the previous series eventually pop up and these are the best bits. 

Pluto TV channels are free to watch online (with commercials but again, uncensored) so check them out. 

Cheers

I love Sailor Moon

 That is a hell of a statement. That I love Sailor Moon. But it’s true. I don’t necessarily mean the character herself. Although I often find her completely and deliriously hilarious. The true embodiment of a silly, giggly japanese schoolgirl. But she’s not my favorite Sailor Guardian/Senshi. I mean the show itself. In recent months, it’s become my favorite anime. Yep more so than Dragon Ball Z. More so than Lupin the third. 

Years ago, I had a girlfriend who loved the English dub. It was around the time I was in full-blown Dragon BallZ love and fascination. Those Sailor Moon western dubs seemed so lame. I had no idea at all about the original Japanese versions. It just seemed clearly made for little girls. But that was a conceit of the dub version. G rated. Of course DBZ did the same in their own way. Instead of being killed folk were “sent to another dimension.” But Sailor Moon was so deeply steeped in Japanese culture and tradition It was often confusing about what was going on. And it took place in real world Japan, in Juban, an actual Tokyo district where the manga author lived. The western dub removed as much of the Japanese cultural stuff as they could, and also a lot of the battles. 

But thanks to my Roku and Pluto TV I discovered the original Japanese versions, and I was gob smacked. Early last year Pluto TV added a Sailor Moon channel. Showing all five seasons in order. And I was binge watching this shit much like I did with Lupin the third.  Much like with that, I often just have it on in the background and over the months I probably watched the entire series multiple times. There’s a lot to unpack in there. in a nutshell, according to the first couple paragraphs of her Wikipedia her first few episodes are described thusly…

A 14-year-old underachieving young schoolgirl named Usagi Tsukino meets a magical talking cat named Luna. Luna gives Usagi the ability to transform into a magical alter ego — Sailor Moon — tasked with locating the moon princess and battling the evil forces of the Dark Kingdom. When Usagi transforms for the first time into her magical sailor suit with Luna's help, she overreacts and reluctantly accepts her fate, not sure what has happened to her. At the time she does not know the enemies she will face, the friends she will make, or the experiences ahead of her.^[4][5][6] As she moves forward, she accepts her fate, and realizes the importance of fighting evil.

In that first season, Sailor Moons fellow Senshi start showing up one at a time. First, she meets Mercury, then Mars, Jupiter, and finally Venus. Usagi/Moon has the adorable yet slightly annoying personality of a temperamental baby. It automatically sort of makes the other sailors who come along protective of her. Although Mars, who is pretty known no nonsense, outright hates her at first.

The original Senshi of the Inner Planets

Mercury

Sailor Mercury is the brains of the outfit. Basically a computer nerd but is good at almost anything academic. She mostly cares about studying and constantly lectures the other ones especially  on putting in the work to do good at school. Her powers are water-based and her first attack appears to be the fairly mild aqua illusion. But it comes in handy pretty often as it puts up a mist that can obscure the battlefield which is helpful because most of their opponents tend to seem to be more powerful than they are. 

Mars

Sailor Mars as I said it kind of no nonsense. She lives and works when not in school at her grandfather’s temple. She works there  as a temple girl. Back in history, they seem to have more important roles, but in modern times they seem to be more like tour guides and janitors constantly sweeping up.

 I didn’t really know anything about them until I watched this show. But the temple girls take up sort of a pop culture status in Japan. Mostly in high school or college who do it part time as a job and eventually move on from it. Mars original attack is called burning Mandala. It has nothing to do with Nelson Mandela. Apparently Mandala Is some kind of spiritual circle made up runes. In terms of how the attack is summoned and how it looks, it’s probably my favorite attack of all the scouts. 

Mars is somewhat dismissive and unapproachable, constantly criticizing Usagi/Moon and calling her out for acting like a baby. 

Jupiter

Sailor Jupiter is a tall tomboy and appears to have supernatural strength both on the athletic field or in battle. Attacks are lightning based and seem to be the strongest of all the attacks at least at first. and unlike the others, she also seems to show superior strength when she’s not in her sailor guardian form. Jupiter seems to have had a bad break up with some boy at some point in the past and it comes up from time to time. Like most of the girls she has a tendency to be boy crazy. She is the most mature of them though but bottom line at first they’re all basically 14 and 15-year-old schoolgirls.

Venus and her "Love Me Chain"

Sailor Venus is the last of the guardians to come along. And she has the most interesting background of all of them. The most experienced. In fact before the series was created, and before Sailor Moon was even conceived the creator of the manga Originally made The series about Venus. It was called sailor V. She wore The Sailor outfit but also wore a mask. In the Sailor Moon series, her background had her though originally being Japanese having lived in England for a time operating as sailor V. She fought not just monsters, but gangsters and other criminals, she was kind of famous and they made video games and action figures of her. When she meets the other guardians, the assumption is she is the moon princess that they are all looking for. She was a hero of Sailor Moon before moon even became a guardian (all this was left out of the english dubs). Her first main attack and probably my second favorite one is called Venus Love me chain. A ridiculous name for an attack, but it’s pretty devastating as she summons up a supercharged chain that she can grab things with or smash people with, and all kinds of uses. Potentially the most versatile of all the attacks.

Around mid series, Chibi moon appears (cringingly called Mini Moon in America). you can find a lot of criticism of this character amongst the fandom online. Truly kind of hated much like Scrappy doo. But her background is interesting. She’s a daughter of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo mask from the far future. luckily, she’s only around for a season or two. Although in the final season, what appears to be an even younger version of her appears, but it’s not actually Moons daughter, but the representation of the goodness of Galaxia (more on her later) that was pushed out of her body.

Later in the series, more sailor guardians start showing up. Sailor Uranus and sailor Neptune arrive, and as they seemed to represent the outer planets of the solar system, they are known at least by fandom as The Outer Senshi. like all new sailors that come along later in the series after the original core group, they seem to have ulterior motives and come off as potential enemies. But most interestingly about these two is they are clearly lesbians, are a couple and Uranus dresses and acts more like a male. and non-Japanese dubs of the series they are typically portrayed as cousins, though you don’t have to look too closely to see an intimacy there. it’s not exactly shocking as in the original Japanese versions at least a couple of enemy characters have been portrayed as gay and trans. Though they look female enough that American dubs at least they are portrayed as females. This was the late 80s and early 90s so pretty ahead of its time stuff. I haven’t seen a ton of that kind of thing in anime but I am pretty particular about my faves. Sailor Pluto, another Outer Guardian, is their ally.

Pluto, Uranus, Neptune, and "The Messiah of Silence"

The final season known as Sailor Stars introduces the concept of a past Sailor Wars, where the sailor guardians are somewhat common throughout the universe. They were really kind of like Green Lanterns, protecting certain planets and sectors of outer space. rather than resurrected or awakened space goddesses, they’re kind of avatars of planetary bodies. The final boss is Galaxia, who it seems has been behind all of the guardians troubles from the very beginning was a Sailor Guardian, who was possessed by the forces of chaos. 

In the final season known as "Sailor Stars" the Sailor Starlights appear. Three sailor guardians from Deep Outer space who played the role of pop singers on earth and the songs they sing our messages trying to attract their lost princess. Again, gender lines are broken here. The  Starlights are female but their mortal pop star forms are male.   

A very small part of the manga, they are a very large part of the final season of the original series.

Lots of this fifth season is serious is a heart attack. Dragon BallZ style power creep is in full effect and Galaxia represents a complete invincible power who decimates everything at will. The final battles where Sailor Moon finally comes through with her full power and the great warmth of her light saves the universe. But not before everyone dies (the Sailor Senshi actually die and are resurrected at least a couple times in the series) and it appears like all the Sailor Scouts have been brutally killed (In silhouette it appears their torsos are blown open). But it was never in doubt that there would be a happy ending. But silly Sailor Moon truly goes through Jesus like trials, emotionally and physically, and proves herself finally to be worthy of the princess title. 

The run of the series is full of repeated musical themes, from typical Japanese pop to moody blues and uplifting jazz. Title song of the final season, “Dont give up”  it’s one of the better and more dramatic pop songs. but considering what happens later in the season and all the death and degradation, it can be later looked at as more of a finger snapping dirge. A call for help. and one moment of this opening song, you see the fanged silhouetted face of anyone of Moons many enemy women smiling as she plummets to earth backwards. I love this song and it’s towards the top of my playlist. 

Even though there are often dramatic situations and dire circumstances (The sailor guardians tend to get their asses handed to them by their enemies in almost every encounter despite their powers) it is indeed a silly show. But the deeper I got into it the more I saw the more adult humor within it. Sailor Moon often comes into the battlefield with hilarious speeches. Such as when they fight a demon who is making the food rot in a supermarket Sailor Moon enters and proclaims. “You have angered the fresh Highland vegetables and mouthwatering shabu shabu beef.”

Often theres  little things that just make me laugh out loud. Such as when the girls are on the beach and  Mars is looking around with binoculars and suddenly a man's bulging crotch comes into view. Mars Freaks out and shouts and tosses aside the binoculars. 

Then there was a time Sailor Moon is stuck in some bushes and crying like a baby as usual. Then a little bird flies in and lands on her butt and starts pecking on it and moon starts giggling. One of my favorite comedy moments is when one of the beautiful full grown female enemies of the scouts refers to them is having square bodies. Sailor Moon declares “actually for teenage girls are bodies are quite typical” I find these little moments outstanding and I’m sure you won’t find them anywhere in the western dubs. 

Some years after the original show around 2015 I think, They did a full reboot of the show called Sailor Moon crystal. This series throws out most of the superfluous content that was never in the manga and adopted the art style used in the original books. I had my doubts, but it’s actually pretty good. Better animated and despite some silliness still being there because of course Japanese schoolgirls it’s much more dramatic in tone. And instead of all the pop music it’s more like a classical gospel score. It’s actually very interesting to compare the differences. and watching the newer one lets you know how much filler they created for the original series to pad out the Manga stories. and during the run of the original series, like a lot of anime, they made several movie length episodes to play in theaters in Japan at the time. The Pluto TV channel shows all this stuff. 

Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi

Since I started writing this post earlier this week, I actually went by a local authentic Asian market the only one in town I think. Haven’t been in there in quite a while. But they feature some anime and Manga merchandise in the back. And they had these Sailor Moon character figurines, and the only two left were my favorites, Mars, and Venus. They were only 9.99 and they’re very well detailed and I could see these selling the convention for 30 bucks or more. Had to snap them up. Of course, I told the girl at checkout they were for my niece ha ha. Cheers!