Nyan Koi!

Nyan Koi!
Nyan Koi! manga volume 1 cover.
にゃんこい!
Genre	Romantic Comedy, Harem, Supernatural,
Manga
Written by	Sato Fujiwara
Published by	Flex Comix
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	FlexComix Blood
Original run	August 10, 2007 – ongoing
Volumes	5
TV anime
Directed by	Keiichiro Kawaguchi
Written by	Shinichi Inotsume
Music by	Manabu Miwa Shigenobu Ōkawa
Studio	AIC
Licensed by	Sentai Filmworks
Network	TBS, MBS, CBC, BS-TBS
Original run	October 1, 2009 – December 17, 2009
Episodes	12
Anime and Manga Portal

Nyan Koi! (にゃんこい!^?) is a manga created by Sato Fujiwara. It started serialization on Flex Comix's free web comic FlexComix Blood on August 10, 2007. An anime adaptation premiered on October 1, 2009 in Japan.^[1] North American anime distributor Section23 Films announced that Sentai Filmworks has licensed the series. The first season complete set was released on December 14, 2010.^[2]

Plot

Junpei Kosaka is a second-year high school student who despises cats and has an allergy to them. It just so happens that his high school crush is Kaede Mizuno, a girl who adores cats. One day, while walking home from school, Junpei kicks an empty can and unfortunately breaks the local neko-jizō-sama (guardian deity of cats). He finds he can now understand what cats are saying, including his family's own ill-tempered cat, Nyamsus. However, if he does not grant 100 wishes to cats, he will turn into a cat himself and die from his own allergy.

Characters

Human characters

Junpei Kosaka (高坂 潤平, Kōsaka Junpei^?, Spelled as Jyunpei Kosaka in Sentai Filmworks' subs)

Voiced by: Shintarō Asanuma

The main protagonist who has a chronic allergy to cats. He lives with his mother and sister, however, who love cats (which does not help his predicament). To complicate matters, he accidentally destroys the statue of a cat deity, and to compensate for it, he must make use of his new-found ability of communicating with cats to fulfill one hundred requests of help from them without letting other people know that he is cursed or he will be transformed into one. Ironically, everyone around him seems to love cats. He has feelings for Kaede Mizuno, but is starting to be conscious about the feelings of the girls around him.

Kaede Mizuno (水野 楓, Mizuno Kaede^?)

Voiced by: Yuka Iguchi

Junpei's classmate and crush who is totally oblivious of his feelings for her (though she realizes feelings for him as time passes). She is described as athletic, smart and cute. Despite loving cats, her family owns four dogs, and cats tend to avoid her as she always carries their smell. She tends to be airheaded, react to things naively and misunderstand people. Kaede met Junpei when she fell on him from out of a tree trying to rescue a kitten that later climbed down itself.

Kanako Sumiyoshi (住吉 加奈子, Sumiyoshi Kanako^?)

Voiced by: Ryōko Shiraishi

She is one of Junpei's classmates and his childhood friend. During elementary school, the two became enemies due to a misunderstanding where Kanoko thought that Junpei was giving away her gift to another girl while in fact he was only showing it to her. Due to her unhappiness from being at odds with Junpei, she takes on a Manba appearance at first, but dresses normally after returning to friendly terms with him. Kanako is often seen bickering with Junpei and has a short-temper. She has a well-endowed body, and isn't afraid to flaunt it, but often gets unwanted attention and teased from Ichinose's hands. Kanako is very forceful and often gets Junpei to purchase her food at his own expense. She still harbors feelings for him. Kanako has a younger brother who she kinds out is dating Junpei's younger sister.

Nagi Ichinose (一ノ瀬 凪, Ichinose Nagi^?)

Voiced by: Yū Kobayashi

Kaede's senior on the track team and heir of a powerful Yakuza family from Kyoto. Despite being a girl, she started assuming a more masculine behavior after she was rejected by her first love, who mistakenly assumed she was a guy because of her boyish appearances. However after Junpei comforts her, she fell for him and resorts to extreme actions to be beside him, like attempting to move to his class despite having already coursed it. She suffers from astraphobia, the fear having stemmed from the fact that she was traumatized from seeing her grandfather getting struck by lightning on several occasions in front of her. She also graces her sudden appearances by sexually harassing Sumiyoshi (often involving grabbing her breasts). She has a rare condition where she gets drunk just by drinking soft drinks. She has a male longhair cat that speaks(to Junpei) in Kansai-ben accent and wears a small cape. Her cat is "married" to her older brother's female cat.

Kotone Kirishima (桐島 琴音, Kirishima Kotone^?)

Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu

She is the twin sister of Akari and the older of the two. She, along with her sister, are the daughters of the Buddhist monk in the temple. Despite her gentle and sweet outward demeanor, she is interested in Junpei mainly because of his misfortunes, and can be considered sadistic, delusional, and an obsessive stalker. In the anime, she is shown to have this sort of behavior even at a young age towards a teacher. She also shows jealousy if another girl gets too close to Junpei. She is aware of Kaede's feelings for Junpei.

Akari Kirishima (桐島 朱莉, Kirishima Akari^?)

Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu

She is the twin sister of Kotone and the younger of the two. She, along with her sister, know that Junpei is cursed. They do not become cursed as they have innate anti-magic abilities, but only for self-protection. She is tsundere, and has the ability to sense the supernatural. In the anime, Akari was said to not socialize much even at a young age, thus causing her awkwardness when it comes to dealing with people. The reason for this is because of her strong spiritual affinity, and she subconsciously avoided mixing around with other children. She is also shown to have magical powers (though this is not the case in the manga). She is extremely possessive of Kotone; besides her twin sister, she seems to show no problem interacting with Junpei (though mostly for her mistaken perception that he's becoming too close to Kotone) like she does with most other people. In contrast to her sister, she is aware of Kanako's feelings towards Junpei. She too begins to harbour feelings for Junpei but tries to conceal them.

Keizo Kirishima (桐島 啓造, Kirishima Keizō^?)

Voiced by: Jūrōta Kosugi

The Buddhist monk in the temple wherein the cat deity dwells. He is the father of Kotone and Akari. He often goes in disguise to cabaret clubs despite being a monk.

Chizuru Mochizuki (望月 千鶴, Mochizuki Chizuru^?)

Voiced by: Rina Satō

A third-year college student working as a mail carrier when she's not attending lectures. She has a bad sense of direction and frequently ends up getting lost. She's somewhat perverse and enjoys teasing Junpei. She seems to take a liking to Junpei after he helps her deliver letters in a district she got lost. Junpei eventually takes up a part-time job at the post office during the winter and they do mail deliveries together.

Feline characters

Nyamsus (ニャムサス, Nyamusasu^?)

Voiced by: Atsuko Tanaka

A large, fat cat owned by Junpei's family, and the one who brings to him requests of the cats in need of his help. She is well known and most cats around Junpei's neighborhood see her as an older sister figure. She reveals (to herself) that she is very much grateful of Junpei since Junpei gave her a home, going so far as to beg in front of his mother while crying and ignoring his allergies. Junpei's conflicts with Kanako coupled with school causes him to drift apart from, according to him, someone very dear to him (Nyamsus). Nyamsus greatly cares for Junpei but shows this subtly like when she claims ownership of the living room so as to prevent Junpei from sleeping in it and catching a cold.

Tama (タマ^?)

Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama

A small cat owned by the monk in charge of the temple whose statue was broken by Junpei, and an acquaintance of Nyamsus who also brings requests to him. He goes about the neighborhood and tells the other cats around about Junpei, which is part of the reason why the local cats know so much about him. He is an extremely rare male calico cat.

Josephine (ジョセフィーヌ, Josefīnu^?)

Voiced by: Koji Yusa

He is a cat owned by Nagi. He is dressed up in an elegant manner, and speaks in a Kansai dialect. He wishes for Nagi to shed her masculine behavior, and thus asks Junpei to help her fall in love once more. He has a wife who lives in Kyoto.

Noir (ノワール, Nowāru^?)

Voiced by: Yukari Fukui

A black cat owned by the Kirishima twins. She received less attention (from Keizou) once Tama was adopted into the family, and was jealous of his near-royal treatment as a rare breed. Still, the two share a fondness for one another, but easily become argumentative. The reason for her conflicts with Tama are suspected to be due to Tama's adoration of Nyamsus and is heavily hinted to be jealous of Nyamsus.

Chatora (チャトラ^?)

Voiced by: Kazuya Tatekabe

An overweight cat who lives across the street from Junpei. His master put him on a diet, fearing the effects of his obesity. He threatens to leave home because of this, but with a little of Junpei's convincing, he decides to go home and try the diet.

Episodes

#	Title	Original air date
01	"The Ugly Cat and the Cursed High Schooler" "Busaiku na Neko to Norowareshi Kōkōsei" (ブサイクな猫と呪われし高校生)	October 1, 2009
Junpei Kosaka's most important matters were to stay away from cats, due to his allergy to them, and his crush on his classmate Kaede Mizuno, until he accidentally damages the statue of a cat deity and is cursed with the ability to talk to cats and the task of attending 100 requests from them, with the risk of be transformed into a cat himself if he fails. The first quest he receives is to help the stray cats in the local park who have been tormented by a stranger leaving them traumatized. The tormentor later turns out to be someone he knows who has an extreme fondness for cats to the point of smothering them.
02	"That Man Is a Slave?" "Sono Otoko Geboku?" (その男　下僕？)	October 8, 2009
Junpei must help a cat to give his thanks to a girl who helped him, however she is no other than Kanako Sumiyoshi, a childhood acquaintance of his who is determined to torment him during the school's cultural festival. The cat later moves in with Junpei until he can find another home.
03	"What Is Your Name?" "Kimi no Na wa" (キミの名は)	October 15, 2009
Junpei meets Chizuru Mochizuki, a postwoman in trouble and decides to help her while roaming the city helping the cats with their requests. However, hanging around with her ends up putting him on a series of misunderstandings much to his despair.
04	"A Beautiful Person" "Utsukushii Hito" (美しい人)	October 22, 2009
Junpei's next request is from a cat owned by Nagi Ichinose, an upperclassmate of him. While Nagi seems to be a threat to his relationship with Kaede at first, he ends up being surprised when he figures out Nagi's true nature.
05	"Times Square" "Taimuzu Sukuwea" (四角関係の刻（タイムズ・スクウェア）)	October 29, 2009
Junpei sets for the amusement park with Kaede, which could be the perfect chance to get closer to her if Kanako and Nagi had not come along for the ride.
06	"Milk & Bitter & Sugar & Spice" "Miruku ando Bitā ando Shugā ando Supaisu" (ミルク＆ビター＆シュガー＆スパイス)	November 5, 2009
Junpei meet the twins Akari and Kotone Kirishima, who know about his curse and decided to help on his ordeal. However, hanging with them becomes another source of misunderstandings, mostly due to Kotone's strange infatuation on him and their ability to sense the supernatural like Junpei's curse.
07	"Wait Until Dark" "Kuraku Naru made Matte" (暗くなるまで待って)	November 12, 2009
Junpei sets for a school trip to Kyoto with his classmates, but he barely has time to enjoy the trip when words about him spread among the local cats who flood him with requests. Junpei along with Kaede and Sumiyoshi soon stumble upon Ichinose whose family is situated in Kyoto and is there to attend an annual meeting. This meeting is in fact an arrangement to have Ichinose choose a husband, a decision which she would always decline.
08	"The Blazing Private Lesson Runner" "Honō no Kojin Kyōju Rannā" (炎の個人教授ランナー)	November 19, 2009
Junpei's next task is to help a cat to get in shape in order to win the favor of his beloved. But when he starts to neglect his promise with him, the cat decides to enact revenge by putting him on a very embarrassing situation.
09	"Girls in the Water" "Gāruzu in za Wōtā" (ガールズ・イン・ザ・ウォーター)	November 26, 2009
The gang sets for a leisure time at the swimming pool, but Junpei gets sick, and Kanako pays a visit to take care of him, while struggling about her true feelings.
10	"A Certain Night's Events" "Aru Yoru no Dekigoto" (ある夜の出来事)	December 3, 2009
The Kirishima sisters end up counting with Junpei's unexpected help to deal with a spirit who threatens his friends.
11	"Friends" "Furenzu" (フレンズ)	December 10, 2009
Christmas is coming and after stumbling on Junpei, Kanako ends up spending some quality time with him.
12	"Will Heaven Wait?" "Tengoku wa Matte Kureru?" (天国は待ってくれる？)	December 17, 2009
Kaede is suspicious about Junpei's secret and he must find a way to dissuade her before being stricken with the full force of his curse.

Theme Songs

Opening Theme:

"Nyanderful! (にゃんだふる！)" by Yui Sakakibara

Ending Theme:

"Strawberry ~Amaku Setsunai Namida~ (Strawberry～甘く切ない涙～)" by Asami Imai

References

1. ^ "Nyan Koi! Official Blog's news about the anime" (in Japanese). http://flex-comix.jp/nyankoi/2009/03/post_11.html. Retrieved 2009-03-11. 
2. ^ "Section23 Films Adds Nyan Koi! Anime". Anime News Network. 2010-09-21. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2010-09-21/section23-films-announces-december-slate. 

External links

• Nyan Koi! Official Blog from Flex Comix (Japanese)
• Yahoo! Comic's Website for Nyan Koi! (Japanese)
• Anime official website (Japanese)
• Nyan Koi! (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia