It’s kind of ironic that the first First Impressions of Fall – sort of – is actually the last First Impressions of Summer. And the last show in the preview to boot. Cat’s♥Eye is technically a summer series of course – that’s why it was in that preview – but we’ve already seen a fall premiere in Towa no Yuugure (which I couldn’t quite muster the will to write up, bored enough did it leave me). My expectations for this one were modest – it was in that spot in the preview for a reason. But there was reason enough to at least be curious.
Cat’s♥Eye (a Disney+ show) continues the trend of ancient manga getting adapted or rebooted, often in defiance of any obvious logic. Cat’s♥Eye was in WSJ and I guess moderately popular – it got an anime in the 80’s, three live-action adaptations (including a French TV series), and even a Lupin III crossover. I haven’t heard bo peep about it in forever but someone on a production committee decided it needed a reboot and here we are. Lupin is certainly an obvious crossover – this series is about legendary phantom thieves too, three sisters who call themselves by the title and own a coffee shop by the same name (which is certainly arrogant).
The hook here is that one of the sisters is dating a detective named Toshio. Ostensibly for the intel, but also because she’s obviously in love with him for real. There’s another hook too, though as it’s not revealed in the premiere I guess I won’t mention it. This first ep (from Lidenfilms) is one of those series obviously trying very hard to be retro, and it actually sort of pulls it off. The character designs, art style, and music actually do recall the anime of its original era. That’s probably the most interesting thing about the show so far, which isn’t a great sign.
On balance this was sort of fine, but it didn’t elicit much from me in either direction. I didn’t find any of the three sisters memorable, and Toshio just comes off as a patsy. For the record I have no prior exposure to the franchise in any form, so maybe some of the capers get super interesting or something. It’s not anything I see myself going out of my way to seek out, to be honest, so I suspect it’s going to be a short-lived contender for my viewing time, never mind writing time.
