| Samurai Pizza Cats | |
|---|---|
 The Title sceen of Saban's Samurai Pizza Cats. |
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| キャッ党 忍伝 てやんでえ (Kyattō Ninden Teyandee[1]) |
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| Genre | Comedy, Mecha |
| TV anime | |
| Studio | Tatsunoko Productions, Sotsu Agency |
| Licensor | Saban (Expired) |
| Network |  TV Tokyo Syndication ITV/BBC YTV TVB |
| Original run | February 1, 1990 – February 12, 1991 |
| Episodes | 52 |
Samurai Pizza Cats, known as Cat Ninja Legend Teyandee (キャッ党 忍伝 てやんでえ Kyattō Ninden Teyandee) in Japan, is an anime series produced by Tatsunoko Productions and Sotsu Agency.[2] The series was aired from February 1, 1990 to February 12, 1991, totaling up to 54 episodes.
The anime was introduced to western audiences in 1991 by Saban. The stars of the show are three anthropomorphic cats who protect the city of Little Tokyo from crime while making a living running a pizzeria.
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In both the Japanese and English versions, the plot of most episodes follows a villain of the week formula with a strong continuity in the form of two part episodes and references to previous episodes.
In the English dub, the setting of the show is “Little Tokyo”, a city that is an amalgamation of Japanese culture (a spectrum its feudal system with contemporary 1991 culture) populated by cybernetic anthromorphic animals.
At the head of government is Emperor Fred, an insane figurehead who can only repeatedly say his name or scat sing. The actual leadership comes from his daughter, Princess “Vi” Violet and a council headed by Seymour Cheese, an ambitious prime minister who constantly plots to usurp the Emperor’s position with the help of Jerry Atrick, his trusted advisor and Bad Bird, the leader of an army of ninja crows.
Part of the Council is Al Dente, Commander of the Palace Guard, who constantly uncovers the prime minister’s plots but can never claim treason because of plausible deniability. Instead he calls the Samurai Pizza Cats (Nyankī, a portmanteau of nyaa ("meow") and Yankee), a superhero trio who moonlight as staff at a local pizzeria, to uncover and interrupt Seymour's plans that usually come in the form of robots and elaborate schemes.
Unique to the English version is that supposedly due to lost translations, the comedic tone of the series was further exaggerated by releasing it as a dubbed parody. Throughout the series, characters and the narrator constantly break the fourth wall by commenting on the Japanese attributes such as the written language, sight gags, and complaints to the writers and producers regarding the strange plots.
See List of Samurai Pizza Cats characters
The theme song for the English dub naturally differs from the original, a common practice[citation needed] for dubbing at the time. In keeping with the parodic nature of the show, the lyrics of the new theme song make a number of references to American pop culture. For example, the lyrics "they've got more fur than any turtle ever had" subtly imply that the Samurai Pizza Cats are equal to the similarly themed cartoon series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (but turtles don't exactly have fur or even hair), while the lyrics "they're stronger than old cheese, tougher than dirt" refer to an advertising slogan once used for the industrial cleaner Ajax. The theme song also contains the line "As soon as someone finds the script, we might begin the show", which can be interpreted as a reference to the lack of transcripts.
Michael Airington, one of the show's writers, also sang the theme song. According to Andy Thomas, Airington had a few drinks before the recording session for the song started, and as a result, accidentally repeated some of the lyrics (i.e., "this cat gets down down with a love hang over"). Airington recorded this doing his Paul Lynde voice.
Both the opening and ending songs were composed by Etsuko Yamakawa, Takeshi Ike and Anju Mana and sung by Reina Yazawa. Ami Itabashi, the singer of the ending song of Izumo OAV, sang the insert songs.
Samurai Pizza Cats has been broadcast in Australia and New Zealand, as well as various countries in Africa, Eurasia and the Americas, most notably the United Kingdom, Spain, Finland, France, Italy, Poland, Greece, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Chile, Peru, Panama, Hong Kong, Thailand, Mexico, Brazil, Israel, Kenya, South Africa, Sweden, Armenia, and the United States, from 1991 onwards.
Of the 54 episodes that were originally produced in Japan, 52 were translated into English. The two untranslated episodes were clip shows that did little to further the series' plot.
The series has a video release in Japan, though it only spans up to 20 episodes. A French language version is also available.[3] An English DVD appeared on Amazon.com back in 2004, containing five episodes of the series.[4] A three-DVD release claiming to be the first box set appeared on Amazon.com in 2007.[5] Both sets are believed to be bootlegs.
In 1991, Tecmo published a video game based on the original Japanese version, Kyattou Ninden Teyandee, for the Famicom. It was released as a Japanese-only release, but was bootlegged outside Japan under the title Ninja Cat. Players take the role of the three main cats and otasuke (Rescue Team) members, of whom can be switched to at any time and have their own 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 who shows up later on in the game and "appears" to team up with Ko'on-no-kami (the Big Cheese).
A standalone, handheld LSI game (similar to Nintendo's Game&Watch) was also made.[6]
All manner of toys and model kits were released in both Japan and Europe, the latter usually being reboxed versions of the prior. Known toys include the following:[7]
Aside from two official books, a number of doujinshi was also made in the early nineties.
the cat I love would enjoy the simpler things in life. He'd rather have a picnic with ME then rush off to save the world.
Francine: "All systems go and ready for launch" Guido: "But I already ate." Francine: "Launch not lunch.....silly..."
  | The show's opening (in English), on YouTube - YouTube - Samurai Pizza Cats intro |
| | Samurai Pizza Cats at IMDB - "Samurai Pizza Cats" (1991) |
| | Samurai Pizza Cats at Jump the Shark - Jump the Shark: Has Your Favorite TV Show Reached Its Peak? Jump The Shark | TVGuide.com |
| | Princess Vi's Spiffy Diffy Web Page - Hometown Has Been Shutdown - People Connection Blog: AIM Community Network |
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