Samurai Pizza Cats

Samurai Pizza Cats (キャッ党忍伝てやんでえ Kyattō Ninden Teyandē, lit. "Cat Ninja Legend Teyandee" or "Legendary Ninja Cats" according to Crunchyroll) is an anthropomorphic Japanese anime series produced by Tatsunoko Productions and Sotsu Agency. It aired on TV Tokyo, Japan from February 1, 1990 to February 12, 1991, totaling up to 54 episodes. Saban later acquired the North American licensing for English-release of the series in 1991, before it expired in 2002 and transferred to Discotek Media.

The creators stated that there was going to be a spin-off series, Kyatto Keisatsu Beranmee (キャッ警察べらんめえ Kyattō Keisatsu Beranmē, lit. "Cat Police Beranmee"); however, the story and the information about it has been lost.

The comedic and action-packed adventures of three armored anthropomorphic cats protecting the city of Little Tokyo from crime while making a living running a pizzeria.

Plot
The series takes place in Edoropolis (Little Tokyo in the dubbed version), a mechanical city fusing both feudal Japanese culture with contemporary culture. The world is populated by cybernetic beings that are half anthropomorphic animal and half androids ("animaloids" for short), with Edoropolis led by shōgun Emperor Fred (Iei-Iei Tokugawa). But being the doddering eccentric the shogun is, the actual leadership falls on his neurotic daughter Princess Vi (Tokugawa Usako) and the royal council.

The council is led by the prime minister, The Big Cheese (Kitsunezuka Koon-no-Kami), who constantly plots to overthrow the Shogun with his machinations and clan of ninja crows. However, the commander of the Palace Guard Big Al Dente (Inuyama Wanko-no-Kami) learns of the fox's ambitions but the minister's plausible deniability makes it difficult for prosecution. So Inuyama enlists the services of the Pizza Cats pizzeria and their cat employees who double as ninjas called the Nyankī. It's a rivalry battle between good and evil as the Samurai Pizza Cats serve justice with a slice of pizza, as they protect Edoropolis from Koon-no-Kami's ambitions.

Reception
The show is most notable for being the heavily edited anime dub making fans actually prefer it to the original.

The original series is known for its cultural humor consisting of Japanese puns, pop culture, and fourth-wall breaking. The plots in the English versions consist of sly references, shameless puns, rapid-fire sardonic humor, and total refusal to so much as acknowledging the fourth wall.

Villain of the Day
Nearly every episode presented a unique villain mecha central to the plot, such as a "double-decker" robot based on the father and son from "Lone Wolf and Cub", a giant hot-tub robot (used to scare people into joining health spas), Long Tall Sally (a play on the song lyric of the same name), Sunblock-16 (an orbital fan-dancing robot that blocked the sun from Little Tokyo, preventing the Pizza Cats from recharging their solar powers), and others.

Translation
From 1991 to 2000, when Saban licensed the English version, proper translations of the original Japanese episodes were either of poor quality, non-existent or incomplete since the transcripts were not acquired.

It was instead the writers would make a completely original dialogue, similar to the Animaniacs-like wacky comedy in contrast, where the fourth wall is subsequently broken. All the voices were done by an all-Canadian cast of vocalists, and major editions were done by the producer, Andy Thomas, who came up with the title name, character renaming (for international recognition). Despite being lost in translation, the English version became a cult hit among anime fans due to its rapid-fire pop-culture references and farcical nature.

After Saban's rights to the series expired, Discotek Media took over the licensing for home video release in North America, while Madman Entertainment holds the license for Australia and New Zealand. Crunchyroll began streaming the series on December 27, 2015. It is also available on Amazon Prime and Tubi TV.

TV Broadcasting
Samurai Pizza Cats had 12 episodes banned from the US due to bad timeslots, underdeveloped translation, censorship, and poor advertising efforts on Saban's part. The show ended in the second week of September 1997 with its slots filled for the second seasons of other hit anime shows like Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon.

Japanese staff

 * Draft: Atsushi Mihara
 * Chief Director: Kunitoshi Okajima
 * Series Composition: Mayori Sekijima, Satoru Akahori
 * Animoid design draft: Motomi Chi
 * Animoid Design Setting: Noritaka Suzuki
 * Music: Kenji Kawai
 * Art Director: Toyoaki Nakajima
 * Sound Director: Hideyuki Tanaka
 * Producer: Mitsuo Shimizu, Masakatsu Kozuru, Motoki Ueda
 * Production Cooperation: Dongyang Animation, Monsieur Onion, Random, SHAFT, Studio Mie, Studio Targe, Tasunoko Anime Laboratory
 * Production: TV Tokyo, Sotsu Agency, Tatsunoko Pro

Media Distribution
The series is released in multiple languages, with the original Japanese video release spanning up to 20 episodes only, followed by a French version. The English DVD appeared on Amazon.com in 2004, containing five episodes. A three-DVD release claiming to be the first complete box set appeared on Amazon.com in 2007, while both sets are speculated to be bootlegs. The official Complete Series Compilation on DVD and Blu-ray were later released for English and Japanese languages.

A full-length film lasting 56 minutes was produced on videotape, with quality image and sound. The film is actually composed of compiled episodes featuring "Stop Dragon My Cat Around!", "The Big Comet Caper (Part 1)" and "The Big Comet Caper (Part 2)", with fans believing it to be a retelling of the series.

Fan Fiction
SPC had a devoted fan following and even more since it's fading from the airwaves until forgotten. Fans even write their own stories where the characters would go.
 * Samurai Pizza Cats Impromanaga: an online comic book.
 * Samurai Pizza Cats: COLD: Fan comic
 * Ninja Crow's Dojo (Last updated on April 1999)
 * Samurai Pizza Cats FanFiction Archive - FanFiction. Net
 * The Samurai Pizza Cats' Memorial Shrine (Last updated on December 2002)
 * Samurai Pizza Cats Fan Fiction Wiki