The siblings Kashou and Shigure Minazuki enjoy the company of six catgirls. Chocola and Vanilla assist Kashou in his job as a baker at the patisserie La Soleil, while the others—Coconut, Azuki, Cinnamon, and Maple—accompany Shigure in her daily life back at their home.
One afternoon, when Chocola goes out for an errand, she notices a green-haired kitten alone by herself at a park and decides to bring her back to the patisserie. Soon after, the Minazuki household adopts her and gives her a name: Cacao. With a new member in their family, the members of the Minazuki household continue their everyday lives—bound to become livelier than ever.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
literaturenerd
Winter 2020 has been a pretty dismal season for anime overall. Eizouken will of course run away with anime of the season because it had exactly ZERO competition that could stop it. It doesn’t matter how boring, self-indulgent, or repetitive it is. Yuasa directed it and Eizouken has a budget, so compared to the rest of the Spring 2020 lineup it’s like watching Canelo Alvarez fight a bunch of children. My personal anime of the season is Interspecies Reviewers, but I can’t review that for a few more days. Instead, let’s look at a series that apparently met Funimation’s high moral standards. This is thebizarre dumpster fire known as Nekopara.
So what the fuck is a Nekopara? Well you see, Nekopara is a shitty H-game from 2014. For the first 2 years, absolutely no one gave a fuck, but then in 2016-2017 it became a popular gag gift on Steam. A shitty game that’s really cheap, so you buy it during a steam sale and gift it to your friend as a joke, knowing that they will probably never play it. Yet SOMEHOW, this piece of shit got an anime adaptation. Why didn’t Big Rigs get an anime adaptation? Why didn’t Bad Rats get an anime adaptation?
So why complain about Nekopara? It’s just porn after all! Just shut the hell up and enjoy the cat boobs and literal pussy! You can’t, because the anime removed all the H content and decided to bank on the strong plot and characters. You read that right. This is a game where humanoid cat girls are sent via post to some chef and must help out in his restaurant. In the game he of course bangs these girls, despite the fact they’re only 4 years old and have the minds of children. In the anime, they just kind of hang out and do…nothing. There are tons of slice of life shows where basically nothing happens, but Nekopara sets a new low bar. Since the anime isn’t a porn, I end up having to think about the stuff the writer didn’t want people to think about. Where did these catgirls come from? What is the history of Mankind’s interaction with this species? They seem to have roughly human intelligence and can speak Japanese fluently, but they count as pets and legally as property. It’s not all bad being a cat slave though. The girls get a pretty bell necklace when they learn not to run away. Can’t have your harem of catgirls getting Drapetomania!
Did I mention this series got over 1 million dollars via crowdfunding? How is that even possible? I can only assume that some basement dweller used his bitcoin wealth that he collected playing Warcraft 10 years ago. I know I bang on about this in too many reviews, but half of Spice and Wolf and over half of Baccano were never adapted! There are SO many good anime that need another season, but Nekopara is what makes its crowdfunding goals and gets made. Also fuck Funimation for picking this up, dubbing it, and distributing this instead of Reviewers. Gen Fukunaga should be tied to a bed and forced to spend a passionate evening with Elza the hyena girl!
Marinate1016
Nekopara is a fun and cozy way to spend 24 minutes. Simply put, it’s a very relaxing show with extreme amounts of literal and figurative fluff. Ironically, in contrast to its hentai origins, Nekopara is one of the most wholesome shows I’ve seen. Narratively, there’s not much on the way of plot in this show. It’s very much a “monster” of the week type thing with each episode providing a new challenge or event for the girls to prepare for. These will usually be 90 percent fluff and 10 percent fan service. If you’re looking for a fun and relaxing way to deal with the currentuncertain times and pass time, enjoy CGDCT or cat girls, this is your show. Don’t expect anything groundbreaking or revolutionary, but you will certainly get a laid back and cozy ride.
Technically, there’s not much to speak of. This isn’t a battle shonen so there’s no real need for high quality animation. The art, however is extremely well done making the show nice and bright. This adds to that cute feel of the show.
In conclusion, Nekopara despite being no masterpiece, was one of my favourite shows of the season and helped me to wind down at the end of the week after class. It was a consistent and fun ride throughout and I look forward to future content.
Nekopara gets 8 Nya’s out of 10.
kirie-chan
Music and art both are top notch. That's why we had our hopes high. But with every new episode it became more and more clear — Nekopara is hot garbage. Each catgirl gets one comic gag assigned in the beginning of the season, and then writers exploit it repeatedly in almost every episode. Including bringing character up just for a few seconds to show yet another version of the same joke they made in ep1. While each episode has an interesting idea — Cinnamon exploring her breeding desires or Cacao looking for new owners, every single one of them fails both to develop said charactersor move the story. In fact it doesn't move even an inch forward.
There's no progression in any way. That's why you can't compare Nekopara to any decent slice-of-life where the overall story still moves: be it school year, visible career changes or something else.
If this show were an isekai, it would be "In Another World with My Smartphone". Just appalling in how big of a failure this is.
PyraXadon
A question: I'm pretty sure it's established somewhere in the VNs that they're genetically engineered 'cat girls', so why call them 'cats'? Are there actual cats in this world aside from catgirls, or are all cats catgirls now? Yes, I seriously thought about this hypothetical question while watching the show. Story: Within the Minazuki household lives six different catgirls. When the older of the two siblings leaves to start his own patisserie business, the two youngest cats follow their master and appear in boxes as he's moving in while the other four cats and his little sister stay behind in their family home, occasionally coming by totake shifts at the pastry shop. And thus (I guess) starts another chapter of their lives.
Aside from the first three episodes which establish a completely new character to the Nekopara series, the anime comprises of only one-off stories that put one or two of the catgirls (who're conveniently put together in pairs) in some kind of situation that serves as the episode's focus, rarely deviating from that single story before the twenty four minutes are up before a different set takes their place in the next episode. As a result, conflicts for the anime typically only exist within the confines of the episode, so there really isn't any overarching things to keep track of.
As for the content, the show is (of course) only focused on cat-based stuff. Rather than spending time with Kashou, the cats' male master, practically everything in the series centers around how the cats interact with each other and any relationship changes that might occur as a result of the episode's conflict being resolved. The conflicts themselves though feel very random. One episode can be about something vastly different than another's, and I felt a little thrown off watching at times because one episode can have the girls telling stories in a blackout, and the next has two of them going through a giant, custom-built obstacle course that comes out of nowhere.
Despite the surprising amount of variance the episodes have though, Nekopara just feels...boring to watch. Even if the content is different, the general storytelling of the anime is centered solely around the girls acting like cats in every conceivable situation, and hardly anything really changes. Because conflicts are so easily resolved, there's not a lot of actual plot to draw the attention of the viewer, especially since the cute girls are probably the biggest selling point the show has. Without that, there's hardly anything else that can really hook the viewer, which is made especially boorish when the girls can be extremely hit or miss depending on who they are and whether or not they're the focus at the time.
As a result, Nekopara's story feels less like a 'story' and more like a collection of memories put together one after another and told through hearsay. The episodic storytelling is by no means bad, but everything about them lacks anything significant to draw in the viewer aside from the girls doing their damndest at being cute, acting cute, and having whatever little powwow at the time to keep the episode moving. The content feels extremely samey, and given how the Nekopara VNs pan out, a part of me wishes the story went a little beyond just having the cute catgirls do cute things.
Characters:
I want to get Kashou Minazuki out of the way first because this man barely does fucking anything. Despite being the player character that every girl in the series supposedly fawns over, he not only gets barely any screentime, but also has no real purpose in the plot aside from being the establishing point since his confections shop is one of the key settings in the series. Like I get it, he's a blank slate to project onto, but come on, put a little effort into making him something other than a plank of wood that occasionally does something.
But of course the main stars of the series are the six catgirls: Chocola, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Maple, Azuki, and Coconut. Based on six different breeds of cat, each of these six girls bear a different archetype which range from the Kuudere, to the dumb one, to the incredibly horny one. Despite the show putting as much effort as it could to develop and show off each one, each of the six girls feel incredibly one-note, which serves well to make each one recognizable and add more to the 'cute girls doing cute things' storytelling, but little else beyond that. Each girl only has a small handful of different things or character moments that they're capable of doing, which ultimately makes them really static characters if not barely impactful beyond the initial splash. Sure it's kind of fun to see what Azuki and Coconut are fighting over this time, but I can only see Cinnamon getting horny over something random so many times before it gets stale.
Minazuki Shigure serves as the second master to the catgirls as well as Kashou's younger sister of unknown age. (Yes, it's canon that she doesn't have a confirmed age.) Despite having something of an established brother complex, the show really makes it seem like this is her cat harem, which in my headcanon is both amusing and terrifying. A lot of the show features Shigure instead of her brother in coincidence with the catgirls, which really only exemplify how much she loves (and creeps on) the catgirls that live with her since that's the primary character trait that's being showed off. It's definitely an...interesting character trait, but that's about all the show really has for her.
Finally is Cacao, the an anime exclusive character who is a kitten that serves as the seventh catgirl of the family. And she doesn't really do anything. She's silent for a great majority of the series, making her appearances more like a puzzle for the other girls to figure out. Which makes her a character of little consequence. Beyond the first three episodes which establish her as a new part of the family, Cacao is mostly just...there, participating only occasionally in the series and serving as a mouthpiece for things in the Nekopara universe to get explained to since she doesn't really know anything about being a 'catgirl' as weird as that sounds. And aside from liking dried fish and generally wants to participate in things with the other girls, there's not much else to say about her.
Aesthetics:
Felix Film being responsible for animating the kickstarted Nekopara OVA that got mixed reception coming back to do a full cour adaptation is definitely not something I expected but hey, at least this time it looks pretty good, right?
The art of Nekopara 2020 is one of the things I praise about the show because it's surprisingly good. The characters look pretty good even when compared to the L2D/VN counterparts, and the consistency of the art genuinely surprised me because I did not expect this show to have actually good art. This alongside with the light color scheme and the detailed frilliness of the girls' various outfits and uniforms really had me take a step back and actually think, "Wow this looks pretty good." Admittedly seeing basically human women/girls on all fours hissing at each other like cats or curling their hands like paws to make a 'nyan' pose definitely made me feel a little uneasy because people don't normally do that, even to be cute, but hey, it makes sense for the context of the show.
And to keep up with the theming, both the OP and ED of the anime keep up the cute exterior this series has by having the seiyuus of the girls sing them with happy, bubbly instrumentals going on in the background. "Shiny Happy Days" being the OP is sung by all six of the girls alternating with an upbeat, bubbly tone, whereas the ED, "Hidamari no Kaori", is sung only by Chocola and Vanilla's voice actors in a slower ballad reminiscent of falling asleep since the two girls do sleep in the same bed.
My one qualm with the sound however is actually the voice actors. Compared to the kickstarted OVA, the entire cast of Nekopara 2020 is voiced by different people. Although I don't know the reason why Nekopara got an 'anime adaptation' after the OVA's reception, I'd imagine the best way to make one would be to use the original voice cast, so I'm a little confused why this isn't the case.
Final Thoughts:
Considering the source material for this show involves a series of visual novels that have a dedicated slider in the settings to adjust how much boob bounce the girls have whenever their L2D models are moving on-screen, I was not expecting this show to be serious or outstanding in the slightest, and was prepared for whatever ridiculousness was going to come my way. I did not expect this show to be as boring as it was. I even got tired of watching Cinnamon, my favorite of the six cats, because almost all of her scenes just ended up with her becoming horny without anything else of note.
Because everything was side stories, it felt like the show was more like a slideshow that was showing off the girls rather than being any kind of faithful adaptation to the source material. (Which I guess is what they tried to do with the OVA, and failed.) The 'cute girls doing cute things' subgenre of slice of life is so oversaturated with so many different shows that almost nothing about this show stood out aside from the notoriety that the name 'Nekopara' has curried over years within the anime community. Sure the girls were cute, yes there was a plot during each episode, and Cacao did spice things up a bit by being a completely new character with potential, but all of that is meaningless when the show is nothing but an endless cycle of 'cute'.
I'm sure there're many people who enjoy this kind of mindless cuteness, but for me, it never felt like the cuteness had a purpose. It was the default tone and mode that this series had and that alone made watching it feel like a slog then a brand of cute that had some substance behind it. Had the show given us some more substantial story arcs aside from just doing side story after side story, then maybe things could've been different. But as it stands, the show is so mindless in being this cute cat creation that I find it hard pressed to define it as anything aside from that. Admittedly it does that well, but the show has nothing else going for it.
As such, my recommendation really goes out for fans of the series, especially those who're REALLY hardcore fans since this is the group that I think would get a kick out of this adaptation the most. For the casual viewer, there's not really anything I can see is worth the time since the brand of 'catgirls' being the show's main characters are about the only thing that gives the show any sense of unique qualities. Without that, the anime ends up feeling like a cute girls doing cute things show, and I think we've gotten to a point where we have more than enough of those in the world.
7point8outof10
“It's not my responsibility to be beautiful. I'm not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me.” – Warsan Shire, and also nobody in Nekopara Every few years, we get an anime that is truly a masterpiece: a work that excels in every area to create something that not only entertains greatly, but explores themes so deep that they leave a lasting impression on those who watched them and on the way that anime and the world moves forward in the future. These anime are indeed rare – we are lucky to get one in a year, but by somemiracle, we managed to get two such anime in a single season. It’s hard to imagine a better way to begin the decade than with these two series. One of these is, of course, Interspecies Reviewers, and the other is the anime that we will be talking about today: Nekopara.
Many great stories focus on dystopias: from worlds that are blatantly dystopian such as Orwell’s 1984, to ones that are more morally grey, and could even be perceived by some as utopian, like Psycho-Pass. What’s so special about Nekopara is how it manages to be both of these simultaneously, giving it a lot to say about the implications of our own desires as well as the fact that we live in a society, and the direction that that society might be headed in.
The first deceptively genius thing about Nekopara is its name, a combination of “neko” (the Japanese word for “cat”), and “para”, the start of the word “paradise”. Or, at least, that’s what the name seems to be, but there’s more to this series than meets the eye. There are many other words that begin with “para”: “paranoia”, “parabola”, “paraphilia”, “paradox”, etc. Which one of these words “para” represents is hotly debated amongst scholars (my money’s on “paraphilia”), but it sure as hell ain’t “paradise”… at least not for everyone involved. Sure, it may be appear to be a paradise at first glance: who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by a bunch of really cute and attractive cat girls who cater to your every need? But this perspective doesn’t consider life for said cat girls.
Now, a more conventional dystopian horror would probably present the oppressed class as struggling and visibly tormented by their unjust position as slaves and sentient pets within this society, but instead we are shown something far, far more terrifying: they are totally complicit in and content with their oppression (apart from one character, who’s tail is truly the most haunting of all, but we’ll get to her later). The world of Nekopara has managed to successfully convince the cat girls that they don’t deserve basic human rights: that they are less than human, that they are better off living to serve their masters, that they must never go outside without their master unless they wear their bells. And they never once question these ideas. Nekopara isn’t just about how society oppresses us, but also how we allow it to continue to do so, and that is something truly bone-chilling.
But it’s more than merely our complacency in our own oppression that’s being challenged by Nekopara, but also the fact that we may actually be idolising this sort of oppression when put upon others for our own benefit. After all, the series masquerades as a paradise for the viewer to self-insert themselves into, enjoying owning a bunch of cat girl pet slave waifu things, whose sole existence is to serve and please them. This series makes the viewer think: “Would I have been in favour of the subjugation of women and people of colour if I was born a century or two earlier? Am I in favour of the ways in which minority groups remain oppressed today?”.
While cat girls serve as a useful metaphor for many oppressed minorities, such as people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, or weeaboos, they are also of literal significance. If our society has the same view of cat girls that Nekopara does, then we may ourselves become such a society once Elon Musk has successfully created genetically engineered cat girls. In fact, how excited people are for the scientific research being conducted into the field of genetically engineered cat girls is quite concerning: what will be their fate?
Our society could easily become the dystopia presented to us in Nekopara. We may look back on this anime much like how we look back on Serial Experiments Lain today: more relevant many years into the future than when it came out. Indeed, Nekopara is a truly visionary work, and the scariest part is that we won’t even realise that we’re in a dystopia – most of the population will think that this is just the natural order of things, ignorant to anything other than the status quo.
“But what about the based, woke and red-pilled individuals who see the true horror of their society?” I hear you ask. “Surely they’ll be able to save everyone from this hellhole, right?”. I wish that were the case, but the most terrifying thing of all about Nekopara is the way in which it shoots this sentiment down multiple times throughout its story through the use of the character Cacao, the only character we see in the series who doesn’t see the oppression of cat girls as a good thing.
Perhaps the most important thing about Cacao is how difficult it is for her to speak: this represents how society denies those who go against it of a voice: you can’t spread your ideas or influence change; you will just be silenced. But it’s not just that she can’t communicate properly: she can’t escape either. At the start of the series, she is a stray cat, this being her attempt at self-actualisation: to become something other than a lesser being who lives solely to serve her master. But she is found by Chocola and taken in by this horrifying system. Each time she tries to escape, which the other characters interpret as her merely “getting lost” (because who could possibly want a life other than to fulfil their natural role within the hierarchy?), she is found once again. The message of the series is clear: there is no escape from society. No matter what we do, we live in a society. And what could possibly be more of a depressing realisation than that?
Story: 10 – The genius thing about the story of Nekopara is just how naturally it integrates these oppressive structures into its world-building. Layered with metaphor and meaning in every shot and every line of dialogue, this is truly one of the most masterfully crafted stories in the history of not just anime, not just television, but in all of storytelling throughout all of time.
Character: 10 – The characters of Nekopara are some of the most hauntingly realistic characters in anime. The way each of them has developed their own unique psychological coping mechanisms to delude them into being content with their unjust society is handled in a way that seems to have been brought about by the propaganda that the society has fed them. We see this process gradually happening to Cacao, one of the most tragic and sympathetic characters I’ve ever seen, as she loses her independence to become yet another slave to her “goshujin-sama”.
Art/Animation: 10 – Nekopara’s visuals expertly convey the fetishization of the cat girls, which is a significant part of what leads to their dehumanization. The way it presents them as being incredibly cute both serves to help us see what the humans of the society see of them, as well as giving us increased sympathy to their plights, even as they themselves remain unaware of them.
Sound: 10 – The voice acting complements the character designs of the cat girls in adding to their fetishization, while also being far enough from anything you would hear in real life that it feels like something’s… wrong here. This is an important part of leading the viewer to the conclusion that society isn’t supposed to be this way. The background music that plays mostly consists of the same track playing over and over again as it becomes increasingly grating, fitting the mood of the series perfectly. The track might seem nice at first, but it quickly becomes something that sounds far more sinister and unpleasant.
Enjoyment: 10 – I was hooked. Each week, I was so excited to watch the next episode and find out which elements of the world and character psychology would be explored next, and it’s been a long time since an anime has made me think this deeply or filled me with this much existential dread.
In conclusion, Nekopara is one of the greatest pieces of cautionary fiction that has ever been conceived. It may not be for everyone, as it may cause you to slump into a two-week-long depression, and it certainly isn’t an easy watch, but if you want to experience some of the greatest political and philosophical epiphanies of your life, then Nekopara is absolutely a must watch.
AnimeEnjoyer420
Recommendation: Skip it unless you really like catgirls. Positives: + Delivers exactly what it advertises. Each episode is 20 minutes of catgirls being cute and absolutely nothing else. And let's be honest, that's the reason you're going to watch this. So even though it's not a "good" show, you'll probably like it if you know exactly what to expect from it. + Can be funny when it leans into the idea of them literally being cats, like Vanilla kneading on Chocola's stomach to wake her up, or them being unable to resist the urge to sit in a random box that's been left out. Negatives: - The catgirlsare too childlike or infantilized for the amount of fanservice and sexualization. The gratuitous ass shots and boob jiggling come off as a bit creepy when they're mostly treated like children and are barely allowed to leave the house without an adult. It feels like it couldn't decide whether to be a cute show about little girls or a horny show about sexy catgirls, and it split the difference in a way that ended up being kind of uncomfortable.
- The human characters suck. Shigure is a weird and cringeworthy pervert, and to say that Kashou is boring would be to wrongly imply that his presence or absence is felt in any way. He is a complete nothing character, and the show would literally be no different if he were replaced by a cardboard cutout of Kashou propped against the wall in the background of a handful of scenes.
- Catgirls never really evolve beyond their established archetype. You get a tiny bit of it with Chocola trying to become a big sister/mom to Cacao and an episode where Maple pursues her dream as a singer, but that really only serves to highlight how static all the other characters are, and makes it disappointing when they just reset to their usual selves at the start of the next episode.
- Gross, off-putting and unnecessary piss jokes are far too frequent.
- Can occasionally fall into being the bad kind of slice of life where it's just boring instead of feeling like a fun hangout with characters you love.
Joryn282
This is a fun, cute little anime that's enjoyable with, or without playing the VNs. Don't go into it expecting any sort of deep story since that isn't what it's going for anyway. Comedy and cuteness are its strongest offerings and it does them well. They also did well at keeping the spirit of the VNs while separating them so the anime is kind of its own little story instead of just trying to blatantly copy the source material, which doesn't always work out for titles based on VNs. In short, if you're interested in an anime that's just there to be some lighthearted fun, givethis one a try.
Executor23
For those who don't know, the show is based off of an erotic visual novel. For those who know, don't expect similar content as in the visual novels. Most of the development in visual novels is cut from the anime adaptation – story progress, character development, romance (and no sexual content either; just occasional pervy jokes from Cinnamon). Expect just a simple slice of life comedy with a lot of cuteness and catgirls we already know from the novels. With the introduction of an anime original catgirl (Cacao), the show got at least some original content. First 3-4 episodes are focused on this new catgirl andhow she is getting used to living with other catgirls along with Kashou and Shigure.
Then the show takes its slice of life episodic pattern, which is a bit of a shame. Because of this, the show lost its momentum and became more plain with no direction or aim. Just random shenanigans and cute moments with the catgirls; though, occasionally has some references to some key story parts of the novel.
With the lack of story progress, characters also develop only a little bit. All characters have their basic traits like in the novel (like Azuki & Coconut always fighting), but without further depth to the characters (like Azuki & Coconut coping with each other and the reasoning behind it).
The show is a decent introduction to the whole franchise, however, for the best experience, visual novel is highly superior. Don’t forget to pick your favorite catgirl...
(...My favorite is Maple).
Pros:
+ cute show with many catgirls
+ Cacao and her ‘story arc’
Cons:
- lost momentum after few episodes
- catgirls are developed as characters only a little
Double-edged:
+/- not hilarious, but also not dull
+/- visual novel is superior; the show has references on parts of the novel
6/10 (OK) ||| biased rating 7/10 (GOOD)
Prinzesschen
Welcome to La Soleil! The café with a lot of cute catgirls, a true cat paradise! Hi!I'm pretty sure you came here for a "Oh, the animation was...", "Oh, the characters are..." type of review.But nope!I'm sorry to break it to you.Instead, I'll be telling you a short story on why I love this franchise so much and how it helped me feel better during some dark times.If you want my opinion on the animation/plot/sound etc., go to the bottom bellow the hearts! Okay,when it comes to Nekopara, I have seen two kinds of opinions on twitter: 1.) It's super cute!Adorable! I love it! 2.)This is such a joke,people are only in for it because of the NSFW game!
I first played the game back two years ago as a horny teenager.First walkthrough, skipped all the dialogue so I could get to the steamy parts.Honestly, didn't think much of it back then.But, about a year later, I started playing for the sake of the story because I was in a very,very dark place back then.The stress I had at school, family problems, there was a lot and I was at one of the worst points in my life.I was desperate and binged a lot of different shows that included dark themes, making me feel even more depressed.One day I stumbled uppon nekopara once again on steam.The REALLY cute design catched my eye once more, and so I installed the game again and began reading.A few weeks later, I felt like a different person.I wasn't feeling as sad anymore because I knew I had cute catgirls waiting for me at home, no matter how bad my classmates treated me or how much my family yelled at me.I knew that once everyone was asleep,I'll be owning a café with catgirls that love me more than anything.
And, after new years, when I saw the anime started airing, I started crying.Finally!And I watched it.Now, it finnished airing.This anime made me cry not because of the story, but the memories it awoke in me.No, you probably won't be loving it this much.Yes, its okay to judge and call it cringe.But, please let us people who loved this enjoy it! Thank you for your time ♡
♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
Story: 8/10
-As far as the story goes, it's quite cutesy, girly and includes a lot of slice of life elements.The world with humanoid catgirls is truly fascinating and has a lot of detail to it.And the events that follow from first to last minute, are all very relaxing, funny and adorable!Moist!
Art: 9/10
I can not stress this enough!The fashion in this show is just GOALS.I wish I had a closet with such items, truly!Besides that, everything looks quite smooth and crisp.So soft, you wish you could poke Chocolas cheeks!And fluff Cinnamons hair!
Sound: 7/10
The opening is quite upbeat and happy, reminds me of candy pop or kawaii edm.A nice song to start the day with!The ending is more relaxing and I'd say it's good to listen to at night, before sleep.I didn't pay much attention to the ost tho.
Character: 8/10
Even tho sometimes cringey, all the catgirls remind me of little kids.I love the idea of the cats being named after cake/icecream flavors A LOT! I even named my own 3 cats Chocola, Vanilla and Maple!Even tho they're not with us anymore.RIP to my favorite cats <3
Anyway, Each character seems quite different from the other, each has their own opinions and tastes and I'd say there is something for every viewer to find and love!You will definitely find a catgirl you like!
Enjoyment: 7/10
I'd say this is a show to watch when you're a bit stressed maybe, when you wanna relax and see something overly girly and cute, and a show you could watch with your little cousins!I did at least~
Overall: 10/10
I can't thank the producers enough for turning this game into an anime.I enjoyed every second of it, despite the lower scores in previous categories.I hope you enjoy your stay at La Soleil, the catgirls are waiting for you!! ♡
MisterAmine
I did not enjoy this anime because i am not a fan of nekos, i find them too much "nya nya" the story is decent but not formidable i was not disapointed because i know i am biased by the fact they are nekos i think the anime can be better by the story and by the characters, letting the characters less "nya nya", less "cute" As a conclusion, i will say that this anime is not woth a try if you do not like nekos because they are cliché. But, the graphics and the sound are very good, good environnements, and there is no sex inthis anime which is a good thing
thanks for reading
Byniavo
So it's over. A very disappointing adaptation. But Why? Why is this? How could Felix Firm ruin such an easy adaptation? Because the OP and ED were great, the character designs are mostly faithful, and the animation was great. However... 1) They skipped 90% of the introduction, a.k.a. why catgirls exist, how they are adopted etc. This also includes how Chocola and Vanilla were adopted. If you read the vn then you knew that was a very heartbreaking scene, but the anime only viewers will never know about this. 2) The main fucking character is barely relevant. Somehow Felix Firm managed to change nekopara from a harem to a yurishow!
3) Pacing was dreadful. Random anime original Keijo episode that should have been used to develop the cat girls. Cacao is not even in the vn - she is an anime only catgirl. She starts with no personality and ends with no personality, and she is a chore to watch due to this. Most of the cat girls are reduced to mere stereotypes - a problem due to mostly the points above.
I won't complain about the 'spicy' stuff not put into this adaptation. But regardless I am still very disappointed with the adaptation. I guess it is a mediocre slice of life show? I don't even know as this show has no sense of direction or plot! And it makes me so frustrated! Regardless there are some enjoyable scenes and I love the vn, and that is why I did not drop this show.
Alas, if I am being very generous then this show will get a 4. But if I put myself into a anime original viewer's shows, then a 3 would be more accurate. *sigh*
oh well... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
rant over
KarenKujou
First of all NekoPara does not deserve a 6.87 rating! Even Joey "The Anime Man" agrees that all the hate on the anime adaptation is unnecessary! (The Anime Man Video Source, Time Stamp, and Explanation on why is in the story rating segment below) I played the R18 games, I watched the OVA, and now I just finished watching the anime! And here I am wanting more adorable neko cuteness! It's been quite a while since I last played the game and watched the OVA so it felt very nostalgic and just like how I enjoyed playing the games and watching the OVA, I enjoyedevery episode of adorable neko cuteness! So with that let's get to the ratings!
Story: 8
One word, WHOLESOME! From episode 1 to 12 I always had a smile on my face. I felt very happy and enjoyed every single episode! I don't know why there are so many of you hating on this anime giving it a 1 to 5 star review. Remember this is a SLICE OF LIFE anime! Don't expect it to be as exciting as Boku no Hero Academia or as hyped as Kimetsu no Yaiba. Also what are you guys expecting, that the studio animate some of the R18 stuff that happened in the game? That they make this an ecchi anime? Lol of course they won't do that! They made this as a wholesome cute anime where it focuses on neko girls doing cute things and nothing more than that! It was made so that you can relax, unwind and enjoy how adorable your neko waifu/s are! Even Joey "The Anime Man" agrees that all the hate on NekoPara is unnecessary! (Source: https://youtu.be/KKmJSWOxJ0w
Time Stamp: 26:34)
Art: 8
Just like how I remembered it! It's not VN quality but it's still very good!
Sound: 9
The bgm made me nostalgic on when I was still playing the game. Using the bgm of the game was a really good move to make the old players reminisce the past. And the OP and especially the ED song are really cute as it portrayed how all the nekos came to be in the Minaduki family.
Character: 9
It's basically almost spot on just like in the game! Both their cuteness and personality were just like in the game.
Enjoyment: 10
Nuff said I think at this point I've already proven my point.
Overall: 10! <3
LegendAqua
Neko Paradise! Nekopara finally got a full length anime and what with the OVA being a small taste as to what the anime series was gonna be, Nekopara 's anime series in itself is a decent slice of life comedy anime with a *ahem* few changes from the game to make it fit into the slice of life comedy anime. Nonetheless Nekopara has neko-moeness ALL ROUND. Nekopara's anime series follows Chocola voiced by Yuki Yagi and Vanilla voiced by Saeki Iori in their daily lives in La Soleil, a patisserie owned by Kashou Minazaki. Now slightly diverging from the game which starts as soon as the firstepisode is that Chocola finds a stray young cat that latche sonto Chocola, unable to know what to do, Chocola secretly tries to hide this stray cat, but as this stray cat...let's call her Cacao, well Cacao pretty much becomes aprt of the cast and we gets some development to her, with her opening her up to the rest of the cast as well as her joining in the rest of the core cast in their antics, mostly as a cheerleader for Chocola.
Nekopara is a slice of life comedy to the T and LA is fine with that as the antics the core cats goes through is fairly good comedy especially with the character interactions of the cast at that. The slice of life aspect focuses on the cats as well as Cacao for the most part, the comedy revolves around the character interactions, all mostly moe and like LA said at the start of this review, this is pretty much Neko paradise bliss as far as LA is aware.
Now since Nekopara is a character slice of life comedy centric anime, let's talk about the characters. Starting off, Kashou Minazuki is such a nothing character, being the owner of Vanilla and Chocola, but he's mostly in the background to make way with Shigure Minazuki, his little sister and the rest of the cats as the center focus. Oddly enough Chocola and Vanilla are mostly the narrative focus characters instead of the "player character" of Kashou in this anime's case. Vanilla is the stoic teaser and minder to the genki ditzy Chocola. Before Cacao opens up, Chocola mostly minds Cacao, but afterwards, Chocola is at the most her usual self anyways. Coconut voiced by Marin Mizutani is the clumsy but doesn't know her own strength and often butt heads the the tsundere Azuki voiced by Shiori Izawa. We also have Cinnamon voiced by Yuri Noguchi a ditzy but ecchi daydreamer whenever a sexual innuendo comes into play and Maple voiced by Miku Ito who's the most grounded of the cast and minds the rest of the cats. Lastly the aforementioned Shigure, Kashou's little sister and mostly keeps the cats in check though her absolutely loving cats is kinda running gag to her.
The Neko's themselves do get screentime as well as their own (or coupled together) character development in one episode thus making us want to know them better, of course Chocola, Vanilla and Cacao gets majority of the screentime because of the Cacao plot point but the rest of core cast gets their own, like Coconut and Azuki having an all day competition with one another, Maple's singing career, Shigure's depressing day and finally digging into Cinnamon's ditzy fantasizing head. Minimum cast and all utilized which is all good.
The animation done by Felix Film was actually done pretty well, from the moe yet polished character designs and it's decent backgrounding. Felix Films if anything did itself quite well for a "slice of life comedy" especially when it's to it's character designs and considering it's a character slice of life comedy, Felix Film knew where to pull in the effort to the animation in. All in all Felix Films did great in terms of character designs.
The voice cast does have a few changes form the game, but nonetheless there were some good voice actors to point out, like Yuki Yagi as the genki Chocola, the stoic one liner of Saeki Iroi as Vanilla to the ditzy ecchi daydreamer of Cinnamon and Shiori Izawa as the tsundere Azuki and finally M.A.O as the competent but lovingly funny Shigure Minazuki, the weirdest thing is of Cacao's vice actor as her voice actor Yuuka Morishima doesn't really do much as Cacao besides some grunting and noises as Cacao, yes as Cacao opens up so does the amount of lines Yuuka gets but semantics. Nonetheless the voice cast were pretty great especially from Yuki Yagi as Chocola.
But yes, as much as Nekopara is infamous for it's rather...*ahem* explicit adult material of it's visual novel, the anime adaptation is a bleached underpants anime adaptation of the visual novel and given us a more slice of life comedy of Nekopara's source material and what with Cacao brought into the anime adaptation is somewhat proof of that and LA doesn't mind as LA REALLY didn't mind Nekopara's comedic slice of life hijinks one bit and more or less gave this anime series as a VERY GOOD breather anime in comparison to the animes in Winter 2020 (and no LA doesn't mean this in a bad way either). If Nekopara achieved anything, it's essentially the calming cat videos in Youtube bundled into anime form with all it's slice of life comedy elements to it and of course with what character developments given to the Neko's were also good as well.
Coconuts is best Neko, don't at me!
FlexySpagoot
Nekopara is just plain boring. That's all there really is to it. It doesn't have much of a "plot," because that isn't what its going for, but the individual episodes don't have enough substance in them to really warrant watching them. I probably would have rated this show a 6 if it weren't for the fact that I was completely bored of it by episode 4. Only reason I really finished it was because me and some friends watched it (and the movie and OVA) as a joke. A boring, 4 hour long joke. The humor in this show is pretty bland, mostly just boilingdown to cat puns and "this character is quirky and does X," over and over again. The other main appeal is the cute/wholesome aspect of it, which it doesn't really deliver on. Despite raising $1,000,000, this show looks cheaply made. That kind of hampers its ability to look "cute," doesn't it. Other than that there isn't really much else of importance. Its boring and I don't recommend it unless you really like catgirls.
Ragio
Nekopara as we know it, is well...an hentai game series where we can PLAY AROUND with cats. Cats? No, CATGIRLS. How much fun, don´t you agree? But has this anime lived up at its expectation? When this was first announced, i was excited that i immediatly scored 10 before it aired because i love the series overall. But little did i know i would be very wrong. Before you start shooting rockets at me because i stand my 10 on this, hear me out. Its a 6 in reality. This series follows the main games story, if you can call it a story; but it didn´t feltequal or better than the games, rather much worse.
Story-6; Like i said, not much story here. Come on, its a +18 game, what kind of story do you expect here? All they do is just do anything different every episode as its own way. While i like the ideas they have, they are just not executed that welll.
Art-7; Art is questionable at times. First episodes(3 to be exact) were terrible in terms of art; Chocola and Vanilla at times looked awful, specially the scene where they clap to Azuki(if i remember correctly). Coco and Azuki fighting on underwear also didn´t looked very well(ep.4) at all and yet they repeated that scene on the last episode of the series. More critism on coco because she looked awful; in last ep she well, looked odd at some frames. Overall, it is decent given the episodes 5-11 didn´t had any problem that i spot on. Heck, the OVA art is much better, thats a 9/10.
Sound-9; No judging here, sound is very good, thats what felt best in the series.
Character-5; This is the main point of dissapointment, the characters. I gotta say i was very dissapointed on how they behave. This series is supposed to follow the main games yet...why don´t they behave the same?
Vanilla is the perfect one, the rest have too many problems. Chocola is WAY TOO clumsy; in the games im sure she wasn´t like that. She was clumsy but not in every scene where as in this anime, she is clumsy all the time in 4 EPISODES. 4! Do they hate her or something?
Maple just doesn´t exist. She is just relevant in ep.9, the rest she does nothing which is sad because is one of the cats that stand out the most imo.
Cinnamon is just...her being lewd. Thats it. That´s all what she does. I mean the games she was the same but not all the time; again, same problem as Chocola. But this time, they take it to extreme; every episode has a scene of her being lewd like they didn´t had any jokes or topics to bring.
Coco is a mix of Chocola and Maple. Clumsy and Irrelevant. She also does nothing but being in a fight with Azuki or messing things around. She and Azuki were only revelant in ep 6 and thats it.
Azuki, again doesn´t exist and she is supposed to be the influence of the bunch. Dissapointing too.
Shigure...no. What happened to her love for Kashou? Thats the only complaint i have AND THATS WHAT SHE IS! This is a completely diffrent Shigure that i know of and only gets an episode to be relevant at which btw, was not her best. And Kashou? ...Who´s Kashou?
Cacao who was supposed to be the main focus or should have been, is only relevant in the last couple of episodes(10-12). Expected much more from her; her cuteness is good but it doesn´t change the fact that she needed more focus. And no i won´t talk about Chiyo, she is just there.
Enjoyment-7; It felt decent. While of the many flaws, the anime is supposed to be relaxing(in a way...)and fun and thats what it was at times. For people who never played the series, it must be very good for them but for someone who has knowledge, it only makes us think on how much they could have improved...
Overall-6; For a Nekopara fan, this felt dissapointing. I thought it would be much better but instead we got a downgrade from the games. Not having the same voice actors was a bit of an issue aswell as the experience didn´t felt the same. If you are a Nekopara fan, you should consider before watching as it will be a bit of dissapointment for you. If you aren´t, enjoy nekos being clumsy and cute. Much cute.
Why did i rated 10? I love the series and i know Nekoworks can do much better than this, i belive in them. This was only a step and lets hope Vol.4 has the potential that they can demonstrate.
Poet014
Nekopara was the first anime I had really watched (besides pokemon). I had first seen the game mentioned online and I found the series soon after. In my opinion, it has a nice and simple story that is comfortable to watch. The characters are all great and their personalities just add to the show. I loved the art style of the series and for me, the characters weren't very predictable. The decisions they make usually reflect their character. I don’t know how it compares to the game, or if they act different. However, I would recommend this series to anyone that likes simple wholesome animewith fun characters!
B-O-D
A confused story, which explains nothing of where the cat people come from, why there is only females, and why they are not seen in outside society as outside cacao and the beach hut episode, no other cats seemed featured. So we find out a brother and sister took in a bunch of cats, and now use them as free labor in return for caring, clothing them, etc, a capitalist paradise.The cats are of course all attractive, at first bar Cacao unless you're a loli/pedo lover. In the game, Kashou sleeps with all the cats but there is no sign of this ever happening in this series as all he cares about is baking and the business. his sister has a bigger cat fetish it seems and enjoys dressing them up, doing health checks, stripping them down to underwear to measure them, etc, some of the few ecchi moments of the series.
As the show goes on despite how well the show is made, the story, character development, conversation, are all lacking. The girls seemed to have formed of in their pairs already and more likely to go lesbian than after Kashou and Shigure would probably be up for it, if not outfought by her brother fetish.
Sadly the season tried to put too many things together and failed badly, Neko fans will still love it as catgirls, but sadly i have read better things as a teacher by teenagers.
alex-vrtrx
Short review for Nekopara: First of all, I didnt play the VN so I cant take that into account. If you dont take this show very serious it can be fun and could even be a 7 or something close to it (6.5->7) In the end I gave it a 6. Some characters can sometimes be annoying but I guess thats just my opinion. The voice acting is kind of weird in some places too and lacks enthusiasm. Other than that, like I said, if you dont take this show very serious and watch it with a "Hey it has catgirls doing funny stuff thatdoesnt always make sense but its cute and funny because its an anime about catgirls" kind of mindset it can be fun and you could give it a 7. I watched it with some aspects of this mindset but in the end there are some flaws if you look at it like a real anime and I couldnt give it a 7 because of the earlier mentioned flaws and it also seemed kind of unfair to all the other anime I rated 7 ^^
84DaysWithout
The original Nekopara is an adult visual novel where you watch catgirls get lewded through the perspective of a self insert male. TV Nekopara is not only absent of all explicit content but has tame fanservice even for non-nude ecchi standards, unfortunate news for the hardcore degenerates out there. But if you’re going to strip a visual novel of all adult content, you better sell the character personalities and make their relationships feel genuine enough for viewers to connect to them on an emotional level. TV Nekopara at least manages to do that well by making them appear as close knit as a true family.As such this can be watched for reasons outside of fanservice, as surprising as that may sound.
Those familiar with the VN will immediately recognize the quirks of the catgirls (and if not don’t fret - you quickly pick up on this anyway). Chocola is every bit the adorable airhead who tries her best at everything, no matter how many mistakes are made in the process. Vanilla is the same detached genius of infinite wisdom. Azuki is a fearless munchkin with an Napoleon complex towards the more mature looking Coconut. Cinnamon is a maximum pervert that badly wants to bang Maple, who pretends as if the feeling isn’t mutual. The story does well to introduce circumstances that allows them to show off their charm and individuality. A few of such include the power going out and the catgirls needing to entertain themselves by inventing ghost stories, competing in a sports festival, keijo styled butt battles and helping a stray cat feel at home. One of these is not like the other. But its relevant to the plot, I swear.
The lone new addition is a cute baby neko who is slowly ingratiated into her new environment. It can be rewarding watching her progression throughout the story that is expedited by the love given to her by her surrounding family. Through her the compassion of the other catgirls is displayed as they sacrifice their own needs for the sake of making the child feel at comfort. Sweet enough to give you the feels. She doesn't really get lewded either so no worries on that front if you're concerned about crossing some invisible moral line.
As I mentioned before, the fanservice is very much so on the tame side. This works to make Nekopara fairly accessible for those into SOL shenanigans. But that isn’t to say there is NO fanservice whatsoever, as you do have a number of scenes that are clearly designed to appeal to the lewd catgirl enthusiasts. For instance, Cinnamon has a running gag where she squirts herself in ecstasy over some erotic vision. You can never confirm this visually, nor does she ever explicitly say that she's cumming, but the implication is there to allow your mind to travel wherever you want. There are also end cards after each episode that are hyper eroticized similar to the tone of the VN short of nudity. That is about the extent of the service itself.
Do I wish Nekopara took things further? Yeah, as there is a middle ground between fanservice and story that can be reached to appease both parties. Monster Musume is such an example of a show that retains the adult content of its source material while still managing to give the characters endearing personalities that resonate with the viewer. Fruits of Grisaia is another example of an adaptation that still retains adult elements of its source material EVEN WITH a large amount of censorship in excluding the H-scenes. Both of these adaptations also retained the romantic elements from their source material, whereas here there is no such thing. Nekopara could show nudity, intimacy and be very good but actively chooses not to to presumably to appeal to the normie audience. A decision that disappoints me as a fan of fanservice, and probably disappoints the consumers in Japan considering the low BD sales, but not something that causes me to totally dismiss the merits of its charm to those that love it.
TV Nekopara is a case of an anime that appears to be ecchi degenerate material but is actually more wholesome than perverted and can be enjoyed by normies who think they're not perverts and think they watch SOL anime for the emotional bonds more so than sex appeal. So you can totally watch this and deny accusations that you fantasize about having a catgirl harem that lives to please you. Instead you just want to watch catgirls live to please each other, non-sexually of course, under the same household working towards a common goal of helping their place of employment thrive that canonically pays them in dick but in the anime world they just get your wholesome love in return. I would enjoy this much more if the VN never existed and I didn't have a nagging feeling that something is missing. Those who never played the VN are more likely to love it,, and some who do and can pretend as if having sex with catgirls isn't their kink may be able to enjoy it fully with no hang ups whatsoever as well.d
