Cat Shit One 1
I haven’t been much for watching anime or reading manga much anymore, but I saw the Cat Shit One trailer about a year ago and mentally made a note to check it out. Cat Shit One is based on the manga Apocalypse Meow. The manga was about the American conflict with the North Vietnamese, the Vietnamese being portrayed by cats (hence the unusual feline titles). The anime updates the story by having it take place in an unspecified Middle Eastern conflict. Like in the manga, each country is portrayed by a different animal. The Americans are rabbits (a play on the Japanese word for “rabbit” usagi or USA GI) and their opponents of unspecified Middle Eastern origin are camels.
Yes. That's really what the show is called.
CAT SHIT ONE
「キャットシットワン」
Summary: Here we find the team codenamed Cat Shit One, consisting of American soldiers Perkins (“Packy”) and Botasky (“Bota”). Packy is the leader of the two and as such is serious, level-headed and pretty damn bad ass. Bota, on the other hand, is rather flaky and cowardly. However, he is a pretty good sniper and Packy can trust him to watch his back.
Packy and Bota are perched on a ridge overlooking an enemy encampment. Their enemy has three prisoners and, as the duo watch, that number is taken down to two when an escaping prisoner is gunned down. Their aerial support is still fifty minutes away, but Packy doesn’t want to risk any other prisoners dying. Bota doesn’t like the idea, but agrees to cover Packy when he goes down to liberate the prisoners. I mentioned Packy is a bad ass, right? He sneaky down into the encampment, slitting throats Rambo-style until he gets to the building with the prisoners. He puts a silencer on his handgun and takes out the guards from a window while Bota gets his sniper-action on, taking out the enemy outside and keeping them distracted.
The best part is that the enemy spots him because his ears are sticking up over the ridge.
Packy’s mission goes well, but Bota is in trouble. The enemy figures out where he is (they could see his bunny ears through their binoculars) and proceeds to launch some RPGs in this direction.* He scrambles just seconds before one hits his hiding spot and then makes is way down to Packy. The two meet up and radio for their backup’s ETA. They are told that they need to take the prisoners one kilometer south for pick up, however, three trucks of enemy reinforcements will arrive before their back up will. Packy tells Bota to take the prisoners to the meeting site (one is injured and has to be carried on a stretcher) while he stays behind to keep the enemy from following them. Bota doesn’t like the idea, but does as ordered.
I’m not goes to go into the details of what happens here since its a lot of bad guy shows up, Packy kills him, then dodges some bullets. The only thing worth mentioning really is that Packy rigs a couple of explosives to blow some shit up when he ambushes the arriving enemy. Bota makes it to the pick up site and puts up the yellow smoke signal. Not long after that, there is an explosion in the enemy encampment and Bota looks worried for his Sargeant (Packy had ordered him not to return for him).
The last thing you see before you die.
Packy has some trouble of his own when he’s out numbered and nearly knocked out by an RPG explosion. The enemy is nearly on him when they are taken out by two shots. Bota appears to save the day. Packy isn’t pleased, but accepts his help (I mean, its not like he can tell him to go away at this point). The two make their way to the pick up site and, at one point, Bota is attacked by a sword-wielding enemy soldier, but blocks his attack with his rifle before shooting him down. (Earlier Packy had reamed him out about having too many superfluous attachments to his rifle — Bota thought they looked cool and he is validated because they totally saved his life just now.)
The two are eventually cornered and pinned down by gunfire as they crouch behind a ruined brick wall. The enemy begins to surround them and all hope looks lost, until a helicopter appears. This is their back up, Angel One. So Packy and Bota are saved and begin walking into the sunset as Angel One decimates the encampment. Packy scolds Bota for violating a direct order, but his “punishment” is more of a reward.
I'm willing to bet that hawt PackyxBota slash has already been written. I prefer HelicopterxEnemy. Their love is so deadly.
Thoughts: Oh, wow. I don’t know where to start on this one. This is a very serious anime. If you stripped it of it’s animal characters then it would probably play like an adaption of a Tom Clancy novel. That having been said, most viewers probably won’t get into unless they like stories of modern warfare or anime that is serious in tone. There’s some good and bad about this episode.
The good is the quality of the animation and the music. The music actually reminded me of Hans Zimmer’s score for Black Hawk Down. Both the editing and the animation itself is well done. Even though the animators were using animals in place of people, its pretty obvious that they were striving for realism, from the way a person moves at the impact of a bullet to the twitching of the duo’s tails.
The bad is mostly the predictability of the plot (I wasn’t the least bit surprised Bota went back for Packy or that the helicopter arrived just in the nick of time) and the fact that the enemy consisted of graduates from the Imperial Marksmanship Academy. Seriously, they couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from the inside (unless they’re using an RPG that is). In contrast, the heroes only miss when it serves the plot. Another this is the bloodlessness of the series. Maybe I’m just too used to violent, bloody anime, but it was weird seeing all the violent and no blood. It was like watching unfunny episode of Tom & Jerry.
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Welcome back, morri! I’ve heard so much about you from Bass. Would look forward to more of your posts as this one is so not my cup of tea. =_=
I don't think I'll watch this. I just can't get over the fact that they're rabbits with guns!!
Wait, each country is portrayed by a different anime? You mean animal, right…?
The bloodlessness of it was strange for me too, but in all seriousness, do you really see that much blood when you shoot someone? I've never actually see anyone shoot anyone before, so what are we to judge how much blood comes from someone? Maybe none comes out at all.
Yes, I did. Sorry. I'm terrible about proofreading before I post something.
Well it seems to me that there would be a little blood splatter. Actually, the lack of blood from the bullets didn't bother me much. It was more when Packy slit that guard's throat more than anything else. That definitely involves a lot of blood shed.
Rabbits = will watch!
I think it has some awesome action aside from it having a cast of animals. The only thing I don't like is the predictability that Packy survives at the end of the day, even after that barrage.
I honestly don't know whether I should take this show seriously :3
(Aw that sucks, I don't want to be a cat… "orz)
I really loved CSO because it's a war story, but hilariously serious, predictable, and so cute *3* The tail wiggling & nose twitching, it was just too cute haha. A few people said it was racist… One of the camels was American, or at least on America's side, so that sort of balances it out, I suppose? Unless you really really hate camels (or rabbits) it shouldn't be too much of a problem… IDK, what do you think?
You're right, that RPG was oddly accurate…
:-) I loved this episode!
Although at first I was a little bit disturbed by the fact they were bunnies, in the end it's the exact reason why I like it XD. It's such a serious anime, yet I can't help but laugh when I see their cute faces. I love the bunnies, and moreover the ramboness is also completely unreal and makes it even funnier XD.