***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Mayoi Neko Overrun. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Based in the small café, Stray Cats, a group of friends spend their high school days hanging out.
Takumi Tsuzuki (voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto) and Fumino Serizawa (voiced by Kanae Ito) have known each other for years. The two are close, but in the case of Fumino, feelings go much deeper
Fumino is unable to express her thoughts and has a habit of saying the opposite of what she means. This is a secret known by pretty much everybody. This includes Fumino's arch-rival, Chise Umenomori (voiced by Yuka Iguchi).
One day, Takumi’s adoptive older sister, Otome Tsuzuki (voiced by Satomi Sato), brings a girl by the name of Nozomi Kiriya (voiced by Ayana Taketatsu).
Nozomi is quiet, mysterious, and very cat-like. Yet she finds comfort in Takumi, Fumino, and Chise’s friendship.
The crew of Stray Cats goes about their lives, getting into many different adventures.
Series Positives
There’s not a whole lot to say here. Mayoi Neko Overrun wasn't good. This show tried to be strange and weird. Instead, it was awkward and not fun.
The First Episode
I’m not sure how this happened. For some reason, I ended up watching episode ten where episode one should have been. I didn't realize for almost the entire series I had skipped it. Once I discovered my mistake, things made…better sense.
Episode one was actually well done. It did its job by getting you interested into what was going to happen in the series. Color me impressed. Even after seeing damn near the entirety of Overrun, I was almost willing to give it another chance.
The characters were well introduced. There was backstory. You got an idea of the style and humor the show would be trying for. The key word being "trying".
Sure, there were indications there would be issues. Lots of upskirt shots, accidental nudity, and other cheap ecchi gimmicks. Except there was enough here to get your hopes up.
It took about five minutes of watching afterward to remind me that this show wasted any potential it had.
Series Negatives
Overrun wasn't boring. No Jinsei was boring. This was annoying.
Comedy
Aside from a few rare chuckles, the attempts at humor were nothing more than attempts.
This show wanted big and over the top. This has worked many times in the past. Too bad the commitment here wasn't even close. There was one scene in particular that will stick with me for a while. Not because it was funny, but because I can’t believe it exists. The three female leads came across a ping pong table. This led to Fumino and Chise starting a match.
There was no talking. The action grew in intensity. There was a lot of slow motion. This was only an excuse to have the girls in suggestive positions. While this is happening, Takumi was doing something a little more interesting. Except still not interesting. Then the scene ended.
I didn’t crack a smile once during this. I knew what they were going for, but it was nothing more than a massive failure. Yet that wasn't the problem.
Why is this moment now burned into my head? It's because I had to go back and double check something. I had to confirm a suspicion. A suspicion I hoped I was wrong about. There was no way I saw what I saw. Low and behold, I did. This scene went on for THREE F@#$ING MINUTES!
No talking, no point, only time filler. Now, this may not sound like a long time, but try sitting through that and then talk to me.
Random and Contradictory
Overrun became another series for one episode. That happened for a bit. No warning, no build up, nothing. Out of nowhere, mech anime for whatever reason. The end of a mech anime I’ll have you know.
This was a filler episode. It was a god damn filler episode in a thirteen-episode show. It's also not helping Overrun's case seeing how this was one of the more interesting moments of the series. This was the most extreme example, but this series had a ton of these kinds of moments.
Characters got full introductions to only to say a few words and then never make an appearance again. Events happened only to set up the next plot point. That's fine except this show never bothered to fit these scenes in with what was going on.
Personalities change on a dime. Some were never established, to begin with. I don’t remember anyone’s name and the character designs looked damn near the same. I am unable to tell you what separated one secondary character from another.
The last few episodes decided to bring in a new twist to try and shake things up a bit. Granted, calling this a twist is me stretching. There was no point to this. It showed up way too late to develop any sort of tension or sense of worry.
My final point, and spoilers I guess deals with Takumi and Fumino’s relationship. Fumino no doubt liked Takumi, but couldn't find the courage to say it. And then Takumi was surprised that Fumino had such feeling, to begin with.
I’m calling BS on this because it is. Fumino did confess her feelings to Takumi in the third episode. No if, and's, or buts about it, she said everything. At the same time, Takumi didn’t misinterpret her, he didn’t mishear her, he didn't misconstrue her words.
Takumi tried to play this contradiction off as if he was unable to read Fumino’s intentions. Because, you know, she couldn't be honest. Again, BS because she was actually very easy to read. Why do we know this? Well, it might have to do with the fact that it was Takumi told us this.
Final Thoughts
Nope, all kinds of nope. Mayoi Neko Overrun is so not worth your time. There is nothing for me to recommend this time around.
The jokes were not funny. The characters were bland and forgettable. There was an insane amount of contradictions and random events that made no sense. While not the most painful to sit through, it wasn't enjoyable.
I watched this one on a whim. Sometimes you get lucky, and then sometimes you get Mayoi Neko Overrun.
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