Apocalypse Meow a.k.a. Cat Shit One
Apocalypse Meow is the Americanized title of Cat Shit One, a dark and befuddling manga series by Motofumi Kobayashi. Published in the late 90s, the book features a team of fuzzy wuzzy widdle bunny wabbits in an American special ops team battling the forces of cutesy wootsy wily Viet Cong kitty cats on a wide variety of historically accurate, often graphically violent recon missions. Characters are depicted as different species according to nationality; Yankees as rabbits, the Vietnamese as cats, Frenchmen as pigs, Koreans as dogs, Australians as koala bears, etc.
Yyyyeah. Cute Overload it ain’t. Or Watership Down, for that matter. And now, it would seem that Anima Studio has produced an equally gory animated trailer/short based off the manga. Only this time, special ops team Cat Shit One is in the Middle East, fighting… Taliban camels? Taliban camels wearing… turbans?
Oh god. Oh my god. Ohmygodwhatthefuckbarbeque, even.
Replete with M4A1 annihilation and bargain basement Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan-soundalike ululations. Keepin’ it classy.
Clip via Sean Dicken. Thanks for the nightmares, Sean.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
That video clip provoked quite a lot of entirely inappropriate laughter. I am intrigued and would like to see more.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
oh hell yes!
March 24th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
It’s not a short, it’s a trailer for a series currently in development. However, they’re apparently still looking for investors.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:28 am
ah, I can always count on the Japanese to make me think ‘wtf?’
March 25th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Can’t wait to see the cosplay for this one….
March 25th, 2009 at 9:50 am
I’m filing this under the “Dear Japan–STOP IT!” department. And why are we rabbits? Are rabbits the international animal most associated with Americans? And how would that even come up in a conversation?
March 25th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Sounds quite a bit like Blacksad.
March 25th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
This sounds like “MAUS”, except horrible. You know, with the whole personifying war with animals thing. SO YEAH…
March 25th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Eh, I agree with Stagger. The concept sounds a bit bare, and the animation looks like a poorly done video game. Of course, perhaps it would be better if I understood Japanese.
Oh well. This shit ain’t got nuthin’ on Watership Down! :D
March 25th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Not having the fuzzy warm Aww! Animals Are Cute mentality like so many others…I fully support this violently hilarious vision of the animal kingdom. Really if you take out the human weaponry it’s nothing we’ve not seen variations of before…or in the actual animal kingdom. That’s pretty much were it falls flat for me. It’s a fun gimmick…maybe the manga is more complex and interesting but nothing in that trailer is anything to really go WOW over.
Conker’s Bad Fur Day on the N64 and Xbox was waaaaaaay more insane.
Now if you want animals with human weaponry and really beautiful art & storytelling then go right now to your local comic book shop and pick up Mouse Guard…a wonderful indie series about medieval mice that mixes in storybook elements, traditional fantasy, and the kind of elegance classic childrens books achieve.
@Stagger Leah…isn’t that exactly what MAUS did? Took WWII, the holocaust, and complex family issues and paired them with animals.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:20 am
This has definite potential…all of which hinges on how serious the creative team behind it is. If they were able to get something like the polished, expressive, fleshed-out fuzzy cutesy feel of a good Pixar film and mix it with the realism of a terrorist beheading video…then the sky’s the limit.
Of course they won’t be able to get that level of execution (or ANY if the funding isn’t there), but hopefully they can work out some kind of charming indie spirit and get a good writer or two. If the mix is right, I think there still might be some play left to be squeezed out of the “animals at war” thing. The potential for satire is too great. There’s so much you can get away with.
If this all ends up being videogame shoot-em-up shit though, then it’s going to get old fast.
March 26th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Seconding the Mouse Guard recommendation.
March 26th, 2009 at 9:43 am
The words “totally retarded enough to work” spring to mind. But seriously? Rabbits? I would’ve pegged us as wolves or something. Some type of animal with a pack heirarchy in which the omegas are always trying to overthrow the alphas.
March 26th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Awwww….. when I saw the title, I was hoping for a feature of the Real Life Superhero (RLSH) Apocalypse Meow: http://www.myspace.com/apocalypse__meow
Who seems to have come up with the name independently.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
There is actually a QUITE FUNNY REASON WHY the Americans are rabbits in the Cat Shit One series. The Japanese word for rabbit is “うさぎ” which can be romanized as “USAGI.” Do you see where this is going? Yes. USA + GI = USAGI. I’m gonna assume that all of you can figure out what USA and GI stands for.
Anyway, I was actually very surprised at this video’s attention to detail, and I can see some hardcore Japanese gun-nuts are working on this one. The movements of the rabbits actually look very tactical, and the transition drill(switching to one’s sidearm and firing in case the primary is not operational) looks well done.
Which is hysterical. I mean, these are rabbits, armed with top-notch military hardware and looking well-trained and well disciplined. Rabbits!!!
P.S. Some more into on this project from the creators:
“The concept of this work is the development of real and fierce combat by cute and fluffy animals. In these days when people have become too used to seeing people die in movies, we wish to use cute animals as the characters to give viewers a stronger feeling of the misery of the wars that are taking place in this world.
“Story: Packy, Botasky and Rats are special operations experts working in a private military company. Every day they are embroiled in combat somewhere around the world. In the first episode, they intend to come to the assistance of a hostage captured by guerrillas demanding the withdrawal of the US Army, but instead become surrounded by a large number of guerrillas.”
March 26th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
@Soultown….Wait a minute so the only reason Americans are rabbits is because it worked well as a pun? Are we SURE this isn’t secretly a US backed project? It sounds like something Hollywood would come up…
You’re right about the gun nuts stuff. The subculture for it in Japan makes even the stereotypical NRA member look amateurish. Reminded me a lot of the Metal Gear Solid series in that respect. I can see SoF wannabes, Grognards, and Military Enthusiasts arguing over the tactical and weapon choices already…haha
March 27th, 2009 at 5:42 am
@Tequila
No. I’m sure. This is wayyyy over anything the Americans can pull off. Best thing those creativity-deprived (and for that matter, less-screwed up) Hollywood hacks would come up with would be what, freakin’ BALD EAGLE? lol.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
omg..that’s just…I wanna see this animated series!
April 6th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Yes, I’ll say it; “The manga is much better!” Bwahahaha! Really though, it’s true. It works as a manga (even if the author uses up absurd amounts of panels tormenting his much-hated son-in-law, whom he made a character just for that purpose), but I don’t think it would work as an animated show.
As manga go, I’d actually call it pretty straightforward, ironically enough…
April 7th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Children when hearing the word U.S.A.-GI which means “USA person” will often think it is the word for rabbit which is “usagi”
So for a child, a rabbit is what comes to mind when someone mentions an American.
Koreans are viewed by Japanese as rough, dirty, uncouth, rough and tumble, loud people. So the dog was the natural embodiment of that.
April 8th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
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