There is a popular term among anime fans, called "lifetime", to describe anime works that do not know whether they can see the ending or launch a sequel. For example, "Detective Conan" and "Full-time Hunter", which have been serialized for a long time, such as "Tutor", "Full Metal Frenzy", which have been expected by new animation works, and so on. The animation "Strange Cat" that I want to talk to you about today also belongs to the "Lifetime" series. After the launch of the first season in 2007, although the fans' voices were extremely high, it seemed that the second season was still far away.
Not only are we fans waiting, but even the people involved in the animation are waiting. Recently, "Strange Cat" landed on Amazon's pay channel, and the work's chief drawing supervisor and character design, Keishi Hashimoto, posted a congratulatory picture on the Internet and thanked everyone, but when asked when there would be a second season of animation, Hashimoto Keiji naughtily spit out a groove, saying that he was also waiting.
When you first watch "Strange Cat", you may be intimidated by its strange painting style. Even in 2007 more than a decade ago, the style of this work was abrupt and strange and "non-mainstream", but strangely, now that we look at many animations in 2007, we already feel that the style is outdated and outdated, but the picture of "Strange Cat" still looks comfortable.
The art style of this work adopts the ukiyo painting style, the color use is bold, the character performance is exaggerated, although there seems to be nothing special at a glance, only the painting style is strange, but if you taste it carefully, you will find the mystery of it, the large area of color makes people feel as if they are in an exaggerated world thousands of years ago, at a glance, they can see that the work is false rather than real, and the whole story seems to be someone unfolding a volume of ukiyo-e paintings for you that have been treasured for hundreds of years. Then slowly tell you a series of terrifying and beautiful stories.
This painting style itself is incomparably consistent with the content of the story. The strangeness of "Strange Cat" means strange talk, and its own story is also based on various strange talks in Japanese folklore and literary records, the total length of the animation is 11 episodes, but it is divided into three small stories, namely "Four Valley Strange Talk", "Tenshou Monogatari" and "Turning Cat", which are independent of each other but are connected by the protagonist.
The protagonist of the work, known as the Medicine Seller, is a medicine seller who travels around the world, although he claims to be a human, but he has goblin-like ears and carries a sword to slay demons. The entire animation work unfolds with his line, leading readers to see one monster and human tragedy after another, and to uphold justice one by one. Because of its high popularity, a certain domestic game has also made a linkage with it, which is quite popular with everyone.
Fans of "Strange Cat" have a consensus, that is, this work seems to be slightly niche in China, but in fact, at major domestic comic shows and fan shows, there are many fan creations about "Strange Cat", not to mention Japan, where the animation industry is more developed. Douban score of 9.3 points, although the data is only for reference, but also shows the status and achievements of this work in everyone's mind, although it is called niche, but in fact, for some slightly more senior anime fans, they all know this work.
In my heart it is not a niche.
The main thing that is criticized by the newcomers is the so-called "painting style problem", but after you actually calm down and look at it, you will find that this is a rare excellent work. Regardless of the fact that his so-called exaggerated painting style is actually incomparably excellent and artistic, the style of painting and the content of the story are incomparably compatible, and he has been able to be selected as one of the excellent animations.
"Strange Cat" such a painting style, both can instantly pull people back to the world hundreds of years ago, complete the high degree of unity of the painting style and the story told, you can also cross time and space, instantly complete the switching of time and space, you will be surprised to find that the two are cleverly unified, there is no abnormality, I think this is the charm of its painting style, in addition to the character performance, the battle, sports scene is not bad at all, by the fans jokingly called "funding explosion", after watching the people is not just a massage of the soul, It is also a visual feast.
In fact, the style of "Strange Cat" is highly respected by everyone, especially among people who have a certain artistic foundation.
Among anime fans, there are some people themselves to become animation practitioners or painters as the goal, their own painting skills and art knowledge is solid, and even according to their own understanding, for this work to create some fan works, I think this may also be why "Strange Cat" itself has many fans, and one of the reasons for the high quality, and these excellent fan works, in turn, pulled a lot of "mengxin" into the pit, forming a positive cycle.
More important is its story content and spiritual core. "Strange Cat" is about a bunch of strange stories, or hauntings, or supernatural phenomena, and behind each event, the initiators are often derived from the evil and greed in the human heart. Any demons, ghosts, and ghosts are all demons created by the evil people.
The medicine seller is like a bystander, quietly watching everything happen, exploring the truth, listening to the whispers and cries of the victims, and finally, all the truth is revealed, the knife falls in his hand, sends the real evil man to the western heavens, so that the innocent and dead person can ascend to bliss early, this punishment and elimination of evil, the exorcism of demons, and the simple pursuit of the public's heart are consistent.
In other words, this is an anime work that properly promotes positive energy and attacks ugliness and promotes righteousness.
Moreover, the production lineup of this work is also quite strong.
The chief painting supervisor and character design Hashimoto Keiji mentioned at the beginning of this article is an old man in the industry, who entered the industry early, has participated in works such as "Hal's Moving Castle", "Goldfish Hime on the Cliff", and "Evangelion" New Theater Edition also has his figure, and the industry resume is extremely rich; director Kenji Nakamura, who once served as a performance assistant in "Hal's Moving Castle", representative works include "Raven Karas", "Cemetery Kitaro", "C", etc.; voice actors, it is a collection of Sakurai Takahiro, Riki Tanaka, Daisuke Hanguchi, Yukana Nogami, Tomoichi Seki, Noriko Kuwajima, Hikaru Midorikawa, Daisuke Nagawa, and so on, and even this work has become a "voice actor into the pit enlightenment" for many people.
How can such a work with an excellent core and rich external forms of expression, coupled with the incomparable production of the heart, not be popular?
So, such a popular, such excellent animation work, why is there no second season? Why does the chief supervisor laugh and say that "he is also waiting"?
I think there could be many reasons.
Maybe it is that the economic value that this work can bring is not enough to recover the cost for the time being, so no one invests?
Maybe the first work is too good, and the participants all hope to launch a sequel that is perfect and lives up to the name of the first season, so they haven't started yet?
In any case, this "Strange Cat" is favored by European and American capital, landing on Amazon's paid channel, I think it is a signal and opportunity, in the past two years, the streaming media giant based on Netflix has invested in a lot of Japanese animation works, some "lifetime" anime has also launched a new chapter or sequel, perhaps the second season of "Strange Cat" animation, will also meet with you in the near future.