Jaws Calgary

At this latest meet of JAWS, some of us watched a new anime "Cat Shit One". I had Googled and looked in the book "Manga: The Complete Guide", and I got the correct title for the original manga version: it's called "Apocalypse Meow".

A couple interesting notes about "Cat Shit One": the depiction of Americans as rabbits is actually a pun on the Japanese word for rabbit. The Japanese word for rabbit is "うさぎ", which can be romanized as "usagi", or USA GI. A CG animated ONA (Original Net Animation) adaptation of Cat Shit One was developed by IDA Entertainment. So far, only one episode has been released on Japan's Youtube channel on July 17, 2010, with plans for a 12 episode series currently in production. An English dub will be released on Youtube in November 2010, and will be independently distributed on DVD and Blu-ray Disc via Amazon in North America in December 2010.

I should tell you that the above paragraph I got the info from was on Wikipedia. So the info might not be correct. Another note is that the manga is set in the Vietnam War and not in Middle East as is portrayed in the anime.

You know, each time I think an anime is "least likely to be shown on North American TV", they go and lower the bar on me. Just partially, because of the original title of this one. Ah, I was just watching "Ebichu, the Helpful Hamster". Imagine an X-rated version of "Hamtoro". Not for little kiddies! Ebichu specializes in interrupting all kinds of sex acts between an OL and her bf.

It looks like it's going direct to video. (Then again, most anime in North America IS released as OAVs.) I could see them calling it "Apocalypse Meow" again, except that: (1) the name is inappropriate because of the later setting, which is (2) obviously during the First Gulf War - so what are you going to rename it as anyways? This might go under the radar because it's not being broadcast - but camel enemy soldiers to boot? This stuff is pretty non-politically correct. Otherwise, it's a pretty Japanese take, in the later anime anyways.

The 1st episode was not too specific as to whether they would do more episodes. There have been great pilots for animes - sometimes a few episodes - but which haven't been followed up.

That is a real groaner of an alternate name. Here's one just as bad: when "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" came out, it was dubbed "Spockalypse Now"; aka "Star Trek: The Motionless Picture", etc. You get the idea. The first movie in the new series goes TOO fast - but that's another topic, on another website forum.

In the specific modern context, Art Spiegleman's "Maus" was not unique in anthropomorphizing wartime characters. The French Resistance put out a graphic novel during WW2 using a similar motif; this has been rereleased in English a couple of decades ago as "The Beast Is Dead: World War Two Among The Animals".

I think I read somewhere why Apocalypse Meow was renamed Cat Shit One, because it is similar to Apocalypse Now and that might cause some confusion.

But I have to check it out to see if I am right about the name change and I will update everyone about it.

Here is the update, I got this from Wikipedia:

"Apocalypse Meow is a three volume manga series written and illustrated by Motofumi Kobayashi. It was originally published in Japan as Cat Shit One in 1998 by Softbank Publishing, but was renamed for the US release to parody the title of the film Apocalypse Now, which also took place during the Vietnam War."