Apocalypse Soon? Cat Shit One Series Is Really Happening

 

A beautiful, and violent, trailer debuted at last year’s Tokyo Anime Fair for a 3D-animated adaptation of Cat Shit One, Motofumi Kobayashi’s 1998 manga series about doe-eyed anthropomorphic animals fighting the Vietnam War. The trailer, which appears to be based on the sequel Cat Shit One ’80, is pretty great — you can see for yourself below — with adorable bunnies shooting camels and blowing up things. However, as it was released by Studio Anima largely to drum up investors, many doubted whether the planned 12-episode series would ever see the light of day.

But Scott Green reports that director Kazuya Sasahara has confirmed the first episode of Cat Shit One will be finished by August for release in Japan. International plans are still being worked out.

Released in North America as Apocalypse Meow, the manga follows three American soldiers, Bota, Perky and Rats, members of a recon team known as Cat Shit One. The characters are depicted as different animals according to their nationalities: Americans are rabbits (a pun, as “usagi” — USA GI — is the Japanese word for rabbit), Vietnamese are cats, Chinese are pandas, and so on. The sequel, which shows the recon team in military conflicts during the 1980s, adds German foxes and Middle Eastern camels, goats and sheep to the menagerie.