Nyanko Days Is a Bite-Sized Blast of Joy

EMT Squared

As the old saying goes, great things come in small packages—something’s size is not always indicative of its quality. For instance, a small family-owned shop may offer a higher-quality product than a national chain, or a public-access television show may be more entertaining than one you might find on ABC or FOX. Indeed, this phrase holds true for many people, places, and things in general.

But, does the age-old proverb apply to EMT Squared’s 2017 slice-of-life comedy Nyanko Days?

I like watching cute and funny things as much as any other anime fan, especially if any kind of cats are the main focus, so this show quickly piqued my interest. What I wasn’t prepared for, though, was that I would be able to inhale the entire series in just under a half an hour: each episode is exactly two minutes long (with the final 40 seconds of that being reserved for the outgoing theme), which made me worry a little about the show’s overall entertainment value.

The premise of Nyanko Days is also as straightforward as it gets. Yuko Konagai is a shy, introverted girl who owns three small anthropomorphized kittens: from the rambunctious Munchkin Maa to the sweet crybaby Singapura Shii to the cool and collected Russian blue Ro. She also meets the popular rich girl Azumi Shiratori and the competitive gyaru girl Ran Iketani. Together, they go on plenty of adorable adventures that will leave most audiences gushing from the overflow of cuteness.

Nyanko Days might be painfully short, but there are plenty of praiseworthy aspects about it that cannot go unmentioned. Firstly, the voice actors all do a spectacular job of conveying the individual personalities of their characters. If you were to encounter these characters in the real world, you would expect them to sound exactly the same as the characters do in the show. Secondly, the closing theme song is incredibly upbeat and catchy, and it really makes you want to watch more. I have  little doubt that placing this cute little tune at the end of each episode was very much intentional in order to achieve this effect—and it was highly effective in my case.

With all of that being said, this anime does have a couple of minor flaws that detract from the things it does right. There’s very little conflict throughout the entire run, and there’s certainly no character development to speak of, despite the fact that all of the characters are given individual personalities and quirks. But perhaps this is overthinking Nyanko Days—it’s meant to be more of a short burst of cuteness that someone who needs cheering up can just watch when they’re strapped for time. It’s one of those anime whose entertainment is meant to be found at surface level without encouraging its viewers to think too deeply into what’s going on. Still, as much as I can get behind a trio of fun-loving felines getting into trouble, there’s very little incentive for me to keep watching if everyone and everything remains the same no matter what. The fact of the matter is, something has got to give if an anime wants any chance of making it big.

Nonetheless, if you can get past that, Nyanko Days could still be a very worthwhile watch. The series is streaming on Crunchyroll.