Anime 2043 Cats Eye

I wish there was more.

The story line to Cat's Eye is a pretty simple premise. You'd think it would get old quick, but honestly, the premise doesn't wear thin until you get very late into the show. The thing about Cat's Eye is that it's only linked by one element and unfortunately, I don't remember that element ever being dully resolved. It ends as if there were more to come, but still manages to feel like a proper wrap up. In other words, there aren't any huge plot lines left open, just that there isn't a full resolution. Nonetheless, the shenanigans and near misses that ... Toshi and Kisugi sisters get into are entertaining.

The art is good. It feels era appropriate and I genuinely enjoyed it. There are some odd things like the eyes always seem to be crossed. Not a huge bother and actually becomes charming after a few episodes, but does seem odd. Otherwise the art style closely resembles Scooby-Doo from my childhood, but even better.

The sound was great. Both intros were fun to listen to and very 1980's as were the outros. The background music was a 1980's stylized swing/jazz and was always used appropriately and is great to listen to.

Characters are well developed and acted. I never got tired of seeing the characters nor did I feel annoyed by any one character. I'd like to see more interaction between Toshi and Hitomi, but the limits we get were more because of the end of the series.

Overall I enjoyed the show, although once you get in to the last 15 episodes or so, I found that it became a bit more tedious to watch. It felt as if much of the scenarios had played out and that story lines were merely being wrapped up. Despite this, I think this is a great show from the 1980's and I highly suggest it.

Cat's eye started strong but couldn't maintain the same quality after the first couple episodes, ultimately it isn't a bad show. it has some decent ideas but they are badly executed. Keep in mind that this is an old anime from the 80's.

Plot armor is always present to protect our three protagonists whenever they're stuck in a hard pinch, Deus ex Machina mechanics are used there to amplify & cover up any mistake done by the Cat's eye group.
It's quite similar to the Lupin series, although the goals are completely different from each other. Cat's group steal back their dads collection which contains paintings, jewelry ... etc... to amass clues in order to find him. They don't care about money or fame.

Beside it being an older series, animation is average, nothing extraordinary. The art and character design are pretty good for its time, although when the shots is taken from far away, the characters usually look horrible however the close ups are fine.
The ost's are not varied enough to say the least, it's only used in tense or run away moments. Despite that the opening and ending music & direction are unique and creative!

The romance aspect is blend and limited to petty behaviors that doesn't evolve & go nowhere for the couple. Toshi, Hitomi's fiancée is one of the dumbest written characters! his sole purpose is to be used as a plot device to facilitate the escape route for the three thieve sisters. They always outsmart their opponents with bs plot twists that make no sense and aren't even funny.
The action parts are a let down, it lacks creativity & fluidity in a lot of fighting scenes. It's always drawn in a fixed static shot with the character doing one move at a time then it cuts to the next move and so on. It has very few humorous moments whilst it becomes repetitive quickly after some couple instances.

Apart from our main three gals, the majority of the villains and cops are one dimensional and always fall for the same bs technique patterns over and over. The police department looks like clowns whenever cat's eye is in for the steal. The males in this anime are dumber than a snail, there isn't a middle ground to balance things out. The female characters is what made this interesting although whenever a male is present, it's the same stupid behavior & bad decision making every time which is annoying to be fair.

All in all, Cat's eye is hardly worth a watch. It has some nice classic design and decent music, however the plot is underwhelmingly bad and repetitive. I guess if you like classic looking anime and maybe if you're intrigued by it you might give this a try, the characters never evolve in this anime and the comedy does not hit most of the time.

I didn't really expect much from Tsukasa Hojo. I don't find him to be a particularly good writer. Well, I don't think he's bad completely. I'll explain that later. Cat's Eye is a series created by Tsukasa Hojo. He's also the creator of another series called, City Hunter. I'm mentioning City Hunter real quickly, because watching most of Cat's Eye made me realize that I may have been too harsh on City Hunter. I dislike both of these series for different reasons, but as I was watching I thought to myself, "Maybe I'll give City Hunter another chance." At this point, if I had to ... pick my poison, I'd pick City Hunter over this show. I'm getting a little sidetracked, let me get to the review.

The premise behind Cat's Eye is that these sisters, the Kisugi sisters, have started a secret group called, Cat's Eye, where they steal valuable items Lupin the Third style. One of the sisters, Hitomi Kisugi, has a boyfriend named, Toshio Utsumi, who just happens to be a detective hunting down Cat's Eye. Quite the twist, huh? Toshio isn't very smart and he sucks at his job. He's definitely the Zenigata of the show. There is some depth to why the sisters steal these items, but I can't say because that would be landing in spoiler territory. When the sisters aren't stealing anything, they work and live in a café named after the group where they steal valuable items. Why would you do that!? The café is called, Cat's Eye! The group is suppose to be a secret! Why in god's name would you do that!? I tried contacting Tsukasa and I asked him why did he make that decision. He told me to fuck off and hung up on me. I guess we'll never know.

That alone is a red flag. Crimson! The fact that Toshio doesn't even pick up on this or is even slightly skeptical is just baffling. He didn't even know Cat's Eye was female at one point when they clearly are. He even chases Hitomi a few times and the long hair and womanly figure didn't give him a hint. Characters can act irrationally for the sake of drama and plot. This applies to Toshio. If Toshio was a normal person with proper thinking skills, this show would fall apart. There would be no show. Cat's Eye would get arrested and that's it. Okay, probably not. Toshio loves Hitomi too much to do that. I do find it weird how he doesn't even have the balls to call Hitomi his girlfriend in the early parts of this show. The romance does make some progress in episode thirty-three when Toshio proposes to Hitomi. That's the only complement I'll give Toshio. He did good. Episode thirty-three is probably my favorite out of the fifty-three I saw. Each episode is pretty much like a Lupin the Third episode. It's mostly episodic. This is all fine, but it doesn't need to be seventy-three episodes! It's just the same thing every episode with the occasional story progression. This could've been a twenty-six episode series and not much would change. Just cut the padding. Now that I think about it, I shouldn't compare this show to Lupin. It has a few similarities, but Lupin is leagues above this show.

I don't like the music either. It's sounds good, especially the background music, but lyrically it's dumb. I'm referring to the songs with actual singing. Saying random English that has nothing to do with what you're saying contextually. The two intros are my problem. The second intro is especially bad. The people who wrote these songs blindfolded themselves, opened a English dictionary, and picked random words they found to make lyrics. It makes me angry listening to some of these songs.
Remember when I was talking about Tsukasa Hojo and said, "I don't think he's bad completely." He's not. I read some of another manga he wrote called, Angel Heart. It's suppose to be some kind of City Hunter sequel and I enjoyed some of it. Angel Heart is not bad. I can't give him too much credit, because I've read so little of it and it can go bad at some point. Anyway, Cat's Eye isn't very good. If you're not putting too much thought into what's happening, I'm sure you'll like it. You don't want to end up like some of these other reviewers who gave this show a 9, do you? I do see the appeal of this show, however. My scores:

Story: 5/10
Art: 5/10
Sound: 6/10
Character: 3/10
Enjoyment: 4/10
Overall: 4/10