People in the western world are going nuts on social media after learning about a Japanese media franchise that somehow centered around an empathetic samurai who is tasked with assassinating a cat, but chooses to befriend it instead. The TV show, titled Neko Zamurai, lasted for 2 seasons on the small screen and earned not just one, but two feature-length films. Needless to say, there are a lot of people outside of Japan who were in awe after recently learning of the series' existence.
Neko Zamurai's renewed popularization was influenced by one Twitter user whose account later went private (presumably from all the outside public's attention), and it quickly spread once enough people learned about the insane plot. The story begins with a dog-loving gang that hires a samurai, Kyutaro Madarame, to assassinate the leader of a rival cat-loving gang's feline. In attempting to complete his mission, though, Kyutaro found himself unable to swing his sword when he discovered the cat was just too cute to kill. And so Kyutaro steals the cat and soon finds himself at war with both gangs as he's forced to use his badass samurai skills to protect both his life and that of his fuzzy new companion.
No matter where the Internet goes from here, the love of cats will never disappear. And some immediately found ways to use Neko Zamurai as an inspiration for their own lives.
Based on the show's synopsis, one might think Neko Zamurai is a surreal anime or some incredibly low-budget Adult Swim romp. But those counts and any others are wrong, as Neko Zamurai's Edo-period set design and costume recreations ranks up there with some of the best live-action shows on television today. Seriously, this series seemingly went pretty big on the budget for some on-point fight choreography and large-scale camera and story work; plus, the acting also appears to be pretty solid.
Even the show's intro is high quality, and somewhat reminiscent of Buffy The Vampire Slayer:
Somewhere, there's a television producer following this whole Neko Zamurai Twitter freakout and wondering how they can adapt the tale for American audience. Maybe someone can call up David Chase and see if he can reboot The Sopranos with a cat being the focal point of the series? Perhaps Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael Key could spinoff Keanu into something related? Or, Netflix has had some luck lately getting American audiences interested in foreign shows, so maybe the streaming giant can reach out to the cat's agent and see if it's down for a Neko Zamurai reboot?
Unfortunately, Neko Zamurai isn't legally available to stream on any of the popular platforms here in the U.S. For a list of other shows that are coming to Netflix that might just be as entertaining as a show about a samurai who loves a cat, check out our Netflix premiere guide. For a more general look at television in 2018 visit our midseason premiere guide.
