Line #27 Anime/CatSoup


1	[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cat_soup.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:325:[[TheWalrusWasPaul And the aquoliphaunt was Ringo.]]]]
3
4	''Cat Soup'' (a.k.a. ''Nekojiru-Sou'') is a multiple award-winning animated short film directed by Tatsuo Sato and inspired by the work of the late manga artist Chiyomi "Nekojiru" Hashiguchi.
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6	It centers around a family of anthropomorphic cats, specifically two kittens: the terminally ill Nyako and her younger brother Nyatta. After Nyako dies, Nyatta manages to reclaim [[OurSoulsAreDifferent half of her soul]] from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ksitigarbha Jizou]]. This brings her back to life, but leaves her brain-dead. Determined to return his sister back to normal, Nyatta goes on a surreal journey through [[SpiritWorld the land of the dead]] [[ToHellAndBack to retrieve the other half]].
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8	Nyako and Nyatta were also the protagonists of the earlier ''Anime/NekojiruGekijou'', a BlackComedy series of shorts that were less surreal and more cynical.
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10	Not to be confused with ''Manga/NekoRamen''.
11	----
12	!!Tropes:
13	* AdaptationAmalgamation: Takes the more [[MindScrew surreal]] and existential stories from the original ''Nekojiru'' manga, and combines them into a single BigDamnMovie.
14	* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: After Nyatta revives Nyako with the flower, Nyako ruffles her brother's head after coming back to her senses.
15	* AllThereInTheManual: Nyatta and Nyako are only given names on the movie's websites.
16	* AnthropomorphicPersonification: The Father Time equivalent towards the end.
17	* AuthorAppeal: Art Direction is handled by Creator/MasaakiYuasa, who is well-known for his colorful DerangedAnimation and manipulation of perspective.
18	* AutoCannibalism: The Pig ends up being served some of its own fat, by Nyatta.
19	* BlackComedy: The whole series including the {{OVA}} is this. Especially the Father Time scene. Special mention goes to an animation of people being executed by terrorists in reverse.
20	* BloodyHilarious: Nyako gets splattered with blood at the circus.
21	* CarnivoreConfusion: Nyatta befriends a pig, [[CatsAreMean butchers him alive]], and [[ITasteDelicious shares his meat with him]].
22	* CatsAreMean: Nyatta is pretty vicious to anyone who isn't a family member.
23	* CessationOfExistence: [[spoiler:Nyatta's family, the world itself, and you, all die or disappear in this fashion.]]
24	** Subverted when time stops; Nyatta breaks off and stomps on a person's teardrop...whatever ''that's'' supposed to mean.
25	* CircusOfFear: Nyatta and Nyako go to one just before they start off on their adventures.
26	* CreepyCrossdresser: In the original doujinshi, Nyako was a little boy whose family could only afford the girls' clothes, so he had to wear those instead. In the {{OVA}}, Nyako is a girl.
27	* CuteKitten: The only real cute thing about them is their appearance. Otherwise they're {{Creepy Child}}ren.
28	* DarkIsNotEvil: The woman who sews Nyatta's arm back to his body also has a bunch of cats and cat pieces strewn about her place of work. According to the short film's commentary, Yuasa described her as "nice" despite all of the grotesque imagery, and that place was where cats in general get sewn back together.
29	* DissonantSerenity: "Big sis, big sis, my arm came off."
30	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:After the quest is over, Nyatta's family disappears one by one, and then...]]
31	* EarCleaning: Nyatta's father does this to him early on in the movie. Seeing how Nyako just ran all night and he tries to get back his sister, this scene could be considered a heartwarming moment.
32	** Actually, he's cleaning his ears because he found Nyatta half-drowned in the tub. While Nyatta was half-dead, he spirit-walked outside his body and noticed Jizou taking his sister's soul, took it back, and when his father revived him by pulling him out of the bath, he still had the soul. To add insult to injury, Nyatta's dad is so drunk he doesn't actually even notice Nyatta is still unconscious while he does so; Nyatta only wakes up just before the mother runs in to announce the death of Nyako.
33	* EmptyShell: Nyako [[spoiler:before Nyatta finds the other part of her soul.]]
34	* EverythingsBetterWithSamurai: There's a scene where Nyatta imagines samurai cutting up a fish until there's nothing left of it but its head, bones, and tailfin (that it somehow is able to walk on). Then it swims in the water and ends up on the beach... it's supposed to be symbolic.
35	%%* EyeScream %ZCE
36	* FanDisservice:
37	** At one point, the camera has a rather lingering view of an ass. [[BodyHorror Just an ass]].
38	** There's also the mansion scene, when Nyatta and Nyako are almost [[ItMakesSenseInContext eaten alive by an obese man in bondage gear]]. The manga version includes a PantyShot of Nyako. It's about as gross as it sounds.
39	* FantasticRacism: The Cats are racist toward the Pigs. In the movie they beat the pig who saved them from the flood by taking them unto his boat. In the show, Nekojiru Gekijou, the Cat children are taught to be racists by their own parents.
40	* FreeRangeChildren: Nyatta, a kitten, is able to travel (with his brain-dead older sister for company) to some utterly bizarre and very dangerous places -- and his parents don't seem to even notice.
41	* FunnyAnimal: In a [[BlackComedy very dark]] and [[CatsAreMean disturbing]] way.
42	* GainaxEnding: Nyatta [[spoiler:ends up erasing all of reality by bring his sister back to life]].
43	* GrandFinale: Being a BigDamnMovie that [[spoiler:concludes with the entire Nekojiru [[TheVerse universe]] ([[{{Postmodernism}} and its viewers]]) [[CessationOfExistence being erased from existence]]]], the film serves as this for the Nekojiru canon.
44	* GodIsEvil: Subverted, since he seems to be more apathetic than outright cruel. Considering how his main concern was eating a part of a planet, [[spoiler:even messing with time and space to do so]], this may not be far from the truth.
45	* GrotesqueCute: A story featuring two little kittens traveling through hell can't get much cuter or more grotesque than this.
46	* ImAHumanitarian: The pig finds it hard to resist Nyatta cooking his own flesh and eventually decides to [[ITasteDelicious have a piece.]]
47	* JustifiedTitle: Nyako and Nyatta find themselves in a cauldron of water, making it cat soup.
48	* LetsMeetTheMeat: Nyatta and the pig. Also Nyako and Nyatta with the man, who feeds them before boiling them in soup.
49	* MatureAnimalStory: Pretty much.
50	* MeaningfulName: Nyatta and Nyako's names start with the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cat's meow.
51	* MechanicalLifeforms: A bunch of these reside in a mechanical forest where [[spoiler:the flower that contains the other part of Nyako's soul is found.]]
52	* MindScrew: Symbolism everywhere. Whether EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory or just the RuleOfCool is up the viewer.
53	* MythologyGag:
54	** The cruel treatment towards the pig is a callback to the original Nekojiru manga, where the characters were prejudiced against pigs for some reason.
55	** The sequence where Nyatta hits the pig over the head and consumes the lumps formed from his injuries is also taken from the manga, but it was done to a monkey boy who served them as a specialty item in his family's restaurant.
56	* NobodyPoops: Averted twice, possibly [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory symbolically]]. The [[ContemplateOurNavels first]] time leads to a visual digression on the circle of life and death.
57	** A woman [[FreezeFrameBonus can be seen]] taking a dump in the middle of the street earlier in the film.
58	** Nyatta also took a dump at one point.
59	* OminousMusicBoxTune: The ending theme, [[spoiler:to add to the DownerEnding]]. Sato mentions on the commentary track that this was a recording of a ''real,'' custom-made music box.
60	%%* {{OVA}}:
61	* PlanetEater: God appears to do so during the time freezing sequence. He's first shown eating a food with red goop coming out of it, which the commentary describes as a planet. Right before the ending, he's about to eat a planet that looks suspiciously like Earth.
62	* {{Psychopomp}}: The Egyptian man who takes Nyako away in the beginning. [[spoiler:If he's anything like his manga counterpart, he would have just taken her to Heaven had Nyatta not interfered.]]
63	* RealityBreakingParadox: {{Implied\|trope}}, since the effects of [[spoiler:Nyatta rescuing his sister from death]] - if there are any - aren't immediate. Nonetheless, [[spoiler:the very end of the film unravels itself, as though Nyatta had broken the laws of nature [[NiceJobBreakingItHero and erased all of existence]]]].
64	%^* RebusBubble
65	* RuleOfCool: If the scenes aren't supposed to be symbolic, then they are this.
66	* RoboticReveal: The man who tries to eat the siblings is revealed to be some sort of android when Nyatta pulls the skin of his head off.
67	* SawAWomanInHalf: A pretty horrifying version, to say the least.
68	* SilenceIsGolden: The only audible speech is [[TheUnintelligible squeaky-sounding gibberish]], although there's a few lines that appear as SpeechBubbles.
69	* SuddenlySpeaking: While Nyatta is limited to saying "Nyan!" and "Baka!" in the manga and TV series, here he says this line:
70	-->"[[DissonantSerenity Big sis, my arm came off]]."
71	%%* '''SurrealHorror'''
72	* TailfinWalking: In one scene.
73	* TimeStandsStill: Father Time does this.
74	* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Nyatta eats snails and has a KangarooCourt in his backyard dedicated to killing bugs. Nyako squishes dead animals, and at one point kills a dog by beating it to death.
75	* ToHellAndBack: In order to find Nyako's soul.
76	* VomitIndiscretionShot: Nyatta doesn't find the pig's head bumps as good as his flesh.
77	* WordSaladTitle: The English title sounds like this -- but it's ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, at least for one scene.
78	** Actually, there's another reason behind the odd title. The movie is based on the works of a comic artist with the pen name "Nekojiru" ("boiled cat stew"). Her works often had "nekojiru" in them - this movie's original title, in fact, is "Nekojiru-sou" ("boiled cat stew grass"). "Cat Soup" is an English pun on "catsup," a spelling of "ketchup," and thus the closest the translator could get to a morbid English food-related cat pun similar to the original.
79	%%* YouCantFightFate: [[spoiler:Everyone dies. Even ''you''.]] %ZCE

Context Anime / CatSoup