Samurai Pizza Cats - Television Tropes & Idioms

From left to right: Polly Esther, Speedy Cerviche and Guido Anchovy

"A fully functioning, cybernetic, technologically advanced team of superheroes... and nobody's got a flashlight?"

— Polly Esther

The English dub of Kyatto Ninden Teyandee licensed by Saban, who didn't manage to get transcripts of the original dialog. As such, the writers had to make up stories and dialog out of whole cloth. It seems to have worked fairly well, all things considered. The show is better known around the world as "Samurai Pizza Cats" more than the original source.

The Cats are the owners/employees of a pizza parlor, who defend their city and the royal family (pushy, spoiled Princess Violet [Usa-Hime], and her demented father, Emperor Fred [Shogun Tokugawa Iei-Iei]) from the machinations of the villainous rodent, the Big Cheese (Koon-no-Kami). Between the giant robots, the ninja crows and the, um, peculiarities of their emperor, this is both harder than it sounds and easier than it ought to be.

While the plots can be a bit formulaic, most of the show's appeal comes from the humor and the lame puns (some main characters being Speedy Cerviche [Yatarro], Guido Anchovy [Sukashii], Polly Esther [Pururun] and "Big" Al Dente [Wanko-no-Kami]), and an astounding number of running gags.

Despite what you may have heard, it is not a lame Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rip off, but a decent cartoon that can stand on its own merits. (It was, however, licensed as part of a TMNT Follow The Leader movement.)

This series provides examples of:

Achilles In His Tent (The Episode: No Talent Guido)
Ambiguously Gay: The Big Cheese
Americanitis (Averted: The show doesn't even bother hiding its Japanese roots)
Animal Superheroes
Animated Actors
Ass Kicking Pose
Big Bad (The Big Cheese)
Bitch In Sheeps Clothing (Polly)
Casual Danger Dialog (This happens a lot)
The City - Little Tokyo
Clark Kenting (Bad Bird can't see that his main enemies work at a pizza place even though they wear the same helmets.)
Cloud Cuckoolander (Emperor Fred)
Commissioner Gordon ("Big" Al Dente)
Cultural Translation (Kyatto Ninden Teyandee was packed with jokes and puns that Japanese viewers got. Those were replaced with American jokes and puns)
Curse Cut Short (In the Fan Club Oath: "So hail to thee, o Pizza Cat/Please ring your little bell/Although you may be pen and ink/We know you'll fight like—" "PIZZA CATS!")
Deadpan Snarker (Mother Mutt and son)
Dirty Old Man: Daisensei (Guru Lou) in the original Japanese version, especially towards Pururun
Ensemble Darkhorse - Guido
Everythings Better With Princesses - subverted, Princess Vi is a spoiled brat and the real power in Little Tokyo.
Evil Chancellor - The Big Cheese
Exactly What It Says On The Tin
Fan Dumb
Funny Animal
Fur Bikini. Polly and Lucile wore white fuzzy bikinis in an episode. Yet they are already furries. Double whammy Fetish Fuel.
Gag Dub (by the actual licensee, not by fans)
Getting Crap Past The Radar - Several jokes in the show tend to fly over the kids' heads. Example: The rabbit pellet joke by Guido.
Goshdang It To Heck - The last line of the Samurai Pizza Cats Oath.
Humongous Mecha - The Great Catatonic
Idiosyncratic Episode Naming - Several episode titles will have "cat" in them.
Idol Singer - The Pointless Sisters (aka Lovely Mipple)
In The Name Of The Moon
Jerk With A Heart Of Gold - Bad Bird. Guido to a lesser extent.
Lampshade Hanging
Lemony Narrator - This narrator lampshades and talks to the main characters a lot.
Macekre - Uniquely justified in that when this show was licenced to the US, they forgot to give them the transcripts, thereby forcing Saban to invent a whole new story. And in many ways, it is better than the original.
Macross Missile Massacre (Lucille, would-be love interest of Speedy and Guido, would shoot missiles from her head whenever she got emotionally overexcited)
Missing Episode (Two, actually. To be fair, though, the episodes in question are Clip Shows.)
Missing Mom - Princess Vi's mom's reason for not being in the show much is that she's traveling the world to see new cultures. Mainly cultures with good shopping.
Monster Of The Week (Often a giant robot)
Mook
Nakama (Spoofed)
Guido: *To Speedy* You may be an ungrateful, self-centered little jerk, but you're still a Samurai Pizza Cat.
Ninja
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot
No Fourth Wall (The Cats and the narrator talk to each other, often hanging lampshades on plot points or budget saving animation tricks.)
Parasol Of Pain (Guido's Samurai Sunspot Umbrella)
Politeness Judo
The Psycho Rangers (The Rude Noise)
Punny Name - Quite a lot of the cast.
Redubbing
Rhymes On A Dime - Francine [Otama], when she launches the Cats from a gun.
Royal Brats - Unfortunately, for the characters of this show, Princess Vi's the real power in the royal family.
Royally Screwed Up - The royal family has few screws loose.
Sentai
Schizo Tech - Little Tokyo has a curious mix of robots, high tech armor, and Shogun era Japan.
Sixth Ranger (The Rescue Team)
Spell My Name With An S (Speedy Cerviche vs. fanon Speedy Service)
Spoof Aesop ("Whoever said 'Violence never solved anything'... wasn't a Pizza Cat!")
They Fight Crime
Title Theme Tune: "Sa-mu-rai Piz-za Cats!"
Three Amigos - Speed Cerviche, Polly Ester, and Guido Anchovy
Those Two Guys: Mother Mutt and Junior
Time Travel
To The Bat Pole (The top of the pizza parlor is actually a giant revolver, and the ovens are used to load the cats into it.)
Two Timer Date ("Speedy's Double-Time Trick")
Verbal Tic: In the original Japanese version, Yattaro says "Teyandee!" a lot, which becomes his Catch Phrase.
Villainous Crossdresser (The Big Cheese)
Who Writes This Crap
Woolseyism (In spades.)
Word Salad Title: Well, the show does contain those nouns but it doesn't begin the describe the insanity in the show.

Samurai Deeper Kyo

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This series provides examples of: