Junpei Kousaka is an Ordinary High-School Student with an allergy towards cats and a family that loves the little beasties. Life is normal and fairly peaceful for him, right up until the part where he breaks a shrine that housed the Guardian Deity of Cats.
Suddenly, he finds that he can hear cats talk and they can hear him. If he wants to make up for his accident, he must do 100 good deeds for cats, or he will be turned into one himself and possibly die from the full-body allergic reaction.
Nyan Koi! ("Meow Love!") is a shonen manga by Sato Fujiwara which began in FlexComix Blood in 2007, before moving to Meteor Comics in 2012. An anime adaptation of the series aired in the fall of 2009, with the second season announced at the very end of the last episode, but never heard of ever since. Nyan Koi is licensed by Sentai Filmworks and shown on the Anime Network with subtitles. It received a bilingual re-release in December 2013.
Not to be confused with Nisekoi.
This series provides examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The cat statue when its head first falls off.
- Accidental Misnaming: Kanako often calls Junpei "Koubaka" (a portmanteau of his last name "Kousaka" and Baka.
- Kanako calls Junpei "Nekouji" in the pool episode. It's a portmanteau of neko (cat) and ouji (prince) and translates as Prince Kitty.
- Nagi's nickname for Kanako is D-Cup.
- These are all Type D of this trope.
- Accidental Pervert: Junpei ends up like this a lot, especially with Kaede. Accidentally copping a feel during the Beach Episode, for example.
- A-Cup Angst: After seeing the little "accident" Junpei had with Kaede, Kotone pats her chest.
- Nagi frets about her small chest size.
- Adaptation Expansion: The anime features some extra scenes that aren't in the manga, likely to keep from overtaking the manga too much (as the manga had only began two years before the anime aired).
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Chizuru does this to show her affections to Junpei.
- Ambiguously Gay: Junpei's friend Haruhiko, at least in his mannerisms. He's been known to buy eroge manga and was the one to start peeping on the girls during the Furo Scene mentioned below. However, he was all-too-willing to wear the maid outfit during the school festival...
- And Call Him "George": Kaede with cats in the first episode. She doesn't actually kill them, but her habit of luring them with food to hug and cuddle them freaks out the local cats. The first favor Junpei has to do with cats is to get her to stop.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Nagi often threatens Junpei with this if he keeps holding back his feelings for Kaede.
- Animorphism: Junpei briefly turns into a cat in the final episode of the season, but turns back into a human eventually.
- Applied Phlebotinum: At one point, Akari casts powerful destructive and evil-sealing spells that ends up sending an evil cat spirit to another dimension. However, she can't do it without eating pocky.
- Artificial Riverbank: Where Kaede and Junpei meet a few times during Junpei's physical training.
- Battle Aura: Kanako and Nagi often have one, usually when they're jealous/mad at Junpei.
- Beach Episode: More like Public Pool Episode, but still.
- Beautiful All Along: At first, Kanako dresses in an overexaggerated ganguro style, but beneath it she's actually pretty nice looking. After the maid episode, she completely abandons manba fashion.
- Kanako's mole under her left eye is more noticeable without the makeup.
- Bifauxnen: Nagi looks boyish enough that even Junpei is mistaken at first.
- Her personality does revert to a more girlish side whenever she sees lightning. Even her voice is radically different.
- Big "NO!": Junpei shouts this at the end of episode 1 (in Gratuitous English, no less!)
- Bishie Sparkle: Happens to several characters, usually Junpei or Kaede.
- Blue with Shock: Happens to a few characters, usually Junpei.
- Brick Joke: When Ichinose Nagi first challenges Kousaka Junpei to a duel, she temporarily ducks and cowers when lightning, representing her passion, flashes in her own Imagine Spot. This seems to be completely played for laughs until, later in the same episode, a plot point reveals - in the same overblown humor - that Nagi has a crippling fear of lightning.
- Also used for the note itself. When Kotone gives him her confession, he immediately thinks it's another challenge, and is surprised when it's actually a confession. When he shows up though, it's Akari who's waiting for him, and she does challenge him.
- Butt-Monkey: Everything in the world hates Junpei.
- Nagi's grandfather is one to Nagi.
- The Cameo: Nabeshin shows up as a bus driver early in the seventh episode. Hilariously enough, he was the episode director and storyboard artist for that episode.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Junpei has a really tough time telling his feelings for Kaede despite numerous opportunities. Both Kanako and Nagi are quite angry about it as well.
- Cat Girl: Every female member of the cast (and some males) are represented as one in the OP.
- Cats Are Mean: Oh yes, yes they are. Poor, poor Junpei.
- Subverted since the cats are grateful for the favors he does for them (not that he has a choice in the matter due to his curse). Only a subversion since the cats have no problems with demanding those favors.
- Chewing the Scenery: Nagi cannot pass by anywhere without leaving teeth marks on every piece of scenery available.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Kotone is very clingy when it comes to Junpei and has to be constantly dragged off by Akari. She does show jealousy when she perceives Akari as getting too close to Junpei in episode 10, but she doesn't really act on that.
- Further proven when she gets upset when Nagi gets a little too touchy with Junpei in her drunken state, but again she does not act on that.
- However, somewhat subverted by the fact that in the manga, she willingly steps aside to allow Junpei and Kaede to have some time together, noting that it was Akari who forced Junpei to go on a date with her.
- While they tend to argue about it, Kanako doesn't like seeing Junpei with other girls.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Kaede. She is unable to read the atmosphere at times and appears to go into another world entirely especially when it concerns cats and anything that has to do with her vision of manliness (having a Yakuza-style house for example).
- Not only that, but she has not realised that she's got a crush on Junpei either.
- It seems she might have a clue towards the end of the anime. Whether that'll hold into the next season..
- It does seem supported from the manga though.
- Not only that, but she has not realised that she's got a crush on Junpei either.
- Color Failure: Happens to Junpei occasionally.
- Colour-Coded Characters: Kotone and Akari, who wear black and white hair ornaments, respectively.
- Comically Missing the Point: Kaede interprets Junpei and Kanako's arguments with each other as being close friends, even if they're screaming at each other. Which does make some sense.
- Junpei's family could be said to do this. They take all of Junpei's complaints about having the cat on the table, in his room, rubbed in everyone's face, and generally everywhere, as an expression of hatred toward cats. They complain about how the rest of them love cats, never figuring out that they're putting him in severe danger.
- Crash-Into Hello: Junpei meets Kaede this way, although she sort of lands on his chest feet first. She proceeds to apologize and slap him silly to try and wake him up.
- Cross-Popping Veins: Happens to a few characters.
- Cursed with Awesome: Being able to hear cat's thoughts wouldn't be so bad, if Junpei wasn't allergic to them. And that other thing about turning into a cat...
- Cute Kitten or cats in this case. It helps that Junpei's lovely ladies also love cats.
- Cuteness Proximity: Kaede and Kanako are very fond of cats.
- Debut Queue: The first several episodes of the anime add one or two girls to Junpei's Unwanted Harem each.
- Different as Night and Day: Kotone and Akari Kirishima. Kotone is in love with Junpei (though only because she can't resist someone with that much misfortune) and Akari is against her sister being with anybody.
- Didn't Think This Through: When Kanako's manba makeup wears off after being splashed with water during her fight with Junpei, she comments that she didn't use waterproof makeup since it's not summer.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Junpei is shown hearing the OP song on his headphones as he's walking, early on in Episode 1.
- Dirty Old Man:
- Chizuru has been described as gender-swapped example of this trope by Junpei on a few occasions.
- The monk plays this straight, and often dresses up to pick up women.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: In episode 7, the tip of Junpei's thumb poking out of the water from between his legs in the hot spring.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Poor Junpei, usually due to Kanako.
- Dude, He's Like In A Coma: When Junpei passes out from his fever, Kanako starts to kiss him, but stops because she knows he really does like Kaede over her.
- Drunk on Milk: Nagi gets drunk on drinking hic(!) juice.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Chizuru is seen delivering mail in the first two episodes, then is introduced in the third one.
- Expy: Poked fun at in the Eye Catch for episode 11.Junpei: "I look like someone else? That's an illusion! I will shatter that foolish illusion!"
- Eye Catch
- Eye Take: In one episode, the cats that usually hang around Junpei kept on lecturing him, while at the same time, Kaede was having a cute conversation where she was trying to convey her feelings towards him while she was walking her dogs. Junpei was trying to listen to her, but the cats were talking so loud that he eventually couldn't take it anymore and shouted out for them to shut up. Everyone was so shocked by this sudden outburst that even Kaede's dogs had a clear "O_O" look on all of their faces.
- Fan Art: Most shows with special end cards have them designed by published artists, but Nyan Koi! is letting the fans be the ones to make the show's end cards, resulting in a
Contest Winner Cameo for whoever is chosen. - Fanservice: Not omnipresent but definitely there, particularly in episode 9 and the preview for the next episodes. Kanako and Chizuru are the most frequent targets, for obvious reasons. Plus a couple of panty shots in the DVD version. Junpei's got a pretty good body too, as it turns out.
- Fear of Thunder: Nagi's fear is so great that she cowers when thunder, representing her passion, claps in her own Imagine Spot.
- Freudian Slip: Nagi: "I'm going to check out these breasts—No(in squeaky voice), I mean the other members.."
- Furo Scene: In episode seven, although the fanservice is mostly female-oriented.
- Genius Ditz: Kaede might be a bit air-headed, but she's still one of the top students of the school, and very athletic at that.
- Genki Girl: Kaede Mizuno. She's a member of the Track and Field Club, so all that energy is being put to good use.
- Chizuru falls into this trope from time to time, usually if Junpei is around her.
- Genre Savvy: Harukhiko constantly jokes about Junpei being in a Visual Novel, and talking about events and flags regarding the main girls.
- Gratuitous English: Played with at one point. Nagi calls Junpei and Kaede lovers, but she says it in English. Junpei stops and wonders why she said it in English rather than Japanese (meanwhile, the subtitles have fun with it).
- Nagi's fond of Gratuitous English in general, actually.
- Well, so is Junpei.
- "JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-SUS"
- "THRILLEEEEEEEEEER!"
- "Haruhiko, GOOD JOB!"
- The evil cat spirit in episode 10 says "shit!" at one point.
- "Is this a so-called ROOOVUU RETAAHH!?"
- Episode 7 also includes bit of Russian - that owner and cat pair (the cat is actually a real Russian consultant/VA Jenya), and apparently a comment about Japanese meditation in a later scene.
- Junpei says "I'm okay" after getting slapped awake by Kaede in episode 3.
- At the very end of episode 6, while talking to the Kirishima twins, Nagi spouts some rather interesting words:Nagi: "Oh my God! Pineapple!"
- Nagi's fond of Gratuitous English in general, actually.
- Gyaru Girl: Kanako is introduced wearing Yamanba makeup. Many characters find it rather grotesque, but she didn't care. Junpei himself calls her the "Demon Yamanba", but she points out that she's a manba, not a yamanba. The reason she got into it in the first place seems to extend back to her and Junpei's childhood, where she began seeking his attention more and more, even though he never saw her as anything special. After showing her that he still cares about her in his own ways, she abandons the style altogether.
- Hair Antennae: Kotone and Akari both have it. It is also one of the few ways to tell the twins apart; Kotone only has one, while Akari has two.
- Ham-to-Ham Combat: Usually Junpei and Kanako, but occasionally the cats will do this to each other as well.
- Hidden Buxom: It doesn't show when she is fully dressed, but Kaede is actually quite busty.
- Idiot Hair: Indicative of her naturally air-headed personality, Kaede has it.
- If It's You, It's Okay: Being the pervert that she is, Kotone often quietly admits in front of Junpei that she would gladly welcome anything he'd do to her if he wanted. Junpei usually either doesn't hear what she said, is to focused on more important issues at hand, or just doesn't know how to respond to her statements.
- Imagine Spot: Several characters do this throughout the series.
- Ironic Allergy: Junpei is deathly allergic to cats. If he does not help the cats in the city with their problems, he will gradually turn into a cat himself as punishment and die from his allergies as a result.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Played with. Nagi threatens Junpei with marriage in episode 5 if he won't give Kaede a Love Confession before the end of their day at the fair.
- Kanako shifts back and forth between this and being the rival to Kaede in a Love Triangle with Junpei. One instance she'll deny having any feelings for him, then in the next she goes into Clingy Jealous Girl mode when she sees him hanging out with Kaede. Which only further serves to confuse Kaede if they're dating or not.
- Jerkass God: The Guardian Deity of Cats couldn't even give a rats ass about Junpei's fatal cat allergy.
- Karmic Transformation: Junpei will turn into a cat if he doesn't help at least 100 cats within a certain period of time. And if anyone finds out about his curse, it'll speed up his transformation.
- Lampshade Hanging: During the Public Pool Episode both Junpei and Kaede thought they were going to the library to study, yet turn up in swimsuits in the next scene. Tama helpfully pops up and explains that they rented them.
- Large Ham: Several characters, but usually Junpei or Nagi.
- Limited Wardrobe: Nagi always wears the pants to her track suit. Even while wearing her school uniform's skirt.
- Love Hurts: Kaede develops a sad look on her face in one episode after seeing Kanako yank Junpei away for some cleaning duties. It doesn't get lost on Nagi, who gets extremely upset that he made her feel this way, and sends a letter of challenge to him.
- Love Letter Lunacy: What appears to be a love letter turns out to be a letter of challenge from Nagi. Which Junpei promptly ignores.
- Later, Junpei receives one from Kotone, which Akari promptly grabs from him.
- Meet Cute: Junpei and Kaede's first meeting involves her trying to rescue a cat from a tree and using Junpei as a landing pad.
- And then she tries to slap him awake...
- Magical Girl: Akari and Kotone, apparently. Only Kotone gets the Transformation Sequence, though.
- Magic Pants: Averted when, in the anime, Kousaka gets turned into a cat because Kaede is figuring out that he's cursed. Kotone and Akari pick up his clothes after the transformation. When he changes back into a human, he is buck naked.
- Magic Skirt: In the manga and broadcast, Kotone and Akari seem to have some kind of portable shadow generator in their outfits. This goes away in the DVD Version.
- Marshmallow Hell: Chizuru does this to Junpei in episode 3 to thank him for helping her deliver mail. Unfortunately for him, she does it just as Mizuno happens to be walking her dogs by.
- Megaton Punch: Kanako's favorite weapon. Nagi's got one too.
- Ms. Fanservice: Pretty much all of the girls could be considered one, but Chizuru fits it the most. In episode 9 her only appearance is in a red swimsuit while spouting some random mailing stuff that doesn't add anything to the plot.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The premise of the show. Junpei accidentally knocks the head off the cat statue, and gets cursed by having to help out cats and hearing their thoughts. And if he doesn't do it fast enough, or someone finds out about it, he turns into a cat himself.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Kotone loves people caught in misfortune… like Junpei. And she has a rather peculiar way of expressing her affection. Whenever bad news are announced, she will be the only one sporting a creepy smile.
- No Sense of Direction: Chizuru. Which wouldn't be such a bad thing if she wasn't working for the post office. Cranked up for laughs for the
MewView in episode 10: Chizuru somehow ends up in China, New York, and eventually, Antarctica. - No Sympathy: Junpei suffers from allergies, resulting in all kinds of frequent and occasional reactions ranging from annoying to potentially life-threatening. His mother and baby sister's response to this? Put the family cat on the table with the food, let the cat go wherever it wants, and basically make sure that every inch of the house is full of cat allergens, all the while complaining about how everybody else in the family loves cats, as if his complaints came from personal hatred rather than fear for his life.
- Oblivious to Love: Junpei, something that Kanako grows increasingly frustrated with over the course of the series.
- Old Friend, New Gender: Chizuru's (former) love interest, to her surprise, is now a woman.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Junpei.
- Pastimes Prove Personality: Kaede is seen renting a video...about mafia bosses fighting with each other. Not what Junpei was expecting.
- She's also extremely psyched to find out that Nagi is a mob boss heir.
- Remembered Too Late: After a student inadvertently causes Kanako to get wet during her argument with Junpei, she chases Junpei into the school stairwells, only to realize too late that she didn't put on waterproof makeup since it wasn't summer.
- Running Gag:
- Nagi is afraid of thunder/lightning because her grandfather constantly got hit by it as she was growing up.
- Junpei will almost always be in a Not What It Looks Like situation whenever he runs into Kaede while with another girl. Or when he yells at the cats because they're pestering him while he's trying to talk to her.
- School Festival: With Maid Cafe.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Junpei screams in a high pitch when he's in a comical situation.
- Secret-Keeper: Junpei promises not to tell anyone about Nagi's fear of lightning, and also says he'll be there if she needs him. Which causes Nagi to start developing a crush on him...
- Junpei is forced to do this with himself, as revealing the curse to anyone else not only speeds up his own curse, but also affects that person. The Kirishima twins are exempt since they have magical charms/amulets that protect against it. To everyone else, Junpei just looks weird spending a lot of time with cats, considering he's allergic to them. The twins sometimes utilize this aspect of it to get him to do things.
- Sequel Hook: The end of episode 12 plainly says that there will be a Season 2, but nothing seems to be forthcoming so far...
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Junpei is constantly accused or teased about dating someone when he really isn't, particularly Kanako or the Kirishima twins. He'd like to avert it with Kaede, but for whatever reason can't spit it out.
- Shout-Out: The Kiyosumi High School girls and two Tsuruga Academy girls make an appearance at ep 4.
- In episode two, there's a cameo of the two heroines of Please Twins!
- Episode eight. The Cat of the week has some interesting eyesight.
- Episode 11's Eye Catch.
- Shipper on Deck: Nyamsus of all characters shows signs of being a Junpei/Kanako supporter. Junpei's family on the other hand seems to ship him with the Kirishima twins while Nagi prefers Junpei/Mizuno.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Junpei, but only with cats and not by choice.
- Spit Take: A frequent sight in the series, especially with Junpei. Even when he isn't drinking anything.
- Spoiler Opening: While it's definitely not hard to tell that Nagi is a woman, her appearance in the opening as a catgirl (along with the rest of Junpei's love interests) three episodes before she even appears in-series makes one wonder why it was treated as a surprise at all.
- Stalker with a Crush: Kotone, who stalks Junpei and keeping a fantasy diary which involves her and Junpei.
- In episode 8, she goes as far as bugging Junpei's house, and even contemplates installing a hidden camera in there just to spy on him. Stalking taken to new levels.
- Standard Snippet: The "here are our sponsors" jingle is "Flea Waltz". In Japan, the title is "I've stepped on a cat" (titles from some other countries also have something to do with cats).
- Funnily enough, in Russia it's knows as "Doggy Waltz"
- Souvenir Land: Tokiwadai Land, complete with some sort of cat creature that looks to be the park's Mickey Mouse.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Nagi instantly appears in episode 5 after her name is mentioned by Kanako while they're having lunch in the classroom.
- Nagi does it again in episode 8.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: In episode 6, Kanako claims she's not interested in hearing Junpei's friends gossiping about him going after a twin-tailed girl, but she insists they tell her anyway. Nagi uses a similar threat.
- Thanks for the Mammary: Nagi does this to Kanako when they first meet. Hilariously, she squeezes it again after about a 2 second delay from the first one, before Kanako finally uppercuts her.
- Junpei finds out Nagi is a girl this way as well later in the same episode.
- Those Two Guys: Haruhiko and Kouta, Junpei's two guy friends who are seen occasionally in his class.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Nagi's such a massive Tomboy that many mistake her for a dude (to the point where this is why some dude she crushed on didn't reciprocate). That said, due to childhood trauma, she has a massive fear of thunder and lightning.
- Training Montage: Happens when Junpei gives a full training course to an overweight cat who wants to impress his crush.
- Tsundere: Akari's attitude towards Junpei fits, as does Kanako's. Both are Type A Tsunderes.
- 12-Episode Anime: Well, a Season 2 is more or less announced at the end of the last episode, but no news ever since.
- Twice Shy: Both Junpei and Kaede like each other, but neither one seems willing to make the first move. Other girls expressing interest in him also serves to confuse Kaede as to whether he's dating them, or may not really be interested in her.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Kanako, though her relationship with Junpei is a lot more turbulent than usual.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Inverted, Nagi is actually a woman. She is not happy about Junpei applying this trope to her.
- Unwanted Harem: Junpei looks like he's developing this. Of course, taking care of the cats is more of a priority over this.
- Vocal Dissonance: Nagi will occasionally instantly go from her deep, hammy voice to a high-pitched girly voice, and go back to the ham the second after. It sounds… jarring to say the least.
- Weakness Turns Her On: More like "bad luck turns her on" in Kotone's case.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Junpei can't stand cats due to his allergy.
- Yakuza Princess: Nagi.
- Yandere: Kotone. She sends an e-mail warning Junpei not to go further than holding hands with Kaede, or something might happen to his body. Then again, she's nice enough to let him continue his date with Kaede after understanding the "situation".
