Cat's Eye (anime)

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Cat's Eye
キャッツアイ (Cat's Eye)
Genre	Action, Drama, Crime
Manga
Authored by	Tsukasa Hojo
Publisher	Shueisha Star Comics
Serialized in	Shounen Jump
Original run	1981 – 1985
No. of volumes	18
TV anime
Directed by	Yoshio Takeuchi Kenji Kodama
Studio	Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Network	NTV France 3 RTL II Italia 1 GMA 7 BTV-10
Original run	11 April 1983 – 8 July 1985
No. of episodes	73

The female protagonists of the series: Hitomi, Rui and Ai

Cat's Eye ( キャッツアイ Kyattsu Ai) is a Japanese manga by Tsukasa Hojo. The manga was made into an anime series which was originally broadcast in 1983, and is seen as a classic by many Japanese viewers. Cat's Eye has also aired in a number of countries outside Japan, including France, Germany, Italy, Philippines and China. To date there has been no official English-language translation of either the manga or anime.

The protagonists of the series are the three Kisugi sisters - Hitomi, Rui and Ai - who run a café called Cat's Eye. The same sisters lead a double-life as a trio of highly skilled art thieves, leaving cards with a name 'Cat's Eye' at the scene of the crime. They steal works of art (mostly paintings) as clues that belongs to their long missing father- Heinz, a famous painter and art collector during the Nazi's reign. They hope by stealing his works, Heinz will contact them. Toshi, the police officer investigating this case is the fiancé of Hitomi. He also swears to capture and bring down the Cat's Eye Gang.

The protagonists are somewhat patterned and little reminiscence of the 1970s TV show Charlie's Angels.

Cat's Eye first aired 36 episodes in 1983. The final episode involves the trio departing for Paris after hearing Heinz is there.

In 1985 37 new episodes of Cat's Eye were aired. Although the title remained the same, it has been renamed "Cat's Eye Second Season" on home video releases. The second season sported a change of character designs and consisted of formulaic episodes without advancement to the overall plot or character development.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The final episode, "Love's Curtain Call", has Toshio and Hitomi acting out a play of Cat's Eye with Hitomi revealing to Toshio that she is a member of Cat's Eye (although since it during a play Toshio does not see it as also reality.) The anime series ends without resolution.

The manga ends very differently. Heinz leaves a note for his daughters stating he cannot reveal himself yet because the mafia may kill him, but he may appear in five years' time. Hitomi admits to Toshio that she is part of Cat's Eye and flees before he can arrest her. He vows to track her down, but upon finding her later he discovers she has had an accident and has lost her memory. Toshio spends time with her and her memories come back. Finally, Toshio "arrests" Hitomi with a wedding ring.

Cat's Eye is one of the many animes from the 1970s and 80s to be ignored by companies and not receive an official release on DVD or be remastered outside of Japan. Like other popular series such as: Candy Candy, and Heidi, Girl of the Alps series, Cat Eyes has had very little exposure in North America due to the lack of an English dub version. It also has received little expousure in South America due to a lack of a Spanish/Portuguese dub version.

The first theme of this anime remains popular to this day through its DDR remix and was one of the first hit J-pop anime theme songs.