Dark Cat

Dark Cat is a 1991 Action Horror Original Video Animation from Agent 21 studios. While this is only one episode, that does not mean that it can’t pack one hell of a punch! Though the main question that many potential viewers will be asking is, can a film only fifty minutes long be any good? Can the story be compelling enough to make viewers want to continue watching this versus switching to something more popular? Hopefully, this movie deserves some light that needs to be shed on itself to have an entirely new generation witness what could be a hidden gem.

When evil overtakes the heart of man, it destroys his soul, changing him into a hideous creature of flesh and darkness. And where it is evil, there are Hyoi and Ryoi Kagezaki, humans who can morph into cats, known as the Dark Cats. A great evil is manifesting in a local high school and leading Ryoi and Hyoi to enroll and investigate. But the source of the evil may not be who they might generally suspect, and the consequences of the discovery may very well be deadly.

When it comes to summarizing anime within a single paragraph, that tends to be a red flag for the story. Dark Cat, however, does not disappoint on this aspect, but unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg. This story is downright terrible, and the writing is pathetic yet still questionable to the point in why would the studios think this was a good idea? The pacing within this film was nonexistent mainly because the story has two semi different plots, but the writers don’t focus on either of them, so the result is just an all-around terrible story.

The terrible dialog, character development, and even the original subtitled and English dubbed versions are a toss-up with their problems. However, what takes the cake in this set of problems is that viewers will quickly identify that the writers didn’t even try to do their best work when writing this movie. If the writers are not putting in their best effort, why should any potential viewer be interested in it?

Even though the writing was not the best part of Dark Cat, the art style is not better. While the design is not terrible, comparing the style to other anime series, viewers can immediately identify that Dark Cat is of poor quality. The artwork is dull and outdated even at the time yet still somehow feels like a 90’s anime. The colors are decent for the time and still hold up to this day; however, the only red flag the viewer may find within this is that it is a bit 2D. While this may not be a negative per se, the problems do start seeping through as the artwork gets a bit more graphic.

When it comes to the Dark Cat’s production, that’s where the main problems start to burst through the cracks. If the art style was decent at its best, it could have been better if the production had not been so poorly attempted. For example, the English dubbed version doesn’t have the audio synched up to animation, and when they do, it is by the slimmest of hairs. If that was not bad enough, the voice acting was atrociously bad, almost to the point of potentially making the viewer turn off the show entirely. Think again if anyone thinks these voice actors might be new to their acting careers! A majority of these actors are from early nineties hentai films, which questions how good their “acting” is in those as well.

While the characters within this movie were relatively small, there were no natural redeeming qualities about any of them, and that’s putting it nicely. Considering that there was no character development or story, the viewer should not be surprised. Having any form of entertainment, not having any sense of a story, whether good or bad, is detrimental to its characters, and Dark Cat has failed in all areas of its subjects.

If a person is potentially thinking about watching Dark Cat, please reconsider your life choices. This anime has nothing to offer its viewers but an excellent way to create a drinking game. One of the most significant negatives this movie has is that it gets graphic quickly and without warning. If the viewer is not interested or just needs an excuse to not watch this terrible, almost pornographically weird anime, then, by all means, use that as an excuse. If there were only one anime series for anyone not to watch, this would be one that everyone would be shocked if it was beaten in the “Best Of The Worst” category.