Mayoi Neko Overrun! is a 13 episode anime based on the light novel series. The title roughly translates to Stray Cats Overrun. The main character is Tsuzuki Takumi who is a regular high school boy. His childhood friend is Serizawa Fumino who is your typical tsundere. Due to an experience the pair had during their childhood (which is quite sweet really), Fumino nearly almost speaks the opposite of what she is feeling. Hence, she often tells Takumi to die twice, ten times, a thousand times etc. It's obvious that Fumino likes Takumi, but as per usual with these types of characters, Takumi is completely clueless.
Takumi lives with his older sister in a cake shop, although it's mainly Takumi who keeps the shop afloat. His older sister has the tendency to randomly disappear for days and weeks at a time to help anyone in need. She brings back plenty of stray cats along the process and one day, she brings back a human girl. The girl is Kiriya Nozomi, an extremely beautiful girl with delicate white skin and hair that's shaped like cat ears. Thus she completes the love triangle. Nozomi is quiet and doesn't voice much of her feelings but as the series goes on, she thaws and is extremely cute. She has the tendency to meow like a cat while holding up her hand, and her hair ears have the magical property of moving like real cat eyes.
The anime is a slice of life following the trio as they go to school and deal with their friendships. There is plenty of fan service in every episode but as far as they go, it's pretty tame. Takumi finds himself in plenty of enviable situations, although the amount of coincidences that happen has to be seen to be believed. They go to a prestigious private school run by the grandfather of Umenomari Chise. While she is the same age as Takumi and Fumino, she looks like a grade school kid, which gets on her nerves. Chise is rich and is funny when she flouts it about. Due to Takumi's niceness, Chise also has feelings for him.
Rounding out the cast are Takumi's two best friends. Kikuchi, an otaku who says that he's only interested in 2D girls but would not stop at the chance to goggle at Nozomi and Fumino. Daigoro on the other hand is a serious bloke who's old fashioned thanks to his family dojo. Unfortunately, there's is quite a bit of filler content in the season. In one episode, it changes to repeating the same thing for effect, and then slow motion to keep it melodramatic. The problem is that it goes on for a tad bit too long so that it feels like it is padding out the run time.
The humor is mainly Takumi getting into awkward situations, whether that is physically or emotionally. There are some really good gags, particularly when his friends are involved and Takumi gets to spend time with a girl, while Kikuchi has to spend it with a guy. To be honest, Kikuchi is the one that always get the short end of the stick, but whenever he shows up, you are bound to laugh. Despite the apparent shallowness of the plot and characters, there are times when you see that there is a deeper layer to them. We learn that while Chise may be rich and spoiled because your dreams, at the end of the day, she just wants to have friends and be loved by her parents like everyone else.
Unfortunately, any potential for the plot and character development is squandered pretty quickly. By the time the fourth episode comes around, you feel that the animators do not have enough content to fill up an episode, let alone 13 episodes. This gets really apparent in episode 7 where it had nothing to do with the plot. It is supposed to be a play and parody of popular anime culture but just comes off as random and unnecessary. Even so, the fact that it's so uninspiring and uninteresting, as well as being cliched and predictable, reflects negatively on the anime. The later episodes aren't any better as they feel obviously filler or are a thinly veiled excuse for fan service. The sad thing is that some of the events and one-off gags work really well, it's just a slog to get there. Each episode feels like they drag out 5 minutes' worth of content into 20 minutes, and you can't see what direction the anime is trying to go towards.
The last episode had a bit of plot that made Nozomi a lot more interesting as a character. Like everything else, it comes way too late and having only such a short screen time, it loses the impact that it could have had. The 13th episode is a recap but with commentary from the three heroines. It quickly goes through all previous twelve episodes and can be amusing to watch. Overall, Mayoi Neko Overrun! is a mediocre disappointment. The fact is, it had potential but due to one reason or another, it decided to just make the whole season be filler with nothing to advance the plot. While there are rare scenes which are actually good, it's such a slog to get there that it can't really be recommended.
-----------------------------------------------------
For other anime reviews, have a look at this page.
