Cat's Eye (manga)

Cat's Eye (Japanese: キャッツ♥アイ, Hepburn: Kyattsu Ai, stylized as CAT'S♥EYE) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tsukasa Hojo. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1981 to 1985, and collected into 18 tankōbon by Shueisha. The story follows the adventures of the three Kisugi sisters — Hitomi, Rui and Ai, who are formidable art thieves trying to collect all the works belonging to their missing father.

Cat's Eye
The eighth volume of the Jump Comics edition, depicting the three Kisugi sisters.
キャッツ アイ
(Kyattsu Ai)
GenreAction, crime, mystery[1][2]
Manga
Written byTsukasa Hojo
Published byShueisha
ImprintJump Comics
MagazineWeekly Shōnen Jump
DemographicShōnen
Original runJune 16, 1981 – January 15, 1985
Volumes18
Anime television series
Directed byYoshio Takeuchi
Produced by
  • Norio Hatsukawa
  • Shunzo Kato
Music byKazuo Otani
StudioTokyo Movie Shinsha
Licensed by
Nozomi Entertainment (former)
Original networkNippon TV
English network
Original run July 11, 1983 – March 26, 1984
Episodes36
Anime television series
Cat's Eye 2
Directed byKenji Kodama
Produced by
  • Norio Hatsukawa
  • Shunzo Kato
Music byKazuo Otani
StudioTokyo Movie Shinsha
Licensed by
Nozomi Entertainment (former)
Original networkNippon TV
Original run October 8, 1984 – July 8, 1985
Episodes37
Manga
Cat's Eyes
Written bySakura Nakameguro
Illustrated byShin Asai
Published byTokuma Shoten
MagazineMonthly Comic Zenon
DemographicSeinen
Original runOctober 25, 2010 – January 25, 2014
Volumes8

The manga was made into a televised anime series originally broadcast in 1983 to 1984 on Nippon TV, with a second season ending in 1985. It has also received two live-action adaptations; a TV movie in 1988 and a theatrical film in 1997.

Cat's Eye is one of Weekly Shōnen Jumps best-selling manga series of all time, with over 18 million copies sold.[3] The anime has also aired in a number of countries outside Japan, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Philippines, and China. In 2007, ImaginAsian broadcast the first season of the first anime on ImaginAsian TV, and then gave the first half of the series its first North American home video release. Right Stuf Inc. announced that they licensed the entire series in 2013 and will release it on DVD under their Nozomi label.[4] The entire anime series was released in North American on two DVDs in July and November 2014. In April 2019, it was announced that the Right Stuf license has expired.[5]

A remake manga of the series drawn by Shingo Asai, also titled Cat's Eye (キャッツ・愛, Kyattsu Ai, "Eye" was spelled with the kanji for "love", sometimes referred as Cat's Eyes), began publication in the debut issue of Tokuma Shoten's Monthly Comic Zenon anthology, which was published on October 25, 2010.[6] It was serialized until January 25, 2014, which comprises eight tankōbon volumes.[7][8]

Plot

Hitomi Kisugi, along with her older sister Rui and her younger sister Ai, run a café called "Cat's Eye" in Tokyo. The sisters lead a double life as a trio of highly skilled art thieves, stealing works of art which primarily belonged to their long-missing father, Michael Heinz, who was a famous art collector during the Nazi regime. Hitomi's fiancé is Toshio Utsumi, a clumsy young police officer who is investigating the Cat's Eye case. Despite being a frequent visitor to the café he is unaware of the double life of the girls. Hitomi regularly informs the police in advance about her next job using a signature "Cat's Eye" calling card, and then uses Toshio's research about the security surrounding the target to help plan the job.

At the end of the series, Heinz leaves a note for his daughters stating that he cannot reveal himself yet because the mafia may kill him, but he may appear in five years' time. However, the "Heinz" turns out to be the sisters' treacherous uncle Cranaff, who betrayed Michael years earlier. After losing a final bet to the Cat's Eye, Cranaff decides to atone for his sin by setting fire to the museum, killing himself. Hitomi eventually admits to Toshio that she is part of Cat's Eye and flees before he can arrest her. Toshio vows to track her down, attempting to "arrest" Hitomi at the airport with a wedding ring. He resigns from the police force and travels to America to find Hitomi, but finds that she has lost her memory due to viral meningitis. Toshio spends time with her until her memories come back, and the two rekindle their relationship.

Characters
Hitomi Kisugi (来生 瞳, Kisugi Hitomi, Age 24)
Voiced by: Keiko Toda (Japanese); Alexis Tipton (City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes) (English) [9]
Hitomi is the main protagonist of the series. Second daughter of Michael Heinz, Hitomi is usually the one who actually commits the heists, and is hence uniquely referred to as the Cat's Eye. Like Rui, she is an accomplished athlete and well versed in a number of disciplines and skills ranging from horseback riding to safe cracking. She is a skilled gymnast and is able to perform complex acrobatic moves with ease and grace. She is able to escape most restraints and handcuffs with minimal effort, and it is inferred that she is ambidextrous as well as double jointed. She is a skilled martial artist with proficiency in a number of disciplines, most notably judo, boxing and karate, and also has degrees in kendo and aikido. Hitomi is very charming, clever, sweet, sisterly, loyal, cunning, flirtatious, caring and kind-hearted.
Like Rui, Hitomi is also able to disguise her appearance effortlessly and can speak several other languages.
Rui Kisugi (来生 泪, Kisugi Rui, Age 27)
Voiced by: Toshiko Fujita, Keiko Toda (City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes) (Japanese); Dawn M. Bennett (City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes) (English) [10]
Rui is the second protagonist of the series. Hitomi's elegant and fashionable older sister, Rui is the leader and brain of the “Cat's Eye” group and the one who usually outlines strategies and plans the heists. With model good looks, worldly sophistication, and a razor-sharp intelligence she is able to handle almost any situation. She is extremely athletic and proficient in a great number of activities and skills including car racing, hang gliding, parachuting, helicopter piloting, motorcycle riding, roller skating, skateboarding, martial arts, electronics, handguns and scuba diving. She is a skilled actress and is able to disguise her appearance effortlessly. She is also fluent in a number of languages including English, French and German; she can also read lips accurately.
Rui acts as the mother figure for her sisters and is very protective of them. She is the only sister who has any lasting memory of their parents.
Ai Kisugi (来生 愛, Kisugi Ai, Age 16)
Voiced by: Chika Sakamoto (Japanese); Megan Shipman (City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes) (English) [11]
Ai is the third protagonist of the series. As baby sister of the trio, Ai has a spunky, tomboyish personality and demeanor, and has a genius-level I.Q. and is particularly adept in mechanics, computer programming and engineering. She has built a wide array of gadgets to help her sisters in their heists. A typical teenager, she seems to be preoccupied a lot and dreams of falling in love. Being a high school girl, she also has a pet tabby kitten called "Tiger".
While not as skilled as her sisters, Ai has none-the-less mastered a number of skills and is regularly the one who operates the get-away vehicles for the heists, including helicopters, gyrocopters, trucks, motorcycles, cars and mini-planes. Her greatest weakness lies in the fact she is physically the weakest of the three siblings (evident in the anime when she tried to suplex a wrestler, only to have the maneuver backfire on her), but in exchange, she is also the most agile.
Toshio Utsumi (内海 俊夫, Utsumi Toshio, Age 24)
Voiced by: Yoshito Yasuhara
The male protagonist of the series, Toshio is the Hitomi's high school sweetheart. Toshio always dreamed of being a police detective even when in high school, and upon graduation from Academy was assigned to the Inunaki (犬鳴, "Crying Dog") District Police Station in the heart of Tokyo. While Toshio has wanted to marry Hitomi, he has vowed not to until he has captured the Cat's Eye (he has, however, made the first step and proposed to her).
While a bit clumsy, very gullible, unlucky and not very good at finding clues, his dogged determination and unyielding persistence has impressed his supervisors. He is, however, very stubborn and gets into verbal fights with his Chief constantly. Toshio doesn't carry a gun and prefers to use his wits and fists to contend with criminals. He has a weakness for beautiful women (especially blondes) and constantly makes Hitomi jealous.
Boss (課長, Kacho)
Voiced by: Kenji Utsumi
Toshio's demanding Section Chief, who oversees the Detective's Division of the Inunaki Precinct. Nothing really is known about him, even his full name is never disclosed. He is constantly at odds with Toshio over his handling of the Cat's Eye investigation, and scolds Toshio at every opportunity.
Mitsuko Asatani (浅谷 光子, Asatani Mitsuko, Age 24)
Voiced by: Yoshiko Sakakibara
A special investigator sent in from Tokyo Police HQ to assist in the Cat's Eye investigations. Asatani has a very shrewd intellect and has a very cunning personality, and is considered an elite officer of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. She is an expert markswoman (won the All-Japan Air Pistol Championships) and is proficient in several martial art forms, she's a 4th-degree black belt in karate and 2nd degree black belt in judo, making her more than a match for Hitomi. She is also quite a beauty, even being crowned a beauty queen during one of the Cat's Eye cases. She is one of the first person to suspect Hitomi as the true identity of Cat's Eye, but is never able to find definitive proof. Her main weakness is that she must wear prescription glasses all the time, as she is practically blind without them.
While never really elaborated in the TV series, in the manga she is said to have a secret crush on Toshio, much to the chagrin of Hitomi.
Michael Heinz (ミケール・ハインツ)
An artistic wunderkind in Germany during the 1930s, Heinz was so gifted that by age 10 he already began composing the beginnings of his impressive art collection, which contains not only elaborate paintings and lithographs but also one-of-a-kind jewelry, sculptures and metal works. Heinz's was even able to create exquisite musical instruments. As such Heinz's works were highly sought among art collectors and galleries and many would pay exorbitant amounts to own one of his works.
When the Nazi party began taking over Germany, Heinz fled the country for fear of political/artistic suppression. Traveling around the world, he eventually settled down in Japan, where he met and married a young Japanese woman. After the birth of their third daughter, Heinz travelled to the United States, where he disappeared under mysterious circumstances. His vast and priceless collection of art works were soon auctioned off and dispersed to art dealers around the world. Eventually, many pieces found their way to Japan in the hands of various private deals (many with criminal ties). In subsequent years, the collection were stolen piece by piece, regardless of heavy security, by a trio of thieves calling themselves "Cat's Eye", who were actually Heinz's grown-up daughters seeking clues to his whereabouts and hoping to get his attention to get him out of hiding.
Rui, Hitomi and Ai find that their father is in the U.S. and they go there to track him down. It is eventually revealed that Michael was actually betrayed and forced into exile by his jealous twin brother Cranaff (クラナッフ), who then stole Michael's identity for profit with the syndicate. The revelation ends the sisters' hope of finding their father through recollecting his art work, and the Cat's Eye cease operations afterwards.
Sadatsugu Nagaishi (永石 定嗣, Nagaishi Sadatsugu)
Voiced by: Tamio Ōki
Trusted friend and confidant to the three sisters, a very good friend of Heinz and his wife. Nagaishi provides detailed information for Cat's Eye's heists and also helps them acquire any hardware and/or other sophisticated equipment that they may need that Ai cannot provide. His background is a mystery but he may have been a member of the Armed Forces as he has some military expertise.
Kazumi (和美)
Voiced by: Chiyoko Kawashima
A girl from Ai's school who took a picture of Hitomi while shooting photographs of the moon with a telelens. She later boasted to one of her friends that she had taken pictures of Cat's Eye, sending Ai (who overheard the conversation) panicking. Kasumi became determined to reveal Cat's Eye's true nature and planned to go to the place Cat's Eye's next target with her camera. She managed to get a good look at the backside of Cat's Eye and thought that Hitomi fits that picture very well, and became only more convinced when she sees Hitomi playing around with some punks in the park. Asatani has noticed this too and takes Kazumi into her confidence. With a story about her dad being away (that it is unsafe for a young girl to be alone at home), Kazumi infiltrates into the Kisugi's home and asks Ai to let her stay the night. However, the Kisugi sisters managed to cunningly circumvent Kazumi's suspicion by appearing that Hitomi was still at home during the Cat's Eye mission.

City Hunter Connection

In contrast to Angel Heart (which is set in alternate universe, despite sharing City Hunter characters), both Cat's Eye and City Hunter series are set in same universe. The titular City Hunter character, Ryo Saeba, is acquaintanced with them. He also has rivalry with them because he was helping police capture Cat's Eye. Despite their rivalry, they have great teamwork fighting against criminals. The sisters come to Ryo's rescue in City Hunter the Movie: Shinjuku Private Eyes when Ryo has trouble defeating his enemy.

Media

Manga
Main article: List of Cat's Eye chapters

Tsukasa Hojo's Cat's Eye was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1981 to 1985, with the chapters collected into 18 tankōbon by Shueisha. It was later re-released as 10 aizōban in 1994, 10 bunkoban in 1996, and 15 kanzenban between 2005–2006. The kanzenban release was published by Tokuma Shoten, instead of Shueisha.

The manga was also released domestically in several foreign countries, such as Italy by Star Comics, in France by Tonkam, and in Malaysia by Comics House.

Other books

In December 1996, Cat's Eye novel by Hideo Takayashiki was published. ISBN 4-08-703055-5

On March 22, 2000, Parrot: Blessed Person—Tsukasa Hōjō Short Story Collection (Parrot 幸福の人—北条司短編集, Parotto: Kōfuku no Hito—Hōjō Tsukasa Tanpenshū) was published. It was written by Tsukasa Hōjō with Digital Work by Futoshi Nagata. ISBN 4-08-857040-5

Anime
Main article: List of Cat's Eye episodes

Cat's Eye was adapted into an anime series by Tokyo Movie Shinsha and directed by Yoshio Takeuchi. 36 episodes were broadcast between July 11, 1983 until March 26, 1984.[12]

A second series was later produced that ran for 37 episodes from October 8, 1984 until July 8, 1985.[13]

Film

On 27 August 1997 the live-action movie adaption Cat's Eye was released. The film is directed by Kaizo Hayashi and starring Yuki Uchida and Norika Fujiwara. A behind-the-scenes video was created for the movie, called Cat's Eye Secret.

In 2019, the Kisugi sisters appeared in the animated film City Hunter the Movie: Shinjuku Private Eyes as a crossover. Chika Sakamoto and Keiko Toda reprised their respective roles from the 80s anime series as Ai and Hitomi, with Toda also voicing Rui due to the 2018 death of Toshiko Fujita.[14]

gollark: Well, nonstupid, but I've never heard of anyone using that.
gollark: I think Turing can even do 4-bit ints for some stupid reason.
gollark: Well, all my GPUs are capable of integer maths too now.
gollark: This, of course, pales in comparison to even the outdated GTX 1050 in my server, but still.
gollark: Well, up to slightly more than that.

References
  1. Moody, Allen. "Cat's Eye". THEM Anime Reviews. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  2. "Cat's Eye Season 2 DVD Collection". Nozomi Entertainment. Archived from the original on July 17, 2018. Retrieved June 18, 2017.
  3. "Top Manga Properties in 2008 - Rankings and Circulation Data". Comipress. 2008-12-31. Retrieved 2013-08-18.
  4. "Right Stuf Adds Cat's Eye, Princess Nine, Campanella, Sengoku Collection Anime". Anime News Network. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  5. Hodgkins, Crystalyn (April 20, 2019). "Right Stuf's License for Cat's Eye Anime Expires". Anime News Network. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
  6. "Cat's Eye returns in Comic Zenon" (in Japanese). Comic Natalie.
  7. "Cat's Eye Remake Manga Ending This Month". Anime News Network. January 5, 2014. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
  8. "Archived copy" キャッツ♥愛 (in Japanese). Comic-zenon.jp. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved June 19, 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. https://www.soundcadencestudios.com/city-hunter-shinjuku-private-eyes.html
  10. https://www.soundcadencestudios.com/city-hunter-shinjuku-private-eyes.html
  11. https://www.soundcadencestudios.com/city-hunter-shinjuku-private-eyes.html
  12. "キャッツアイ（１）". Tvdrama-db. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  13. "キャッツアイ（2）". Tvdrama-db. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  14. https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2019/01/10/three-kisugi-sisters-from-cats-eye-make-special-appearance-in-new-city-hunter-film
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