By Shanel Kamara

The first thing that came to mind when I saw the promotional picture for this anime was a cardboard Amazon box or more specifically the Amazon robot known as Danbo. The next thing to spring to mind was how cute the opening song was. Although the style of animation is different to that of Bananya, I thought the premise was very similar. Both series have a cat theme, all the characters originate from somewhere in space, and people are unable to see or detect them.

This episode introduces all of the Nyanbo's unlike the first episode of Bananya, where the first episode introduces Bananya only. The five Nyanbo's include Tora, the focused leader of the band of friends and the older brother of Kotaro-chan; Shiro; the lovestruck Nyanbo infatuated with Tora; Kuro the quiet and easy going Nyanbo and the Mike the casual and lighthearted Nyanbo.In this episode, we learn of the Nyanbo's mission: to recover the pieces of their UFO and return to space.

However, we soon discover that while Tora's determination to repair their UFO is apparent, his friend's determination is meager in comparison. This is particularly evident when Mike talks about frolicking around, relaxing, and living his life as a regular cat. Kotaro-chan's disappearance interrupts their discussion, and the four remaining Nyanbo's go looking for her. Tora finds Kotora-chan quietly observing a cat until it jumps out of the bushes and proceeds to run away. Kotaro-chan chases after the kitten while Tora and the gang chase after Kotaro-chan.

The narrator states at the end of the episode that although the Nyanbo's resemble cats they do not know how to deal with them.

Score: 4/5

Nyanbo E.01