why has this anime from the 1980s become so cult?

At the origin of Cat’s Eyes is the mangaka Tsukasa Hôjô. It was he who imagined the story of Cylia, Tam and Alex Chamade (Rui, Hitomi and Ai Kisugi in the original version), three thieving and resourceful sisters, who announce with a business card where and what time they are going commit their art theft. This head start given to investigator Quentin Chapuis (Toshio Utsumi), obsessed with the idea of ​​stopping them, does not prevent them from achieving their goals each time, with class and brilliance.

In 1981, Tsukasa Hôjô sold a one shot of its history Weekly Shōnen Jump. Meeting with great success, Cat’s Eyes became a serialized manga, published in the magazine between 1981 and 1985. It reached us in France in ten volumes thanks to Tonkam editions, before Panini published a deluxe version from 2008.

“The work of Tsukasa Hôjô marked the beginning of the 1980s with its mysterious story and its charismatic female characters, underlines Fabien Chastel, on the Daily Geek Show website. But internationally and more particularly in France, it is its anime adaptation that makes the story known to the public. »

A cult theme song in France and Japan

The series, made up of two seasons and 73 episodes, arrived in France from 1986 on France 3, before arriving in the legendary Dorothée Club in the early 1990s. Several reasons explain its success, starting with this heady theme song, performed in French by Isabelle Guiard – but the record company wrongly credited Danièle Hazan, as she explains in a video. The original Japanese song, sung by singer Anri, also became a huge success when it was released in Japan, reaching the top of the top 50 in 1983.

Multibroadcast in France since the beginning of the 2000s (on France 3, TF1, but also Game One, Mangas and Téva), the retro anime has thus lulled several generations of children, who grew up having their snack in front of Cat’s Eyes. The animated series has become a Proust madeleine for nostalgic millennials. In recent years, and with successes like the series Stranger ThingsTHE eighties have also experienced a return of hype which benefits this anime very anchored in this era, with its heroines in leotards.

An original plot with historical foundations

When creating Cat’s EyesTsukasa Hôjô was inspired by the adventures of Arsène Lupin, the gentleman burglar created by Maurice Leblanc – and the anime also makes reference to it by placing Lupin's wife on the path of the sisters in episode 4. And in France, we love the stories of big-hearted thieves and other vigilantes like Fantômette, who contort themselves on the roofs of cities.

And Cat’s Eyes is a funny and action-packed series, the story evokes a dark page of the Second World War. Alex, Tam and Cylia don't steal art for sport: they're on a mission to bring together the collection of their father, Michael Heintz. A German painter who tried to oppose Nazi art theft, and who disappeared after 1945.

The show recalls a historical fact: the Nazis actually pillaged the art collections of Jewish families. Thus, the episodes “quote paintings by real persecuted artists like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Oskar Kokoschka, accused of producing “degenerate art””, notes YouTuber Arkeo Toys.

The Chamade sisters then apply a principle of restitution: they recover, albeit illegally, very ill-gotten works. A subject all the more interesting since Japan, on the wrong side of history (ally of Nazi Germany), did not put in place any law for the restitution of works stolen during this troubled era.

Badass and modern female characters

For the YouTuber of Pop Chroniclesthe success of Cat’s Eyes holds on to “careful animation, a rhythmic story and charismatic heroines” pour “a series that makes you want to become a kleptomaniac”, he concludes with humor. The number 1 asset of the show is in fact the three Chamade sisters, who each correspond to feminine archetypes. There is Cylia, the calm, strategic and devilishly efficient eldest, Alex the intrepid youngest with short hair, capable of driving helicopters or creating robots, and Tam, the romantic youngest.

Often at the heart of the action during flights, the latter is torn in her mission. She has a crush on detective Quentin Chapuis, but she must also use him to always be one step ahead with her sisters. “It’s hard to fall in love with a police officer when you’re a thief,” she laments. We are in a classic relationship, but always fun, opposites attract.

In this action comedy, Quentin is the cat and the sisters are the mice who constantly escape him. It must be said that it is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. When he's not being reprimanded by his toxic boss, the detective spends most of his time at the café run by Cylia and Tam, called… Cat's Eyes. “What a funny name for a café!” “, he simply notes.

A feminist anime before its time

These three athletic female characters in charge of the action play against the men around them. The latter underestimate them and think for a long time that Cat's Eyes is a man. During this time, they ride motorcycles and demonstrate great tactical intelligence, regularly changing their plan at the last minute when the situation demands it.

Their most dangerous adversaries are also women: Lupin's fiancée, then Odile Asaya (Mitsuko Asatani), a perceptive colleague of Quentin, who quickly suspects the Chamade sisters. It is for all these reasons that the anime is qualified as “feminist before her time”. “The image of these strong women when I was a kid had a huge impact on me,” comments @madelinegaredjani1342.

In the wake of Ripley in Alien (1979) and Sarah Connor in Terminator (1984), Cat's Eyes prefigured the rise of badass female characters in the 1990s on the small screen (Buffy, Sailor Moon, Sydney Bristow in Alias…). In 2006, the cartoon Totally Spies pays homage to this anime that influenced modern cartoons. In episode 20 of season 4, the girls face a thief nicknamed “Cat's”, and the animated series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002) also gave a nod to it.

A live-action adaptation worthy of the name?

Despite all its qualities, Cat’s Eyes may seem like a very male gaze from a contemporary point of view. Detective Quentin Chapuis is a prototype of Nicky Larson's character (City Hunter), manga created by the same Tsukasa Hôjô in 1985 and adapted into a successful anime between 1987 and 1991. He cannot speak to a female character without sexualizing or diminishing him and accidentally “falls” on Tam's breasts or buttocks in some episodes.

In addition, the two older sisters – who work in a cafe where a giant poster of a naked woman from behind stands – are sexualized in various scenes. A trained eye can observe the way the camera regularly cuts the female characters with a close-up from the feet to the head.

But, in 40 years, society and our outlook have changed. If Cat's Eyes had two forgettable film adaptations live-action in 1988 and 1997, they remained less known to the general public than Nicky Larson. The two stories take place in the same universe and the three heroines appear in certain episodes of Nicky Larson.

The Cat's Eyes therefore deserved a new adaptation worthy of their legends. The French version, which was developed over seven years, transposes its action to Paris. The anime took place in Japan, even if the French version had changed all the first names of the characters to westernize them, which gives a curious mixture, unthinkable these days. After its broadcast on TF1, the series will be put online on Prime Video, aimed at an international audience. Let's hope that these modernized Cat's Eyes will delight the hearts of fans and find success comparable to the Lupin the Netflix.