Samurai Pizza Cats Collection One contains the first half of the classic animated series from the early nineties.  The show itself is about a group of cats who run a pizza store called "Samurai Pizza Cats".  The group consists of two boy cats Speedy Cerviche, Guido Anchovy and two girl cats Polly Esther and Francine.  While they aren't working hard in making a living with their pizza business they are working even harder at stopping crime as these tough kitties are also superheroes that go by the name "Samurai Pizza Cats"... yes just like the name of their shop.  Most of the time the crime is caused by a corrupted politician named The Big Cheese and even though they refer to him as a "rat" he is obviously a "fox".  The Big Cheese doesn't work alone as he is also teamed up with the leader of the ninja crows, Jerry Atric.  The evil duo conduct schemes that don't make much sense at all and they send out the ninja crows to help put the plans to fruition.  The Samurai Pizza Cats battle Big Cheese with the help of their magical weapons but sometimes that's not enough as they often get into deep trouble.  Lucky for them they have a rescue team that they call simply by ringing the bells around their neck.  Some of the crazy scenarios found in this volume include: Battling giant Swedish robots, dealing with butterflies that can change your gender, an out of control punk band, a very cheeky princess, people getting kidnapped to work on a mine to break into a shopping mall, and going through a marathon to get a starring role in a feature film.  That's only a small smidgen of the insanity that this show contains.  (Click "Read More" to read the full review).

This show is very episodic but that's half the fun with this show as you get something different every episode.  The themes for each episode are very insane and over-the-top to the point where you'd get a headache from trying to make sense out of it all.  With this show it is best to turn off your brain and sit back and enjoy the ride.  The humor in this show is very self-aware and full of pop culture jokes like mentioning Nirvana, Judas Priest, Sigfried and Roy, and The Pointer Sisters and I did find it very funny but those jokes these days are only good for the adults as kids won't get them.  The characters are pretty darn cool with charming personalities and they are also just so darn cute.  I especially like their names as they use some pretty clever puns that end up being very hilarious and I can't help but to laugh every single time I hear them.  There are some surprisingly dark themes that only the adults would get like: cross-dressing (okay maybe that is a stretch), sexual humor, and they even slightly tackle on "mix race" relationships and how some animals look down on that which did feel very forced and out of place.  All the other dark subjects however (I use dark loosely as they aren't really that dark) are used more for comedy purposes which worked out pretty well.  The action in this show is very great with nice flashy moves that get me all excited every single time due to how satisfying they are.

Artwork in this show is just lovely and while not overly detailed it has a lot of charm and imagination put into it with the characters and backgrounds.  Animation has aged a little but still looks fairly decent.  The English dub is quite good but there are some scenes where the dub doesn't match with what's going on in the scene and it feels a little awkward but not enough to ruin the show.  Soundtrack has a martial arts film vibe which works well with the show.  The credit sequences tunes are quite gaggy and are very enjoyable but it can be a bit much when you are watching a whole bunch of episodes in one sitting without skipping the credits.  The credit sequences also go on for quite some time and feels like that I'm watching a music video.

Overall this cartoon holds out pretty well although you do have the occasional outdated joke but you'll enjoy this show nonetheless.  The kids will also get a kick out of this show and I do recommend introducing them to this show.  If you haven't seen this show yourself I still recommend this as this show also works well for adults and for people who didn't grow up watching it.  Pretty fun viewing.

Title: Samurai Pizza Cats Collection 1
Animation Studio: Tatsunoku Productions
Genre: Animation, Action, Sci-Fi, Comedy, Childrens
Running Time: 650 minutes (26 Episodes)
Distributor: Madman Entertainment (www.madman.com.au)
Rating: G
Price: $49.95
Recommended: Yes