Irasshaimase to my nyan neko sugar girls shrine, nya desuuuu~~ :3
Content warning desu: this shrine contains spoilers for the series, nya!!
Nani IS NNSG, anyway?? >_<
Nyan neko sugar girls is a webseries created by the youtuber SoapOpera46 (AKA yoli-chan) and was first released on april 9th, 2010. The story follows a peppy catgirl named raku-chan who goes on adventures with her best friend, a more mature catgirl named koneko-chan; and hitoshi-san, a human man who serves as raku's love interest.
There are 11 official episodes in total, not including a non-canon christmas special (with episode 5 unfortunately blocked in the US due to copyrighted music), with the final episode releasing on christmas eve of 2012. While not as in-your-face as a lot of comedy webseries of the era such as the most popular girls in school or homestar runner, all signs point to the series being made as a joke and things such as the art style being bad on purpose. That said though; NNSG's status as a parody doesn't prevent it from having a lot of unironically unique charm to it, which is why i love it so much.
Series analysis desu~
Content warning for suggestive content, kidnapping, implied SA, stockholm syndrome, questionable LGBT rep, diseases and death.
Episode one
For the first episode and a half, the story is relatively slice of life. Episode one introduces us to the main cast; it starts us off with raku and koneko at a mochi ice cream shop called "mochi central ^_^" (hence the name of this shrine), after they leave, they meet hitoshi san and raku chan IMMEDIANTLY develops a crush on him. It's also established that raku is the youngest of the group, with koneko telling hitoshi that she's "really young" to explain why she's so hyperactive. It then cuts to the following night, raku chan is in bed and is still thinking about hitoshi san. Considering what she says about wanting to play with him in the park sometime (as well as koneko's previous quote), i feel like yoli-chan originally wanted raku to be a child, or at the very least, somewhere around middle school age, but had since retconned it since it was revealed in the final episode that raku chan is a college graduate (....ngl i kinda wonder what she majored in)
Episode 1.5
It is unclear whether or not episode 1.5 is canon to the nyan neko sugar girls timeline, as it introduces koneko chan's sister, a cocker spaniel girl named dolce chan, but she never appears in the series again after that.
According to SoapOpera46, the episode was originally uploaded back in 2010 but had to be taken down due to a feud between her and an unnamed voice actor (assumingly the VA behind dolce chan, as she never talks throughout the entire episode) behind the scenes. The original version was reportedly unfinished and just didn't work out which is why the version that's available to watch today is HEAVILY edited and multiple scenes are cut out. It is unknown whether it was like this in the original upload or what but as of right now, it is considered (to me at least) lost media.
In the version that's available: the story begins with koneko chan suggesting to dolce chan that the two go out and enjoy the sunshine, though it's seemingly cut off right after koneko opens the front door. It then cuts to raku, who ALSO wants to go outside and the three of them meet up to which raku invites the sisters to go to the pool with her. Notably: dolce chan is already wearing a bathing suit before raku even says anything about swimming, and she's never seen wearing any other outfit so it could be assumed that this is either an animation error or that's just what she wears on a regular basis.
They go to the pool together, where they also meet up with hitoshi san, to which raku gets nervous and mentions that she needs to hide behind koneko, though we never see her actually doing it. After an exchange of pleasantries between hitoshi and koneko, raku presumably gets out of the pool and has a conversation with the blue-haired man about her catgirl status. In this scene: raku reveals she was born a catgirl and didn't just gain her ears and tail later in life, instead: her mother was a human and her father was a cat. This line had caused a small bit of controversy in the nyan neko sugar girls fandom, as many assumed that there was bestiality going on; i personally do not believe this is the case, as it's a very common trope (especially in anime) for males of a fictional species to be big furry/monsterous beasts and the females to be EXTREMELY humanoid, this trope is referred to as "bizarre sexual dimorphism."
Episode 2
This is the first episode of a two-parter, as well as the beginning of hitoshi's character arc. It begins with hitoshi eating a balanced breakfast of pocky and ramune, when suddenly a strange man barges into his house and kidnaps him; this is the first introduction to the character bokutachi san, hitoshi's leering "love" interest who speaks in a stereotypical "gay" voice. It then cuts to raku and koneko shopping at a victoria's secret-esque lingere store called "kawaii underwear-chan store! ^o^" this is the first of many moments between them that (to me) show that raku has more romantic chemistry with koneko than hitoshi (more on that later). When they leave, they hear hitoshi screaming for help inside bokutachi's car and immediantly jump to his rescue...BUT NOT BEFORE A CLIFFHANGER!!!
Episode 3
This episode picks up where the last one left off, as raku and koneko arrive at a nondescript building that bokutachi took hitoshi to. Here, it's heavily implied that bokutachi kidnapped hitoshi so he could rape him, saying things like "we're just gonna have a little fun" and later going on to tell hitoshi to get on his knees. Hitoshi retorts this by saying he's in a free country and shouldn't even be here, with it being confirmed that the story is set in japan, as he misspeaks and accidentally says "this is america" before correcting himself; this makes me think that hitoshi might be wasian, or at the very least lived in america for a good amount of his life and had only recently moved to japan. After a brief hint at hitoshi's arc to come, raku and koneko step into the scene and rescue hitoshi from bokutachi (complete with scooby doo reference). Hitoshi thanks the girls and walks into the sunset(?) as the episode ends.
Honestly, as iconic as bokutachi san will become as the series progresses, i can honestly admit that he and hitoshi's relationship is not the BEST gay representation in media; a kidnapper rapist and his victim who's only into him because of stockholm syndrome isn't what i'd call healthy or accurate to gay people in real life. I understand that this was the early 2010's, not to mention that i don't think yoli-chan did this out of any genuine malice, but it's still gross and i'd understand if that turns you off from the series altogether.
Episode 4
This is where the series' big plot REALLY kicks off, as it opens up with raku chan going outside one morning to see a squirrel in her front yard that she calls "squirrel-chan" (which, judging by it's rich brown coloration, might be an abert's squirrel) she picks it up, hugs it and it bites her, which leads to quite possibly the most well-known and most memed scene in the entire series; (WARNING: LOUD) where she screams for an entire 40 seconds (also, notably, the way squrrel-chan bites her arm doesn't really make sense considering HOW she was holding it, it bit her upper arm yet it's head was positioned by her neck). After her screaming fit, raku immediantly starts thinking about hitoshi and hopes he's alright after the kidnapping.
Meanwhile, koneko is seen walking to the store and meets up with hitoshi on the way; during this scene, koneko drops hints that raku has a crush on hitoshi, but hitoshi's mind is somewhere else, he's still thinking of bokutachi san and by the looks of it, has developed stockholm syndrome as he's specifically thinking of bokutachi shirtless while NSYNC's "i want you back" plays in the background. Later, hitoshi gives raku a visit to find out she got sick from the squirrel's bite. It then cuts to 10 minutes later where it's revealed that he and koneko got raku some takeout to try and make her feel better to which raku is VERY thankful, even stating that she doesn't know if she even deserves it; after hanging out with her for a while, raku lies and tells her friends that she feels better presumably to try and make them not worry about her as the episode ends
Back when the nyan neko sugar girls fandom wiki was still up and running, aside from every single page being vandalized and site moderation essentially being nonexistant on there, i remember it saying on raku chan's personality page that she was purposely taking advantage of the fact she was sick so that they'd get her sushi and honestly, as i'm rewatching the series for my analysis, i do not get those vibes at all. I know fandom.com is notorious for having people make shit up about fiction, but this just feels like some random editor looking TOO deeply into something innocuous.
Episode 5
As mentioned previously, this episode has been blocked in the US due to copyright, a VPN is highly recommended to view this episode
The episode starts with raku chan waking up to a phone call from koneko chan, who tells her that she's gonna take her to the vet. NGL i find it really clever how instead of going to the doctor: kemonomimis go to the vet in this universe, that's kinda fun. While walking to the vet, they meet up with hitoshi-san and....just like last time, hitoshi can't stop thinking of bokutachi. He joins them on their visit and we're introduced to our next main character, vet-sama, a scantily clad nurse who's voice actress speaks REALLY close to the mic (also you can SLIGHTLY see her boobs bouncing on the side of the screen as raku explains her illness to her which is hilarious ngl) after some off-screen tests, vet-sama ultimately diagnoses raku with rabies. Raku doesn't take the news well though, and she has a very heartfelt moment with her and her friends where they comfort her and tell her they got her back. I think at this point: raku chan likely knows she doesn't have much longer to live given how rabies works, so she tries to confess her feelings to hitoshi while she can before getting interrupted by koneko, who's made up some mochi ice cream and green tea for everyone before the episode ends with raku chan in bed, noticing a strange feeling she's never felt before.
Episode 6
Notably, this episode is around the time the art style and the animation starts to become a little better and not just slideshows with extra steps. The episode begins with raku waking up in the morning, noting that she feels very weak, ultimately decided to get some fresh air before passing out while she's outside...in an honestly HILARIOUS moment of fanservice as her skirt drapes off her butt that's for some reason way better drawn than the rest of her body.
Koneko then finds raku's unconsious body while trying to bring an unknown gift to her. When raku finally wakes up, she finds that koneko had took her back to bed. She leaves to make raku some green tea and while she's gone: raku decides to run away, stating that she's too much of a burden for her and hitoshi to handle, koneko calls up hitoshi to tell him what happened and the two start a search party.
Episode 7
The episode picks up where the last one leaves off, as raku is lost in the woods and gets a message from god (known as "kami-sama") who tells her to "release her inner beast" and find her true self before a transformation sequence begins.
Meanwhile, koneko and hitoshi are still looking for raku, just about to lose hope before walking by bokutachi and finding a little cat with wings being antagonized by dogs. After koneko chan scares them off, they come to realize that the cat is actually a now-transformed raku and take her back to hitoshi's house, unsure of what to do. Notably from this episode onwards: koneko begins sprinkling spanish words into her speech, which might be a small tongue-in-cheek joke, as yoli-chan seems to be playing a character on her youtube channel and might be purposely getting japanese and spanish mixed up to push the idea that she's a weeaboo who doesn't know as much about japan as she thinks. Though i personally like the idea that it could possibly imply that koneko might be mixed between latina and japanese (which might even be the case as her sister is named after the spanish word for "sweet")
Episode 8
Again, the story picks up where the last one left off, as koneko announces that they need to spend as much time with raku as possible, believing that her rabies is the cause of her new animalistic form and unsure of how much longer she has left to live. The two sneak raku into the amusement park via a nyan neko sugar girls branded backpack; while on a rollercoaster, raku suddenly turns back into a humanoid much to everyone's surprise. After a montage of the three going on different rides (and hitoshi throwing up in a trashcan), the three go to a "miniature beach" at the park and there's a montage of the three swimming (...and also hitoshi losing his trunks and flashing his dick at the girls). After a fun-filled day at the amusement park, hitoshi walks the two girls home. Koneko makes raku some green tea and the two agree on having a sleepover as the episode ends.
Episode 9
The episode begins with koneko chan waking up to find that raku chan has turned back into a cat, not only that, but she's much more aggressive than usual and doesn't even seem to remember who anyone is!! Koneko decides to take raku to the vet, with hitoshi joining them to be their "good luck charm." Here, we're shown an absolutely shakespearean line said by hitoshi, "i'm sorry koneko chan, i just wanted something to take my mind off of raku chan's pain...her pain, it pains me....to think about that pain" followed up by him thinking of bokutachi san. They arrive at the vet (with hitoshi making "awooga" eyes at the nurse, which i never see people bring up but i just wanna point that out because it's hilarious) vet-sama immediantly recognizes the issue and gives raku a thorough checkup, she ultimately diagnoses raku as being possessed by a bakeneko. Something i like about this series is that despite vet-sama presenting herself very sexually, she's not JUST a pretty face!! She's smart, easygoing, and even a bit overdramatic, as shown in the next episode where she says she only did a magical girl transformation for her shrine maiden uniform the first time because she wanted to make an entrance....oh yeah, did i mention she's also a shrine maiden?? Anyway, vet-sama transforms into her shrine maiden uniform and performs a holy spell to exoricize the bakeneko, stating raku needs some rest after the spell. Raku then proceeds to transform back into her humanoid form in front of koneko's eyes and the two have a heartfelt moment together, where they're not sure if raku is gonna be okay.
The final episode
This final episode begins with a different opening than the usual one, with "is this love" by whitesnake playing instead of the song we've come to know and love.
Raku chan has a surreal nightmare where she's running in a black void as visions of what's happened the past couple days begin to pass her by, including distorted visions of her friends. She eventually wakes up and tries to get herself something to drink before passing out, waking up koneko in the process. Koneko gets up to find raku floating in the air and she comes to the realization that the demons are back. Meanwhile, hitoshi is walking down the street at night where he meets up with bokutachi who gives him a note, presumably to meet him somewhere given a scene that's yet to come.
Koneko rushes to bring raku to the vet, meeting up with hitoshi as she struggles to open the vet door due to the building being closed and the door being locked. After hitoshi kicks the door open and they go inside and wait for vet-sama to arrive. Here, we see more of raku chan's insecurities, where she feels bad for having her friends take care of her and overall just feeling like a leech (been there, sister...) behind raku's cheery personality, she's ultimately just a people pleaser. This is just my personal headcanon, but i feel like something might've happened to raku before the events of the series that made her like this....maybe some bullies at school or a toxic home life, because it doesn't seem normal for a person to act like this, even when they're terminally ill.
Eventually, morning comes and vet sama finally arrives; revealing that she has insurance for the door hitoshi broke (literally called "door insurance") she tells the gang that she has a spell that can banish the demons for at least a day but there are no guarantees afterwards. She then proceeds with the spell, banishing raku's demon but saying that this might be the final day of her life.
Afterwards, we see a montage of the three going out and having fun at the mall before raku chan notices a sign advertising a festival that night and wanting to go. We then see a montage of them at the festival, with hitoshi noticably not wanting to be there and checking his watch. Eventually, hitoshi announces that he needs to leave, stating that he has something important to do, leaving the two girls to watch the firework show alone together. They then head home and raku gets a visit from her old college friends and they have a party together (complete with nya-senpai bringing jello!!) After they leave, koneko surprises raku with a dinner of ramen and mochi ice cream (which is apparently raku's favorite meal) and the two go to bed. It's very touching seeing the lengths koneko would go to make raku happy.
The next day, raku chan decides that today's the day she confesses to hitoshi, and koneko even gives the two some alone time while she does so!! A very sweet moment unfolds on screen, the wind blows dramatically as raku finally confesses her true feelings for the man and hugs him....all for bokutachi to ruin it...as he and hitoshi had started dating off-screen. Here, we finally learn that the man who kidnapped hitoshi is named bokutachi-san, with koneko saying that she thought his name was "jeff," which i hear is meant to be a reference to an old review someone made while the series was still running where the reviewer called him "jeff." Raku's heart breaks at the sudden reveal and she keels over to the ground, her final wish being that the two are happy together, and being glad that she could spend her last day with what she calls "the two best tomodachis anyone could ever ask for" as she passes away of a broken heart. The series ends and the credits roll as koneko chan sings "last christmas" by wham!
Bonus content
In a lot of official videos created by SoapOpera46 during or after the series' run, there are a few moments that reveal things about the chararacters, though it is unknown whether or not they should be considered canon.
In hitoshi's cover of "i want it that way," bokutachi mentions being a fan of the backstreet boys....likely due to the band commonly mocked and stereotyped as being listened to by gay men back during it's heyday. Considering the fact that there's two hitoshi san covers, it might be implied that hitoshi has an interest in music and singing.
In the offical nyan neko sugar girls covid PSA, it's stated that raku chan has a compromised immune system (expected, given the whole second half of NNSG's story focuses on raku's health) not only that, but she seemingly owns an old laptop due to it running a parody version of windows 95. It's also established that koneko chan is a medical expert and apparently has enough street cred to the point that she was able to make a covid PSA and publish it on public access television, so that must mean that she might've studied medical stuff in college (i personally like to think she's an apprentice to vet-sama).
In Bokutachi san's cover of "mask" by dream, we possibly might be getting a bit of insight on bokutachi's backstory. Considering the song "mask" is about dream's struggles with ADHD growing up, could this be the same for bokutachi? Generally, the whole video just follows the events of the original mask music video beat by beat so we can never know for sure. That said, we can see silhouettes of raku and koneko as bokutachi walks down the halls of his school, so it can be presumed that they went to high school together. It's also shown that bokutachi's full name is "yume bokutachi-san."
My thoughts
Despite the jokey nature of the story, nyan neko sugar girls is a genuinely great piece of outsider art, and i can really tell that everyone who worked on it had fun making it....if not: the series wouldn't be as complex as it is, with full story arcs, drama, tragedy and an overarching plot. It kinda reminds me of this gacha life minimovie i made when i was 12 (in a good way)
This enjoyment i have of the series is completely unironic, it's so much more than just a dumb shitpost for youtubers to sensationalize as "THE MOST CRAZY UNHINGED WEBSERIES EVAR!!11!1!!!!!!!!" Or an out-of-context clip being reuploaded to a tiktok meme page; it's a passion project made with genuine love and dedication. Even to this day: yoli-chan is still making art for the series, she's honestly way more dedicated to this series than i am with ANYTHING and that's honestly something to be respected!! While there IS more to criticize the use of AI for than just the product not having a soul, i genuinely believe that nyan neko sugar girls is something AI can not replace.
I know i may sound pretentious when i say this, but i feel as though too many people nowadays are just too poisoned by irony. You can't genuinely express your love for something without making it into a joke (IE making memes about it or saying "i only like this ironically, bro!!!") or someone making fun of you for it; there's far too many people treating every single thing as a joke and overall just acting EXTREMELY insincere 24/7 because that's the "cool" thing to do. Honestly, i get it to some extent, times are scary and sometimes jokes are the only way to cope; hell...i've seen people take super small things such as nyan neko sugar girls SO seriously that it's honestly ridiculous (most of the time, it's because they hate it) but at the same time, there's a time and place for everything, and sometimes joking around too much OR taking things too seriously can be bad for you. Everything in moderation!!!
Nyan neko sugar girls is one of the things i like to take seriously, and i'm not ashamed of that!! Sometimes you just have to stop and appreciate the smaller things in life...whether it be a bad movie, a crappy novelty toy you found at the dollar store or a poorly-made anime webseries on the internet; as it will help you come to fully appreciate the bigger picture.
My theory about the series
Given that thorough overview of the series i just gave, i think it's time i share with you all a theory/headcanon i have: i believe that over the course of the series: koneko chan had an unrequited crush on raku chan.
While yes, this is mainly because i actually ship them, if you really think about it, it actually makes a bit of sense!! If you watched the series, you would notice that koneko acts a lot more affectionately with raku than hitoshi ever has. The first instance of this being when they're in the underwear store and she compliments the underwear raku picks out, with raku replying with "you flatter me so much!!" Which is kind of an odd thing to say when your friend compliments clothes you're buying...unless perhaps...this is a common thing koneko does all the time and this is the first time we, the viewer see it? Over the course of the series; koneko is constantly seen getting food for raku, she's always the first one to suggest they do things for raku such as taking her to an amusement park, she stays over for the night when raku chan asks, she's always the one to take raku to the vet. In the second half of the series, koneko seems to be the most concerned with the fact that her friend is gonna die. Sure, this could be platonic, but we RARELY see hitoshi pull through for raku like this.
In the final episode, koneko sings WHAM's "next christmas," which is a song about unrequited love and heartbreak. Of course, this could be about raku's relationship with hitoshi, but considering the fact that KONEKO is the one singing it and the fact that she's audibly crying while she's singing suggests that this is after raku died and quite honestly, while NNSG isn't really a logical show, i STILL don't see any logical explanation as to why koneko would be singing about RAKU'S relationship....especially in the first person like this. As such: i feel as though this proves that koneko was in love with raku, but raku didn't feel the same way; especially considering the fact that koneko never really shows any support for raku's crush until the very end...due to koneko's easygoing, reserved nature, i get the vibes that she would be the type to keep to herself most of the time, especially with love. So i feel like koneko wouldn't confess her feelings all willy-nilly and instead would try to slowly build the relationship up, subtly flirting and doing nice things, getting more and more blunt as time goes on until saying "i love you" just feels natural in the relationship....and after raku chan's death, all her hard work ended up being for nothing. That said though, once raku plans to confess to hitoshi, i feel like koneko was GREATLY disappointed and started screaming and crying internally, but at the end of the day was just glad raku could be happy with him...a real chappell roan "good luck babe" moment, y'dig?
Resources
The official series playlist in chronological order
Link to a video compiling all the episodes into one feature length movie
SoapOpera46's deviantart page - this is where i got all the official art for the dividers on this shrine
Nyan neko forever - a very comprehensive fan youtube channel dedicated to nyan neko sugar girls and creator of many things made specifically for fans, such as themed desktop cursors, DVD releases and plushes
Link to the fanmade NNSG discord server
The tragedy of hitoshi-san - an analysis video by the youtuber starlite documenting hitoshi's character arc
A fanmade japanese dub of the series by the youtube channel FRANKLIN PROJECT - this is where the "hamburger sandwich and diet coca cola" meme comes from