Neko-chan (series)

Neko-chan (Japanese: ねこちゃん [nekotɕaɴ]) is a multimedia series created by Matsuki Nato and owned by Japanese company COMPOD (formerly: C.O.V.I.D.), which started on September 10, 1988 with the Japan-exclusive Famicom video game of the same name. While largely exclusive to Japan until 2008, some Neko-chan media made its way overseas, most of which are dubs of its anime adaptation.

The series stars a Japanese Bobtail cat named Neko-chan. In the games, her friend Inu-kun gets kidnapped by an evil fox named Kitsnay. In animated media and manga adaptations, she is a cat who acts like a human, but still does cat things, such as eating cat food and licking her paws.

Neko-chan became popular in not only Japan; it got popular in Italy, Taiwan, and Chile as well. Most of its popularity comes from its anime, which is still running to this day.

Characters
Neko-chan features a wide cast of characters, most of which are based off cats. Non-cat characters include Inu-kun (dog) and Kitsnay (fox).

Games
The Neko-chan games were one of the series' common mediums. The first game in the series was also the first piece of Neko-chan to exist. These include spin-offs, browser games, and mobile games.

Adaptations
The Neko-chan series was known for its adaptations, which became more popular than the games themselves, spanning localizations, mostly in Europe. The most popular Neko-chan adaptation is Anime Neko-chan, being watched by over 5 million people in December 1988. The popularity of the anime also caused the games to sell well, with some even becoming one of the best selling ones on their respective game systems in Japan alone. Another Neko-chan adaptation is Manga Neko-chan, which while isn't as popular as the anime, did receive popularity, with over 40 million tankōbon volumes sold in its first year of circulation.

Feature films
Several Neko-chan feature films are also released in the following years, being based on the anime. Few of these movies are about regions around the world, with the first feature film involving East Asia. In such films, Neko-chan uses her sky rocket in order to get easily to other countries, with her home region being Osaka (Japan).

Trivia

 * Everything in this series is written in Hiragana so that even pre-schoolers could read the text. This also applies to text that were originally in katana and lines were replaced with either the corresponding vowel or another vowel that represents the original word (e.g. ゲーム becomes げいむ). The COMPOD logo and the copyright text in the games are written in English, but feature hiragana transliterations at the same time as well (e.g. "C.O.V.I.D." becomes こびっど).