Pizza Cats anniversary is coming
Next year will not only be the new millennium, but it's also a special year for Pizza Cats fans. 2000 will be the 10th anniversary of Cat Ninden Teyande, the original anime Samurai Pizza Cats was made from. Cat Ninden Teyande (commonly referred to by fans as KNT, since in Japanese katakana letters "Cat" sounds like "Kyatto") first aired in Japan on February 1, 1990, at 7 PM. That's prime time, by the way, which shows the Japanese take their cartoons seriously!
Cat Ninden Teyande ran until May 1991. By that time, work was already being done on the English version, Samurai Pizza Cats.

Pizza Cats Facts
From: MWDD
As we all know - Saban has cut many scenes from KNT in SPC including frames
that include Japanese writing. But, did you know they also reworked some
frames as well - for example in the SPC episode Underground, Underwater,
Undercooked - We see Speedy and Guido rushing to Lucille's house only to
find a note that she's gone shopping. In SPC this note is just a big paw
print, however in KNT the note is actually written in Japanese.

SPC Fan-made comicbook
A fan published book of Pizza Cats art and comics is planned to be released around April. Fan artists interested in contributing should contact Shep0815@aol.com.
These fan made books are common in Japan, where they are called Dojinshi, this will be the first known Pizza Cats Dojinshi printed outside of Japan.

Featured character
Bad Bird
(Thanks to FDemps5138 and Tigriss for helping!)
Japanese name: Karamaru ("Kara" from "Karasu"=Crow + "maru", a common name ending for the warrior classes)
Likes: Being evil (this changes later in the series), a good fight, stealing, shiny objects
Dislikes: Cream corn, "Jeopardy", leaving the oven on, being kissed by Big Cheese, Princess Vi.
Weapons: A long sword worn in a scabbard on his back, exploding throwing stars.
Temporarily, he's had the Armor of Worc, and the Ginsu sword, stolen from Speedy.

Bad Bird is ambitious, and sometimes goes against Big Cheese behind his back, like plotting to steal the Nuclear Potato for himself, or entering the Martial Arts contest against orders (Kung-fu Kitty Contest).

When Bad Bird had the armor of Worc, Jerry couldn't be sure BB would remain loyal.
On the other hand, Bad Bird goes to great lengths to do his job, often taking on the dirty work that the average bumbling ninja crows can't handle. One of the things that makes Bad Bird such a good villain is that he comes form a long line of bad birds, like his father "Dirty Bird". Despite being a bad guy, he does have his own sense of honor. In "Kung-fu Kitty Contest" he prevents Jerry from cheating to help the ninja crow's robot to beat Speedy.

It's possible that Bad Bird is actually a better warrior than Speedy or any of the other cats. When the cats don't have the advantage of superior weapons, he's beaten them (Bad Bird Uncaged, Gone with the Ginsu), but he's no match for them as a team.
When he loses, he's been known to go into intense ninja training, such as
mizugori (sitting under waterfall) and all sorts of other "dangerous and
painful things, too awful to even animate".

He's skilled at disguising himself, and has fooled the cats on a couple occasions.
One thing he's not very good at is poker, he almost lost everything he had playing against bunny-napped Princess Vi.

Bad Bird never finished High School, but he did attend the Dirty Crow Academy. He normally takes charge of any ninja crow-bots sent out against Little Tokyo.

For a while, Bad Bird even worked at the Pizza Cat's shop, and did a better job than the cats, even getting a perfect score on their aptitude test. It was at this point that he began to enjoy being good, causing an inner conflict that would eventually turn him to Good Bird in the final episode.

By the way, did you notice that Bad Bird didn't recognize the Pizza Cats when he went to work in the shop, but he did know it was them when he went disguised as Charlie Bird to trick Lucille and Polly in "Singing Samurai Sensation"?

Bad Bird has a girlfriend named Carla (Okara in Japanese), whom he knew from childhood and is reunited with in "All You Need is Love". He leaves he again to avoid drawing her into his evil work. BB gets some unwanted female attention when he's spotted by Princess Violet, but she tends to treat him more like a possession than a boyfriend. This and Lucille's missile barrages are about the only things BB truly fears. Bad Bird and Carla get together again in "Great Comet Caper", and start their own Pizza Shop after Good Bird quits the villain business to compete with the Pizza Cats in a new way.

Links
Project Feline
http://www.stormloader.com/profeline moved

Pzario's Pizza Cat Log Book
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/4685/index.htm

Tsimsiean's Pizza Cats page
http://members.xoom.com/Tsimsiean

SPC.net, Italy
http://spcnet.cjb.net

Samurai Pizza Cats 2000
http://members.xoom.com/spc2k/main.htm New

TigerCat's SPC Fansite
http://204.78.113.5/merkerson/jfeuchtinger/html/default.html New

Chivyboy's SPC Website
http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/chivyboy/spc/main.htm New

This Month's Picture
Francine prepares to launch!

Bye for now!
Thanks for reading this issue of Pizza Cats Review! Looks like it's mostly been a Bad Bird issue, but that's OK with me!
-Violet