Cat's Eye (manga)

Hitomi Kisugi, along with her older sister Rui and her younger sister Ai, run a café called "Cat's Eye" in Tokyo. The sisters lead a double life as a trio of highly skilled art thieves, stealing works of art which primarily belonged to their long-missing father, Michael Heinz, who was a famous art collector during the Nazi regime. Hitomi's fiancé is Toshio Utsumi, a clumsy young police officer who is investigating the Cat's Eye case. Despite being a frequent visitor to the café he is unaware of the double life of the girls. Hitomi regularly informs the police in advance about her next job using a signature "Cat's Eye" calling card, and then uses Toshio's research about the security surrounding the target to help plan the job.

At the end of the series, Heinz leaves a note for his daughters stating that he cannot reveal himself yet because the mafia may kill him, but he may appear in five years' time. However, the "Heinz" turns out to be the sisters' treacherous uncle Cranaff, who betrayed Michael years earlier. After losing a final bet to Cat's Eye, Cranaff decides to atone for his sin by setting fire to the museum, killing himself. Hitomi eventually admits to Toshio that she is part of Cat's Eye and flees before he can arrest her. Toshio vows to track her down, attempting to "arrest" Hitomi at the airport with a wedding ring. He resigns from the police force and travels to America to find Hitomi, but finds that she has lost her memory due to viral meningitis. Toshio spends time with her until her memories come back, and the two rekindle their relationship.

Hitomi Kisugi (来生 瞳, Kisugi Hitomi)

Voiced by: Keiko Toda (Japanese); Alexis Tipton (City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes),[3] Alicyn Packard (Lupin the 3rd vs. Cat's Eye)[4] (English)

Hitomi is the main protagonist of the series. Second daughter of Michael Heinz, Hitomi is usually the one who actually commits the heists, and is hence uniquely referred to as the Cat's Eye. Like Rui, she is an accomplished athlete and well versed in a number of disciplines and skills ranging from horseback riding to safe cracking. She is a skilled gymnast and is able to perform complex acrobatic moves with ease and grace. She is able to escape most restraints and handcuffs with minimal effort, and it is inferred that she is ambidextrous as well as double jointed. She is a skilled martial artist with proficiency in a number of disciplines, most notably judo, boxing and karate, and also has degrees in kendo and aikido. Hitomi is very charming, clever, sweet, sisterly, loyal, cunning, flirtatious, caring and kind-hearted.

Like Rui, Hitomi is also able to disguise her appearance effortlessly and can speak several other languages.

Rui Kisugi (来生 泪, Kisugi Rui)

Voiced by: Toshiko Fujita (TV series), Keiko Toda (City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes), Rika Fukami (Lupin the 3rd vs. Cat's Eye, City Hunter the Movie: Angel Dust) (Japanese); Dawn M. Bennett (City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes),[3] Cristina Vee (Lupin the 3rd vs. Cat's Eye)[5] (English)

Rui is the second protagonist of the series. Hitomi's elegant and fashionable older sister, Rui is the leader and brain of the “Cat's Eye” group and the one who usually outlines strategies and plans the heists. With model good looks, worldly sophistication, and a razor-sharp intelligence she is able to handle almost any situation. She is extremely athletic and proficient in a great number of activities and skills including car racing, hang gliding, parachuting, helicopter piloting, motorcycle riding, roller skating, skateboarding, martial arts, electronics, handguns and scuba diving. She is a skilled actress and is able to disguise her appearance effortlessly. She is also fluent in a number of languages including English, French and German; she can also read lips accurately.

Rui acts as the mother figure for her sisters and is very protective of them. She is the only sister who has any lasting memory of their parents.

Ai Kisugi (来生 愛, Kisugi Ai)

Voiced by: Chika Sakamoto (Japanese); Megan Shipman (City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes),[3] Deneen Melody (Lupin the 3rd vs. Cat's Eye)[6] (English)

Ai is the third protagonist of the series. As baby sister of the trio, Ai has a spunky, tomboyish personality and demeanor, and has a genius-level I.Q. and is particularly adept in mechanics, computer programming and engineering. She has built a wide array of gadgets to help her sisters in their heists. A typical teenager, she seems to be preoccupied a lot and dreams of falling in love. Being a high school girl, she also has a pet tabby kitten called "Tiger".

While not as skilled as her sisters, Ai has none-the-less mastered a number of skills and is regularly the one who operates the get-away vehicles for the heists, including helicopters, gyrocopters, trucks, motorcycles, cars and mini-planes. Her greatest weakness lies in the fact she is physically the weakest of the three siblings (evident in the anime when she tried to suplex a wrestler, only to have the maneuver backfire on her), but in exchange, she is also the most agile.

Toshio Utsumi (内海 俊夫, Utsumi Toshio)

Voiced by: Yoshito Yasuhara (Japanese); Ryan Colt Levy (Lupin the 3rd vs. Cat's Eye)[7] (English)

The male protagonist of the series, Toshio is Hitomi's high school sweetheart. Toshio always dreamed of being a police detective even when in high school, and upon graduation from Academy was assigned to the Inunaki (犬鳴, "Crying Dog") District Police Station in the heart of Tokyo. While Toshio has wanted to marry Hitomi, he has vowed not to until he has captured the Cat's Eye (he has, however, made the first step and proposed to her).

While a bit clumsy, very gullible, unlucky and not very good at finding clues, his dogged determination and unyielding persistence has impressed his supervisors. He is, however, very stubborn and gets into verbal fights with his Chief constantly. Toshio doesn't carry a gun and prefers to use his wits and fists to contend with criminals. He has a weakness for beautiful women (especially blondes) and constantly makes Hitomi jealous.

Boss (課長, Kacho)

Voiced by: Kenji Utsumi

Toshio's demanding Section Chief, who oversees the Detective's Division of the Inunaki Precinct. Nothing really is known about him, even his full name is never disclosed. He is constantly at odds with Toshio over his handling of the Cat's Eye investigation, and scolds Toshio at every opportunity.

Mitsuko Asatani (浅谷 光子, Asatani Mitsuko)

Voiced by: Yoshiko Sakakibara

A special investigator sent in from Tokyo Police HQ to assist in the Cat's Eye investigations. Asatani has a very shrewd intellect and has a very cunning personality, and is considered an elite officer of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. She is an expert markswoman (won the All-Japan Air Pistol Championships) and is proficient in several martial art forms, she's a 4th-degree black belt in karate and 2nd degree black belt in judo, making her more than a match for Hitomi. She is also quite a beauty, even being crowned a beauty queen during one of Cat's Eye cases. She is one of the first person to suspect Hitomi as the true identity of Cat's Eye, but is never able to find definitive proof. Her main weakness is that she must wear prescription glasses all the time, as she is practically blind without them.

While never really elaborated in the TV series, in the manga she is said to have a secret crush on Toshio, much to the chagrin of Hitomi.

Michael Heinz (ミケール・ハインツ)

An artistic wunderkind in Germany during the 1930s, Heinz was so gifted that by age 10 he already began composing the beginnings of his impressive art collection, which contains not only elaborate paintings and lithographs but also one-of-a-kind jewelry, sculptures and metal works. Heinz's was even able to create exquisite musical instruments. As such Heinz's works were highly sought among art collectors and galleries and many would pay exorbitant amounts to own one of his works.

When the Nazi party began taking over Germany, Heinz fled the country for fear of political/artistic suppression. Traveling around the world, he eventually settled down in Japan, where he met and married a young Japanese woman. After the birth of their third daughter, Heinz travelled to the United States, where he disappeared under mysterious circumstances. His vast and priceless collection of art works were soon auctioned off and dispersed to art dealers around the world. Eventually, many pieces found their way to Japan in the hands of various private deals (many with criminal ties). In subsequent years, the collection were stolen piece by piece, regardless of heavy security, by a trio of thieves calling themselves "Cat's Eye", who were actually Heinz's grown-up daughters seeking clues to his whereabouts and hoping to get his attention to get him out of hiding.

Rui, Hitomi and Ai find that their father is in the U.S. and they go there to track him down. It is eventually revealed that Michael was actually betrayed and forced into exile by his jealous twin brother Cranaff (クラナッフ), who then stole Michael's identity for profit with the syndicate. The revelation ends the sisters' hope of finding their father through recollecting his art work, and the Cat's Eye cease operations afterwards.

Sadatsugu Nagaishi (永石 定嗣, Nagaishi Sadatsugu)

Voiced by: Tamio Ōki, Mugihito (Lupin the 3rd vs. Cat's Eye)

Trusted friend and confidant to the three sisters, a very good friend of Heinz and his wife. Nagaishi provides detailed information for Cat's Eye's heists and also helps them acquire any hardware and/or other sophisticated equipment that they may need that Ai cannot provide. His background is a mystery but he may have been a member of the Armed Forces as he has some military expertise.

Kazumi (和美)

Voiced by: Chiyoko Kawashima

A girl from Ai's school who took a picture of Hitomi while shooting photographs of the moon with a telelens. She later boasted to one of her friends that she had taken pictures of Cat's Eye, sending Ai (who overheard the conversation) panicking. Kasumi became determined to reveal Cat's Eye's true nature and planned to go to the place Cat's Eye's next target with her camera. She managed to get a good look at the backside of Cat's Eye and thought that Hitomi fits that picture very well, and became only more convinced when she sees Hitomi playing around with some punks in the park. Asatani has noticed this too and takes Kazumi into her confidence. With a story about her dad being away (that it is unsafe for a young girl to be alone at home), Kazumi infiltrates into the Kisugi's home and asks Ai to let her stay the night. However, the Kisugi sisters managed to cunningly circumvent Kazumi's suspicion by appearing that Hitomi was still at home during the Cat's Eye mission.

The Cat's Eye manga has had over 20 million copies in circulation.[24]

Allen Moody of THEM Anime Reviews gave the anime adaptation a rating of 3 out of 5 stars. He praised the story and how the heists were set up, comparing it to the Mission: Impossible TV series, however he noted that it gets very repetitive as the series progresses. He also handed out praise for the three main female leads and their character development, but criticized the poor treatment of the main male lead, Toshio. He also criticized the ending for not being as satisfying as the manga's, but over noted that "most of all, the oceans of guilt, and flashes of passion, that lurk just below the surface of the Hitomi/Toshio relationship, and very occasionally pop into view, are fascinating."[1]

Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network handed out a B rating for season one, and a C- rating for season two. She praised the first season for its animation, voice acting, character development, and story, but criticized the plot for being too repetitive and the soundtrack for being too grating after a while. For season two, she called it "campy fun", and praised the increased role for Ai, the voice acting, as well as the catchy ending theme. However, she criticized the plot for being too repetitive like the first season, the lack of progression in Toshio and Hitomi's relationship, reusing animation clips in most episodes, and an uncomfortable episode about the Holocaust.[25][26]

• "Cat's Eye" (song)

• Cat's Eye (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia