Cat’s Eyes, the game of 7 errors: we have identified the differences between the cult anime and the TF1 live-action series

It was one of the most anticipated series of the year: it must be said that an entire generation grew up watching the acrobatic adventures of the stylish heroines of Signed Cat’s Eyes.

Imagined by the mangaka Tsukasa Hôjô, the cartoon consisting of two seasons and 73 episodes, landed on France 3 in 1986 before migrating to TF1 and in the mornings of the legendary Club Dorothée. Recalling a Madeleine Proust from childhood is a double-edged challenge: on the one hand, the fans will be present; on the other hand there is a good chance that they will cry betrayal of the original material!

So how much have the story and characters changed? A quick overview.

#1 A redesigned cult theme song

“Girls of today, daughters of fitness, we love to laugh and dance…” When we think about Cat’s eyesit’s hard not to remember its hilarious theme song, performed at the time by Isabelle Guiard. The lyrics of the song ideally accompanies the shots with a very 80s flavor of the three sisters, who gallop with agility over the rooftops of the city immersed in darkness, a painting in hand!

THE Cat’s eyes the 2024 version has kept the cult song and offers a new instrumentalization and an interpretation by Anne Sila, the winner of the The voice of all the stars. From a visual point of view, it is a specialist, Laurent Brett, to whom we owe the credit The Artist OR Family businesswho got to work. Inspired by James Bond and the Tintin cartoon, he wanted “do something modern, which also respects an animation tradition”. And it’s a success!

#2 Goodbye Tokyo, hello Paris!

This is one of the most dramatic choices of the new series: while the action of the anime took place in Tokyo, our contemporary thieves settled in Paris. Is this the effect? Lupineaction series centered on a Parisian thief and success on Netflix? In any case it is a pragmatic choice for a French production.

Alexandre Laurent, the director of the eight episodes of the first season, was able to film in emblematic places of the capital such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre or the Palace of Versailles. Not to mention the rooftops of Paris, the ideal place to create thrilling chase sequences.

If the anime was set in Tokyo and had a Japanese aesthetic, the French version of Signed Cat’s Eyes he had made a strange mix (unthinkable today) by Frenchizing the names of the characters. “For us viewers of the cartoon at the time of its first broadcast there was no doubt: the action took place in France. If the girls were called Alexia, Tamara, Silvia, there were also Quentin, Inspector Bruno… Very French names and surnames”. explains Michel Catz, the creator of the live-action version.

#3 Where did the “Cat’s Eyes” coffee go?

Most of the daytime action Signed Cat’s Eyes is set in a bar, aptly named “Cat’s Eyes” (cops are not lights in the anime!), where Cyllia, Tam and Alexia Chamade work. The young inspector of the Banditry Repression Brigade (BRB), Quentin Chapuis, goes there regularly. The contemporary version decided to abandon the famous coffee.

But what would Paris be without its bars with crowded terraces? The writers then imagined a boyfriend for Cyllia, Abel Azoury (Simon Ehrlacher), manager of a bar nicknamed “Le Petit Mazarin”. The sisters go there regularly. In episode 4 they even perform some wild karaoke “I’ll go where you go”of Queen Celine Dion! A sequence that many Parisians must have identified with (including your servant)…

#4 Modern sisters

Our three thieving sisters have been logically modernized, especially the youngest. In the anime she is a 14 year old teenager. In the TF1 series, Alex, played by Claire Romain, is about to start her high school studies. Another notable change: his strange sexual orientation. He has a girlfriend, Lili Perez (Loryn Nounay), in this first season. The older sister, Sylia Chamade (Constance Labbé), becomes a gallery owner (useful for art thefts) and is in a serious relationship with Abel.

The heroine, Tamara Chamade (Camille Lou) returns to Paris after a five-year absence. She is the one who takes her sisters on a search for their father’s stolen art paintings. The latter tragically disappeared in a fire, which he suspects was criminal in nature. The sisters also got a makeover: Alex sports a short red cut and Sylia a long bob with blonde highlights.

Tam, in the heart of the action, kept her long hair and bangs from the anime. Once you get past the wig effect, it works pretty well. Thieves don’t wear sexy bodysuits, which have too ’80s connotations, but technical suits, even if they are often low-cut!

#5 Cat eyes are an origin story

Fans of the anime may be surprised by the first few episodes of Cat’s eyesin which we immediately understand that the Chamade sisters are not professional thieves. In episode 2, Alex also watches a YouTube tutorial to learn how to open a safe!

In another episode, Sylia panics while rappelling from a roof, explaining that she hasn’t climbed in a long time. But why do the sisters struggle so much? Quite simply because the series chronicles the beginnings of our vigilante thieves, before they become seasoned.

Screenwriter Michel Catz imagined a origin story. “How did they become thieves? In the cartoon it’s a puzzle, since they already have hang gliders, henchmen working for them… They’re not alone and they’re already millionaires.

So I wondered how they got there. Batman, we know right away that he is rich and why he became a masked avenger. But the Chamade sisters, what was their past? explains. Therefore, the series is not a live-action remake of the anime, but a prequel. If TF1 has not yet officially announced a season 2, the producers explained that they were already working on it.

#6 The love story between Quentin and Tam

At the beginning of the anime, Quentin and Tam have a mutual crush and the inspector becomes her boyfriend. Tam feels guilty because he uses Quentin to foil the police’s plans.

The live-action version creates a very different dynamic, where Quentin is Tam’s ex and is in a relationship with his co-worker, Captain Gwen Assaya (Cindy Bruna). The latter exists in the anime, without having a relationship with her colleague.

So Quentin still has a crush on Tam and his feelings are mutual. Quentin’s character was also proven wrong. His animated version, a Nicky Larson surrogate – a little dumb but brave and very obsessed with women – would hardly have survived the Me Too era!

#7 Girl power on all levels

The live-action series perpetuates what was already the spice of anime in the 80s: putting tough, independent female characters at the center of the action. Of course we happily find this 2024 version of girl power through the trajectory of the three sisters, but that’s not all.

Writers have feminized characters. Chef Bruno, the definition of a toxic boss, who mistreats Quentin throughout the episodes Signed Cat’s Eyesbecomes the highly efficient Commissioner Bruneau. Played by Juliette Plumecocq-Mech, she displays a coded lesbian look, although her sexual orientation is not explicitly mentioned.

Mr Durieux, a close friend of the late father, has also changed sex: he is now Hélène Durrieux, bourgeois gallery owner and great friend of the father of the three sisters, played by Carole Bouquet.

While the sisters face male antagonists, such as the art dealer Armand Chassagne, played by Gilbert Melki, their fiercest enemy is Prudence (Elodie Fontan), an enigmatic platinum blonde assassin. She’s certainly not the most subtle femme fatale in thriller history, but the actress makes her quite entertaining!

Adapting an 80s anime into a 2020s fiction – also made in live action – obviously required essential changes. Tsukasa Hôjô, who oversaw the writing of the screenplay, gave his blessing: “I really liked the fact that we were telling a new story. I didn’t want the series to be too close to the manga.”. Nothing says that the fans, however, do not agree with the creator!