Today is the first day of Winter Comiket at the Tokyo Big Sight in Japan, and there is good news for fans of the Nekopara series of visual novels.
First of all, we learn that the franchise by independent studio Neko Works is going to be turned into a TV anime series down the line, as announced by the studio itself on Twitter.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Nekopara series, it’s a super-cute franchise of visual novels that has been going strong since 2014.
Volumes up to 3 are already available on Steam, while Volume 1 is currently on PS4 and Switch. Volume 2 has been announced for the same consoles just yesterday and will release in Japan in February with English support included.
If you’re curious, you can check out the official description of Vol. 1 straight from its Steam page, where it’s currently 50% off.
“What’s NEKOPARA? Why, it’s a cat paradise!
Kashou Minaduki, the son of a long line of Japanese confection makers moved out to open his own shop “La Soleil” as a patisserie.
But upon moving out, hidden amongst his things were two of the catgirls, Chocola and Vanilla, that the family had been raising. When he tried to send them back, they begged and pleaded until he gave in and now they’ve opened La Soleil together.
With two catgirls who really, REALLY love their master trying their very best and occasionally failing — a heartful comedy opens for business!
See the Sayori NEKO WORKs’ mascots Chocola and Vanilla like never before, moving, and in full voice on screen. And now with the E-mote System, the characters smoothly move on screen changing expression and poses in countless ways.”
At the moment we don’t have details on the TV series besides that it’s being planned. We’ll keep you posted as soon as we hear more.
On top of the anime series, a second announcement reveals not one, but two new visual novels, defined “Chatte Noire 1st Project” and “Chatte Noire 2nd Project” respectively.
The first game is titled “Aplistos no Enkan” (Aplistos is presumably Greek for “Greedy” and “Enkan” is a Torus in Japanese. It roughly translates into “The Torus of Greed”). It’s described as “Pure love visual novel from the shadows of myth.”
The second title is named “Nie no Hakoniwa” (which translates into “Miniature Garden of Sacrifice”). It’s described as “even crazier love and hate visual novel”
Both titles are marked as working names and you can see illustrations in the picture of Neko Works’ official Comiket Pamphlet below. Both games are said to be in development in parallel with Nekopara Vol. 4.