Extra Cheese, Extra Action: A Look Back (and Forward) at the Samurai Pizza Cats

I have always been a fan of parody. Weird Al has been one of my favorite musicians of all time, and any spoof movie (Airplane or Naked Gun) is at the top of my list for laughs. It’s not often, though, that you get a cartoon that’s a full-on parody of another popular show, but that’s what Samurai Pizza Cats delivered. I remember finding this show when I was in the Air Force and watching it religiously in the afternoon.

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, Samurai Pizza Cats is an American import of the anime Kyattō Ninden Teyandē and features armor-clad cats working at a pizza parlor. Set in Little Tokyo, the Samurai Pizza Cats work in the Pizza Cats Restaurant when they’re not protecting the town from the evil forces of Seymore “The Big” Cheese and his Ninja Crow Clan. Speedy Cerviche, the energetic and confident master of the Ginzu sword, leads the team that includes Polly Esther, caring yet short-tempered, and Guido Anchovy, the smooth-talking romantic. Other members of the team include Francine, the dispatcher taking all the calls and firing the team from the pizza place’s clock tower/cannon, and the Rescue team, made up of four other Pizza Cats whose heavy weapons combine into powerful artillery. “The Big” Cheese acts as Little Tokyo’s Prime Minister when not plotting to take over the city with his criminal empire, aided by Jerry Atric, his older adviser, and Bad Bird, the leader of the Ninja Crows and Speedy’s primary rival. The clan is made up of many ninja ravens, or Tengu, and in each episode, a new robot monster is employed – and destroyed – by the Samurai Pizza Cats.

Being a parody of other cartoons at the time, the comedy in the show is all over the place. With pizza and ninjitsu being a primary focus in the show, there of course were going to be parallels to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – it’s even in the theme song (“They’ve got more fur than any turtle ever had!”). Speedy and Guido are rivals on the team, usually for the affection of Lucille, the local tea house owner, though Guido falls for practically any female, even if he has little luck with the ladies. Polly is hilarious as the supportive female on the team who can switch to explosive anger in an instant. Cheese is performed like Paul Lynde and sometimes dresses as a cheerleader, which freaks out the older, more serious Jerry Atric. The show also has a narrator who pokes fun at many of the characters and the show’s plot holes.

When it was brought over from Japan, the writers were given free rein to do whatever they wanted with the source material instead of adapting what was already there. When I had the pleasure of speaking to Doug Stone (the voice of Matt Trakker) for the 40th anniversary of M.A.S.K., I got a chance to ask him about the show since he’s credited as a series writer. He said he only wrote a script for the second episode, but that was used as a template for the humor that appeared in every episode. I am glad I got a chance to personally thank him for giving me so many laughs.

Samurai Pizza Cats is receiving a lot of attention on its 35th anniversary this year with new projects. A high-end model kit of Speedy Cerviche is available for pre-order from Yolopark, and it looks incredibly detailed and articulated with a ton of accessories, but the best is how well it portrays the comedy of the show with multiple goofy expressions. I certainly hope other characters are in the pipeline – as a collector of villain figures, I’d love to get a hold of Cheese and Bad Bird.

On the electronic forefront, Samurai Pizza Cats is getting a new game called Samurai Pizza Cats: Blast from the Past! from Blast Zero and Red Dunes Games. The game is scheduled to be released in 2026 and features the return of all the voice actors from the original show. It looks like a ton of fun with animation that perfectly matches the cartoon and allows you to play as all three cats in a side-scrolling adventure. Here’s hoping it keeps with the show’s hilarious sense of humor.