I really wanted to like this anime.
Kashou and Shigure would like to welcome you to Patisserie La Soliel, a unique cafe staffed by catgirls, things seem normal for the catgirls until a stray kitten wanders into their lives after lead catgirl Chocola takes pity on her, the kitten later named Cacao joins the extended family of catgirls and adds more fun to their lives.
To get the giant cat out of the room first, how does this world function?
The Catgirls look pretty human for the most part but quite often their behaviour isn't much different to regular cats and it's shown in the ending theme that they grow at the same rate as a house cat, I really shouldn't think too hard but it is distracting, with that in mind, how old is Shigure meant to be? Her body suggests teenager but her mannerisms, her network of friends and the fact that she owns the business suggest she's closer to her thirties, just another thing to think about.
But what about the catgirls themselves?
Honestly you couldn't pick a more generic set of personalities for these catgirls.
With the exception of Vanilla who is best catgirl every personality has been done to death and doesn't stand out anymore than other anime characters of their types.
Probably the worst of the bunch is Maple and Cinnamon, Maple lacks any personality at all while Cinnamon is the only character reminding me that the Nekopara game is supposed to be a H-Game, the problem with that is that this anime is played like a straight up slice of life anime with no lewd situations, this is especially jarring when Cacao, a kitten, takes the spotlight more often than not.
Nekopara really fails to win me over as it always seems at odds with it's gaming counterpart along with one too many distractions from the world building side, thank god I've never heard a dub, it would be unwatchable.
Final Verdict: Nekopara is slow, uninspired and constantly giving me too much to question in regards to world building, I really wanted to like this but in the end, I only like Vanilla.
