With the amount of things we can find on the internet these days, saying that something from Japan is weird or out of the ordinary is a pretty easy observation and sometimes feels a like it’s the definition of “low-hanging fruit.” Yet sometimes things like this come along that are both weird and literal hanging fruit.
A recent post from Techly brought the wonderful word of  a cat banana named Bananya to our attention and we’re a bit mystified by it. After watching a few episodes, that you can see for free on Crunchyroll, I’m still a bit confused about the world in which these banana/cat hybrids exist.
From what I can gather–and refuse to be corrected about because I sincerely can’t take another episode –Bananya and friends live in a world where humans are unaware of their existence. The show seems to document the adventures of Bananya from an unseen narrator who has done some extensive research on the species and has a level of access to Bananya’s surroundings that’s troublesome, to say the least. In one episode, where Banaya goes to the grocery store, the owner of the house is referred to as “Mama” by the narrator and is apparently gleefully unaware that sentient feline fruit found its way into her purse or that the narrator has been following her around and is super interested in her produce.
There’s a definite Toy Story (or maybe even a little Fraggle Rock) vibe to it all as the bananacats remain in hiding from the humans but appear to be content living as bananas while they’re around. What’s disturbing is that it seems all bananas are actually bananacats and we simply don’t know it. The banana hanger on the table means the humans placed that fruit there with the intention of eating it, and all the bananacats seem cool with it. The others, despite being ambulatory enough to hide, do nothing for their yellow brethren. We’ve all been eating bananacats, you guys.
As weird as the show may seem, and as much as we kid, Bananya is still incredibly adorable. It also occurs to us it’s probably not best to call things from Japan weird considering U.S. productions like Rick & Morty have given us a pretty horrifying Bananya analog by comparison.
What are your thoughts on the world of Bananya? How many adorable cat bananas have you devoured in your life? Let’s discuss in the comments below!
Images: Bananya – Crunchyroll, Gathering TMS Entertainment
Rick & Morty – Adult Swim
