Humanity’s Last Hope, Rendered in Cat

The opening sequence of Shingeki no Kyojin is one of the most preposterously effective pieces of anime television I’ve seen—those drums, that screaming choir, soldiers swinging on grappling hooks across a horizon of ruined stone. It makes you feel, against all reasonable judgment, like something genuinely enormous is at stake. I showed it to a non-anime friend once. He almost got emotional. About cartoon people being eaten by giants.

So naturally someone recreated the entire thing with cats. The shot compositions, the dramatic pauses, the frenzied movement—all of it, executed with actual house cats who clearly had no idea what was happening. It’s the most specifically funny thing I’ve seen this month, and I’m aware that qualifies me for some kind of nerd badge. But there it is. The video exists, it’s beautiful, and if you don’t already watch the show, this will not make it make sense. That’s fine. Watch it anyway.