the desert dehydrated, Nyata digs and finds an elephant made of water, which cools them off and travels with them, though the elephant eventually evaporates from the heat. God accidentally stops the flow of time and disrupts space, and the cats play with the time-frozen scenes. Father Time turns time back on, shooting it forward and reversing it, showing various scenes of random events either rapidly going forth in time or back. Eventually the cats find themselves back on their boat in the ocean. After dusk, they drift into a shallow marsh filled with tin sculptures of plants and mechanical animals. There they chance upon the flower they were seeking. Nyata places the flower on Nyaako's face, which restores her to normal. Together, they go back home. The entire family of cats are gathered in their house leisurely watching TV. Nyata leaves them to visit the toilet, and while he is gone, the other family members disappear one by one into thin air. The show on the TV also disappears, leaving only a flashing screen behind. Nyata returns to find everyone gone. Outside the nearby lamppost extinguishes, leaving the house in darkness. The film also "turns off", leaving behind a flashing screen of static. Background The characters of Nyaako and Nyata first appeared in the June 1990 issue of the monthly manga magazine Garo. They also appeared in a series of 27 two-minute television episodes, collectively titled . The series appeared in 1999 as a segment on TV Asahi's . Nekojiru (the artist) was born on January 19, 1967, and died by suicide on May 10, 1998. Her actual name was . Awards Cat Soup won an Excellence Prize (Animation Division) at the 2001 Japan Media Arts Festival, the "Best Short Film" award at the 2001 Fantasia Festival and the Silver Award for Animation 2003 New York Exposition of Short Film and Video. References External links via Internet Archive Cat Soup reviewed by Beyond Hollywood 2001 anime films Adventure anime and manga Central Park Media Comedy anime and manga Anime short films 2000s animated short films J.C.Staff Japanese comedy films Japanese adventure films 2000s adventure comedy films Animated comedy films Animated adventure films Fictional cats Japanese black comedy films