Ninja Cats - 猫の忍者 - [Urban Legend.]

Ninja Cats - [Urban Legend | Yokai] - aka: "猫の忍者",“猫忍"  Neko-Ninjas", Neko Shinobi” 

• About this Yokai: Aggressive Ninja Cats! - Described by the witness as a pair of Bipedal Russian Blue cats standing on their hind-legs, wearing ragged black clothing and wielding a jagged piece of metal like a sword. These cats subsequently stalked, multiplied in numbers and terrorized the witness for about a week!!!

• History & Encounter: This story originates from series of posts shared anonymously to the 2chan occult forums way back in Mid-March of 2008, it was part of a thread where several people shared their ‘true strange experiences’ in a thread that started about 'how to protect yourself from supernatural forces.' - ([You can find the original threads in Japanese archived here: [Part 1] - [Part 2] - [Part 3] The poster/witness is identified in the thread by their ID:”1DrR4EdEO” starting with his first post at #0121.]) - below I've done my best to paraphrase the story and the thread in a digestible manner: 

To start, the witness (here-after referred to as ‘OP’) who did not give a name but described themselves as a 26 year old 'company worker' who likes sports, from Saitama prefecture, begins their story with a rather iconic opening: 

“Something strange has been happening to me for about a week now, just hear me out for a second…
First off, I’m not delusional, schizophrenic, sick or anything. I’m dead serious. Don’t laugh!

 

 

 Recently I’ve been targeted by ninja cats...”

About a week before posting in the thread, at around midnight, OP was jogging as part of their weekly exercise routine in a park in Sugito City, Saitama prefecture somewhere close to the Sugito-Takanodai station. They were taking a break to sit on the slide and eat a snack (Delicious creamy canned Corned-Potato Soup.) when they heard an odd rustling sound in the distance.

A small figure, roughly child sized, came rushing out of the bushes and stopped at the centre of the park. Then a second small figure ran in from the opposite direction. OP thought the figures were children at first but it was too late at night, and they were too small to be human, something about their movements didn't feel quite right. The two figures appeared to have a brief discussion until they noticed OP watching them. Then the pair started running towards them. As they got closer, OP was able to get a better look at them in the moonlight. They were cats somehow running on two legs, wearing black clothes like a ninja and wielding something in their paws. 

Out of nowhere, one of the cats jumped up onto the slide, OP finally realized what the object it was holding was. It was a jagged sword that the cat was pointing towards them! When OP realized they were being attacked they were so panicked that every seemed to be in slow motion and they even admitted to peeing themselves. They slid down the slide to escape but the other cat was at the bottom waiting for them with yet another jagged sword! As OP reached the bottom they kicked the ground, kicking dust into the cat’s eyes as they frantically made their escape! They sprinted home so fast that they felt they might’ve broken a world record. Then the  locked the door, drew the curtains, and bawled in terror.

When they eventually calmed down they convinced themselves that it must have just been an illusion or a dream. A couple of days passed and nothing strange happened, so they convinced themselves that it MUST have just been that…

Until about three nights later…

It was around 8:00PM when OP was on their way home from work when they noticed a few normal cats lounging around their neighbourhood. Being a cat person, OP absentmindedly forgot about the encounter in the park and tried to pet one of the cats, but it scratched at them and hissed viciously. OP could forgive it because it was cute… But then they looked around and felt an eerie sensation... At least thirty cats had appeared out of nowhere! Suddenly recalling what happened a few days prior, OP stomped about to try and scare them off and ran home immediately.

That night, OP drew a bath to calm themselves & went to bed early at about 11:00PM. At about 2:10 AM OP woke up to a strange rustling sound. When they peeked out of their window they saw at least 6 ninja cats prowling around their house! The cat’s were banging on OP’s windows and aggressively scratching the shudders & glass, as though where trying to get inside. The number of cats increased as the night went on. OP hid under their futon in terror. 

By morning the cats were gone and OP went to work like usual. But that night- and every night after that- from about 2:00AM until 4:00AM the cats returned to circle the house and bang at the windows.

Some commentators on the thread gave suggestions to OP such as using citrus spray wherever cats had appeared because cats hate the smell. others compared the Ninja-Cats to the movie “Cats vs Dogs” [2001] whilst others questioned if he had read ’Yokineko Yawa: Shigeru Mizuki's Cat Manga Short Stories” [1996] which also contains a story about “Cat-Shinobi”. OP responded to these accusations saying that their cat ninjas were ‘different’ than those.

Of course there were commentators who wanted photo evidence of some kind but the ninja cats where too quick (and likely dangerous) to photograph. It seems that at one point OP did manage to share a picture; but unfortunately these where lost with the termination of 2chan.

OP’s final post on the subject gave the approximate location of the park where the ninja cats were first sighted then he stopped posting because they had business to attend to for the weekend. Then the thread reached its 1000-post cap and OP seemingly never posted again. Later threads on the subject speculated that OP had pneumonia or joked that the ninja cats got ‘em! Some of those posting in the subsequent threads, investigated the location of the alleged first sighting but of course, no ninja cats were found. And so most accused OP of fishing for attention. 

Later, people copy/pasted the story to other threads and the opening lines became something of a meme. People shared photos, videos, and illustrations of what they thought the ninja cats might've looked like. (unfortunately these where also  Threads continued to pop-up though until May when the ‘fad’ of ninja cats died off.

• Theories & Folkloric parallels: It remains unclear as to why the witness was targeted by these supposed ninja cats. Perhaps he overheard something he shouldn’t have? It seems to me like he interrupted something of a covert mission?

As a Folklorist; This encounter of course also brings to mind various folktales of Bake-Neko, a staple yokai across Japanese folklore. Some Bakeneko where said to warn their masters not wander into areas where cats gather. It feels as if the cats targeted them for possibly hearing something he shouldn’t have or as if OP found one of these fabled ‘gathering points.’ However, that’s just a theory on the whimsical side. 

In reality, seeing as this story originates from the internet (specifically 2chan, where posters are known to joke around and exaggerate the truth), it’s more far more likely that OP was just spinning yarns, joking around or trolling. (Notably, the OP adds a “w” at the end of almost every sentence throughout their posts. “W” is used as a short hand for laughter on the Japanese-net similar to the English “lol  It’s unclear how we’re supposed to take this but it does give the impression that OP is constantly giggling. Which would be strange for someone who started their story by asking people to take them seriously. Perhaps it’s something of a nervous laugh?

I digress, regardless of its validity; its a fun story. - Japan loves their cats (as does the rest of the internet) and if a cat can be a station master, or have their own cat island, then one might like to imagine that a secret clan of ninja cats is possible too, however absurd it might sound. Purr-haps someday someone somewhere else will be attacked by these ninja cats… 

(Incidentally, did you know that February 22nd is both Cat Day and Ninja Day? Nyan-nyan-Nin-Nin!) 

• Pop-Culture, etc: Much more recently, this story, along with a few other “2chan greats” was adapted into its own dedicated episode in the anime "OtherSide Picnic." related to that, the thread was earliest covered in English by Tara a Devlin in her Kowabana podcast back in 2021, This story has also seen some love in various modern urban legend books & bestiarys as of 2024 - if you can read japanese, You can even play through the scenario in a tabletop rpg (modified version of call of cuthulu!)

[Sticker Artwork & writing by @SamKalensky, part of my Urban legends & Yokai series of stickers! Big thanks to my editor @Cattype, Follow and support us for many more!]