Nineties animated classic Samurai Pizza Cats is back—this time in a new middle-grade manga adaptation from Mad Cave Studios imprint Nakama Press in partnership with Tatsunoko Production. Written by Fred Kennedy, illustrated by Lorenzo Di Santo, and lettered by Charles Pritchett, the series kicks off in spring 2026 with a new adventure for Tokyo’s cyber-feline defenders.
Here’s the synopsis for Samurai Pizza Cats, Vol. 1:
Welcome back to Little Tokyo, pizza lovers! And what a sizzling situation you’ve walked into! The Big Cheese is up to his stinky shenanigans again! This time, he’s using fish sticks to lull our fair city into a crispified, fish-laden catastrophe! And that’s just the first couple of pages… and let me tell you, when this kitten starts purring, there’s no telling where it’ll wind up! Rock concerts, pizza sauce, reality TV, evil spirits, hammocks, mecha-spiders, and even… Vikings! You read that right, buck-o, VIKINGS!!! So, toss on your tennis shoes and slap on a sweatband because you’re in for a wild ride with this one! Also… be sure to stretch; I don’t want you blowing out your hammies!
The first 200-page volume will feature cover art by Antonio Antro, seen below.
“My very first conversation with Mad Cave was about [Samurai Pizza Cats],” said Kennedy. “I was pitching another project and mentioned it was a bit like Samurai Pizza Cats. It caused a stir. Like, they gave me a strange look and brought Chas over, who began asking me about my familiarity with the IP…I explained that Samurai Pizza Cats was a huge show in Canada, and I watched it all the time. I didn’t realize they were looking for the right writer for a Tatsunoko/Nakama Press relaunch of the greatest pizza-related feline-focused franchise of all time!
“When the prospect of my being involved with the comic became a real possibility, I rewatched the whole series. I would sit in the basement, chewing through the episodes with my kids, and we loved it. That was a cool moment—seeing a cartoon from my childhood resonate with my kids in the same way it did when I watched it 30 years ago!” he continued. “It was actually a bit intimidating when I began putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard), but I drew from the aspects I always loved, the off-the-wall humour, the Narrator chirping the cast and breaking the fourth wall, and I even found a way of incorporating my own cats!”
In addition to the Samurai Pizza Cats manga launching next spring, there’s also a video game in development from Blast Zero and Red Dunes Games. It seems the animated series (キャッ党忍伝てやんでえ in Japanese, pronounced Kyatto Ninden Teyandee) is having a huge renaissance 35 years after its original release.
Samurai Pizza Cats, Vol. 1 will be available everywhere books are sold on April 7, 2026. Pre-orders are available now.
