SoraRabbit Short Hop 029: The Triumphant Return of Bananya!
The time has finally come for more Bananya! For those of you who don’t recall or haven’t been around the SoraRabbit Hole long enough, Bananya is the main reason why I seek out cute, feel-good wholesome stuff to share with you all. See, Bananya is a cat who is also a banana and is completely adorable. I have done two previous Short Hops about the first two seasons. You can find those here:
Title. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Bananya: Around the World premiered on Crunchyroll in 2024 and consisted of 13 episodes. As with the other seasons, the episodes are super short, only three minutes each. So you can binge the entire season in less than an hour. Which I totally did. (Well, it took me significantly longer due to making screenshots and taking notes.) Although I’ve been following Bananya on social media and impatiently awaiting this new season, somehow I missed that it dropped in October, so didn’t notice it was out until near the end of January.
If you remember, at the end of the second season we learned it was actually not so much a continuation as a prequel. Bananya, who along with being a cat and a banana, was also revealed to be an alien. At the end of his epic adventures, he ended up in the kitchen meeting the cast from the first season, looping us back around and showing how he ended up on Earth. (And also how he developed his fetish for being dipped in chocolate.) It also ended with a bit of a cliffhanger as Droopy-eared Bananya peeked in through the kitchen window, teasing that the friends would be reunited.
Now, you may expect Season 3 to pick up from there and continue Bananya’s adventures from the end of Season 1. We would expect Bananya and Droopy-eared Bananya to be reunited, find the source of the mysterious meowteors and make their way back to their cat-shaped planet with their new friends. Well, if you had any of these expectations, you would be completely wrong. Bananya is unconcerned with such petty things as continuity and making sense in a chronological fashion. No, Bananya Season 3 is a self-contained reboot starting off on a completely different planet from Season 2. Got it? Let’s check it out then!
A new friend! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
As the show begins, a mysterious narrator observes a ball of energy approaching a blue planet. The planet is clearly not Earth, and it’s not the cat-shaped planet from Season 2. The ball of energy floats along and hovers near a bunch of bananas. One of them opens and reveals our hero, Bananya. The ball of energy is shocked, commenting on how surprising that was. It then touches Bananya and takes the form of a cute little kitten that the narrator names Baby Sweet.
ZAP! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
A mysterious cat watches them threateningly from the shadows. Suddenly Baby Sweet touches Bananya and teleports them to a beach.
There are so many new bananyas in this season. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
The two are on a tropical island where they meet a surfer named Eternal Summer Bananya. They all have fun, surfing, diving, playing volleyball. Then there’s a sudden shark attack! But this turns out to be Shark Bananya, another new friend. They don’t make it clear if he’s actually a triple hybrid— cat, banana, and shark, or if his peel is just painted to look like a shark, but it’s probably the latter. (Adding in triple hybrids would just be insane.) As the day ends, Baby Sweet teleports the two of them to a desert.
Bananya shoot out? (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Here they meet the Rowdy Bananyas, a group of cowboy ruffians. They’re saved by Western Bananya, the heroic and rugged cowboy. Bananya is dazzled, but then Sherriff Bananya appears and a gunfight breaks out. Or, that’s what the narrator thinks. It turns out even the violence in Bananya’s world is cute, and it’s actually a hat-tossing competition. Western Bananya wins and there is an uneasy truce between the groups.
Oooo, spoooky. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
They next warp to a haunted house, where they get scared and run from several horror-themed bananyas: a skeleton, mummy, werewolf, witch, the rock star/vampires from season 2, Frankenstein’s Monsters (8 of them for some reason), and the giant cat from the first episode in a bananya suit.
Bananya finally got a snack! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Baby Sweet appears in a pumpkin costume and hands out candy, including a big lollipop to Bananya. It turns out they were all just trick-or-treaters looking for candy. Baby Sweet teleports them to a city on a train track where they’re about to get run over!
Yeah, there’s a superhero in this one. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Before they get creamed by the train, they’re saved by a flashy superhero Bananya-Man. He’s got super strength, flight, and a spiffy Super Sentai style suit.
Bananya-Man tries unsuccessfully to save New Bananya City from a meteorite, but it’s too big for him. Bananya sees a button on Baby Sweet’s peel and why wouldn’t you press it? The meteorite is blasted by a beam of energy and everyone is saved! Before they could shake Bananya-Man’s hand, Baby Sweet warps them to the house of Coach Bananya. We get a little flash of Bananya-Man removing his mask but can’t see his identity clearly. He seems to be furry, however…
Wheee! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Coach Bananya wants to train Bananya. Bananya is dazzled by all the trophies the Coach has and agrees. He turns out to be accidentally good at all sports, bumbling his way through each attempt. He faces the champions of tennis, basketball, and skateboarding but as soon as he starts, Baby Sweet teleports them away. At this point it’s not clear if she has any control over the teleportation, as they seem to happen a set amount of time after they’ve been in each area. Around this time I did notice that the three little toe-beans on her bib light up, one after another and when all three are lit, they teleport.
Anyway, this time they’re warped to a train where they must solve a murder mystery. No, seriously.
It impossible to know what to expect with this show. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Bananya and Baby Sweet appear next to an extremely and seriously dead bananya lying in a pool of chocolate in the kitchen of the train. Various bananya passengers are gathered as suspects. One of which is our Bananya since he was found next to the body with chocolate on his paw. Damning evidence, indeed.
This is getting wild. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Detective Bananya appears to solve the horrendous crime. But before he can accuse anyone, the victim shows up, alive and well. (You knew he couldn’t really be dead… this show is too wholesome for that. I was surprised they even implied it!) The gentleman was making a snack when Bananya and Baby Sweet materialized above him, knocking him out. Oops.
Bananya likes curry? (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
The adorable duo are now on a snowy mountaintop where Bananya tries snowboarding and immediately gets lost. Looking for him, Baby Sweet approaches several other bananyas, one of which is the large threatening-looking cat in a bananya suit that is somehow following them around. As she searches, the narrator reminds her of all the adventures they had together— some of which never actually happened. It turns out the whole time Bananya was just in the ski lodge eating curry.
Snack Apparation is the best kind of magic. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
They next teleport to Bananya Hogwarts and I’m not even joking about that. They interrupt a young unnamed wizard bananya (Harry Bananya?) who was trying to summon a dragon like his friends. He instead summons a dragon-shaped cookie. Baby Sweet tries to help, but ends up summoning the giant angry cat. Bananya himself just munches on the dragon cookie and is delighted when the boy summons more snacks for them. Everyone thinks this is pretty cool and they all have a dessert party.
So I guess the lesson is to value your own strengths rather than try to be like everyone else. And eat lots of sweets. Valuable life lessons.
!!!! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
They teleport back to what looks like the jungle where they started their adventures. But it’s a different jungle, one populated by banawoofs!
Yes, their world also has dog/banana hybrids! Will wonders never cease?
The banawoofs. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Banawoof is cheerful and friendly. At first Bananya is confused and a little stand-offish, but they quickly become friends. Banawoof brings them to meet his people, who are all different breeds of dog/bananas. The cats and dogs can’t communicate, but they have fun and that’s what matters. As the narrator wishes that they could understand each other, there’s a shooting star so his wish comes true. Bananya can now woof and Banawoof can nyan. (For those unversed in anime-speak, “nyan” is the sound cats make.)
The epic war begins. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
They teleport suddenly into the midst of a Samurai Bananya war. The banana army is locked in mortal battle with the kitty army. The warriors of the banana faction instantly make Bananya their general.
Okay, so it’s a cute war. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
But this is Bananya, so of course even war turns out super cute. The combat consists of hitting each other with fluffy tassels that look like cat toys. Whoever pops the balloon on their opponent’s helmet gets a point.
The giant cat appears and scares them all as he barrels towards Bananya, looking vicious. He turns the tides for the kitty army but before he can reach Bananya and Baby Sweet, they teleport again.
Hey, this cat’s not a banana. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
This time we don’t see where they go right away. Instead we get an episode filling in the mysterious cat’s backstory. It turns out he’s not actually a villain at all. He’s a bananya cosplayer! He admired Bananya and his friends from afar but was worried they wouldn’t like him since he’s a full cat, not half cat and half fruit like them. He made a suit to disguise himself as a bananya but lost his nerve and couldn’t approach them. It was Christmas and Santa Bananya gave him a special watch as a gift. The watch allowed him to transform into the superhero Bananya-Man. This allowed him to fly around, following Bananya and Baby Sweet. He appears to be jealous that Baby Sweet is taking up all of Bananya’s attention. Or does he realize something we haven’t?
Wait, what? (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
After all this backstory, we finally see that Bananya and Baby Sweet ended up on a spaceship, orbiting the blue planet. The cat-shaped planet from Season 2 is also nearby. This is where the big shock happens that blows everything we thought we knew out of the water. Baby Sweet talks, saying the planet is doomed.
I did not see this twist coming. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
By travelling around with Bananya, she’s been absorbing “cute energy” to use in the massive invasion planned by her people. And now it’s time to take Bananya’s Kawaii Energy straight from the source!
I should probably note here that Baby Sweet talks with a male voice but the narrator previously referred to her by female pronouns. That could be just the narrator being fooled by the dastardly alien’s tricks, but who knows. Maybe the aliens just have masculine voices. Whatever it is, it was jarring and hilarious hearing such a serious deep voice come from the round little kitten.
Oh no! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Baby Sweet starts absorbing Bananya’s energy, but Bananya-Man has tracked them down somehow. (Maybe he has cuteness radar?)
Bananya-man is here! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Bananya-Man heroically takes the blast, which destroys his suit.
Things have never been this dire! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Baby Sweet tells him he’s too late. Once a bananya’s Kawaii Energy is taken away, they’ll stop being cute. But then the alien discovers that Bananya is still cute. That means there is no limit to his cuteness! (I could have told her that.)
This is also the point where we learn that the big cat is a Pallas’s cat, which is not something I was aware of before now. A Pallas’s cat is a small wild cat that lives mainly in Central Asia, Mongolia, and Tibet, along with other locales. They are usually solitary animals, so that makes this one special that he likes Bananya. I learned stuff from the adorable kitty-fruit show!
It’s a bananya party! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
We cut back to the planet’s surface. The Pallas’s Cat is now friends with Bananya. All the new colorful bananyas we met over the course of the season— along with Banawoof— are all having a gathering. Baby Sweet is overwhelmed by love for all bananyas. She decides to take all the stolen Kawaii Energy back to her planet to make it overflow with cuteness too.
And now they’re all friends. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
The invasion has been stopped, everyone is friends, bananyas and banawoofs live in peace. A happy ending for all!
This is a good wish. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
And that’s Bananya: Around the World! Although we got no definite plot connections to the first two seasons, Bananya was still the same adorable and curious character. His universe expanded to include non-banana cats, banana dogs, alien balls of energy, a superhero, and even a “murder” mystery. Bananya— along with all of us— met lots of new friends and had more fun adventures.
I often think of Bananya too. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Thoughts: So, obviously, I loved this season and had a blast watching it. As short as it is, every episode felt full and had lots of little details that I picked up on in my second viewing. (A few examples: Santa is also a bananya, Surfer Bananya’s peel has print like beach shorts, Western Bananya’s peel is stitched together with rawhide.) At first I had some doubts… it seemed like unconnected stories serving as excuses to introduce new bananyas. But as it went on and the mystery of the Pallas’s Cat continued, I saw a plot coming together. The inclusion of the banawoofs was a surprising and clever idea. I liked the Bananya-Man design and the idea of an entire world populated by bananyas is a good one.
The plot twist at the end showing that the Pallas’s Cat wasn’t actually the villain and Baby Sweet was a scheming energy-stealing alien took me completely by surprise. That was a great twist. The whole season continually subverted viewer expectations to keep you guessing. There were many moments where things turned dire but it all turns out to be misunderstandings for mild and ordinary things. The shark was another bananya. The shootout in the West was a hat-tossing competition. The horde of monsters were trick-or-treaters. The war was basically a game. The murder mystery was just a guy getting knocked out. (All he wanted was some chocolate-covered bread!) And, of course, the giant scary cat was a shy new friend.
My favorite part of this series was that the entire plot hinged on Bananya’s cuteness. It actually ended up saving the world. Baby Sweet was trying to harvest their Kawaii Energy and his invasion was thwarted by the irresistible charms of Bananya. Bananya’s innate cuteness solved all of their problems, turned enemies into friends, and brought their big world closer together. It was an incredible resolution.
Eeeee! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
So, as mentioned earlier, this isn’t necessarily a continuation of Bananya, since the cliffhanger from Season 2 was not resolved and they’re no longer on Earth. However, this wouldn’t be a SoraRabbit post if I didn’t overthink things!
On my second viewing of this season I found some links and developed a theory. The cat-shaped planet from Season 2 can be seen from the space ship on the final episode. Many of Bananya’s friends from Seasons 1 and 2 show up in cameo appearances. King Bananya is helped across the street, Daddy Bananya and Tabby Bananya are in New Bananya City. Someone that sure looks a lot like Bananyako shows up. And when Pallas’s Cat is creeping on them at Christmas, the one Bananya greets is Droopy-eared Bananya! So characters from both seasons live on the blue planet. This brings us to my theory.
Remember that Season 2 is a prequel to Season 1. At the end of Season 2 Bananya visits Earth on a rocket and Droopy-eared Bananya follows him. She peeks in through the kitchen window as he meets all his friends who he has the Season 1 adventures with. I suspect at some point they all get into her rocket and instead of going back to the cat-shaped planet, they settle on the blue planet next to it and assimilate into bananya society there. This is strictly head-canon, but I’m pretty sure I’m right.
Yes. Absolutely yes. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Questions of continuity aside, Bananya: Around the World was a lot of fun. The concept was fresh, the bananyas and their world was vibrant and cute, and the brief run time worked in the show’s favor, making it a quick and enjoyable watch that didn’t overstay its welcome or have to rely on a lot of padding to fill the minutes. This season was peak Bananya and I’m so grateful it exists. This show was fun and colorful, wholesome, sweet, and endearing. And the theme song is entirely too catchy. I’ve been singing it for days. (“Ba-ba-bananya, ba-ba-bananya! Nyan!”)
Let’s all do the Bananya dance! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
Thank you so much for joining me as I gushed about the newest season of Bananya. This show really is close to my heart and makes me happy to watch and talk about. In this increasingly dark and disturbing world we need these sorts of breaths of fresh air… these little interludes where we can just shut off our brains and revel in cuteness. The wholesome content is the sugar added to our coffee, the dessert after a good meal, the treat we allow ourselves after a long, trying day, the comfort food when we most need a pick-me-up. I love Bananya and I hope we get more of it. Even if we don’t, we at least have 39 mini-episodes to rewatch when times get dark and our moods need a lift.
I know this was a bit longer than my usual Short Hop, but I was just so excited to see more Bananya and wanted to take a little more time to talk about it in detail. I appreciate you all reading and I hope you enjoyed our foray into cuteness. Until next time, enjoy these rays of sunshine, share your Kawaii Energy, make new friends wherever you go, and always check your bananas for tails!
The end! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
