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 confronts 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. 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 Banaya’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. 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!
Bananya finally got a snack! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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Yeah, tehre’s a superhero in this one. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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Wheee! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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And now there’s a murder mystery. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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This is getting wild. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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Bananya likes curry? (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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Snack generation is the best kind of magic. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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!!!! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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Yes, their world also has dog/banana hybrids!
The banawoofs. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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The epic war begins. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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Okay, so it’s a cute war. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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Hey, this cat’s not a banana. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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Wait, what? (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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I did not see this twist coming. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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Oh no! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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Bananya-man is here! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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Things have never been this dire! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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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.
It’s a bananya party! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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And now they’re all friends. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
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This is a good wish. (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
And that’s Bananya: Around the World! Although we got no 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, superheroes, 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 couple of examples: Santa is also a bananya, Wastern 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, it kept me guessing. The inclusion of the Banawoofs was a surprising and clever idea. I liked the Banana-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 show played with viewer expectations to keep you guessing. There were many moments where things turn 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. Baby Sweet was trying to harvest their cute energy and his invasion was thwarted by the irresistible charms of Bananya. Bananya’s innate cuteness solved all 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 station on the final episode. Many of Bananya’s friends show up in cameo appearances. King Bananya is helped across the street, Daddy Bananya and Tabby Bananya are in New Banana City. Someone that sure looks a lot like Bananyako shows up. And when Pallas’s Cat is creeping on them on Christmas, the one Bananya greets is Droopy-eared Bananya! 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.
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. 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, and always check your bananas for tails!
The end! (Credit: Kyō Yatate. Studio: Gathering)
