Cute High Earth Defense Club Hi-CARA!

In a Taisho-era high school bathhouse dormitory, a club of five guys who'd rather do absolutely nothing lives up to that ambition perfectly. Then a talking Pallas's cat from the future shows up in their bathtub, tells them Earth is about to be destroyed, and hands them transformation powers based on "feline science." Now they're the Haikara Romantic Group, defending the planet whether they feel like it or not. Meanwhile, a rival trio called the Bankara New Elite Squad has plans to conquer the world, because of course they do. This is the latest entry in the Cute High Earth Defense Club franchise, and if you've seen the original Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, you know exactly what you're getting: a straight-faced parody of magical girl shows with an all-male cast doing sparkly transformation sequences completely without irony. The Taisho-era setting gives it a fresh coat of paint though — think historical drama aesthetics colliding with absurd supernatural comedy. If you liked Magical Girl Ore or Is This a Zombie?, this hits a similar nerve of genre parody that commits to the bit hard enough to actually work. The tone stays comedic and low-stakes, carried by the group dynamic between the five leads — Unzen, Sukayu, Unohana, Oshamanbe, and Aso — who treat saving the world with roughly the same enthusiasm as attending morning classes. Studio Deen keeps things breezy across 12 episodes, and the historical parody angle means this one stands on its own even if you're new to the franchise.