And Finally...

We recently took a look at a trio of calendars from Studio Ghibli. They’re all delightful creations for fans of the acclaimed animation house, but I know there are at least some people whose reaction is “Yeah, they’re nice and all, but I’m not really that big an anime fan. I’m more into cats…and specifically I’m more into cat testicles.”

And hey, no problem, we’ve got you covered, in an uncovered way, on that front too!

Preorders are currently open for the 2025 edition of the Nyantama Calendar. As always, I feel it’s my duty to explain the unusual linguistics involved. In Japanese, nyan is an onomatopoeia for a cat meowing, and by extension can be used to refer to cats themselves. Tama, meanwhile, means “orb” or “orbs” (Japanese doesn’t distinguish between singular and plural nouns), which is also a slang word for “testicles.”

So yes, the Nyantama Calendar is a calendar with pictures prominently presenting cat balls. But how did calendar maker Hagoromo come up with this idea? It all goes back to Nikkan Gendai, a long-running gossip tabloid magazine. Once a year, Nikkan Gendai does a gag issue that’s all about cats and includes a nyantama photo collection. Reader surveys later revealed that the nyantama section was one of their favorite parts, and that positive reaction ispired the creaiton of the calendar.

“Please feel soothed by the powered-up cat testicles,” says Hagoromo in the announcement that promises somehow-improved cat nuts compared to the previous iterations of the calendar, which has been published since at least 2022.