The Two Cats

The Two Cats is a webseries/comic that is currently being created by Expi. It can be found on Wattpad and the first chapter was published on September 25, 2018.

Premise
The Two Cats takes place in the mid to late 2020's, focusing on the lives of Expi and Mariko, two cats living their lives in Anibi.

Characters
Expi - A female cat that likes to be creative by drawing and writing, and who tries to give everyone an equal chance, however tends to get anxious about the past after living in a disjointed family.

Mariko - A gamer who looks for opportunities for adventure in her life to give her excitement after being put out of a job. She has a good heart, but in some cases can also feel bad for things that may seem small and also tends to get carried away in some cases.

Season 1

 * 1) The Beginning
 * 2) The Journal
 * 3) Moving Out
 * 4) The Recycler
 * 5) It's Popular, So It Sucks!
 * 6) Stop Thief!
 * 7) Unhealthy Competition
 * 8) Expi's New Friend
 * 9) Planes at the Harbor
 * 10) Mariko the Assistant
 * 11) The Bridge
 * 12) Expi Runs Away

Season 2

 * 1) Hello, Old Frenemy
 * 2) A Couple of Cats
 * 3) Home of Phobia
 * 4) A Smooth Transition
 * 5) Where the Moth Slowly Grows
 * 6) Christmas with the Cats
 * 7) Dear Old Dad
 * 8) Mariko the Fequine
 * 9) Expi vs Anxiety
 * 10) Expi, Analysis
 * 11) Split in Two
 * 12) Just Say No!
 * 13) Never Meet Your Heroes
 * 14) Mariko's Birdie

Season 3

 * 1) Bad Luck Bo (upcoming)

History and Creation
Around 2011, ExpitheCat begin to conceptualize an idea of her own cartoon series starring anthropomorphic animal characters. This largely came as a result of ExpitheCat becoming more invested in the animation and cartoon industry which can be pinned on due to the cancellation of Chowder in 2010 - one of ExpitheCat’s favorite cartoons as a kid. She initially came up with two characters named Tomcat and Pup, and idealized a more slice-of-life comedy series akin to Chowder itself as well as shows like The Amazing World of Gumball. The series would’ve starred the aforementioned characters and focus on their daily lives as 10 year olds going through school and being around their families. Some ideas for stories came about, however they were never disclosed to anyone. Due to ExpitheCat’s young age and lack of animation knowledge, this series never really surfaced outside of concepts in ExpitheCat’s mind, however some drawings of the characters were created both in Microsoft Paint and in journals.

Towards the beginning of 2012, ExpitheCat’s ideas for a cartoon series took on a more adventurous and “serial” approach with slice-of-life elements similar to that of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or the 1993 Saturday morning Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon. The characters Tomcat and Pup remained, however the concept also focused on them as well as a group of other animal characters (all living together) battling a villain. Again, these concepts were never disclosed to anyone else, and ultimately never surfaced for similar reasons as ExpitheCat’s 2011 series concepts.

ExpitheCat’s ideas for a cartoon series in general became put on the back burner from the end of 2012 through 2013. Around this time, ExpitheCat became more interested in game development and creating concepts for her own video games, leading to ideas for a cartoon series to become dormant and not built upon. However, in 2014, ExpitheCat began exploring ideas for her own TV series once again - around the time she conceptualized her own Thomas and Friends fan series. Towards the middle of 2015, she got an idea for a cartoon series similar to that of her 2012 concepts with a cast of four characters - including Tomcat and Pup. These concepts continue to draw inspiration from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in addition to Steven Universe and Undertale. After obtaining an extra notebook being offered by a school teacher, she wrote her first “scripts” of a conceptualized cartoon series. She later intended to rewrite these scripts and post them online, hinting at it in a post on the World of Equestria/Scarlet’s Web forum site after the launch of their blog feature. She had planned to start the series around the time she went back to school in 2016, however it was announced by the creators that the forum site would be shut down at the end of July that year, once again keeping these ideas from being shared. Prior to this, however, ExpitheCat changed her profile to her “Tomcat” character hinting at the creation of the series.

With the idea of a series being put into hiatus, ExpitheCat continued to revise upon her ideas and concepts. The first mention of “Anibi” was revealed around July 2016, when ExpitheCat created a fictional game used in role plays titled “Rescue of Anibi,” with the character of Tomcat being on the cover. In September 2016, ExpitheCat created the character of Expi - due to ExpitheCat wanting a female character that she felt she could relate to more (with ExpitheCat still identifying as male at the time), in addition to not being happy with Tomcat’s design and wanting something more unique and original. In February 2017, ExpitheCat revealed her intentions to create a new series which she intended to call either “Rescue of Anibi or “Town of Anibi.” Later that month, she created Mariko, the second of her new cast, who would be involved in a relationship with Expi to add representation of the LGBTQ+ community. Following this, she created a few more characters - Phillip (who’s design and personality was largely derived from Pup), Edison, and Gyeogom - the first 2 being the rest of the main protagonists while the last being the main villain of the series. Around this time, ExpitheCat visited the state of Ohio where she was born, which became the main influence for the setting of Anibi.

ExpitheCat wrote the first draft of the first chapter around spring of 2017, which she tried to revise during the summer months. However, she found herself unhappy with how it was going, and after returning to school for the year, she revealed that she was rethinking the direction of the series and considering “dropping” the adventure elements to focus on more slice-of-life storytelling. Later on, ExpitheCat revealed a new name and logo for the series, which she now called “The Two Cats.” This new take on the series became closer to it’s current form - having a greater emphasis on slice-of-life stories themed around LGBTQ+ topics, depression/anxiety and general “rust belt” life, and was overall more “grounded” within it’s setting. The characters of Edison, Phillip, and Gyeogom were dropped (albeit the former 2 are planned to later appear) and the series focused entirely on Expi and Mariko. ExpitheCat rewrote the first chapter and published it around March 2018, albeit pulled it after once again rethinking the series’ lore and characters’ backstories. Finally, the current form of The Two Cats started with The Beginning, published on September 25, 2018.

Despite not having a regular intended release schedule, ExpitheCat conceptualized The Two Cats within multiple “seasons” - grouping consecutive chapters within select periods of time that shared similar themes and qualities. The first season lasted from September 25, 2018 to March 23, 2020, ending with Expi Runs Away. The first season intended to focus on introducing their characters and establishing their personalities and backstories (particularly focusing on how Expi and Mariko met in the case of the latter). The second season, starting with Hello, Old Frenemy on May 29, 2020 and ending with Mariko's Birdie on August 9, 2021 intended to widen the overall “scope” of the series - building upon Expi and Mariko’s personalities and backstories, putting a bigger emphasis on their personal issues (such as the discrimination they face and Expi's anxiety), while also having them interact with characters that were previously established, alongside some new characters.

Between the second and third seasons of The Two Cats, ExpitheCat took some time to refine the art style of her characters - dropping the black outlines from the characters and environments to create a more 'rigged animation' style, going along with plans to animate the characters with Toon Boom Harmony. In addition, ExpitheCat announced desire to branch out 'The Two Cats' in new formats - particularly with comics after publishing the first 'The Two Cats' comic on March 15, 2021.

The third season was teased on October 6, 2021, and the first chapter of which, Bad Luck Bo, was announced on October 11, 2021.