Nyako is an anthropomorphic cat character created by Chiyomi Hashiguchi under the pen name Nekojiru. She debuted in the June 1990 issue of *Garo* magazine. She serves as the older sister to her brother Nyatta within stories featuring childlike aesthetics sharply contrasted by themes of cruelty and existential darkness.

Her narratives unfold in a world where all beings possess consciousness yet engage in relentless violence, predation, and consumption. This setting frames her interactions, often with Nyatta, reflecting a surreal and brutal exploration of life and death.

In the animated series *Nekojiru Gekijō*, Nyako retains her role as Nyatta's sister, navigating episodic scenarios that maintain the manga's tonal contrasts of whimsy and visceral conflict across 27 short episodes.

Her narrative expands significantly in the OVA *Cat Soup* (*Nekojiru-sō*). After suffering a near-fatal illness and drowning in a bathtub, Nyatta intercepts her soul during transit to the afterlife with the psychopomp Jizō, causing her soul to split. Though revived, she exists in a detached, catatonic state with only half her soul restored. This event propels a journey where Nyatta guides her through surreal landscapes—a flood-ravaged world, a desert, and a mechanical marsh—in search of her missing soul fragment. Largely passive and minimally responsive, she is restored only when the flower containing her soul fragment is placed on her face.

Following her restoration, she returns home with Nyatta. In the concluding sequence, the entire family, including Nyako, vanishes inexplicably while watching television, leaving only a static-filled screen. The final imagery implies an ambiguous, possibly metaphysical dissolution of their reality.

Nyako's design remains consistent across media: an anthropomorphic cat-girl embodying the creator's signature blend of naive visual style and thematic depth, frequently confronting mortality and the macabre.