"I must.... take the challenge!"
— Rusty
SSS Warrior Cats (AKA Badasi Warriors) is a popular fan anime adaptation of the Warrior Cats series, released in several installments between 2009 and 2013. It follows the plot of Into The Wild, but also adds new plot elements to the story.
Like the original Warriors series, it follows Rusty, a kittypet bored with his simple life who ventures into the woods in search of adventure. Once there, he learns of the four feuding Warrior Clans who rule the forest, and is offered a spot in ThunderClan by it's leader Bluestar. Rusty accepts the offer, determined to prove to the skeptic warriors of ThunderClan that his kittypet heritage doesn't stop him from becoming a hero.
Three episodes of the series were created and can be watched here
on the official YouTube account, and the series' old Facebook page can be found here.
While the series is long dead, it has left a very big impact on the overall Warriors fandom. Many viewers became readers of the books and even started their own animation projects during The New '10s. To this day, the three episodes still have new fans watching and commenting on them while the animation is praised for still holding up very nicely.
This series provides examples of:
- Adaptational Attractiveness: The old cat Whitestorm and the scarred Tigerclaw become quite attractive cats.
- Adaptational Badass: While Whitestorm and Rusty were no slouches in the Warrior Cats novels, they're much more powerful in this version. Whitestorm is a wind-manipulating god, and Rusty is able to take him on without any battle training whatsoever.
- Adaptational Jerkass: During the fight with Rusty, Longtail is even more of a jerkass than in the original book. In the book, he simply tore off Rusty's collar. In the animation, Spottedleaf intervenes during the battle, but he smacks her out of the way. She is the Clan's medicine cat!
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Nearly every character has differences from their canon descriptions:
- Ravenpaw, who has green eyes in the books, has purple eyes in the animation.
- Longtail's description in the books isn't entirely clear: the only mentions of his main color are in Rising Storm where he's brown in one mention and silver in another, and aside from that he's just called a "pale tabby with black stripes". In the animation his base color is a pale yellowish-tan, though he retains his black tabby markings. This even influenced some official designs: while SSS Warriors wasn't the origin of "tan Longtail" (they'd taken inspiration from Allikatnya's Warriors of the Forest and asked her permission), it helped popularize it to the point that people assumed they had created it, and the official website and merchandise would later depict him this way.
- Tigerclaw is given a white belly like his son Hawkfrost has in the books.
- Redtail, Spottedleaf, and Dappletail are tortoiseshells in the books. In the animation, they are calicos. This may be due to the fact that calicos are called tortoiseshell-and-white in the UK, where the Erins are from.
- Lionheart is colored like an actual lion, as opposed to being a tabby.
- Graypaw lacks the darker gray stripe down his back, and has a darker gray tail and ear tips instead.
- Rusty/Firepaw is solid orange instead of a ginger tabby. This is most likely due to the cover of Into The Wild depicting him like this and because he is inconsistently implied to be solid.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- Rusty's journey to the Clan with Lionheart and Whitestorm is expanded, featuring a Secret Test of Character and an appearance from Bluestar.
- Rusty and Longtail's fight is made more dramatic. In particular, Rusty ends up tearing Longtail's ear off, whereas in the books he only gave him an Ear Notch. Also, Spottedleaf tries to stand up for Rusty only to be smacked away and criticized by Longtail.
- Age Lift: The grandpa-age Whitestorm is much younger in this adaptation.
- Animated Adaptation: Of the start of Into the Wild.
- Badass Normal: Rusty. He has no battle training, but he manages to fight Graypaw to a draw and take on a seasoned warrior who had wind-manipulating powers unassisted.
- Blowing a Raspberry: Spottedleaf does this at Graypaw.
- Blow You Away: Whitestorm has the power to control the wind and fly around in a tornado.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Thanks to his voice acting, Oakheart looks like he could be the Big Bad at first. Then Whitestorm pretends to be the Big Bad, but it's just a Secret Test of Character.
- Dramatic Collar Removal: Just like in the books.
- Dull Surprise: Some bad acting is understandable, what with being made by fans and all, but Spottedleaf's first voice actor just could not seem to emote.
- Ear Ache: Rusty rips Longtail's ear clean off during their fight in episode 3.
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Smudge has a lisp.
- Evil Laugh: Longtail pulls off a very impressive one.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Tigerclaw. So much.
- Eye Scream: Not in the series itself, but a short at the end of Episode 2 features a boy finding the Warrior Cats and getting his eye eaten.
- Faking the Dead: Lionheart pretends to have been killed by Whitestorm.
- Fan Animation: On the first Warrior Cats book.
- Fanime: Of the first Warriors book.
- Fish Eyes: Dustpaw does this in the background at one point.
- Flight: Whitestorm's wind powers give him the ability to fly around in a tornado.
- For the Evulz: Before meeting up with Rusty, Whitestorm randomly blows him around with wind just to screw with him.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Tigerclaw. Unlike any of the good characters, he has visible scarring across his muzzle. This could be to show what a brave, strong warrior he is, but the scars are made sinister by being drawn in bright red.
- Longest Prologue Ever: The introductory scenes last quite a while before we actually see the opening and are introduced to Rusty.
- The Mole: Whitestorm pretends to be one.
- Prehensile Tail: During Rusty's battle with Longtail, Longtail uses his tail to grab Rusty in midair.
- Secret Test of Character: Whitestorm pretends to be a traitor so that he can find out how Rusty reacts.
- Shout-Out:
- John, Ben, and the Kai brothers from Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin show up as ThunderClan cats.
- Whitestorm's ninja-like powers, the cats traveling by jumping from tree limb to tree limb, and the way that Episode 2 ends right before a fight are all likely references to Naruto. Even one sequence in the SSS Warriors opening is very similar to the first opening of Naruto: The camera slowly moves in a circle while the main character and his two best friends fight in battle, each one coming to the foreground at least once. There's also a pinkish cat with hair like Sakura's during a scene in the third episode.
- It's also likely that Whitestorm's ninja-like powers are a reference to Akame from Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin. The tree jumping also seems to be a reference to GNG, as Gin and the ninja dogs of Iga and Koga have been shown doing this. There are also multiple shots in the opening which resemble the GNG opening, such as the part with all the cats running together and the part where headshots of main characters pop up in a sequence.
- Spoiler Opening: The opening shows Tigerclaw among the villains, which is a spoiler to people who haven't read the books.
- Super-Speed: One of the abilities Whitestorm has thanks to his wind-controlling powers.
- Tail Slap: Longtail uses his tail as a whip when fighting Rusty.
- Unexplained Accent: Bluestar and Smallear. Most of the cats have American accents, but for some reason, these two don't, despite all the cats (other than Firepaw) being born and raised in the same place.
- Would Hit A She-Cat: Longtail slaps Spottedleaf out of the way to fight Rusty some more.
