Cigarettes and cat girls make for an unexpectedly silly combination in the new anime Chainsmoker Cat. After watching three episodes of a show like this, I didn’t expect it to be one I’d look forward to watching day after day after finishing my workday.
Minor spoilers of episodes 1-3 | CW: addiction, cigarette use
Chainsmoker Cat manages to be one of the most ridiculous anime that I’ve watched in a long time.
I have no regrets even after watching several episodes. The anime follows Yanineko, a cat girl with a really bad smoking addiction that’s taken over her life. She lives in a rundown apartment and spends whatever money she has on reloading cigarettes.
In this world, cat girls are treated differently from the rest of human society. Because of this, she struggles to hold down a job or keep her life together. Whatever money she does get, she’s constantly spending it away on cigarettes rather than fixing up her life. Yanineko’s younger sister, Imoko, constantly tries to help her clean up her room and quit smoking. However, her landlord is often left dealing with the many unpleasant consequences of Yanineko’s habits.
I heard about Chainsmoker Cat on TikTok, saw criticism of the show’s humor, but decided to give it a shot. Social media can sometimes be an echo chamber. The best way to evaluate a show is to start with your own perspective. This review will cover the first three episodes of the anime series. (But just know that I ended up watching even more than that!)
This show has become one of my favorite anime of summer 2026, I didn’t expect it to be this entertaining.
Initial Thoughts: How Can This Concept Work?
One thing to know about Chainsmoker Cat is that it doesn’t take itself very seriously. Throughout the show, you realize it is a blatantly ridiculous concept, but it keeps running with it.
The show also flips the whole cat girl concept on its head, since you normally have the cutesy stereotype of an anime girl with cat ears and a tail. But here, Yanineko is someone with those and an intensely bad smoking problem.
She’s not your typical cat girl who just smokes every once in a while.
Her addiction is so serious that it affects almost every part of her life, and the anime doesn’t hesitate to show how gross those habits can get.
The first episode opens with Yanineko sitting on her balcony, exhaling smoke from a cigarette. We get a pretty raw look at her dingy apartment, with stains, debris, and trash bags littering it. You can practically smell the cigarette smoke and the dankness through the screen…
But despite those things, the animation is really good. Yanineko herself is pretty interesting because she’s intentionally a dysfunctional character. She is messy, broke, and constantly making questionable decisions. But that makes it more interesting to watch compared to if she were just a cute cat girl who liked to smoke every once in a while. Because the smoking thing is so upfront, it actually makes the show work really well as an anti-smoking PSA.
This Might Make You Never Pick Up a Cigarette Again
Have you ever craved a cigarette late at night? Maybe after a few drinks, or just to take the edge off? Well.. watch Chainsmoker Cat and you’ll probably rethink it. I don’t know if the show was intended to discourage people from smoking, but it certainly does a good job of it.
The anime doesn’t glamorize Yaineko’s smoking habit 一 it shows the reality of addiction, including withdrawal, anxiety, and the far lengths that she will go just to get another cigarette. When she tries to stop smoking, her body fights back. She deals with things like invasive thoughts, nausea, and she even gets physically sick.
Despite those facts, she would rather spend her limited money on tobacco rather than food or water, which she ACTUALLY needs.
She’s also constantly struggling to hold down jobs because she can’t go long without smoking, even for a break. Her addiction affects the people around her, including her younger sister. Imoko is almost the complete opposite of her older sister. She’s polite and responsible, but still loves her sister. She wants Yanineko to get her life together and constantly tries to help throughout the show. Chainsmoker Cat shows the reality of addiction and how you can often have people around you who still want to help you and support you through these tough times.
But one thing I didn’t love is that the show definitely doesn’t hesitate to show how disgusting smoking and addiction can be. Have you ever seen someone pick up a cigarette butt off the floor and try to light it up to get whatever remaining smoke is left from that? Well, imagine that, but worse.
At one point, Yanineko is so desperate for a cigarette that she picks one up after it’s fallen in dog poop. Did the joke really need to go that far?
The show constantly has moments where it goes all in on the absurd humor. I could see that being off-putting to some people, though it didn’t really stop me from continuing to watch. The show has always you questioning, how ridiculous can it get?
Full Sending the Ridiculous Comedy
On that note of vulgar humor, Chainsmoker Cat definitely will test your limits. I wouldn’t start with this show if you’re not used to (or can’t handle) that kind of humor. There’s a lot of great comedy anime out there, and some of them pull it off better than others. Watching the show, there were plenty of ridiculous jokes, and moments where I was asking myself if the show really just did that.
There is some fan service, but it’s not the sensual kind you’d normally expect in an anime. The landlord is a prime example. He’s constantly frustrated by Yanineko’s habits, like when she spits onto the ground from her balcony after smoking a cigarette and then happens to fall on him. But he somehow still has a thing for her?
His antics are pretty bizarre.
We even see a scene of him having some *private time in his room* after checking out a bit of underboob from Yanineko. Definitely don’t watch this anime in the living room on the big screen with your family around, because you may have some explaining to do.
Even so, I often found myself able to look past some of the gags because the characters are really entertaining. As more characters are introduced, you start to realize that Yanineko is one of many who struggle with some type of unhealthy habit.
There’s Yakuneko, who is addicted to smoking weed (and sometimes other drugs) and then Hameko, who has some serious anger problems and is a chronic streamer. The main characters are mostly female, as to be expected with a cat girl show. But the concepts for each of the characters were pretty creative 一 showing the reality of all sorts of addictions. Once you get past the raunchiness, it’s really interesting to enjoy the character dynamics as more cat girls are introduced.
Verdict: Worth the Silly Watch, But Prepare Yourself
After seeing the first three episodes of Chainsmoker Cat, I would definitely say that it is worth watching if you’re intrigued enough.
The pacing is one of the best things about it. The episodes move quickly so that you’re not constantly pausing the show. The story builds on itself a little bit every episode, but you don’t necessarily have to remember every detail from the episode before to understand what’s happening.
It’s also an easy show to put on while you’re multitasking. Even if you’re just watching the subbed version. The Japanese voice acting is great, with Yuko Natsuyoshi (Cheval Grand in Umamusume: Pretty Derby) voicing Yanineko herself. The occasional meows really add to the dialogue.
No shade towards the dub, but I just couldn’t get into it as much once I started with the Japanese sub. Hearing “nya” at the end of every sentence is so silly and so cute!
I’m glad TikTok convinced me to give the weird cat-girl smoking anime a chance, because it’s turned into a show I look forward to watching after a long workday. It’s really funny and unserious, which I think we need a little bit more of in our busy lives.
The show’s humor may be a bit too much for certain people, but it certainly reminded me why to always turn down that cigarette at the bar late at night.
