Chainsmoker Cat

Episode 6

My favorite sketch of this week's Chainsmoker Cat really took me by surprise, because it doesn't even make the slightest attempt at being disgusting or weird. Hell, it doesn't even really try to be funny. It follows Yaku and the long-suffering apartment landlord, Oya, on a drive during the darkest hours of the early morning. We're seeing the other side of the episode's opening scene, which saw Aru drunkenly stumbling out into the streets of the city and winding up all the way in Enoshima. Yaku, being the genuinely dependable and caring cat that she is, has recruited Oya to rescue their errant alcoholic, and the pair share an unexpectedly sweet and quiet drive together. Yaku isn't injecting any hard drugs or suffering from traumatic incarceration flashbacks. Oya isn't furiously masturbating or defiling a battered blow-up beast doll. The two are just somewhat awkwardly making conversation to pass the time until the sun rises over the shoreline. Yaku lights up a cigarette for the same reason that most longtime smokers break out a fresh stick: It gives them something to do to pass the time. It's one of the first times that the titular pastime hasn't been framed as something smelly, shameful, pathetic, or literally cancerous. The whole sequence is just…nice.

Remind me again: What show are we watching?

Here's another one: Saori is hard at work trying to meet her latest manga deadline, and a trio of helpers from Beast Hands has arrived to assist her. Get this, though: Saori doesn't act like a depraved pervert even one time. I'm pretty sure she isn't even drawing pornography. In fact, while there are some mild jokes sprinkled throughout this scene, the general atmosphere can only be described as…I don't know, kind of sad? Satisfyingly and artistically, I mean. Saori is basically on the brink of collapse. While it's kind of funny to see her try to politely navigate the beastgirls' general helplessness, you can't ignore the very real tears in their eyes when Saori barely lets her frustrations show and tells them all to quiet down a little and be more efficient.

These three catgirls are clearly enthusiastic but unskilled workers who act like frightened elementary schoolers at the first sign of Saori's meager scolding. The whole concept of the “Beast Hands” work program brings to mind real-world services meant to give impoverished folks or the recently paroled a chance to scrape together a paycheck. The one girl who takes hours to ink just a few panels has to constantly seek Saori's approval, and she's so proud to be told she's doing a “good job” that she is positively beaming. After finally pulling off the job, the girls promise to practice their art skills so they can be even more helpful the next time their “sensei” needs them. It just breaks your goddamned heart, it does. What the hell, man? Chainsmoker Cat is supposed to make me cackle with lewd innuendos and crass fart jokes, and here I am shedding real human tears over the melancholy lives of these cartoon catgirls.

This episode does have jokes, of course, but they're all laced with that distinct undertone of bitter reality. For as much as the latest addition to the cast, Penpen, makes me laugh, the show isn't being subtle about the fact that all of Penpen's over-the-top declarations of commitment to the ascetic lifestyle come from a place of starvation and destitution. Then there's the fact that Aru's whole journey is predicated on the fact that, except for Yaku, nobody is even particularly bothered by Aru getting so blackout drunk that she ends up in a completely different city. I know that plenty of you all reading this are just like me, and you grew up around people just like this, who filled their days with jawing, drinking, smoking, and whatever else they could do to fill in the space between dawn and dusk. Sometimes they were funny, sometimes they were gross, sometimes they surprised you with how sweet they could really be, and sometimes they just pissed you right the hell off with how stubbornly they clung to the worst of their vices. It's just wild. I never expected Chainsmoker Cat of all shows to be one of the most bizarrely human slice-of-life anime that I've ever seen.

Episode Rating:

Chainsmoker Cat is currently streaming on Netflix and OceanVeil.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on BlueSky, his blog, and his podcast.