It's about a young (cat)girlfailure, with a trash filled apartment and crippling addiction to nicotine. "Yani" originally meant tree resin, but is also used to translate "tar" as in tobacco residue, so it's in all the compounds for like, nicotine addicts, nicotine withdrawal shakes, etc. A lot of silly, somewhat bleak, grossout humor. Some of it predicated on the fact that despite her gross habits and life, Yani gets away with a lot because she's cute with a "smoking" body. If it featured her friends or younger sister more it would almost a parody of the cute girls doing cute things (CGDCT) manga.

The part that made me want to post about it though was that... so in a lot of manga, there being catgirls frequently goes without comment, or some kind of fig leaf, except for the occasional gag. It's almost nondiegetic at times.

Not so here. Beastfolk are an oppressed minority. (Yeah it's "beastfolk", though I've only seen cat-people so far.) She's in a bad part of town and you know it because it's mostly beastfolk. There's a separate counter for them at a government office. They apparently have higher tolerance for drugs (she puts a nicotine patch on her landlord as a joke, he has a seizure; the box has a warning that it's for beastfolk only). The landlord of their majority beastfolk apartment complex seems like a decent enough guy, but also distinctly has a fetish for them. A lot of the chapters with Yani's (much more put together) little sister show her enduring microagressions: "You're not so beasty-weasty for a beastfolk Imoko!"

All just sandwiched between those ah-hah-so-funny moments, like when Yani's lighter is out of juice and she can't afford another, so she lights her cigarette using the sparker and her fart (and catches the end of her tail on fire).

On the other hand, my favorite jokes are the ones that lean on their catness, like when her sister is suddenly possessed by the, "Smack the shit out of your sibling," spirit that wanders through cats around the world.

A bit of the amusing cuteness you only get from fan translations: this translator seems to be unfamiliar with smoking terms, and keeps translating this one as cigarette buds.

You are not morally superior to anyone you stupid fucking bitch. God forbid media contain depictions of how people actually struggle on a day to day basis. Fucking sick of moral grandstanding and pearl clutching from every angle and every corner of the internet. LET PEOPLE ENJOY WHAT THEY WANT TO ENJOY AND GO FUUUUUCK YOURSEEEEEELLLF!!!!

Tw: talking about addiction and depression (obviously cause the anime is literally called chainsmoker cat)

So far chainsmoker cat has been such a devastating anime for me to watch despite being a comedy and I love the anime for that. The show is such a genuinely good representation of depression and addiction. Like when Yani realizes how filthy her room is and instead of cleaning it, she just gets overwhelmed. While the anime is very funny at times it doesn’t romanticize addiction and shows how gross and horrible it actually is. However the comedy endears you to the characters which makes it actually hurt to see them struggle. As someone who has struggles with addiction, I would say that chainsmoker cat is actually a bit of a breath of fresh air when it comes to representation (Not saying that it’s perfect). I love how Yani is constantly saying that she is going to quit but never does because that’s how it is for most people irl and I have observed that behavior in not only myself but people I’m close to.