Chainsmoker Cat is a bizarre new anime that’s part harrowing drama and part poop jokes

Let’s not beat around the bush: for better and worse, the first episode of Chainsmoker Cat is downright vile. While viewers may go into this series expecting another lighthearted hobby anime about the joys of nicotine — Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You is great, but it might as well have been bankrolled by Big Tobacco — this premiere is a spiraling descent into cat girl depravity. It’s gross, weird, and seems to know what it’s doing with heavy themes about addiction, until overly broad slapstick humor flies in like a car crash. The result is a bit of a mess, but a fascinating one.