Chainsmoker Cat: The Cicada Scene That Made Fans Compare Her to a Legendary Swordsman

An official clip from Chainsmoker Cat has Yani Neko — the show's chain-smoking, permanently unbothered catgirl — casually catch and eat a cicada with chopsticks mid-conversation, and one bystander's reaction to it ("that's basically Miyamoto Musashi") became the whole personality of the clip.

Across 426 comments, the top comment (2,788 likes) isn't actually about the bug at all — it's about how her beastfolk hearing means she can hear the whispered insults aimed at her, and how genuinely kind her two human friends are in response. A close second (2,117 likes) ranks a mild Kansai-accented comeback ("at least cook it first") as the gentlest roast the show has ever landed.

The thread splits its attention two ways from there — one half riffing on the samurai joke, the other zeroing in on the discrimination subplot running quietly underneath it.

Chainsmoker Cat's official channel put out a short clip this week built around one gag: Yani Neko — the show's permanently chain-smoking, permanently unbothered catgirl — casually snatches a cicada out of the air and eats it with chopsticks, mid-conversation, like it's nothing. It happens while she's sitting with her younger sister and the sister's two human friends, and one bystander's line about the whole scene became the entire personality of the clip.

That line ended up being the least-liked part of the thread, though (426 comments total). What actually pulled the most likes wasn't the bug at all — it was a much quieter detail about the beastfolk sister character sitting next to her. Beastfolk hearing is sharper than a human's in this show, and the clip apparently shows her ears twitching as she catches whispers not meant for her.

The show's beastfolk-discrimination subplot is usually played for tension, but part of this thread used it to talk about something a little heavier than a cicada gag — namely, what it actually takes to grow up as a beastfolk kid in this world when the people around you keep talking behind your back.

And then, just as fast, it swung back to jokes — first about the show's own internal ranking of insults, then right back to the cicada line that started this whole thread in the first place.

The joke has roots older than either show. Miyamoto Musashi is the real historical swordsman folklore credits with being fast enough to snatch flies out of the air with a pair of chopsticks — a story other manga and anime have riffed on for decades, Baki apparently included. Casually chopstick-catching a live cicada mid-sentence, without even breaking eye contact, is exactly the kind of feat that earns the comparison.

It ends with someone pointing out this scene is basically as close as the show gets to an unambiguously good moment.

Which is a strange kind of compliment for a show whose whole hook is a chain-smoking catgirl eating bugs — but this clip is basically proof that even Chainsmoker Cat can land a moment that's just plain sweet, cicada garnish and all.