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Nyaight of the Living Cat episodes 3 & 4 were officially screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival, along with the first two episodes, on Friday, July 18, 2025, at 7 pm PT. The event marked an exciting moment for viewers, as they could witness the third and fourth episodes ahead of their broadcast and streaming in Japan and worldwide.
Under the supervision of executive director Takeshi Miike and director Tomohiro Kamitani, the Nyaight of the Living Cat episodes 3 & 4 explored Kunagi and his friends trying to survive the Nyandemic. Viewers have already been familiar with the storyline since the first two episodes were released. Therefore, the next two installments ended what we can call the prologue to the overall grand narrative.
Disclaimer: This article contains mild spoilers from Nyaight of the Living Cat episodes 3 & 4.
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Nyaight of the Living Cat episodes 3 & 4: A narrative criticism
From a narrative perspective, the Nyaight of the Living Cat episodes 3 & 4 shuffled many events from author Hawkman and illustrator Mecha-roots' original manga series. As fans may remember, the second installment covered the manga up to chapter 3. As such, the third episode should have started the adaptation directly from chapter 4, but it didn't.
Rather, the episode opened with the events from chapter 5, and an extra bit from chapter 6.5, featuring Tanishi's slice-of-life moment at Gaku's cat cafe following the opening scene. In other words, the episode featured the Prime Minister's reactions to the Nyandemic and the subsequent calamity that happened at the Supermarket.
Following this irregularity, the episode returned to its usual course and focused on Kunagi and his friends dealing with the Nyandemic situation at the Supermarket. As it was teased in the previous episode, a cat had somehow snuck into the storage room. Therefore, the doom was already written in bold colors. It only needed some time before it could take its shape.
One of the best narrative aspects of the Nyaight of the Living Cat episodes 3 & 4 was seamless transitions from one scene to another. Although the episodes had a few adjustments regarding the narrative, they never felt out of place. Director Kamitani and series composition artist Shingo Irie deserve the credit for this.
The episodes also brought out the individual aspects of the characters and offered a glimpse of Tanishi's character, whose fate we already know from episode 1. Yet, knowing a character's fate from the first few seconds of a series and then developing an emotional attachment to such a character requires intensive narrative capabilities.
Hawkman has already done it in the original manga, and the OLM studios seems to have elevated it to the next level, with powerful production. Besides Tanishi, we should also mention Tsutsumi and Kaoru's characters. Kaoru has always been protected by the people close to him. She couldn't do anything when her brother embraced his fate and turned into a cat.
Yet, she didn't want to be dependent on others anymore, and protect someone with her own hands. Nyaight of the Living Cat episodes 3 & 4 provided Kaoru with such a moment, when she went out of her way to save Tsutsumi, who was slightly injured from all the running from the cats.
Likewise, the episodes gave Kunagi the major spotlight, showcasing his impressive athletic movements, as he escaped from a clowder of cats chasing after him. Overall, the Nyaight of the Living Cat episodes 3 & 4 covered up to chapter 6 from the original manga series.
In other words, the narrative focused on the events up to Tanishi's transformation into a cat. With that, the fourth episode introduced a new character, who will become crucial to Kunagi and Kaoru in the later episodes.
Nyaight of the Living Cat episodes 3 & 4: An overall criticism of production and animation
As mentioned previously, the Nyaight of the Living Cat episodes 3 & 4 was impressive production-wise, with the executive director Takashi Miike and director Tomohiro Kamitani providing their inputs as skilled animators. Takashi Miike, who has already achieved a Lifetime Achievement Award, used his vision to elevate Hawkman and Mecha-roots' original work.
As such, from a narrative perspective, the production value was immense. Every scene flowed from one to the next in a seamless manner. Likewise, the animation of the cats, mostly done with a blend of 2D and CGI, looked fine. While the movements felt off at times, it was negligible.
However, the episodes still suffered from the occasional quality drop in character art. It has been an issue since episode 1. The background characters, when zoomed in, appear slightly jarring to the naked eye. Otherwise, the background art, such as the buildings, the color shades, and other production aspects, was on point. Besides these occasional blips, the episodes have done justice to the original manga.
Conclusion
Under the production of OLM Studios, the Nyaight of the Living Cat episodes 3 & 4 have carried the goods from the previous installments, and created anticipation for the release of the next episodes. Global viewers can catch the episodes on Crunchyroll every Sunday.
Both narrative wise and production wise, the episodes, were rich in detail. Although the animation and art suffered slightly in some areas, the overall outcome was brilliant.
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