TV PROGRAM | TF1 – 9:10 p.m. The Cat's Eyes series is already reaching its very last episodes on TF1. Before a sequel and a season 2?
“Three lively panthers, who in a flash take on all challenges.” Yes but until when? While the series Cat’s Eyesthe end-of-year event on TF1, is reaching its final episodes, fans are already wondering if the live-action adaptation of the cult manga will be entitled to a sequel. The very daring bet of the first channel, which put Camille Lou, Constance Labbé and Claire Romain in the fitted and shiny costumes of the three Chamade sisters, was in any case successful from the first episodes broadcast at the beginning of November.
Cats’ Eyes in fact gathered around 5 million viewers during its launch on November 11, even ahead of Love is in the meadowgenerally leading on Monday evenings on M6. On D+7, the launch of Cat’s Eyes even reached 6.7 million viewers for episode 1, a record of the year for a French drama, excluding HPI. This audience, however, declined from week to week. This Monday, November 25, episodes 5 and 6 of the fiction brought together an average of between 4 and 3.5 million viewers, ahead of this time by the amorous adventures of the farmers of the Six, who were, it must be said, at time to take stock.
Once curiosity had passed, would amateurs have grown tired? Opinions on this adaptation of Cat’s Eyes with Franchouillarde sauce are mixed. Particularly among 40-50 year olds, clearly targeted by the project clearly based on nostalgia for the cartoons of their childhood. Associated with the creation, the mangaka Tsukasa Hōjō, author of the original saga, was the first to be won over by the series which, according to him, “found its own identity to touch people”. Some fans also praised the “risk-taking” of the producers, the “alchemy of the trio”, or the respect for the original work and even admitted to having watched TF1 for the first time in a long time thanks to Cat’s Eyes.
Already a date for season 2 of Cat's Eyes?
But others are disgusted. “The atmosphere of the cartoon is ruined, it's flat and soft, not at all sexy. In short, it's rubbish,” says a fan of the manga in 20 Minutes, while others point out “a sort of Julie Lescaut with the label Cat’s Eyes to attract nostalgic people”. Others did not understand the choice of the origin story (trying to imagine the origin of the Cat’s Eyes rather than resuming the story of the 1980s) or the transposition of the manga to Paris, interpreted as “betrayals” amid the “gaps in the scenario” and the “multiple repetitions”, indicates the Huffpost.
Success or not, TF1 will start to make fans languish this Monday, December 2, with a single new episode of Cat’s Eyes instead of two. The 8th and final episode will therefore be broadcast on December 9. And a sequel should indeed hit the screens. As Télé 7 Jours indicated last year, the three main actresses signed from the start for three seasons. However, it is impossible to know when season 2 of Cat’s Eyes will come out. Numerama is counting on “the very end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026, at the earliest”, which would make the prequel last “until 2028”.
21:51 – In addition to the sequel to Cat's Eyes on TF1, an animated film announced in 2025
Riding on the “Cat's Eyes mania” which seems to be taking over part of the public, Disney+ announced at the end of November that a new animated Cat's Eye was planned for broadcast in 2025. No series this time, but a film full animation, which will take up the original story of the three sisters Tam, Sylia and Alexia Chamade. A teaser was revealed by Disney+ Japan.
20:12 – How was Cat's Eyes able to arrive on TF1 instead of Joséphine guardian angel?
Taking a risk for TF1, this French-style Cat's Eyes didn't quite come out of nowhere. In addition to the success it enjoyed as a cartoon in the 1980s, including in France, the manga has already been adapted twice into live action (with real actors and actresses and in real settings), with a TV movie in 1988 then a film in 1997 in Japan. The TF1 series is nevertheless the first adaptation outside the archipelago, but benefits from the lessons of other attempts, such as those of Nicky Larson, also a character of Tsukasa Hojo. The seductive cop notably benefited from a slightly crazy adaptation in 2018 in France, signed Philippe Lacheau. Tsukasa Hojo was also keen to maintain a minimum of comic fiber for Cat's Eyes.
19:06 – How TF1 seduced Tsukasa Hōjō, Japanese author of Cat's Eyes
This new Cat's Eyes particularly appealed to the mangaka because it would remain faithful, according to its producers, to the original spirit of the saga. Tsukasa Hōjō would also have been convinced by the bet of the “origin story”, a story in which we follow the beginnings of the three sisters before they become famous thieves. “I didn't want [l’histoire de] the series clings too much to that of the manga. I just wanted my work to be freely adapted. I was also very curious to discover how we could bring up to date these heroines that I drew a little time ago now”, he confided to TF1. The site specializing in Japan and its culture Kanpai.fr specifies that the author had some requirements: “the sisters should not carry weapons; nor be presented as thieves lured by gain; had to be respectful of stolen objects; and of course the Cat's Eye café had to be a central element of this new story.”
18:04 – Cat's Eyes: a profitable blockbuster for TF1
TF1's bet was rather daring from the start. The series will have required a substantial budget, worthy of a blockbuster (we are talking about a budget of 25 million euros). Seven years of development and years of discussions with the manga's author, the Japanese Tsukasa Hōjō, were necessary to launch this project. On the character side, 200 actresses tried out to land the main roles before Camille Lou (Tamara), Constance Labbé (Sylvia), and Claire Romain (Alexia) slipped into the shoes of the three heroines. Impossible to leave such work after a single season.
17:02 – For those who missed the Cat's Eyes phenomenon in the 1980s
Cat's Eyes was first a popular manga in Japan, published from 1981 to 1985 and adapted for the first time into an animated series by Tokyo Movie Shinsha in 1983. Its 73 episodes were broadcast in several countries from 1986, marking an entire generation of viewers, including fans of Club Dorothée in France in particular. The manga follows the adventures of the Kisugi sisters, who became the “Chamade” sisters in the French version: Hitomi (Tamara Chamade), Rui (Sylvia) and Ai (Alexia). During the day, the three sisters run a café in Tokyo. At night, they become expert thieves, known as “Cat's Eyes”. Their goal: to recover works of art that belonged to their missing father. Inspector Toshio Utsumi (Inspector Chapuis), as clumsy as he is in love with one of the sisters, tries to get his hands on these elite burglars.
14:58 – Why was the ending of Cat's Eyes delayed?
You will not discover the end of the first season of Cat's Eyes this Monday evening on TF1. The channel has decided to broadcast only one episode this Monday, December 2, instead of two in previous weeks. Only the 7th part of the event series will therefore be put online, with the 8th and final episode scheduled for next week, Monday December 9, from 9:10 p.m. TF1 explains this upheaval by the broadcast at 10:10 p.m. of the series Escort Boys, which arrives on the channel a year after being unveiled on the Prime Video platform. The real reason is more trivial: TF1 simply wants to slow down the broadcast in order to keep fans of the series in front of their small screen, in prime time, for one more week.
