Episode 1 of The Cat and the Dragon (Neko to Ryuu) landed on Crunchyroll this morning — and it is already one of the more charming premiers of the Summer 2026 season. If your anime diet leans toward warm-and-cosy rather than shonen-tournament-brutal, this one is worth an immediate watch in Singapore.
What Is The Cat and the Dragon?
Based on the fantasy light novel series by Amara, published by Takarajimasha, the story begins with a dragon egg that hatches in the wrong forest — deep in the territory of a family of magic-wielding cats. With no mother and nowhere to go, the dragon is adopted by the cat clan and raised as one of their own. The dragon eventually learns to shapeshift into a cat-like form to better protect its adopted family, which has the somewhat unintended side-effect of making it the most powerful creature in the world that also grooming itself.
The tone sits squarely between a slice-of-life family drama and a low-key adventure — think found-family with claws. Underneath the coziness, though, there is real tension around how the human world relates to the cats and, by extension, to their dragon protector.
Studio OLM and a Stacked Voice Cast
The anime is produced by OLM (the studio behind the Pokémon animated series), directed by Jin-Koo Oh, with series composition by Mitsutaka Hirota and character designs by Rie Nishino and Chiaki Kurakazu. The premise might sound simple, but the production is anything but — OLM has brought in one of the strongest voice casts of the season.
The dragon-raised-as-cat, known as Neko-ryū, is voiced by Takehito Koyasu — best known in Singapore as the voice of Dio Brando from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Whitebeard from One Piece. The Mama-nyan cat matriarch is voiced by Kikuko Inoue, while the supporting cast includes Show Hayami as Kurobane, Noriaki Sugiyama (Sasuke in Naruto) as Haibuchi, Tanezaki Atsumi (Anya Forger from SPY x FAMILY) as Gally, and Hanae Natsuki — the voice of Tanjiro Kamado in Demon Slayer — as the mysterious Monarch Black.
Watching in Singapore
Episode 1 is streaming now on Crunchyroll, which carries the series for Singapore and across Southeast Asia. New episodes drop on Saturdays. The series is expected to run for 12 episodes across the Summer 2026 season.
For more new anime arriving this season, check out our Manga & Anime roundups — Summer 2026 has been unusually stacked and we have been covering it all.