The core premise of a policewoman and a thief lover was inspired by the idea of 'mother is a thief, father is a policeman' that emerged from a conversation writer Tsukasa Hojo had with a friend.
After the series was published as a one-shot draft (yomikiri), it received a single-digit ranking in a reader poll and was immediately unanimously decided to be published as a series; Hojo was asked to move to Tokyo within two days of the decision and came to the city in a rush.
While writing the series, Hojo was still new to manga drawing and experienced great difficulties, and after the series ended, he said this experience left him with only 'painful memories'; according to him, this work was actually a drawing practice.
The series came close to being ended twice during its run: the first time it was abandoned because tankōbon sales were going well, and the second time a draft was completed for the finale featuring the three sisters reuniting with their fathers, but the project was not cancelled because the decision was made to adapt it into an anime.
Since the personalities of the three sisters were initially divided into rigid stereotypes such as 'sexy', 'fighter' and 'cute', the author found this boring and in his next work City Hunter, he designed the character Kaori Makimura as a woman who possessed all these qualities combined.
For the design of the middle sister Rui, the author drew inspiration from real people such as jazz singer Yasuko Agawa and Keiko Matsuzaka, who wore a flashy rabbit girl outfit in the 1979 TV series 'Suichūka'.
The names of the three sisters are derived from words related to the Japanese word for 'eye' (me); the name of the youngest sister Ai comes from the English word 'eye'.
In the 1997 live-action film, instead of the swimsuits resembling those in the manga and anime, leather outfits in a bondage style with cat ear masks inspired by Catwoman from the Batman universe were preferred.
In the 1997 film adaptation, the main character was shifted from the second sister Hitomi to the youngest sister Ai, played by Yuki Uchida.
Anri, who performed the opening song 'CAT'S EYE' for the first season of the anime, reached number one on the Oricon singles chart with the song, and the series' soundtrack album also reached fifth place on the Oricon LP chart.
In the ending animation of the second season of the anime, in order to increase realism, real dancers (Kazuko Hirata and Chizuko Moriai) danced wearing wigs matching the hairstyles of the three sisters and pads under the swimsuit to enhance the chest line; these images were traced frame by frame using the rotoscope technique, and special thin razor blades were used to allow fine lines to be cut, with holographic effects added on top.
Kodama Kenji, who took over directing the second season, stated that at first he frequently had disagreements with the team, but gradually learned to observe the team's movements and shape his own decisions accordingly.
In the opening images of the first season of the anime, there is also a version where the character Hitomi is drawn naked instead of the published swimsuit version in the scene where she lifts her hair from behind, in an unused version.
The first season filming of the 2024 French TV series adaptation took place in Paris at locations such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, the Guimet Museum, the Paris Mint, and the Palace of Versailles.
Producers Benjamin Dupont-Jubien and Mehdi Sabbar of the French TV series revealed that they had been working on the project since 2017 before even acquiring the rights; Hojo liked the idea of a modern adaptation of the story set in Paris and approved the project.
The manga has sold over 20 million copies worldwide as of November 2024, making it one of the best-selling series in Weekly Shōnen Jump.
The work became popular in many Asian countries, particularly the Philippines, and also in European countries such as Italy, France, and Germany; due to its great popularity in France in particular, writer Hojo was invited to and hosted at Japan Expo held in France in 2010.
