The story is narrated by the titular cat-eyed boy, hated by both humans and demons, who gets involved in tales of horror including monsters and children.

[17] In 1976, the manga was adapted into an anime series called Yōkaiden Nekome Kozō (妖怪伝 猫目小僧, "Ghost Story: Cat Eyed Boy").

The movie, with gravure idol Miku Ishida, Asami Kumakiri, Hiromasa Taguchi, Naoto Takenaka and Kanji Tsuda, was released theatrically in Japan in June 2006, and on DVD in October of the same year.

Critics have likened the manga to pulp horror and to the television series Tales from the Crypt, but also acknowledged its divergences such as the focus on the narrator himself.

[21] Shaenon K. Garrity of Anime News Network enjoyed the range of monsters Umezu created and commended the longer stories.

[22] Otaku USA's Joseph Luster highly recommended it while calling it an "impeccable classic" based on Umezu's thoughtful storytelling and the horror elements.

[23] Greg McElhatton of Comic Book Resources liked how the manga broke from its horror anthology mold by involving the protagonist and deviating from the traditional sense of justice for the good.

[24] Connie C. of Comic Book Resources praised Umezu's ability to set a horror mood as well as his art, but felt mixed about his bizarre ideas which she thought were better suited to his shorter stories.

[25] Ain't It Cool News categorized the manga as an example of Japanese horror and called it "a chilling concoction of dark vignettes with the macabre, the grotesque and the absurd", despite Umezu's weaker storytelling at the beginning.

[27] IGN remarked that the humor in the manga set it apart from Umezu's more serious works such as The Drifting Classroom and that the longer stories were harder to read through.

[29] Describing the type of horror in Cat Eyed Boy, Graphic Novel Reporter called it strange and creepy "...in the sense that the pictures are more likely to momentarily unsettle your stomach than keep you up at night."