68 out of 100 Fair
Japan's deodorising specialist, and a litter that lives or dies by a single quality. Lion's Nioi wo Toru Sand, whose name translates literally as the sand that removes smell, is built around aggressive odour chemistry, and it arrives at No. 44 with sixty eight on the strength of one perfect score that defines the whole product.
Odour is the triumph, a flawless five, and it is the entire reason to buy this litter: on smell alone it is one of the strongest clays on the list, holding a multi cat box clean between scoops where lesser mineral fails. For the owner whose chief enemy is the ammonia of a busy tray, this is a formidable answer, and a perennial bestseller on its home market.
Everything else is more modest. Clumping is solid at four, a firm enough set, but dust and tracking each score three, the litter showing more haze on the pour and more scatter from the box than the engineered leaders, the marks of a more traditional formulation. Sustainability sits at two, the strip mined floor of every bentonite.
What you are buying is single minded odour control in Japanese clay form, from one of the country's great household brands. It will not give you the dust free pour of a premium mineral litter or the conscience of a plant one, but it will, more than almost anything at its price, keep a used box from smelling. For the owner who has decided that odour is the only axis that truly matters, Nioi wo Toru is a sharp, specialised, well chosen tool. A litter that knows exactly what it is for, and does that one thing superbly.