A
catgirl is a female with
catThe cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felines and felids, is a small carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
ears, a cat tail, or other feline characteristics on an otherwise human body. Catgirls are found occasionally in
animeis animation originating in Japan. The world outside Japan regards anime as "Japanese animation". Anime originated about 1917.Anime, like manga , has a large audience in Japan and high recognition throughout the world...
and
mangaManga consist of comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century...
either as a form of
cosplay, short for "costume roleplay", is a fan labor type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China, and the Philippines. Favorite sources include...
or actual body parts, as well as in a few video games. Catgirls may wear over-sized mittens and shoes that look like paws. In Japan, catgirls are usually called
nekomimi (猫耳)—literally, "cat ears"—rather than the literal term
nekomusume (猫娘).
A
catgirl is a female with
catThe cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felines and felids, is a small carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
ears, a cat tail, or other feline characteristics on an otherwise human body. Catgirls are found occasionally in
animeis animation originating in Japan. The world outside Japan regards anime as "Japanese animation". Anime originated about 1917.Anime, like manga , has a large audience in Japan and high recognition throughout the world...
and
mangaManga consist of comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century...
either as a form of
cosplay, short for "costume roleplay", is a fan labor type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China, and the Philippines. Favorite sources include...
or actual body parts, as well as in a few video games. Catgirls may wear over-sized mittens and shoes that look like paws. In Japan, catgirls are usually called
nekomimi (猫耳)—literally, "cat ears"—rather than the literal term
nekomusume (猫娘). Sometimes characters do not actually feature cat-like ears or such an accessory but their hair sticks out and resembles cat ears. Such characters do not fit the definition of catgirls. Other animal combinations, usually
mammalMammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose females are characterized by the possession of mammary glands while both males and females are characterized by sweat glands, hair, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex region in the brain.Mammals are divided into three main...
s like bunnygirls,
foxgirlsis the Japanese word for fox. Foxes are a common subject of Japanese folklore; kitsune usually refers to them in this context. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to assume human...
and (more rarely) doggirls, are referred to as
kemonomimi.
Eastern catgirls are usually depicted as having minimal feline characteristics, such as eyes with vertical pupils, tails, and ears (often with different color ear-fur than their hair). Many depictions of catgirls portray them with human ears in addition to cat ears, perhaps implying that the cat ears are fake. Western catgirls are more often portrayed as more animal-like in appearance, with full body fur and claws being their most prominent aspects, though not true for all cases.
Personality traits
Ordinary human characters will sometimes sprout cat ears or a tail in order to illustrate their excitable personalities. This is similar to the phenomenon of becoming
super deformedSuper deformed or SD is a specific style of Japanese caricature where characters are drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby, with stubby limbs and oversized heads, to make them resemble small children....
and is mostly a stylistic quirk from
mangaManga consist of comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century...
.
Characters in anime and manga may momentarily develop a catlike mouth. This is usually used to emphasize mischievous thoughts or comments by a character. Rebellious boys are more often compared to dogs or wolves. The "lone-wolf" characterization is very common for brooding, aggressive, socially isolated males, while comparisons to dogs usually refer to adorably rebellious but ultimately harmless boys.
In certain anime and manga series, a boy may be compared to a cat in a similar way catgirls are. They are referred to as
catboys.
Bishōnen, is a Japanese term literally meaning "beautiful youth ".The term describes an aesthetic that can be found in disparate areas in Asia: a young man whose beauty transcends the boundary of gender or sexual orientation...
catboys are typically associated with shōjo manga and
yaoi[In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, .] is a popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by female authors...
.
In
shōnenrefers to manga marketed to a male audience roughly between the ages of 10 and 18. Examples include Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Rurouni Kenshin, InuYasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, Flame of Recca, Naruto, Bleach, Detective Conan, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh and Fullmetal Alchemist....
series, a (usually villainous) catgirl may be portrayed as the leader of a band of anthropomorphic animals.
A frequent
running gagA running gag is a literary device which often takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....
among catgirls is that, when talking, they habitually end their speech lines with the catchphrase
nyaNYA as an abbreviation may refer to:*National Youth Agency*North Yarmouth Academy*National Youth Administration*New York Airways*New York and Atlantic Railway*Nya, a letter in Jawi writing system...
, the Japanese
onomatopoeiaAn onomatopoeia or onomatopœia, from the Greek ὀνοματοποιία , is a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. Onomatopoeia refers to the property of such words. Common occurrences of onomatopoeias include animal noises, such as "oink" or
"meow" or...
for a cat's meow.
Western
Catgirl characters are also found outside of anime, manga, and video games. Often, such catgirls are more like
humanoidAnthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to non-human creatures and beings, phenomena, material states and objects or abstract concepts. Examples include animals and plants depicted as creatures with human motivation able to reason and converse and forces of nature such as...
cats than their Japanese counterparts, for example Cheetara from
ThunderCatsThunderCats is an animated television series that was produced by Rankin/Bass Productions debuting in 1985, based on the characters created by Tobin "Ted" Wolf...
, or the Khajiit from Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Fantasy games have catgirl characters, such as
Magic: The GatheringMagic: The Gathering is a collectible card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic is the first example of the modern collectible card game genre and still thrives today, with an estimated six million players in over seventy...
s Mirri and Purraj and the cat girl monster in the d20 Munchkin Monster Manual. Some live-action shows and movies (Teenage Catgirls in HeatTeenage Catgirls in Heat is a 1993 comedy film co-written and directed by Scott Perry and distributed by Troma Entertainment.-Plot:...
), as well as WesternWestern culture refers to cultures of European origin.The term "Western culture" is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and technologies...
comics and animation, have featured various cat-like characters. In addition, catgirls make occasional appearances in Western science-fiction, like Cordwainer SmithCordwainer Smith – pronounced CORDwainer – was the pseudonym used by American author Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger for his science fiction works...
's cat-derived Underperson C'Mell (who appears in NorstriliaNorstrilia is the only novel published by Paul Linebarger under the pseudonym Cordwainer Smith, which he used for his science-fiction works...
and The Rediscovery of ManThe Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith is a 1993 book containing the complete collected short fiction of science fiction author Cordwainer Smith. It was edited by James A...
).
However, catgirls that adhere strictly to the catgirl stereotype are far outnumbered in Western culture by those that are better defined as
werecatWerecats are creatures of folklore, fantasy fiction, horror fiction, and occultism that are generally described as ailuranthropes or shapeshifters similar to werewolves that, instead of a wolf, turn into a creature that is based on some species of feline...
s, because they are
shapeshiftersShapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. In its broadest sense, it is when a being undergoes a transformation. Commonly the transformation is purposeful, and not a curse or spell...
who only sometimes have a cat-humanoid appearance, analogous to
werewolvesA werewolf or werwolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely, by being bitten or scratched by another werewolf, or after being placed under a curse...
and other lycanthropes. Like Asian catgirls, these creatures are portrayed as predominantly female and often have the stereotypical catgirl personality and habits. They tend to appear in more realistic settings in the fantasy or horror genres, not in the anime world of typical catgirls.
In the British science fiction series
Doctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box...
, there exists a religious sect called the
Sisters of Plenitude, who somewhat resemble Cheetara from Thundercats but are distinctly more feline than human. See
Cat People for more information.
External links