History Main / ShapeshiftingLover

* In ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'', [[MageSpecies warlocks]] are born in this way. One of the parents is a demon, and the other is a human. However, it is not love. The demons that can not change their form simply rape humans. And those who can, [[BedTrick usually take the form of someone whom human finds attractive]].

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': There are demons that can take on a human form. And some of them come together with humans. In the comics, this variant applies to a friend of Dawn. But there are also relationships between humans and demons when the demons can not change their form.

* ''Manga/CeresCelestialLegend'': The plot concerns the spirit of a Tennyo that awakens in some of her female descendants to wreak havoc on the rest of her family [[DangerousSixteenthBirthday when the descendant reaches 16]].

* A fairly common Russian folk story is that of "[[https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ftr/chap01.htm The Frog Tsarevna (Princess)]]". The story usually goes as follows: a tsar commands his three sons to shoot an arrow each, and where the arrows fall, there they shall find wives for themselves. The youngest son finds a frog holding his arrow, and so must marry her. When he does, she becomes a woman. She proves to be an excellent wife, not only beautiful but also smart and cunning... but then he finds and burns her frog skin, and so she leaves him. This tale pops up in various parts of the world with the princess being a different animal such as a cat, mouse, fish, bird, or monkey and slightly different outcomes. The animated series ''WesternAnimation/HungarianFolkTales'' adapted a version where she's a cat [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30u7SInryfY that can be watched here]].

* A fairly common Russian folk story is that of "[[https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ftr/chap01.htm The Frog Tsarevna (Princess)]]". The story usually goes as follows: a tsar commands his three sons to shoot an arrow each, and where the arrows fall, there they shall find wives for themselves. The youngest son finds a frog holding his arrow, and so must marry her. When he does, she becomes a woman. She proves to be an excellent wife, not only beautiful but also smart and cunning... but then he finds and burns her frog skin, and so she leaves him.

* The eponymous fairy tale in ''Anime/LizAndTheBlueBird'' is a variant of the traditional story; a lonely girl named Liz meets a blue bird, who decides to become a human girl in order to be Liz's friend. They start living together and grow close over many days, but eventually the bird has to leave, as she can't be a human forever. [[spoiler:It's actually Liz who makes the decision to let the bird go, against the bird's wishes. She realizes that keeping the bird as a human will only confine her and stop her from flying free like she was meant to.]] The story forms the crux of the main plot of the film, as the characters apply its themes to their own feelings toward each other.

* ''Anime/WolfChildren'': Hana's boyfriend reveals himself to be a wolf-man after they'd been going out for some time. [[spoiler:His role is tragically cut short when he drowns in a storm drain while hunting.]] Later the same thing is [[ImpliedLoveInterest implied to happen]] with their daughter and one of her classmates.

* The eponymous fairy tale in ''Film/LizAndTheBlueBird'' is a variant of the traditional story; a lonely girl named Liz meets a blue bird, who decides to become a human girl in order to be Liz's friend. They start living together and grow close over many days, but eventually the bird has to leave, as she can't be a human forever. [[spoiler:It's actually Liz who makes the decision to let the bird go, against the bird's wishes. She realizes that keeping the bird as a human will only confine her and stop her from flying free like she was meant to.]] The story forms the crux of the main plot of the film, as the characters apply its themes to their own feelings toward each other.

* One particularly famous positively-depicted Fox Wife is Kuzunoha, mother of the Japanese Merlin. (A guy with the bonus cred of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_no_Seimei actually having existed.]] Though the real Abe no Seimei was ''probably'' fully human rather than [[HalfHumanHybrid half-kitsune]].)
* Gumiho are the Korean version of the [[FantasticFoxes nine-tailed fox]]. They occasionally seduce men, though normally they're trying to win his heart (or liver) in a [[ToServeMan more literal sense]].

* ''Series/MyGirlfriendIsANineTailedFox'': Miho is a [[FantasticFoxes gumiho]] (see folklore section) who believes that she can become human if she spends 100 days with Daewoong.

:: ''"A man spies a group of [[VoluntaryShapeshifting magical shapeshifters]] bathing. Seeing that they must shed their creature skin when they [[HumanityEnsues transform from a creature into a beautiful woman]], he steals one of the skins. [[ShapeshifterModeLock Unable to transform]] and join her sisters, one poor creature is left behind. The man makes the abandoned one his wife. One day, many years later (sometimes after bearing children), she finds the skin and may finally return to her kin. Dilemma on whether or not she will may or may not ensue."''

* Little Foolery's ''[[http://littlefoolery.com/cranewife.html Crane Wife]]''. After the Yamagata family patriarch's death, a mysterious young woman identifying herself as Lady Mitsuru arrives at the family's mansion. When pressed by the main character, Mitsuru reveals herself to be a crane that the deceased patriarch helped during a blizzard. The man and the crane promised each other that they would do each other a favour, to help both of them to have a better life from there on. The crane gave the master a life that he dearly wished for, and in return the crane received folded paper cranes, having now come for the first one, which was all-white. [[spoiler:It turns out that the "life" the master asked for, and the white paper crane Lady Mitsuru wanted, are the same thing -- the eldest son, Yamagata Izuru, who the crane gave birth to. Lord Yamagata's wife, however, completely misjudged the situation and assumed that Izuru was the "price" the crane had come to collect in return for helping the family over the years, now that her husband had died. The ''crane'' considered Izuru a mutual gift, and the ''actual'' price she was promised was the wife's life. The wife's attempt to threaten the crane into leaving [[KillEmAll ends badly]], and Izuru becomes the new master of the Yamagata family.]]

[[folder:Films -- Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SongOfTheSea'' features this as part of its backstory, Ben and Saorise's mother Bronagh is a {{selkie|sAndWereseals}} as is Saorise, their father being a lighthouse keeper who fell in love with the very willing Bronagh. However Bronagh returned to the sea on the night of her daughter's birth. The story focuses instead on Ben and Saorise's journey to save both the lives of the fae folk of Ireland and Saorise after their father throws her selkie coat into the sea which makes her ill.
[[/folder]]

See Also: InterspeciesRomance, OurMermaidsAreDifferent, SelkiesAndWereseals, {{Therianthrope}}, and HumanityEnsues. Compare BeastAndBeauty, BalefulPolymorph, BoyMeetsGhoul, "Literature/TheFrogPrince". [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Unrelated to]] PowerPerversionPotential and ShapeshiftingSquick. Not to be confused with ShapeshiftingSeducer.

* ''Literature/ABouquet of Czech Folktales'' prefers shapeshipting with plants:
** The ballad "Willow" is about a woman who shares her life with a willow. She's a woman during days, but she's lying as if she were dead at nights. When her husband finds out that she actually lives as a willow, he decides to cut the tree down because he wants to have her ''fully''. It ends badly because she dies the instant he cuts the willow and he and his little son lose her forever. Only, he's advised to make a cradle for the baby out of the wood.

** Ryan the {{tanuki}} and Istas the [[https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Waheela Waheela]] can both shapeshift between human and animalistic forms (Ryan can also appear as a normal raccoon dog).

[[caption-width-right:350:How'd he wind up with a [[{{Kitsune}} fox]] like her?\\

* {{Kitsune}} (fox-spirits) and {{Tanuki}} (raccoon dog spirits) - Japanese trickster animal spirits. They don't leave skins behind, but they sometimes transform into beautiful women and marry men. They must leave if the man discovers their identity. Sometimes they are malicious and sometimes they are kindly. They are also sometimes female as humans, but male in their true animal forms. Among the best-known traits of the Tanuki are its ''ridiculously large testicles''. On occasion it's implied that ''both sexes'' have the testicles, which, as far as fantastical creatures go, makes a certain amount of sense (dwarf beards, anyone?), but considering the tanuki is also a real animal is just plain weird. The strong vulpine predisposition to womanhood is also by no means binding; they are known often to have impersonated men, although a lower percentage of these are for romantic purposes.

* The Italian FairyTale ''Literature/TheCanaryPrince'' tells of a romance between a prince and a GirlInTheTower. Since she does not have RapunzelHair, a friendly witch offers them an alternate solution: an enchanted book. By turning the pages forward, he changes into a canary, and when she turns the pages backward, he turns back into himself.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** An episode has the ghost of a beautiful woman seducing James and Brock. This gets awkward when the ghost turns out to be a Gastly. Not as awkward as you'd think -- it turns out in the end that the Gastly's in it to propagate the REAL ghost's legend, and to make a little money on the side (it even materializes a cash register as it's talking to said real ghost; how does it make money, you ask? It disguises itself as a crazy old lady and sells fake wards and charms). The Gastly in question is MALE.

** The human Antimony's boyfriend is Sam the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C5%ABri fūri]], who can shapeshift between a human form and a simian form with a PrehensileTail and HandyFeet. He loves her because she's the first girl to love him in his natural form.