Line #37 Main/FurryLens


1	Anthropomorphic animals tend to be allegorical by default. After all, [[MostWritersAreHuman as conceptions of human beings]], anthropomorphic animals are based off a human template, and tend to be metaphors for the human condition, political groups or even just individuals.
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3	Some creators, however, go one step further and make the characters straight up '''not''' anthropomorphic animals at all, but human beings, ''visually portrayed'' as anthropomorphic animals. In this case, the characters are contextually human beings, but are portrayed as animals, often for symbolic or aesthetic reasons.
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5	Some, but not all of these works are [[MatureAnimalStory Mature Animal Stories]]. Some examples can look like WorldOfFunnyAnimals due to all the characters being drawn to look like anthropomorphic animals.
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7	Can explain the FurryConfusion occurring in the work, because the anthropomorphic animals in the work turn out to be contextually human and the nonanthropomorphic animals are contextually their respective species of animal.
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9	Sub-trope to StylizedForTheViewer and AmbiguouslyHuman. Compare and contrast DenialOfAnimality, which can invoke this, but it is (usually) non-overlapping since it ''directly acknowledges'' that the characters are animals. Contrast WorldOfFunnyAnimals, where the whole cast ''really are'' anthropomorphic animals. See also BeastMan, which is about taking an Earth animal and using it as inspiration for another species. Compare MusicalWorldHypothesis.
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11	!!Examples:
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13	[[foldercontrol]]
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15	[[folder:Advertising]]
16	* ''Advertising/FrontRowJoe'': The characters are anthropomorphic animals, but they all act like humans, and all of them [[NonStandardCharacterDesign except Elton]] have humanlike proportions.
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19	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
20	* Punpun and his family from ''Manga/GoodnightPunpun'' are depicted as [[StylisticSuck sloppily drawn]] cartoon birds. Everyone else is a semi-realistic human. It's been shown that Punpun is also a human, and that "Punpun" probably isn't even his real name, however he resembles a bird to the reader. [[spoiler:Punpun's form also changes when he becomes dark or depressed]]. Punpun's real face is never fully depicted, only bits and pieces of it are shown at a time. A character drew him once; however [[TheUnreveal the eyes were marked out]].
21	* Inverted in the manga ''Manga/{{Nyankees}}''. The characters are [[StrayAnimalStory street cats]], but are drawn as human [[JapaneseDelinquents delinquents]] about 50% of the time.
22	* ''[[Anime/TamaAndFriends Uchitama!? Have You Seen My Tama?]]'' inverts this as well; the viewers see the cast as LittleBitBeastly humans, but they're really a bunch of dogs and cats.
23	* In ''Anime/OddTaxi'', the final episode reveals that [[spoiler:all the characters are actually humans, but [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness the main character Odokawa and thus the audience sees them as animals]] because of his “visual agnosia” brain condition. This is hinted at, such as when his doctor laughs at being called a gorilla and a passenger is confused when he refers to a member of [[IdolSinger Mystery Kiss]] as a calico cat]].
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26	[[folder:Comic Books]]
27	* The TropeNamer is ''ComicBook/{{Circles}}'', where the characters are drawn as various anthropomorphic animals, often fuzzy mammals, but stated by WordOfGod to be actually human beings seen through a "furry lens". Finally confirmed in the last "issue", which is actually an illustrated novel, where the narration pretty explicitly describes the characters as human... while the illustrations still show them as animals.
28	* ''ComicBook/ElDeafo'': It's a semi-autobiographical work illustrating human beings as rabbits.
29	* ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'' is an a biography of Creator/ArtSpiegelman's father, in which various ethnic groups are visually portrayed as animal species (i.e. Jews as mice, Germans as cats, French as frogs, et cetera). Contextually, they are still human beings, and refer to themselves as such; they are not allegorical animals representing human groups.
30	** Humorously, the author does address the issues that arise when this trope meets FurryConfusion. At one point the Jewish protagonist-- drawn as a mouse-- visits a friend who owns several pet cats. In the comic, anthropomorphic cats represent Germans and ''Nazis'', which leads Spiegelman to write "Can I mention this, or does it just louse up my metaphor?" At another point, the protagonist visits his therapist, and one panel shows a picture of a non-anthropomorphic cat; the picture has a label next to it saying, "Framed portrait of pet cat - really!"
31	** It can get a little odd when it comes to "mixed" marriages and the like. One scene also features a man in a concentration camp claiming to be a German UsefulNotes/WorldWarI vet as a mouse in one panel and a cat in the next, representing his conflicting identities.
32	* ComicBook/DisneyMouseAndDuckComics generally do depict their characters as actual animals (albeit functionally human, for all intents and purposes). Not so much ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'', where the characters are very explicitly human beings, depicted (often randomly) as either ducks or {{dogfaces}}. One issue has the Young Scrooge run into a herd of cows and the cattle-handlers reacts with surprise that Scrooge… speaks in a Scottish accent, just like their boss, real-life cattle-baron and fellow Scotsman, Murdo [=MacKenzie=].
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35	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
36	* In Series/TomorrowsPioneers, the co-hosts, although dressed as funny animals, don't show any animal traits, are human-sized, refer to themselves as humans, and even have fully human parents.
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39	[[folder:Music]]
40	* The video for Music/DaftPunk's "Da Funk" shows an anthropomorphic dog walking around UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity with a boom box playing the song. He has a number of small adventures, but no one seems to acknowledge that he's an anthropomorphic dog.
41	* In 2004, Brazil had a virtual rapper named "Dogão", which was an anthropomorphic dog. While many of his songs (such as "Dogão é Mau") did have references to dog related stuff such as leashes and heats, they would still make sense metaphorically even if they were fully human (mostly related to Dogão's ChickMagnet tendencies). The second animated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prR7_-w-2gU music video]] for "Banho e Tosa" even has the characters' human forms switch or coexist with their rotoscoped animated anthro forms multiple times (such as when Dogão's girlfriend Nega Ganja's mirror reflection is her animal form, but in real life she's a live-action woman).
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44	[[folder:Podcasts]]
45	* The furry writer's podcast [[http://fangsandfonts.com/ "Fangs and Fonts"]] refers to this type of fiction as "zipperback", with the implication that the characters might as well be humans in fursuits.
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48	[[folder:Video Games]]
49	* In ''VideoGame/BeaconPines'', every character is portrayed as an anthropomorphic animal, and this is never acknowledged in any capacity; nobody ever mentions what species anyone is, nor does the narration or dialogue ever use words like "tail" or "paw".
50	* Acknowledged In-Universe in ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}''. Anyone entering the Nightmare will see themselves as human and everyone else as sheep.
51	* The "Ape Town" mutator in ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRogue'' causes all [=NPC=]s to look like gorillas. It has no effect on gameplay; the only people who act like gorillas are the ones who were gorillas before, being kept in cages by the "human" gorillas.
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54	[[folder:Webcomics]]
55	* The characters of ''Webcomic/{{Lackadaisy}}'' are portrayed as anthropomorphic cats, but (at least in the canon strips) act exactly like prohibition-era humans. The non-canon strips have an occasional FurryReminder, like Rocky claiming he had to shave Freckle's face to see his freckle, and the characters being confused what Tracy J. Butler's AuthorAvatar (depicted as a cartoony human) actually is. Tracy J. Butler also made drawings of how the characters would look like as humans - which is presumably their actual appearance.
56	* ''Webcomic/{{Precocious}}'' creator Christopher Paulson claims that he thinks of the characters as humans when writing the scripts. Though occasionally, a FurryReminder might be used for a one-off joke.
57	* ''Webcomic/RubyQuest'': While the characters are drawn as anthropomorphic animals, this is done purely to help the reader tell them apart in the simplistic art style; WordOfGod states they are human beings, and indeed, the characters never once give any indication that they're not human in behavior or appearance.
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60	[[folder:Web Animation]]
61	* ''WebAnimation/{{Happiness}}'': The short depicts all human beings as RatMen due to the common association of them being numerous and leading miserable lives. The protagonist begins his journey running in the sewers, only to end in a subway packed with other rats. In fact, all scenes make a point to show how crowded the city is. The only FurryReminder is the protagonist getting ensnared by a mouse trap--but that's a clear metaphor for grueling, underpaid work and he had been chasing after a dollar.
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64	[[folder:Western Animation]]
65	* This was Creator/WaltDisney's intent with the WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts characters. Early shorts clearly had them as animals; however, eventually he began to see them as humans who simply look like animals to the audience. This explains why many older shorts [[LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy portray the characters living alongside humans]]. He banned any {{Furry Reminder}}s, such as Mickey eating cheese. Since Walt's death, Disney has ignored this idea, and the idea that the characters were "actually" human (except for the {{dogface}}s in some cases) was gradually discarded. WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and the others are repeatedly noted to be {{Funny Animal}}s and {{Furry Reminder}}s, while still rare, are not unheard-of.
66	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'':
67	** [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]]. The original books and the earlier seasons of the TV series state or at least imply that the characters are animals, albeit functionally human for all intents and purposes. However, as the TV series went on, most of these {{Furry Reminder}}s were phased out. This is most obvious in the episode where Arthur and his friends watch the SelfParody ''Andy and Co.'' and point out all the FridgeLogic inherent in a FunnyAnimal series. Historical figures and racial identity (i.e The Brain is described as being African-American in-universe, even celebrating Kwanzaa, although he appears to the audience as a bear) match those of the real world, further suggesting the characters see themselves as humans. Real-life [[SpecialGuest celebrity guests]] are also drawn as anthropomorphic animals.
68	** The spinoff ''WesternAnimation/PostcardsFromBuster'' leans heavily on the assumption the cast are human, as all of the locations Buster visits are shown in live-action, with humans--presumably as they would appear to the audience if they were within the show.
69	** The GrandFinale goes out of its way to show the cast are human, as the plot concern Arthur taking an interest in drawing animals. [[spoiler:As a grown-up, Arthur is a cartoonist [[IShouldWriteABookAboutThis behind the entire series]], who states the character look the way they do because he "just likes drawing animals".]]
70	[[/folder]]

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