Anime and Manga Subversions and Inversions of This Trope (a.k.a. Humans Are Easier To Draw)
In many Manga, Anime, and manga or anime-inspired artstyles and fanart, this trope is either averted or inverted. Human and Little Bit Beastly, especially Cat Girl characters look appealing and well drawn, but normal animals and animals on the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism from Nearly Normal Animal to Funny Animal can look a little off at best and fall into the Unintentional Uncanny Valley at worst. Interestingly, Anime and Manga tends to avoid Beast Man, being substituted by the aforementioned Little Bit Beastly and Funny Animal.
Many characters, if they are not human characters, are drawn as completely human but with features of their animal self in the form of ears and tails. It's a case of Humans Are Easier to Draw.
Cats, at least small cats like housecats and feral cats, suffer from this trope less than almost all other animals that show up in manga and anime as they have large, forward-facing eyes, a small nose and mouth, and a large forehead. The anime/manga facial style is known for its large eyes, small mouths, small, pointed noses, small, pointed chins, and large foreheads, and the facial features of a cat don't deviate too far from that.
