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The Japanese (or at least manga and anime creators) (and the internet) seem to have a fascination with Nekomimi — catgirls, literally "cat-eared". The combination of feline and female seems to resonate strongly in the collective muse and shows up in many forms, ranging from the "10,000 horsepower innocent", the cyborg Nuku-Nuku (from All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku) all the way up to the devastatingly sexy criminals Ana and Una Puma from Dominion Tank Police. They are found in genres as widely varied as High Fantasy (Merle and others in Vision Of Escaflowne), light comedy and Cyber Punk, proving that they are not a setting-specific feature, but a general type that can be inserted into just about anything. This makes sense, because cats are girls.
The catgirl seems to have roots in ancient myth with a Nekomata, but the first true catgirl (and thus the trope) appears to have been created by Osamu Tezuka in the 1950s. Interestingly, Catwoman from the Batman series predates this creation by at least 10 years, but she only dresses up in cat motif — she doesn't have any biologically cat-like features, an Island of Dr. Moreau-esque episode of Batman The Animated Series notwithstanding.
It is noteworthy that the most common (if somewhat hackneyed) method of drawing anime characters, particularly females, tends to give them catlike features (large eyes, a small mouth and a skull shaped much like that of a young human child) - and that cats are extremely anthropomorphic for non-primates in the first place. Given this, the catgirl is possibly nothing more than the logical conclusion of this.
Catgirls usually have Cute Little Fangs and a tendency to use a Cat Smile when happy.
For some reason, characters which are not actually catgirls often show up as catgirls in the fantasies of other (male) characters. Collars often make a prominent appearance in such cases. In a less suggestive context, playful female characters often have catgirl avatars in Cyber Space sequences.
The view of catgirls among Western fans is somewhat mixed. Catgirls are extremely common subjects of cosplay and forum roleplaying, and in the US at least, catgirl cosplayers are often stereotyped as obnoxious, pushy preteens with squeaky voices speaking broken Japanese. (Cosplaying a pre-established character who just happens to be a catgirl is much more socially acceptable, but cosplaying your own original catgirl, or just wearing cat ears with your normal clothes, fits right here.) 'Please spay your catgirl' is a common joke in some circles, reflecting the general low esteem they are held in by some people, especially those who conflate them with the more negative aspects of the Furry Fandom. However, catgirls are a popular subject of Fan Art among US anime fans, including catgirl versions of non-catgirl characters.
As we have learned from one Internet meme, every time you mention real science in a discussion of comic book science, the supernatural, or science fiction, God kills a catgirl.
Every so often, you'll see a catboy, which is the same thing in male flavor, essentially. They're far less common than the female version, but otherwise the same basic idea. They tend to be either Keets or bad boys, and are actually more likely to wear collars than their female counterparts - especially in Fan Art.
Western comic books prefer the cat-people type to the ears-and-tail version. Expect a Western feline-themed character to be portrayed as especially sexy and especially dangerous, with deadly claws and agility second only to Spider Man. Cute Little Fangs are present but seldom used in a cute manner.
Characters who are fully human but with a cat theme tend to be the more acrobatic sort of Badass Normal. Clawed gloves come standard. It is not uncommon for them to be 'upgraded' to actual cat-person via Applied Phlebotinum.
For less common Kemonomimi, see Petting Zoo People. Possibly related is the "air intake"◊ hair formation found on long-haired characters, which might resemble cat ears...
Nya?
Examples
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- Far too many anime series to list here. Wikipedia has a decent, but still incomplete list. A complete list would likely cause the Spine of the Internet to break.
- Neconoclasm is a manga about catgirls with a nicely-sized online preview, and thus provides a very nice example.
- While the Diclonii in Elfen Lied are not catgirls, their horns give them a similar appearance.
- Parodied in Haré+Guu, Guu occasionally dresses up as one and does a pretty bad job of being cute. Also Marie once dressed as one after taking advice from Gupta, who has strange tastes.
- Something of a homage, the Genshiken club members try to persuade Saki to wear a set of cat-ears, despite her violent opposition and retaliation.
- Evangeline of Mahou Sensei Negima accepted a bet where she would have to wear cat-ears (plus glasses, a school swimsuit, and the top of a fuku) if she lost. Regrettably, Evangeline won this bet, so the ultimate vampire fanservice never came to fruition. Also, during the festival, several girls wear cat ears as part of a costume or on their own.
- We do get to see Eva with all that stuff on, courtesy of her imagination. It's not as it would have been if she lost the bet, but it's something.
- In the recent "Magical World" arc, all of the members of Ala Alba except for Chachamaru wear them at some point or another. At no time is this ever commented on, so This Troper can only assume that they function as part of a disguise. Chisame and Setsuna are the worst offenders, while the other girls do it more sporadically.
- There's also Kotarou, who is the complete opposite of a Cat Girl (a Dog Boy), but still manages to have them.
- Likewise, Inugami from Nurarihyon no Mago is a Dog Boy and is naturally loyal to the death and while he constantly has his tongue out he dosen't have dog ears, although his hair is spiky enough.
- Somewhat of a subversion: Mikoto from Mai-HiME merely behaves like a Cat Girl, while being a regular human in appearance.
- The same applies to Meow in Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran, cumulating in very fetching cat-like moves when she fights.
- The "ears" of most life-size Persocoms in Chobits (actually used to contain interface jacks) may be deliberately designed to resemble Cat Girl ears.
- Parodied in Tsukuyomi Moon Phase: Hazuki is a vampire, but Kouhei's grandpa asked her to wear a pair of cat ears.
- Schrödinger from the Hellsing manga and OVAs is a cute shotaro Nazi catboy.
- Even the makers of El Cazador De La Bruja found it necessary to let the two female leads wear cat ears in one episode.
- Don't forget Ricardo. Nya.
- Tsukiyomi Ikuto from Shugo Chara has a catboy as his guardian chara, and therefore being a catboy represents his inner would-be self.
- Kyouka from Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, a hyperactive young-looking catgirl who was worshiped as a goddess, and views herself as such. She's the mother figure in the family.
- Ichigo from Tokyo Mew Mew is the leader of a band of Magical Girl Petting Zoo People, so there's no question that she would be a catgirl.
- Mia Ikumi's earlier one-shot manga, Tokyo Black Cat Girl, from which TMM was supposedly derived, also featured a magical catgirl as the protagonist.
- Viral from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is essentially a catboy with some shark thrown in on the side. As if cats didn't have pointy enough teeth....
- Considering how his only feline traits are his clawed hands and his Hellish Pupils, he's more of a shark-man with some cat thrown in on the side, really. Viral is also the least animalistic beastman in the series by far.
- It's played straight when the Anti-Spiral traps the Gurren-dan in a fantasy world, in which Viral's wife has cat ears.
- Princess Sara in the Sonic The Hedgehog anime movie.
- Merle, Nariya and Eriya from Vision Of Escaflowne.
- The Liese sisters, Aria and Lotte, of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. There's also Linith, Precia's familiar who prominently appears in the second Sound Stage of the first season, though she's embarassed about her feline bits and tries to hide them.
- Himari from Omamori Himari is a samurai catgirl Magical Girlfriend. She speaks in an old-time dialect. Notable is one scene where she uses her cat features while at work in a maid cafe to her advantage - everyone thinks it's just a costume. However, Yuuto's allergic to cats, so that's slightly problematic for her.
- Chrono Crusade has Shader, a cat-demon. She still looks basically like a catgirl, however, only with odd markings on her face and horns on her head.
- Princess Tutu has a rare male, mostly-feline version in Professor Cat.
- Aisha ClanClan from Outlaw Star is a C'tarl-C'tarl, a race of gluttonous adrenaline-filled cat-people with insane invulnerability levels. Aisha can also transform into a huge white tiger when she's at full power.
- Najimi in Doujin Work does a good job cosplaying as a cat girl in an otaku cafe, considering that her main motivation is making money.
- In Ranma 1/2, Shampoo, who is already cursed to turn into a small pink cat by Jusenkyo, runs into the Maomolin —a giant ghost cat who fancies her as a bride. He'll turn her permanently into a cat if the New Year's Bell rings 108 times. As the ritual proceeds, she grows cat ears and a tail.
- Although she's not a catgirl per se, Hikaru from Magic Knight Rayearth gets the ears-and-tail motif (and goes Super Deformed) whenever she's befuddled or charmed by something she sees.
- Blair is an example who's actually a cat, well some of the time. She's usually fanservice.
- Not a real catgirl, but Card Captor Sakura once had Tomoyo place the title character in a catgirl costume. To be more specific, a Cat Girl Meido costume made of rubber (She was fighting The Thunder at the time). For some reason, this became one of her most popular outfits.
- Shadow Panther, Misaki/Hikaru's first opponent in Angelic Layer.
- Natsuki Sasaehara, the heroine of Hyper Police. The rest of the main cast are a Kitsune and two Werewolves
- Parodied in Cromartie High School when resident butt monkey Akira Maeda has to become a cat for a week to prove that he can comprehend the relationship between animals and humans. After a week, he finally gives up, only for him to be congratulated on being an excellent cat.
- All of the main characters in Free Collars Kingdom. Subverted though, in that they are actual cats, but for the most part they appear as cat girls/boys.
- Ninin Ga Shinobuden has Shinobu dressing up as a cat girl for Kaede's school festival.
- Axis Powers Hetalia has a strip dealing with a festival in memory for the cats killed because they were thought to be evil. This becomes an opportunity to show several characters with cat ears, male or female.
- Interesting example with the DOGS manga. There is a cat-girl... only she's at least seventy, and looks every year.
- Catgirl Nuku Nuku although she's actually a robot with a cat's brain inside.
- Nekoko in Kannazuki no Miko is a cat girl who and also a Girl With Psycho Weapon, as she attacks with a giant syringe, representing the fact that she was a subject of unethical medical testing as a child.
- Lampshaded in Maria+Holic by the Dorm Leader. The characters discuss how her ears "aren't fake" and can "actually move," and at one point, the protagonist finds a cat-ear headband in the garden, leading them to speculate if the catgirl is actually real.
- In Bleach, there's a momment when Orihime says "I smell Kurosaki-kun" and get's rather...cattish.
- Pink from the Hentai Manga Dragon Pink is a sexy, cute and uber unlucky slave girl turned into a catgirl after she takes a pair of cursed panties found in a treasure chest. While the curse gives her some interesting gifts (Speed, agility, flexibility, night vision and quick healing) it also makes her plummet to the bottom of the social scale and being considered as a pet rather than a human being.
- The Thunder Nyan Nyan card from Yu-Gi-Oh! is depicted as a cat-girl playing drums.
- Cat-people and Werecats:
- The Cat was once a costumed heroine, but a ritual was performed on her, transforming her into the werecat Tigra, who would go on to join the Avengers. There's a tug-of-war between her human and feline instincts and which has the upper hand tends to depend on the writer. One day she's able to fly interstellar spacecraft, the next she's chasing and eating mice and unable to speak (except in cat noises.)
- Wonder Woman has faced four villains called Cheetah: Two pre-Crisis costumers and two Post Crisis werecats. The first werecat, Barbara Ann Minerva, is the current and best-known Cheetah and the basis for the animated version. (The other werecat was her successor, and male. Barbara killed him.)
- The X-Men franchise has several, most notably the male, deadly Sabretooth and two sisters known as Feral and Thornn.
- There's also one of Emma Frost's early students, Catseye, who could turn into a cat. However, this was later retconned into her being a mutant cat who could turn into a human.
- Dr Hank McCoy, better known as the Beast, recently turned from a furry ape-man into a furry cat-man due to his "secondary mutation".
- And Sabretooth, Feral and Thornn are actually Wolf People. Yes they are, Jeph Loeb says so.
- Although Mam'selle Hepzibah (of the Starjammers) is actually a skunkgirl, she looks feline enough.
- Rare male example: Tom, the son of the superhero Wildcat of DC Comics' JSA, is a catboy.
- Jil DeSmoot in Nexus is a Felim, an alien species of, well, cat-people. She's also a Lipstick Lesbian (in fact, one issue revealed that the males and females of her species have a deep instinctive aversion to each other except during mating season).
- Another male example is Talon, from Marvel's Avengers spin-off Guardians of the Galaxy. Who's also a sorcerer, a Keet, and possibly a Celibate Hero if you don't count what a female villain did to him at a point in the series after the first long-term writer was disavowing the storyline, that is.
- Britanny Diggers from the Gold Digger Comic By Fred Perry is a were-cheetah. Her half-clone sister Brianna also fits this trope, because she's half Brit and half Gina (Brit's Sister by adoption).
- Pantha, of the Teen Titans, was a catgirl created by genetic alteration. She doesn't know if she was a human woman or a female panther prior to the alteration.
- Catspaw, of the Legion Of Superheroes, was similar to Pantha, but was definitely a human before being altered by the Dominators.
- Does Mr Tawky Tawny qualify as a Catboy?
- Costumers
- Hellcat inherited The Cat's costume after The Cat was upgraded to Tigra.
- Catwoman is the ur-example of the Badass Normal version. Although Catman (Thomas Blake) runs a close second after Gail Simone's overhaul of the character.
- ...and Spider-Man's former love interest the Black Cat is what you get when Marvel Follows The Leader, though she's since evolved into her own character.
- Teen Titans villain Cheshire is named for a type of cat, but her costume's only cat-themed in the Animated Adaptation.
- Animated Teen Titans also gives Batman villain Killer Moth a daughter named Kitten who briefly took on an anime-like catgirl form and meowed when asked to clarify her name. Of course, given the show's love of sight gags, there's no being sure if this was seriously meant to be a superpower of hers.
- Animated Starfire was also turned into a cat briefly.
- Carrie Kelly in Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again is named Catgirl.
- British superheroine The Cat Girl has a magical cat costume that gives her superhuman abilities.
- The British had several cat-themed superheroes. Billy The Cat is probably the best known.
- Close to manga, but done in the USA ... a comic series called 'Reality Check!' by Studio Tavicat featured as a main protagonist Catreece. In the world of Virtual Reality, she's a cute bouncy cat girl (her sister's a bit more..well, catty). In the world of reality, she's a..cat.
- Ed Power and Melissa DeJesus' My Cage is a comic strip about Norm T. Platypus, a cubicle slave in an all-anthropomorphic future. Norm's assistant is a delectably bitchy tiger girl named Ashley T. Bengal.
- Omaha The Cat Dancer.
- Cat People had a literal cat girl, the main character a girl who can turn into a black panther and in fact a whole darn population of people who had this power.
- The whole entire cast of main characters in Cats are feline (and not just the girls either) from the mystical Mr. Mistoffelees (who is some sort of a cat magician), railroad master cat Skimbleshanks, the delightfully evil Macavity, to the wise, old sage cat Old Deuteronomy.
- Monkeybone has a catgrrrl played by Rose McGowan. Rrrrow.
- In the 90's version of Dr. Moreau with Marlon Brando, his daughter played by Fairuza Balk is transformed into a literal cat girl.
- Miss Kitty, in the Space Western Oblivion is a Cat Girl Madame, played by Julie "Catwoman" Newmar.
- Somewhat subverted in the independent short Pat Gets a Cat: the protagonist imagines a human girl behaving like a cat, but without the ears, tail or most common traits of the garden-variety catgirl.
- American Gods has the protagonist healed by Bast. Her humanoid form has feline eyes and a rough tongue (yes, cat tongues are harsh).
- Kilgore Trout's Venus On The Half Shell (ghostwritten by Philip Jose Farmer instead of Kurt Vonnegut) has a cat-like alien queen who makes love to the hero and grants him immortality.
- Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind series has C'Mell, who literally is a cat girl. C'Mell, and any other Underpeople(animals modified into human form and intelligence) with "C" in front of their name, is cat derived. Typical of the trope, C'mell works as a girlygirl, or a type of hostess. Not so typical is that C'mell is never mentioned having cat ears. It's notable that this is a Western short story from the 1960s.
- CJ Cherryh's Chanur series - subverted by making these catlike aliens a powerful space-faring species where the female is dominant, and having them rescue and take care of Tully, a lost human male.
- If this troper recalls correctly, social traits of the hani were inspired by both lions and hyenas.
- Greebo's human form in the Discworld books is very male, ruggedly handsome, and vaguely feline.
- Not to mention he aparently exuded sexual energy; being able to "comit sexual harassment by sitting quietly in the next room"
- Fritz Leiber's The Wanderer has a Sexy Alien Catgirl from a Superior Alien Species teach the hero about Sexy Catgirl Sex. It's notable that this is a Western novel from the 1960s.
- Mercedes Lackey's Mage Winds trilogy. The trilogy boasts as major characters both Nyara, a created catgirl, and her father, Mornelithe Falconsbane, the trilogy's Big Bad (an evil mage inhabiting the bodies of his descendants) who, among other things, uses Nyara as a 'test subject' for feline alterations to his own body.
- Meena in the novel Brave Story (which later became a manga and a movie) is a cat girl. In the book, she's depicted as a Funny Animal, with fur all over and decidedly feline features; in the visual adaptions of the novel, though, she's portrayed as a cute nekomimi.
- Dragaera has cat-centaurs- more of a Half Human Hybrid version, but they do seem fairly playful, like many of the other examples.
- Richard Calder's Dead Boys, Dead Things, and Frenzetta feature semen-hungry cat-girls and the demigod-like men (later represented as wolf-men in the last book mentioned) who love to commit sexualised murder on them. This makes the "computer virus turning girls into gynoids" of his Dead Girls seem simple and pleasant by comparison....
- Feral from the superhero novel Soon I Will Be Invincible is a massive, brawling Bengal tiger mashup man who gets back-aches from trying to walk on two legs. Too bad he's a minor supporting character.
- Miyet, just to name one from the Whateley Universe. (Double catgirl quotient because the actual goddess Bast — see Mythology — is behind her transformation and talks to her in her head every so often.)
- Rohant, from Jo Clayton's Shadow series, could be an older, grimmer "catboy." If you squint. (Actually, the entire Dyslaeror species—who seem to be altered humans with leonine traits—probably count.)
- In Neal Asher's Poliy Series, a popular body-modification subculture are those called catadapts, who have modified themselves into a feline appearance.
- The cat-nuns from Doctor Who, but these are considerably more feline and are later discovered to have males in their species as well.
- Presumably Brannigan in Gridlock was one of them. And the kittens, partly....
- There's also the cat people from the cheetah planet who seem to be mostly female. The influence of the planet causes anyone who stays there too long to become a cat person as well, starting with yellow eyes and Cute Little Fangs and working up to full body fur and a cat head. Naturally, Ace starts to change while there. Played as frightening, not sexy unless you believe the theory about lesbian subtext.
- Also Doctor Katherine "Kat" Manx from Power Rangers SPD, who is an alien humanoid feline, much like how her boss Anubis "Doggie" Cruger is a alien humanoid canine (albeit one with scales instead of fur like his Japanese counterpart Doggie "Boss" Kruger.).
- Oddly enough, her sentai counterpart is a Swan-girl, with wings on her head. This is why her Ranger form has a "Cat Feathers" attack.
- Season 1 of Big Wolf On Campus had a literal cat girl in the form of french exchange student Carole who was a Werecat of some kind.
- No ears or tail, but Jessica Alba's character Max from Dark Angel was chock-full of cat DNA. For larfs, she goes into heat in two episodes.
- Another male example, the Cat from Red Dwarf. Evolved from the ship's cat, his only remaining feline features are fangs, a crazy sense of fashion, a self-centered nature, a desire to chase his food (usually after he's thrown it), and, allegedly, six nipples.
- Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax from DS 9) played a female version of Cat in the second pilot for the US version of Red Dwarf.
- Trance Gemini, from Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, is basically a purple anime catgirl from outer space. She has elf ears rather than cat ears, but she does have a prehensile tail (though with a devil-like spaded end), and the playful personality to match.
- Gene Vincent's song "Catman", later covered by The Birthday Party. The titular character is, admittedly, as sexy a beast as Ray Winstone, but is scary as hell.
- David Bowie's song "Cat People", which is the theme from the 1982 remake of Cat People, has a lot of cat-like things about it.
- The Shonen Knife song "I am a Cat" is about a young woman who ... well, yeah.
- Note that the title is a reference to a fairly famous Japanese novel that is almost totally unknown outside of its native country.
- The Egpytian goddess Bast is often depicted as a woman with the head of a cat or a lioness. Par for the course, as the Egyptians were absolutely fascinated with cats and even treated them like gods.
- Better said: They believed that the ka (part of the soul) of their gods resided in animals of a special kind — in Bast's case, the cats.
- Hey, don't forget Sekhmet!
- And then, there's Cat Man himself (also known as Stalking Tiger). Through years and years worth of plastic surgery, tattoos, and other body art, he has transformed himself into a literal cat-man.
- It's part of his Native American belief, though.
- Which rather raises the question of which Native Americans have tigers as a totem animal.
- That's not more Native American than me. Even if he were really Native American (which this troper isn't convinced of), his antics wouldn't mean that they're really part of his culture. In fact, this troper, who's worked with quite a few Native Canadians, is pretty sure that most Aboriginal people in their right mind would be disgusted at the simplistic and crazy image this guy gives of them.
- Everyone has their own interpretation. Native Americans of the South America certainly did things to themselves no less freaky in the past (check the beauty ideals of the Mayans some time, and the lengths they made to reach them, some time). Whether most contemporary First Nations would like to recognise this guy or not (probably not), he's hardly without precedents in history.
- As well as Soo "Sue" Catwoman, whom many Tropers might recognize as a significant 1970's punk icon.
- Also, Jocelyn Wildenstein, although her later surgeries took her further from "catlike face" and further into "looks like she lost a fight with a hive of killer bees"...
- "Catgirl" is a monster in the Munchkin spoof RPG. The Munchkin catgirls are just as adorable as their anime counterparts, but also happen to be vicious cannibals who love to eat male adventurers. Most of the catgirl's attacks are standard Dungeons & Dragons attacks, with cutesy names-"Pounce" becomes "Pouncy-Poo", while "Rend" becomes "Rendy-Wendy".
- And there's also the "Catboi hireling" in the same game. A cute tigerstriped male in a loincloth, usable only by female characters. But he's on the player's side, not a monster.
- From the people who brought you Munchkin, there's also the game SPANC: Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Catgirls. It's what it says on the box.
- And if you find yourself angry with catgirls, you can always go ahead and Whack a Catgirl,
- The Tempest block of Magic The Gathering featured Mirri, a leopardlike cat warrior. Though she has a very feline head, below the neck...
- Mirri's people, the cat warriors, turned up all over MtG's backstory, including the heroic tiger-man Jedit Ojanen, the feral panther-woman Purraj of Urborg, and the godlike wizard Lord Windgrace.
- The lionlike leonin from the world of Mirrodon, on the other hand, are considered a separate race from the leopard-, jaguar-, or tiger-like cat warriors of Dominaria (though cards that benefit cats work for both). Their ruler in the Mirrodin novels was Raksha Golden Cub.
- Confusing matters are the nacatl from the world of Naya in Shards of Alara, who look like leopards but are still called a leonin subrace.
- There are also the nishoba, a race of ogre-sized anthropomorphic smilodons.
- There are a few in the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG, the two Nekogals and Thunder Nyan Nyan.
- Shadowrun has catgirls/catboys thanks to a spike in the mana levels when Halley's Comet swung around, triggering what became known as Sudden Unexplained Recessive Genetic Expression, or SURGE.
- Dungeons & Dragons have a number of races that might qualify.
- There are numerous lycanthropes based on felines, most notably weretigers. Werelions appear in the Al-Qadim campaign setting, but they lack a half-human form. The werejaguars from the Mystara setting are strange in that their legs, torso, and upper arms remain completely human but their head and lower arms are catlike; the werejaguars from Ravenloft, on the other hand, are more traditionally furry-like, as are the wereleopards from the same setting.
- The tabaxi are a race of leopard people who live in tropical jungles. The Forgotten Realms Spin Off setting Maztica featured a race of jaguar people also called tabaxi; it explained that the name of the leopard-tabaxi from the Realms was pronounced "ta-bax-ee" while that of the Maztican jaguar-tabaxi was pronounced "ta-bash-ee", but no justification was given to how two different species of cat-people on opposite ends of the world could have the same name.
- Weretouched (people who have a were-something in their family tree) may exhibit minor features of their were-whatever ancestors, like ears, eyes, or fangs, as can the shifters from Eberron, an entire race of feral human/lycanthrope hybrids.
- The rakasta from the Mystara setting were probably the purest example of anthropomorphic cat-people in D&D, resembling domestic cats (but having very un-domestic personalities). An article of Dragon Magazine featured a vast array of rakasta subraces, from alley cats to ocelots and lions to smilodons.
- Rakshasa are anthropomorphic tiger-like creatures with powerful magic, who can only be killed by a magically blessed crossbow bolt to the heart.
- Much more conventional example: the Catfolk of 3.5E introduced in Races of the Wild as a playable race, who enjoyed bonuses to dexterity and charisma, and had a Native American-ish culture dwelling on the plains. Definitely one of the more commonly seen splatbook-added races in games, and for some reason, many players keep shoehorning them into an Eastern-style civilization...
- The tibits, introduced originaly in Dragon magazine and reprinted in the Best of Dragon Magazine book qualify. They're cat-people who can turn into cats, what could be better!
- 4th Edition's Player Handbook 2 includes the decidedly feline-looking Razorclaw Shifter.
- Somewhat justified in that they're descended from weretigers.
- Old World Of Darkness players have a couple options for making catgirls (and boys): Gangrel from Vampire: The Masquerade whose animal features "happen" to be mostly feline, Bastet werecats, pooka from Changeling: The Dreaming with a cat affinity, and an entire kith of catpeople (traditional look and all) among the Eastern fae with the Neyan—whose name is even the Japanese version of "meow".
- Those wanting to play catpeople in the New World of Darkness have other options: Changelings of the Beast seeming who have feline characteristics, cat Skinchangers, the Bastet Changing Breeds, and the werecats of the Colony.
- Raski, Queen of Fangs, from Exalted, counts, although she is also a cannibalistic, insane, hundreds of years old, loli (borderline shes stuck at 14 IIRC), sorceress.
- Not really. Her half-animal form is half ape. That's also why she is surrounded by so many ape beastmen.
- The lion fey also count.
- Most famous video game example: Felicia from Darkstalkers.
- Additional video game example: The Mithra from Final Fantasy XI are an entire race of catgirls.
- There _are_ male mithra, but they don't go out adventuring. They're rare and weak or something.
- It's their rarity. They're needed for breeding so they don't get to leave the villages.
- Those lucky bastards
- Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance had the cat Laguz. Duh.
- Knights Of The Old Republic had Juhani, a member of a species that were basically anthropomorphic cats. She wasn't very attractive, though.
- Your first companion in Dark Cloud is a cat-girl, transformed from an actual cat. She comes complete with ears, collar and bell. In Dark Cloud 2, a cat-girl costume can be acquired for the female main character.
- Chen and Rin Kaenbyou from the Touhou games.
- "You Show Me Yours and I'll Show You Mine" was the title of a thread on the City Of Heroes message boards. The topic? Catgirl characters. Just about everyone has one, it seems, and with the versatility of the game's costume editor, they go from ears-and-tail to scary-feral. Some people have several.
Even Especially male players. Or so the joke goes. The canon Cat Girl is Mynx, though, who glib speedster Synapse apparently found rooting through garbage one day, or some such. She cleans up pretty good, to her credit.
- Although descended from tigers, not cats, and otherwise fitting the Proud Warrior Race Guy trope, the Kilrathi from Wing Commander are worth mentioning.
- Katt from Breath Of Fire II is half-woman, half-tiger.
- And half naked.
- Lin from Breath Of Fire V is also a catgirl, but never removes her ear-covering headgear in the game itself, though her tail is still quite evident - a rare case of Concept Art Dang It.
- The series also has a couple of catguys (definetly not boys) with Rei from III (though he started the game as a fit young catshounen) and Cray from IV. All the examples of catpeople from this series are all from each of their respective game's version of the Woren tribe.
- IV also had a variant of the catgirl, the foxgirl, in the kitsune-like Ursula.
- The Bloody Roar games have Shina (who turns into a leopard) and Uriko (a literal cat-girl, including the eyes).
- The Elder Scrolls has an entire race of catpeople: the Khajiit. And you can play as one. They're not all that attractive, though.
- Only the ones seen in Morrowind and Oblivion. The prequels were much closer to this trope, and the setting has various different types of Khajiit, ranging from looking almost identical to wood elves to being gigantic man-tigers.
- Iron Realms has catpeople, but once again, much more cat-like. Or tiger like. This Troper has seen people playing that race as catgirls (with human appearance, ears, tails), though.
- Star Ocean has an entire race of people (Fellpool, denizens of planet Roak) with cat tails and elf ears. Fellpool don't act catlike at all, but Lesser Fellpool have the cat ears too and are apparently more beastlike — the one that may join your party in the first game can change back and forth from cat to catgirl, and uses cat-themed martial arts moves.
- Star Ocean 2 has Leon Geeste — A "Fellpool" with cat ears (we never see a tail, but it might be under his coat) inexplicably on planet Expel (Expellians look like normal humans). Noone in the game comments on this. Aside from looks, Leon doesn't display any feline traits, though.
- Let's not forget Noel from the same game, a Nedian who's also a cat-man. And the astute will notice his name is "Leon" backwards.
- In Star Ocean 4, Meracle joins your party, and she is a by-the-books catgirl who can also turn into a normal-sized cat. She thinks she might be originally from Fellpool (she's not sure of her origins, due to being [accidentally] kidnapped by a Mad Scientist at a young age), but she's much more cat-like than the people there, and none of them seem to have the ability to turn into cats. Also, it's ... unclear what the scientists were doing to her in the first place, given what they made her wear◊ (note the collar).
- Another masculine example: Kurt, from Shadow Caster, morphs into a feline as his first alternate form, with all the stat and power boosts one would expect.
- The sci-fi empire-building series Master Of Orion featured an entire empire of cat-people, the Mrrshan, which were known for being one of the most aggressive and militaristic races throughout the series.
- The Wizardry series has had Felpurr, humanoid cats described as descended from house cats, stretching back to 1990 in Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge. Felpurr are known for having one of the best stat lines in the game, reaching many elite professions with fewer attribute points than any other race. Particularly favoring speed and personality, they overshadowed even hobbits as the best thieves and bards in the series.
- Yayoi, the geisha who guards the entrance to Dark Demon's lair in Dynamite Headdy. When you deal enough damage to her, she gets pissed off and becomes much more fast and aggressive. They replaced her with a boring robot in the US version. Diss!
- Beastmasters in Disgaea 2 combine standard demonic ears with not quite as standard lion tails and "mane-like" hair for the appearance of almost-but-not-quite lion girls. The "Kit Cat" breed of monsters are so obvious they didn't even get mentioned, with kitty ears, tail, and strategically placed strips of fur, Felicia-style
- Meď in Beyond Good And Evil is a blue-furred cat woman, and almost completely catlike in appearance. Except for, you know—the lack of tail, the blue lips, and huge, uh, assets.
- Cham Cham out of Samurai Shodown 2 is quite a catgirl. Ears, tail, claws, and fleas. Seriously, she acts more feline than not—when she's unarmed, she walks on all fours (not crawl, but catlike), whenever she relaxes she sits on her haunches, and some of her poses (including a taunt) have her scratching behind an ear with her hindleg..er, foot.
- The Lunar RPG series features "beastmen" as a race. They have pointed ears, Cute Little Fangs and a lot of hair. Curiously, they intermingle freely with humans rather than living separately. Some of the playable characters were Beastmen.
- Atelier Iris also has Norn, a catgirl whose catlike behavior (but oddly enough, not her cat features) baffles people. Though one (female) NPC does becomes obsessed with touching her ears(!) The game also features female werecats as random monsters. It is eventually revealed that Norn is really a cat turned into human form by a witch. Whether this means a normal cat or a werecat isn't clear; a werecat NPC thinks she's one of them, though.)
- La Hire and Bartolomeo in Jeanne D Arc are axe-wielding lion and panther men, respectively.
- Mawra and Blaze, two thirds of the Therion Quirky Miniboss Squad, are an anthropomorphic lynx and white tiger, as well.
- Suikoden IV's Noah deliberately invokes this trope. She's got kitty ears and oversized cat paws... which are most likely just a headband and gloves, though she insists she's actually a Nay-Kobold. She's a con girl and loves weaving sob stories, trying to weedle sympathy and material goods out of any suckers who actually fall for her tall tales.
- KOS-MOS from Xenosaga, a Robot Girl, gained headgear that resembled cat ears after a plot-important upgrade in Episode III.
- Len in Kagetsu Tohya is an advanced familiar/succubus made half dead cat and half little dead girl soul, which makes her alive again. Normally, she's either a cat or girl, but this seems to be merely a matter of preference as she can be seen with cat ears when surprised and also tends to act quite like a cat even when in the form of a girl.
- Shanoa from Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia can transform into a catgirl with a particular glyph.
- Taokaka from Blaz Blue comes from a race of cat-people who hide their real faces underneath hoods, giving them a decidedly Black Mage-like appearance. Aside from the obvious big claws and tail, she also possesses an insatiable appetite.
- Nikki from Mana Khemia Alchemists Of Alrevis, among others.
- Fairly common in Western webcomics, especially those with significant anime influences (e.g., Tsunami Channel, El Goonish Shive, Two Kinds, and of course Clan of the Cats). There is a tendency for webcomic catgirls to be closer to were-cats, as opposed to the ears-and-tail catgirls more typical of anime.
- Arguable if Tsunami Channel even counts as "Western", as the author is outright bilingual and claims that his thoughts are in Japanese. The setting of the comics is in the US, though—namely, in Pittsburgh. This has absolutely no bearing on the story, though.
- Don't forget VG Cats.
- Notice, however, that El Goonish Shive features a tough cat man: Elliot himself, during the Sister arc, who turns into a were-cat to return to Moperville.
- Another werecat: Katie from The Wotch. Anne also turns into a cat at times.
- El Goonish Shive also has Catalina Bobcat. Not a werecat, or even a costumer, but definitely cat-like.
- Exterminatus Now has anthropomorphic characters, including one cat-boy. Drawn in Sonic-style artwork (the story however is not for children), the characters are humanoid animals, not just humans with animal ears and tails, as they all belong to the same race. However, they identify their species as "fox" or "penguin" or even "zebra" according to their appearance.
- The cast of Purgatory Tower is entirely made up of (non-cute, non-Anime-style) animal/humanoid hybrids or anthropomorphics (and in one case, a plant/animal/human hybrid), as the world the webcomic plays in is peopled by socalled "marsuls", humanoids fused with animals and displaying animal traits, down to their psyche. Features a cat-woman, a hyena-woman, a squirrel-girl, a racoon-man and others.
- The all-but-defunct Under Power has a catgirl character who is adorable, sweet, domestically submissive, with a high libido... and who also happens to be a nigh-invincible cyborg who kills her "boyfriend" every time she sleeps with him. Lucky, he seems to be powered by FPSs, and can respawn every time he's killed.
- Repeatedly respawning just to die again seconds later can be more of a curse than a blessing, especially when he pisses off the Elf.
- The jury's still out on wether or not Gina from Outside Interference is a cat. Although she has cat-like ears and features, she lacks any visible tail, in a setting where all the other Anthro characters have them.
- Something Positive doesn't have any actual catgirls, but frequently has gags involving catgirl cosplayers, which are depicted as grotesque muppet-like creatures which swarm through fan conventions annoying everyone else.
- Oh, and now they swarm through fan conventions KILLING everyone else.
- Last Resort goes for the furrier side of catgirls, although technically Adharia's the only true catgirl (Jigsaw's a marsupial, but because of her otherwise feline features, ends up being the definitive catgirl for the series - although she does end up being called a rat sometimes thanks to her large ears.)
- Felicity from The Dreamland Chronicles.
- Ghost 2138 features a much more catlike catgirl than usual; she looks more like a cat than a human other than her size and general body shape.
- Subversion: Neko from The Tao of Geek acts like a normal housecat. Who might also know the Anti-Life Equation.
- Anya from Experimental Comic Kotone. In a case of questionable biology, her sister Lisa is a fox-girl.
- The webcomic Yosh! has one of the main characters changed into a catgirl by the applied plebotinum of the comic's world.
- Jayeden and Crusader's character Kat is a catgirl and appears with no warning and apparently no reason in the middle of the comic with a very rushed (2 line!) introduction. Why? This troper is pretty sure it was Author Appeal
- Kathleen "Kat" Vance of Sequential Art.
- The Dragon Doctors features a, as Sarin, resident pervert says "The least Cat Girl I know."
- Flaky Pastry has Marelle as a lead character, who hates being called a Catgirl.
- In Sluggy Freelance Riff had a very disturbing dream about a satanic cat girl clown.
- Aeris from VG Cats counts, right?
- Then Leo should as well. This Troper thought they would be Funny Animals, though apparently nobody remembers what the difference is anyway.
- Ashely alias Katt Nappe of Xiaolin Showdown seems mostly to be cosplaying a Cat Girl, but her tail does twitch, her fangs are real, and her claws retractable.
- It's mysterious, really... best not to think about it.
- Clover in Totally Spies became a catgirl in the episode "Wild Style" after being injected with a serum.
- It's possible that this was done in yet another superficial and misguided attempt at making people believe the show is a real anime.
- Every female in Swat Kats qualifies.
- They're more like Furries, though.
- Still catgirls.
- It's fairly common for female Funny Animal characters to be more human-like in order to read as "pretty". (see: Blacksad.) Callie is still catlike enough, but I would call Felina Feral a catgirl.
- Manny Rivera from Nickelodeon cartoon El Tigre has a superpowered alterego which is a catboy called El Tigre — he can turn into this form by spinning his mystical belt buckle. In fact, it seems every male in the Rivera side of the family consists of cat-themed supers, be they hero or villain.
- Angel in the underrated early-80's animated film Rock and Rule is clearly a biological cat-woman.
- Variation: in Code Lyoko, Odd Della Robia's virtual form on Lyoko is a Cat Boy, albeit one with non-retractable claws and the ability to fire "laser arrows" from his forearms.
- Subversion: Cat Man is a (very) non-sexualized hench of Big Bad Coiffio in Perfect Hair Forever, a 6-episode anime parody, who appears to be a surly man in a cat costume. He hates shounen like Gerald with a passion and will fire indiscriminately at them with a gatling gun if they bother him. He lives in a giant cat-carrier — his floor is a sea of cat litter — he frequently grooms in public, and loves batting around stuffed-mice-on-strings.
- Thundercats.
- Star Trek The Animated Series: M'ress.
- Adam West in Fairly Odd Parents is known as Catman (a nod to the 1960's Batman) who is a crimefighter who is part man part cat.
- The new Biker Mice From Mars series features a race of alien humanoid cats called Catatonians- the member of this species that fits this trope is Katalina Katacal
- Parodied in the Stroker and Hoop episode "XXX Wife (a.k.a. Stroke Her and Boob)"; when the pornographers attempt to splice feline DNA into two ditzy co-eds to cash in on the Furry market, they wind up with insane mutant catgirls that eat human flesh.
- Intress, Attacat, and Tangath Toborn seems to be part of a race of cat people that are part of the Overworld tribe.
- Cleo from Heathcliff And The Catillac Cats is a anthromorphic female cat with blonde hair and the breasts and hourglass figure of a human woman.
- There are numerous Transformers that turn into cats: Cheetor, Lio Convoy, Lio Junior, Victory Leo, Ravage...
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◊ hair formation found on long-haired characters, which might resemble cat ears...
Nya?
