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"Here, kitty, kitty. Wish I was playing hide-and-seek with Black Cat. I so prefer my felines female."

A catgirl is a Little Bit Beastly character that has mostly human traits (hair, skin and body type) but she has some physical features like a cat, usually the ears, tail, eyes, and sometimes claws or even a natural Fur Bikini.

What makes a catgirl different from an anthropomorphic catwoman or a Funny Animal cat is that she only looks superficially feline. The catgirl is stereotypically female, though catboys do exist. (These are usually found in Yaoi, and as a general rule tend to be Uke archetypes.) Catgirls oftentimes follow feline Animal Stereotypes associated with cats, specifically female ones. Catgirls often tend to be sexualized and/or have added Moe traits to better appeal to the audience.

The entire concept is Older Than They Think, with the first recorded mention of a modern catgirl in Japan (as opposed to the monsterlike Bakeneko and Nekomata) dating to a sideshow-like fair where there was a catgirl as one of the crewnote  in 1769! In fact, visualization of anthropomorphic cats as mostly-human women is a trope that dates all the way back to Egyptian Mythology (most famously Bast), making this trope Older Than Dirt.

Most catgirls have biological cat features, but characters who don't can use a cat-eared hairband, a fake cat tail, Cute Little Fangs, fake cat paws, long, claw-like nails etc., or any combination of these traits and a few cat-like mannerisms (like Playful Cat Smile and Faux Paw) to count as an invoked form of this trope.

If a catgirl is particularly Moe or is otherwise The Cutie, expect a lot of overlap with Cute Kitten.

Subtrope of Little Bit Beastly and Unusual Ears.

See also Beast Man, for an individual (fully) anthropomorphic cat person and Cat Folk, for an anthropomorphic cat species. For when a character sprouts cat ears and/or tail out of thin air, see Sprouting Ears. Compare Cute Monster Girl. Female Feline, Male Mutt is one reason why this trope is almost Always Female.

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Examples:

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    Anime and Manga 
  • The OEL Manga The 9 Lives features a race of Cat Folk who end up being enslaved by humans for unstated but probably questionable purposes. Being (an extremely mild) Yaoi Genre story, the catperson who gets the most screentime is a Troubled, but Cute catboy.
  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You:
    • In the splash page for Chapter 76, both Kusuri and Yaku dress as cat girls.
    • An invoked example appears in Chapter 141 with Tama Nekonari, the 25th girlfriend, who always wears cat ears, a cat tail, and a sweater with cat paws on the sleeves, as she believes life as a cat is better than being a human. Art-wise, she looks indistinguishable from an actual cat girl, with her ears and tail responding like they would if they were real.
    • As part of Tama's introduction to the harem in Chapter 142, everyone else (including Rentarou) wears cat ears and tails in an attempt to understand her feelings.
  • All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku plays with this; despite the title, Nuku Nuku doesn't have the typical cat ears or tail, instead being a cyborg with a cat's brain that makes her act very catlike.
  • Lushe from Bastard!! (1988) is often depicted with cat ears.
  • While cat ears have yet to manifest, Battle Angel Alita's titular character's new Imaginos 2.0 body (and accompanying outfit) comes with a cat tail... which she proceeds use to knock out three different characters at once.
  • Bleach:
    • Haineko, the manifested spirit form of Rangiku Matsumoto's zanpakuto. Flirtatious, mischievous and a bit pervy, Haineko is basically a hornier Rangiku, and is often portrayed more in the light of a teenager even though she looks in between 21-28.
    • In the "Thousand Year Blood War" arc, Yoruichi reveals that in addition to turning into a regular cat, she can turn into a catgirl. Her clothes disappear, she grows a black tail, and she gains cat ears and cat paws on her hands and feet, made of electricity. Her physical stats skyrocket, but her mind also reverts to a feral cat that cannot talk or understand speech, and she can be distracted by catnip.
  • Momose from Bloody Cross is a cat demon. Aside from her tail she looks otherwise human.
  • Cardcaptor Sakura:
  • Carnival Phantasm: Taiga, who regularly has a tiger Animal Motif, shows up as an actual tiger girl in the opening credits and a short scene in Episode 5.
  • Meow in Carried by the Wind: Tsukikage Ran has very fetching cat-like moves when she fights.
  • Cat God has Mayu and Sasana, who are cat gods that appear as humans with cat ears and tails.
  • A manga titled Cat Hunt was done by a Yamamoto Kumoi. In it, a creepy guy envisions all the cats he sees as catgirls and catboys, and he describes by narration how he uses catnip to get close to some of them so they can play. Granted, some of them are friendly enough to approach him without need for catnip.
  • Kansuke from Cat Paradise is a normal cat who can transform into a Catboy whenever he puts on one of his owner's goofy costumes. He retains his claws, ears, tail, some of his fur, and his snarky personality.
  • Even the makers of El Cazador de la Bruja found it necessary to let the two female leads wear cat ears in one episode.
  • One of the many species in A Centaur's Life. The Class Representative's father and sisters are some of them. They are considered of the same "species" as other Little Bit Beastly people, though.
  • 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.
  • The "ears" of most life-size Persocoms in Chobits (actually used to contain interface jacks) may be deliberately designed to resemble Catgirl ears.
  • 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.
  • DearS: Nia has the personality of a common housecat as well as several cat features, like cat paws instead of hands and feet (though these turn out to be gloves and shoes). She even ends every sentence with "ni".
  • Izutsumi from Delicious in Dungeon is a cat beastkin: a human who has had their soul mixed with that of an animal to create a chimera. She’s more feline than the usual catgirl, being furry everywhere, flat-chested, and every stereotype about rude cats (she’s getting better, though). The trope is deconstructed in her case, as she's only a cat girl at all due to experimentation, and years of being exhibited at freak shows and treated like an animal made her mindset and behavior far more "cat" than "girl" until she was taught how to behave more like a human. She actually joins the Touden party hoping they know a way to separate the cat soul from hers.
  • Nekoko in Destiny of the Shrine Maiden is a catgirl 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.
  • Dog Days features a race of cat-person and an overly busted and very strong cat princess as Friendly Enemies of a dog-person race.
  • Dogs: Bullets & Carnage has an interesting example. There is a catgirl... only she's at least seventy, and looks every year.
  • Najimi in Doujin Work does a good job cosplaying as a catgirl in a Cosplay Café, considering that her main motivation is making money.
  • Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro: One chapter has the Senpai falling asleep and dreaming of being in a Fantasy RPG game, where he meets Nagatoro as one of these (she even calls herself Nekotoro when she appears), with ears, tail and large cat paw gloves. He later starts drawing her this way, much to her delight, and even does a cosplay with the outfit when he dares her to it.
  • Shizuka becomes a quadruped variation in the Doraemon episode Shizuka-chan Disappeared!? after she drinks some Transformade drinks.
  • The final Bonus Episode of Dragonaut: The Resonance features Toa with cat-ears and a tail, demonstrating Faux Paw, and talking in a stereotypical catgirl way. This is quite out of character for her.
  • In EDENS ZERO, Rebecca designs her Digital Avatar on the planet Digitalis to give herself the ears and tail of a cat. She also temporarily transforms into a catgirl when she's in the middle of a time leap or using Overdrive, which gives her the ears, whiskers, and a Prehensile Tail.
  • Fairy Tail:
    • Loke/Leo is a rare male example, though he only has the ears, which are themselves barely noticeable.
    • Lisanna is a voluntary shapeshifter capable of taking on certain animal aspects. A catgirl in a Fur Bikini is her go-to combat form, though it's more successful at distraction.
    • In the Fairy Hills OVA, Lucy is forcibly dressed up as a catgirl, and Virgo decides to follow suit when she shows up later. Erza also dresses up as one during the third OVA.
    • It's a bit of a mystery just how much of a catgirl Millianna is. She doesn't have actual cat ears (only hair styled as cat ears), but her eyes and nose look somewhat cat-like. She has a movable tail, but since she didn't seem to have it before the Time Skip, it is presumably not real —though since this is a magic world, you never know. At one point Natsu wears a cat mask, and she gets angry at him for being a human who tries to look like a cat. It's not clear whether this is just Hypocritical Humor, or if she really is a Not Quite Human catgirl who doesn't want real humans to look like her.
    • Post-second Time Skip, Carla learns to take humanoid form for combat that looks like a white-haired teenage girl with similarly-colored ears, tail, and long nails reminiscent of claws.
  • Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA has quite a few of these. The first is Rin's Magical Girl getup, which adds cat ears and a tail to her costume. The second, and by far more (in)famous example is the "Beast Mode" costumes for Illya, Miyu, and Kuro, featured in the specials of the first season and 2wei herz, which are essentially fanservice-y costumes conjured by Magical Ruby and Magical Sapphire featuring cat's ears, tails, and paw gloves and slippers.
  • In one episode of FLCL, Naota's "horns" resemble kitty ears, which make him look like a catboy. The creator of the series mentioned in the commentary that he was tired of kitty ears being put on girls and wanted to give them to a boy for a change. After bumping heads with Ninamori, Naota's "ears" transfer to her very briefly before they get bigger. Turns out they weren't cat ears.
  • All of the main characters in Free Collars Kingdom are actual cats and are viewed and treated as such by humans, but they appear as cat girls/boys to each other and for the benefit of the audience.
  • GeGeGe no Kitarō has Neko-Musume, who leans more towards a horror interpretation of this trope.
  • 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.
  • The series Geobreeders has an entire race of these that mess with electronic equipment and walk through walls. Needless to say, they are seen as bad.Maya seems to be the only one who isn't evil, but she can't exactly talk either.
  • In Gundam Build Divers, Momoka's GBN avatar is a catgirl bearing large pink ears and a tail.
  • In Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE, there is a alien girl named Maiya thats from a planet called Eldora that leans more toward feline than human as she has brown fur and a small snout along with the basic cat ears and tail.
  • 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.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler finally delves into this turning Izumi into one through possession in chapters 274 and 275, including the inclusion of proving just how much of a Chaste Hero Hayate is. Hayate is also forced into one early on, allowing him to be raped by the tiger. Oh yeah, the head butler also tries a move. Hayate is on the absolute verge of tears. At least it's better than the sailor suit..oh wait...no it's not...
  • Schrödinger from the Hellsing manga and OVAs is a cute Nazi catboy. And the name has meaning, too. He can be anywhere and nowhere, just like the uncertainty factor of the real thought experiment.
  • Neferpitou from Hunter × Hunter is a Chimera Ant who basically looks like a human cat. They have cat ears, a tail, and bestial hands. Their gender is officially unknown, but they appear more feminine in their anime adaption with a consistent bust, differing from their slightly ambiguous manga appearance.
  • Natsuki Sasaehara, the heroine of Hyper Police. The rest of the main cast are a Kitsune and two Werewolves.
  • Isuca gives us Tamako aka Tama. She becomes the True Name Slave of the series protagonist, and happily obeys his every command. She's also a strong demon whose true form is that of a giant two-tailed cat.
  • Koi Neko: Several of the characters are cats who gained the ability to assume human form after falling in love with a human, and can shift between appearing fully human, fully feline, and an in-between state with claws, cat ears, and a tail.
  • Loveless is set in a world where everyone — males and females alike — have cat ears (and tails) until they lose their virginity. Some people wear fake ears to disguise their non-virginal status. One girl in particular is mentioned as wearing a cat-ear headband when she's in public or around her family, so that people won't find out she isn't a virgin.
  • The Liese sisters, Aria and Lotte, of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's. They happen to be colorblind, just like regular cats. There's also Linith, Precia's familiar who prominently appears in the second Sound Stage of the first season, though she's embarrassed about her feline bits and tries to hide them.
  • 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 whether the catgirl is actually real.
  • Magical Meow Meow Taruto. EVERY cat in the world is actually a catgirl or boy of appropriate size. Humans interacting with them treat them and view them as cats.
  • Aya from Master of Martial Hearts was forced to put on Meido outfit with cat ears after Rin destroyed her clothes while fighting each other.
  • In chapter 42 of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Kobayashi temporarily sprouts cat ears and whiskers after Tohru gives her some medicine for her fever that was originally intended for animal people.
  • Mikoto from My-HiME merely behaves like a catgirl, while being a regular human in appearance.
  • In the My-Otome manga, Mikoto is a Voluntary Shapeshifting catgirl, nya.note 
  • Neconoclasm is a manga about catgirls with a nicely-sized online preview, and thus provides a very nice example.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi includes both cat-eared costumes and real catgirls. Most costume examples are listed under Cat Eared Hood, however two characters strongly associated with cats are:
    • Koyomi, one of Fate's Ministrae, whose ears and tail are the genuine article. She even transforms into a were-cat-beast-thing during the second fight against Jack Rakan.
    • Chachamaru, a Kindhearted Cat Lover, has cat ears as part of her cat themed pactio outfit. Her artifact is also a Kitty Cat Kill Sat.
  • Yayoi of Neko-de Gomen! ("Sorry, I'm a cat") had her DNA scrambled with a cat's in a The Fly-style teleporter accident. She sprouts cat ears and tail at inopportune moments, suffers from cat-style estrus, and sets off her love interest's cat fur allergy.
  • Neko Musume Michikusa Nikki has Kurona, a free-spirited and often mischievous cat youkai who spends her days playing with her lecherous kappa friend and learning how to deal with humans.
  • Ninja Nonsense has Shinobu dressing up as a catgirl for Kaede's school festival.
  • The Bakeneko clan of Youkai in Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan look like Cat Boys with ears and tails.
  • Kaneko the catboy from Nurse Hitomi's Monster Infirmary.
  • Yūko's pets in Nyanko Days are a trio of these.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • PandoraHearts has a Chain called the Cheshire Cat, who looks like a human with cat ears, a tail and huge claws. He used to be an ordinary black cat until Vincent blinded him with scissors. The cat's mistress, the Will of the Abyss, gave him his Cat Boy appearance and Break's left eye to make up for it, but Cheshire's real form as a Chain is more monstrous.
  • Pretty Cure:
  • Puella Magi Oriko Magica's Yuma has a catgirl themed Magical Girl outfit. As does Puella Magi Kazumi Magica's Satomi.
  • Queen's Blade: To cursory inspection Elina is human. Yet, she's been noted by several others for her catlike characteristics. Such as her fangs, the fact that her irises become slitted like a cat's when on guard, or in a mischievous mood, and her susceptibility to catnip powder. Plus, she typically wears a grey were-tiger's pelt, along with a tiger eared tiara and a clawed gauntlet.
  • In Ranma ½, 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.
  • The OEL Reality Check by Studio Tavicat features Catreece as a main protagonist. In the world of virtual reality, she's a cute bouncy catgirl (her sister's a bit more... well, catty). In the world of reality, she's a... cat.
  • Mari Illustrious Makinami from Rebuild of Evangelion is as close to one of these as the setting and premise of Evangelion allow for. Her plugsuit helmet sports a pair of cat-ear-shaped protrusions, and she regularly ends her sentences with meowing noises. In the comedy spinoff manga Evangelion ANIMA, she's a true catgirl, complete with cat ears, fangs, and a tail.
  • Rosario + Vampire: Nekonome-sensei is the homeroom teacher of a school filled with monsters, where they learn to disguise themselves and hide their species. She can't hide her cat ears or tail, and professes a love of raw fish. Also fanservice-heavy, but everyone is Ms. Fanservice in that show. To be more specific, her ears can at least be written off as part of her hair as long as they don't stand out too much, but in both the anime and manga she has a LOT of trouble hiding her tail, to the point of Running Gag.
  • Fam from Ruin Explorers has a cat tail and a pair of Cute Little Fangs.
  • Kana of Saki has a Playful Cat Smile, a Cute Little Fang, a Nya~ Verbal Tic, and those Sprouting Ears of hers pop up more often than not.
  • Sgt. Frog: Whenever Giroro's cat friend, usually a Nearly Normal Animal, uses Kululu's gun that turns animals into humans on herself, she transforms into one of two different forms: her manga human form has her appear with cat ears, while her anime human form gives her a tail.
  • At one point in SHUFFLE!, Primula cosplays as a catgirl maid.
  • Tsukiyomi Ikuto from Shugo Chara! has a catboy as his guardian chara, and therefore being a catboy represents his inner would-be self. Sometimes Ikuto himself has cat ears just like his chara as part of his Chara Change.
  • In Soul Eater, Blair is a magical cat creature capable of taking humanoid form. In humanoid form, she takes on the appearance of a young tall sexy woman with a set of purple catlike ears. She also has a curled up purple cat tail that resembles her cat form one.
  • Chibi-Neko from The Star of Cottonland is one of the earliest known examples and is widely considered to be the Trope Codifier, as the manga was first published in 1978. While Chibi-Neko is actually just a regular kitten, she wants to become human so much that she envisions herself as a human girl with a cat's ears and tail; the human characters treat her like a normal cat, but she's only ever depicted as a cat girl to the audience.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
    • The Anti-Spiral traps the Gurren-dan in a fantasy world, in which Viral's wife has cat ears. She is also seen in some of the Parallel Works videos and "Viral's Sweet Dream" side story.
    • Chitori, from Episode 5.5.
  • The 2016 Flip Calendar for Tokyo Ghoul's theme for the 22nd, in a play on the Japanese words for 2 ("nii") and a cat's meow ("nyan"), features character(s) shown as catgirls and catboys. Notable examples being Sasaki as a Calico Cat and Akira delighted to find her Love Interest, Amon, transformed into a Catboy.
  • Ichigo from Tokyo Mew Mew is a Magical Girl catgirl with infused cat DNA. Although she does not have cat ears full time, they are real. 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.
  • Transformers: Energon:
    • Sixshot appears to be somewhat of a catgirl fanboy, as in one episode he's seen reading a manga with pictures of catgirls in it.
    • The Special Dream Match episode featured actual (robot) catgirls as the announcers for the matches. One appeared to favor Megatron while the other fancied Optimus Prime. Since Sixshot was either controlling or hacking the Special Dream Match's fighter simulation, these two facts are actually connected.
  • Tsukipro The Animation features the Tsukino Hyakki Yakou Youkai AU, where Sora is a Little Bit Beastly Nekomata catboy. There are also plenty of foxes, and one rare snake boy, but Sora is the only cat.
  • Parodied in Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase — Hazuki is a vampire, but Kouhei's grandpa asks her to wear a pair of cat ears.
  • King Wohl, Princess Lione, and Prince Tio from the Flame Kingdom in Twin Princess of Wonder Planet are lion-based Nekomimi.
  • Episode 43 of Urusei Yatsura has Ataru, Lum, and Jariten encounter a woman who fused with her pet cat so she would have a healthy body; she looks like a white furred woman with cat ears and a tail. Ataru and Jariten fight a tough tomcat to compete for her affection and break the spell, and eventually Ataru wins and kisses her. But to his horror, her true present day form is an old woman, even though she looked and sounded young in her cat form.
  • Usagi-chan de Cue!!: Merged beings are Little Bit Beastly, sporting animal ears and tails on an otherwise human body frame. They also exhibit some animalistic behavior.
  • Nagi from Virgin Ripper, who actually was a cat; also a Shout-Out to Hellsing's Schrodinger.
  • Merle, later Nariya and Eriya, in The Vision of Escaflowne have cat ears and tails but otherwise appear to be human women. Nariya and Eriya are depicted as having experienced prejudice as a result of these features.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, Yuma's friend Cathy has no real physical cat-like features (she wears her hair in a way to make it resemble cat ears) but she does have a strange ability to communicate and control actual cats, something that has never been explained. She also meows occasionally. Naturally, as a duelist, her deck uses cat-themed monsters. (Her two known Xyz monsters, "Twin-Tail Cat Lady" and "Cat Girl Magician", are bona-fide catgirls themselves.)
  • Yaya from Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs becomes one when the cat god possesses her body. The rest of the time she is just a normal girl with a cat-like personality. Who frequently wears a cat ears hoodie.

    Audio Plays 

    Comic Books 
  • Catwoman:
    • Most versions of all three incarnations of Catwoman —Selina Kyle, and her two successors; Holly Robinson (from the post-crisis continuity), and Eiko Hasigawa (post rebirth continuity)— are extremely flexible, athletic cat-themed costumers.
    • In the Batman Vampire otherworld installment Bloodstorm, Catwoman becomes a literal werecat after being bitten by a vampire.
    • Catwoman briefly got a sidekick named Kitrina Falcone in the post-crisis continuity. She copies her mentor while adding hot pink and punk elements, and uses the names "Kitty Hawk" and "Catgirl".
  • Critter:
    • Critter herself has a belt-on tail and Animal-Eared Headband with cat-like ears. They interface with her natural telekinesis to enhance her focus, and can provide additional capabilities of their own: The ears help her to focus her abilities, and extend the reach of her senses. On at least one occasion, they allow her to hear despite the fact that her eardrums have been blown out by a villain's sonic attack. The Prehensile Tail is very handy for grabbing bad guys, and also automatically helps her balance when she's not deliberately controlling it. She often perches on top of a wall or ledge on the balls of her feet and Faux Paws in a "sitting cat" pose.
    • In the volume 2 story arc, the superhero team "Purrrfection" are all cat costumers, though none of them have feline-based capabilities.
  • Hellcat:
    • Patsy Walker took the name "Hellcat" on assuming the powered costume abandoned by Tigra. After a stint being married to Daimon Hellstrom, and spending a while trapped in Hell, she develops a suite of psychic powers and is able to manifest the costume at will.
    • In Heroes Reborn, Hellcat is made a Composite Character with Tigra. She is still Patsy Walker, but has the Tigra werecat abilities.
    • Hellcat's Ultimate Marvel self gets her abilities from being blended with a leopard by Loki.
  • Legends of the Dead Earth: In Batman annual #20, it is believed that Selina Kane was a brilliant geneticist who developed a technique called Genetrix to combine human and animal DNA. Although its use was strictly forbidden, Selina used herself as a test subject and injected herself with lynx DNA. Having obtained the grace of a cat as well as feline physical attributes, she became the criminal Cat-Fem.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes: Catspaw started out as a normal human. She was altered against her will to be a feline cross by the Dominators.
  • Jil DeSmoot in Nexus is a Felim, an alien species of 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). She also eventually reveals that her parents had her spayed.
  • Omega Men: The Karnans are a race of Cat Folk, from the same system as the Tamaranians of Teen Titans. Some artists draw Karnan women as straight up catgirls with odd skin tones but they usually have short fur and a more cat-like nose.
  • The young extraterrestrial woman who goes by "Catwalk" in Superboy and the Ravers has rounded leopard like ears and a long feline tail, and may actually be a Karnan. (See Omega Men for more on this species).
  • Teen Titans:
    • Villain Cheshire is named for a type of cat, but she only gets her cat-themed costume in the Animated Adaptation.
    • Tamaranians like Starfire are descended from tree-dwelling flying cats.
    • Pantha is a catgirl created by genetic alteration. She doesn't know if she was a human woman or a female panther prior to the alteration. It is finally revealed that she was a human woman. Though this was an alternate timeline so it may not count in the main timeline.
  • Tigra: Greer Grant Nelson is a heroine who starts off using a powered costume. At this point, she is known as "The Cat". A ritual is performed on her, transforming her into the werecat Tigra. There's a tug-of-war between her human and feline instincts. Depending on the Writer, which has the upper hand will vary. 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).
  • White Tiger: Ava Ayala's costume is much more catlike than her brother's costume (her brother being the original White Tiger). She has superhuman speed, strength, and agility because her magical amulets enable her to channel an ancient spirit called "The Tiger".
  • Wildcat:
    • Wildcat I, Ted Grant, is a very skilled fighter with a cat themed costume. He eventually ends up with a form of resurrective immortality: "9 Lives, like a cat."
    • Wildcat II, Yolanda Montez, has claws and other catlike features due to experiments that were performed on her mother before her conception.
    • Wildcat III AKA Tomcat, Tommy Bronson, is a werecat.
  • Wonder Woman:
    • Cheetah has been Wonder Woman's nemesis over at least four incarnations; two pre-Crisis costumers and two Post-Crisis cat people.
      • The original Golden Age Cheetah is a sultry murderous socialite named Priscilla Rich. Mad gymnastics skills translate into a great deal of agility in combat —enough to enable her to keep up with an Amazon. She wears a costume crafted out of genuine cheetah fur.
      • Silver Age Cheetah is Debbie Domain, Priscilla's niece. Brainwashed into evil and equipped with an upgraded version of her aunt's costume. She was retconned out of existence following the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
      • The first catgirl, Barbara Ann Minerva, is the best-known Cheetah and the basis for the animated version. An archaeologist, she gets an orange-and-black-spotted cat-form with enhanced speed, power, and immortality in return for becoming an avatar of the god Urtzkartaga's will. She kills Pricilla, the original Cheetah
      • The other cat person, Sebastian Ballesteros, is Barbara's successor as Urtzkartaga's avatar and tends to skew more towards Beast Man. Barbara eventually kills him.
    • Zusen from Wonder Woman (2006) is a blue-skinned humanoid extraterrestrial with black whisker-like markings and things which look like cat ears atop her head (they're probably not ears as she also has more human like ears).
    • It is not entirely clear, but in Wonder Woman and the Star Riders, it seems that Purrsia's cat tail is part of her costume. She doesn't actually have any cat ears, though.
  • X-Men:
    • Catseye of the Hellions can turn into either a housecat or a fairly terrifying Were-pather. This was later retconned by creator Chris Claremont into her being a mutant cat who could turn into a human. Re-retconned back into her being a human mutant by Marvel's editorial, who hated the idea.note 
    • Hepzibah, of the Starjammers, is a strange example; she's technically a Mephitisoid: a skunk-girl, but lacks the traditional stinking power. Years of Art Evolution have resulted in her being portrayed more and more like a catgirl. In particular, she went from black with a white stripe, skunk ears on her head, a skunk's tail and a body covered in fur to being pure white and having a fluffy cat-like tail, bare skin, and pointed, elf-like ears on the sides of her head. X-Men: The Animated Series flat-out depicts her as a white, fur-covered, fluffy-tailed catgirl, complete with cat-ears atop her head and meowing, as this was her depiction in the comics of the time.
  • Young Justice: The Starter Villain "Mighty Endowed" has cat-like features —cat ears, fangs, and striped skin.note 

    Comic Strips 
  • Flash Gordon has Prince Thun's race of Lion Men; although, as their name implies, it's normally the males who appear in the comic.

    Fan Works 
  • Fenspace: Catgirls are a fairly common result of handwavium biomodding. They’re the most widespread of biomods, partly because they’re an unusually common result of intended or random biomodification (it’s not clear why, but it’s theorized that most people unconsciously assume catgirls to be the “standard” biomod due to reasons such as the first biomod ever having been a catgirl — handwavium tends to feed off of unconscious expectations — with the later prevalence of catgirls creating a sort of self-feeding loop) and mostly due to criminal organizations having used handwaved tech to turn large numbers of people into catgirl slaves through an extremely unpleasant process. Nowdays, many live in their own space colony in the Belt, while a small group runs a space-based company. Due to their transformations having been unwilling and quite unpleasant, most want as little to do with furries as they can, due to the latter having chosen to go through their own transformations.
  • Ashley in FREAKIN GENSOKYO, who screeches and hisses in battle. As of Chapter 82.5, Matt has become one as well. And of course, Orin is right in there with her wheelbarrow.
  • Game Theory has one (beyond the canonical catgirls of the Lyrical Nanoha franchise, all three of whom also appear). She's Nanoha's familiar.
  • Male example in Hakkōna and Kaitō Kokoro: Kiku's true form is that of a nekomataneko, a mix between human and nekomata. In other words, he has a human body with cat ears and twin tails.
  • Several Harry Potter fanfics explore what might have happened if Hermione's Polyjuice mishap second year had left her permanently part-cat, with ears and a tail being fairly common leftovers.
  • Here Comes The New Boss: Nemean, Butcher XII, is a Case 53 that resembles a female lion. Her name is taken from the fact that her skin is nigh-unbreakable, she never sleeps, and she can extend her fangs and claws.
  • Glorious Purr features a Loki who gained cat ears and a tail by falling through the void. (He also gained a cat-like mentality, which is the focus of the story.)
  • Supplemental material for The Infinite Loops gives us the Fictional Document Rrreow! Catgirls of the Multiverse which serves to both lampshade the prevalence of this trope and apparently rate the attractiveness and dateablity of individual catgirls. Apparently the author has refused to make themselves known; the forward states that many of the individuals in the work would gladly eviscerate them if they knew their identity.
  • In The Legend of Total Drama Island, several contestants discuss the topic at the amphitheater whilst they wait for Chris to brief them on the Talent Show challenge.
    Lindsay: I just love musicals! Maybe they’ll show Cats.
    Sadie: I don't think so, Linds. Today should be a challenge day—
    Katie:so if anyone has to dress up as cats today, it would probably be us.
    [Duncan leers and opens his mouth to speak]
    Eva: Don't say it, Duncan. We don't need to hear about your "cat girl" fantasies.
  • Son of the Sannin: Tamaki eventually learns to do a combo transformation with one of her cats, gaining feline ears, eyes and tail along with a power boost.
  • Vow of Nudity: While canonically a swiftstride shifternote , Fiora's character art is just a catgirl, and the narration casually and frequently refers to her as such.

    Films — Animation 
  • The main character of The Cat Returns, an insecure high school-er named Haru, saves the prince of "Cat Kingdom", and is then asked to marry him. After being taken to said kingdom, she begins to take on characteristics of a cat, including ears, paws, whiskers, nose, and tail.
  • Sunshine Goodness from Foodfight! is one, notably having a tail in pre-production before having it dropped it.
  • Angel from Rock and Rule is clearly a biological cat-woman.
  • Princess Sara from Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie resembles a human for the most part, but also has a cat's tail and a hat shaped like cat ears, although it's unknown whether or not the hat actually covers cat ears.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • Kanade from Beast Tamer has a cat's ears and tail due to being from the Cat Tribe. Like many other examples, she frequently peppers her speech with the word "nya".
  • Meena in the novel Brave Story (which later became a manga and a movie) is a catgirl. 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.
  • There are numerous and varied catgirls in Cat Girls Have Four Ears, and not all of them have four ears. It is noted that catgirls with four ears are less creepy than ones with two ears.
  • The titular character in the Cat Kid series by Brian James is a girl who is half-kid, half-cat.
  • Cat Planet Cuties has the Catians, a Cat Folk alien species resembling cat girls. Females enter their first heat at the age of 16. They are enemies with a race of dog-eared people. Eris, the first Catian character introduced, was at first mistaken by humans for a Cosplay Otaku Girl wearing a Cat-Eared Headband.
  • Jean de La Fontaine described a cat turned into a woman (and keeping some key cat traits, though ears are not mentioned), making the trope Older Than Steam.
  • Richard Calder's Dead Boys, Dead Things, and Frenzetta feature semen-hungry catgirls 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....
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl:
    • Though they don't show up in person, it's mentioned that Donut could have chosen to become a Cat Girl upon race selection (other options included a Werecat, a Shadowcat, and a Saber-Toothed Void Leopard). Donut is affronted at the mere name, and immediately decides to remain as an ordinary Uplifted Animal cat.
      Donut: What in the world is a cat girl?
    • They do eventually meet a cat girl; a nun named Sister Ines who chose the race because it was supposed to synergize well with her abilities. Donut is extremely offended by her existence, especially since she is obviously (to Donut) a Havana Brown, a breed that Donut insists are automatically untrustworthy. As it turns out, Ines was in prison for murdering her entire convent before the dungeon, and her race lets her slowly charm anyone who stays around her.
      Donut: I KNEW IT! You can never trust a Havana Brown, Carl!
  • The protagonist in Everybody Loves Large Chests shapeshifts into the form of a cute catgirl as one of its favorite disguises.
  • Failure Frame: Nyaki has cat ears, although the rest of her resembles a normal human being. Nyantan is a more straightforward example, having cat ears, a cat tail and claws.
  • Fate/Apocrypha: Atalanta has lion ears and a tail, likely a reference to how in her myth she was eventually turned into a lion.
  • Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World: Miria is a Beastkin of the Cat Tribe, and has both cat ears and a cat's tail.
  • In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Hermione Granger accidentially turns into one when she mistakenly adds a cat hair to Polyjuice Potion, which is not intended to be used to turn people into animals. To sort it out, Hermione has to spend several weeks in Hogwarts' infirmary.
  • Heralds of Valdemar: The Mage Winds 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.
  • At the start of High School D×D, it seems that Koneko simply has mildly cat-like motif. She later turns out to be a nekomata with an identity crisis. Her ears and tail have to be revealed for her to fight at full power, though she initially refuses to do so. After coming to terms with herself, she also exposes them in private, and reveals a very playful, kitten-like persona she was bottling up. Her older sister Kuroka has cat ears and tail all the time as she has embraced her heritage.
  • Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind series has C'mell. She, 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" (sort of a geisha). Not so typical is that C'mell is specifically described as a very beautiful girl with no physical feline features.However  She is notable for being the first true catgirl (even the term is used to describe her), appearing in 1962.
  • The cyantropes in Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is a race of Little Bit Beastly, cat-based Beast Folk, and their only feline-looking parts are their ears and tail. They also have the tendency to meow.
  • 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.
  • The Vegians of the Lensman universe lack the ears, but qualify in many other ways; specifically, they have tails and a lot of feline traits as biological and societal characteristics.
  • Danielle, one of the main characters of Mind Games, can assume a magical catgirl form, in which she has cat ears, tail and claws, her body is covered with fine fur, her eyes become larger and slit-pupilled like a cat's, and she starts ending random sentences with "nya."
  • The Moreau Series features tiger-man Nohar dating a literal catgirl at the beginning of the series, a Jaguar named Maria. She reappears in the final book of the series.
  • In the Polity Series, a popular body-modification subculture are those called catadapts, who have modified themselves into a feline appearance.
  • Kitten in Red Handed has mannerisms close to a cat, even though she is an alien.
  • Betti from RÉEL looks like a catgirl in The Metaverse. Her avatar's cat ears flatten when she gets angry, making them a virtual mix of Unusual Ears and Animal-Eared Headband.
  • Felix/Ferris Argyle from Re:Zero has a cat's ears and tail due to having demihuman blood. Despite being introduced as a cat boy, there are some hints that Ferris may identify as female.
  • Rivers of London: The Black magician of Moon Over Soho creates these by merging people and actual cats to cater to sex club clients. Since this is a 'Verse that falls hard down the Cynical Side of the Scale this is not pretty.
  • Sandpaper Kiss focuses on one of these, by the name of Lucy, though a deconstruction of the trope as she was created in an illegal hybridisation experiment, and is a hybrid of a human girl and a white tiger. As a result, she suffers from disabilities thanks to her awkward, cat/human anatomy, such as not being able to speak English properly (her lips aren't as flexible and can't produce the right sounds).
  • Sword Art Online: Silica and Sinon have Cait Sith avatars in Alfheim Online, which are designed to evoke this trope, complete with the ears and tail.
  • Kilgore Trout's Venus On The Half Shell (ghostwritten by Philip José Farmer instead of Kurt Vonnegut note ) has a cat-like alien queen who makes love to the hero and grants him immortality.
  • Madeline Zargosty from Voidskipper In Pursuit of Bark's Finest invoked this trope, favoring a morph with several distinctly feline traits such as ears, a tail, and the ability to purr.
  • Fritz Leiber's The Wanderer has a sexy alien catgirl from a Superior Species teach the hero about sexy catgirl sex.
  • In Welcome to the NHK, Sato gets a crush on a catgirl mage in an MMORPG. It turns out it's actually his male friend Yamazaki, who is doing it to prove a point. Misaki tries to break Sato of his crippling addiction to the MMORPG by dressing up as a catgirl herself — complete with meowing — but Sato's response is to throw things at her and tell her to go find a convention to cosplay at.

    Live-Action TV 

    Music 
  • 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.
  • The Shonen Knife song "I am a Cat" is about a young woman who transforms into a cat. The title is a reference to a fairly famous Japanese novel that is almost totally unknown outside of its native country.
  • The fairly popular UTAU character Hana Chikako is said to be a catgirl.
  • The cover of Ali Project's La Vida Romantica shows Arika as a leopard girl.
  • Vocaloid:
    • The character Gumi is portrayed as a catgirl in the music video "Ah, It's a Wonderful Cat Life". In the same video, Len appears as a catboy.
    • The Korean vocaloid SeeU by SBS Artech has cat-ear speakers mounted to her head as part of her costume.
  • sasakure.UK: Sato, the main character of "Nekosogi Matter Bop" and "Ghost Light", looks like a teenage girl with a cat's ears and two tails.

    Mythology and Religion 
  • As mentioned in the description, the trope is Older Than Dirt, with two notable figures from Egyptian Mythology who qualify as cat girls.
    • Bastet, the goddess of cats, whose worship as a goddess of fertility and protection was the reason for the popular association of Ancient Egypt with cats. She was usually depicted with a cat head, but otherwise had a fully female human body. There was an entire city in Ancient Egypt devoted to the worship of Bastet.
    • Sekhmet, the fierce warrior aspect of the Eye of Ra, who was depicted as a human woman with the head of a lioness. She and Bastet were later conflated, with Bastet and Sekhmet serving the gentler and vengeful side, respectively, of the same feline goddess.

    Roleplay 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Big Eyes, Small Mouth: This is a 20pt template. Sample neko-jin have included a warrior from the Space Opera world of Cathedral and a portal-travelling wanderer looking for Bastet, as in the Egyptian goddess.
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • The Weretouched (people who have a Werebeast in their family tree) may exhibit minor features of their were-whatever ancestors, like ears, eyes, or fangs.
    • Eberron: Shifters are an entire race of feral human/lycanthrope hybrids, and can also display minor features.
    • D&D 3.5 also has a Catfolk as a playable race in Races of the Wild.
  • Exalted:
    • The Lion Fey are Fair Folk with the Assumption of Bestial Visage Charm who've decided to take leonine form.
    • Various Lunar Exalted also display catgirl traits, particularly Cult of the Illuminated Kid Sidekick Faithful Pia.
  • GURPS loves this trope. David Pulver, one of their main writers, has gone on record saying that, whatever setting you play in, someone will want to play a catgirl — so he provides.
    • The original Bio-Tech supplement featured "Felicia-series bioroids", a race of genetically engineered catgirls. (They can temporarily gain Super-Speed, but afterwards their libido and other appetites go into overdrive.)
    • Felicias were then incorporated in the Transhuman Space setting. That also features some other catgirl bioroid types, created purely as sex toys rather than as combat models; getting them confused is a great way to annoy a Felicia.
    • Cat people are also one of the "chimera" types in GURPS Technomancer. They look something like the Cat-Nuns in Doctor Who. Cat halflings, however, resemble conventional catgirls — specifically, puma girls.
  • Maid RPG:
    • Being a catgirl is one of the potential Special Qualities a maid or female butler can have. —They can also be were-tigers or were-lions.
    • Your catgirl can also actually be a spider, depending on what you roll and whether you're willing to go for it.
    • Player Character Masters or NPC Masters made with the Master creation rules only have access to the were-cat Special Quality,note  but other NPC Masters can be whatever the GM feels like.
  • Manhunter has the Kirn race, who are cat-like humanoid aliens. The females are depicted as catgirls.
  • Munchkin:
    • "Catgirls" are monsters. 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".
    • The "Catboi hireling" is a cute tiger-striped male in a loincloth, usable only by female characters. But he's on the player's side, not a monster.
    • Star Munchkin has them as a playable race, the D20 RPG treatment of this material states that they're the result of a Furry convention and an irresponsible bio-engineer conference getting double-booked.
  • Shadowrun has catgirls/catboys thanks to a spike in the mana levels when Halley's Comet swung around, triggering a wave of random genetic mutations. Most of the resulting "changelings" received random and often disfiguring mutations, but a number of cat-people also turned up. It's also possible to receive cosmetic surgery to turn oneself into this trope.
  • Ponyfinder: Purrsian/human crossbreeds are a variant, being visually human (though sometimes possessed of cat ears) from the waist up and a bipedal cat from the waist down. Unlike most catgirls and catboys, though, they have wings.
  • The World of Darkness:
    • Old World of Darkness players have a couple options for making catgirls (and boys), including Gangrel from Vampire: The Masquerade (bestial vampires whose animal features are mostly feline), bastet werecats (who are by default either fully human or fully feline, but whose war form is a colossal bipedal feline monsters), pooka changelings with a cat affinity, and an entire kith of Cat Folk (traditional look and all) among the Eastern fae with the Nyan (whose name is even the Japanese version of "meow").
    • New World of Darkness: Those wanting to play catpeople have some options: changelings of the Beast seeming have feline characteristics, and there are some cat Skinchangers such as the werecats of the Colony.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Thunder Nyan Nyan evokes the image. She is most likely actually an oni, as her "ears" are horns, and according to the myths, onis were known to wear tiger skins —Her "fur" does appear to be an outfit and forearm gloves made of tiger skin.

    Theater 

    Toys 
  • Ever After High has Kitty Cheshire, the daughter of the Cheshire Cat.note  Has slit-pupil eyes, and a sort of catty aloofness. She often accents the catgirl theme with a cat-ear headband.
  • The FA Girl Innocentia is a catgirl, with her choice of hair-tone or mechanical ears.
  • L.O.L. Surprise! have the characters Baby Cat, Troublemaker, and Kitty Queen.
  • Monster High has a number of them, most notably Alpha Bitch Toralei Stripe and her followers Meowlody and Purrsephone, but there are nicer ones like Catrine DeMew and Catty Noir. Some nameless catgirls and boys show up in the background too.
  • A Japanese (naturally) invention, Neurowear make artificial, brain-wave controlled cat ears called Necomimi.

    Video Games 
  • The Firran race in Archeage are this, complete with ears and tail. They even get a unique race-specific appearance to the foot slot of their armor, have a unique sprinting animation, and their racial abilities consist of one skill to increase climbing speed on ladders and trees, and another to make them immune to falling damage.
  • All characters of the Feline race of Arknights are this.
  • Aurora Dusk features a catgirl who sleeps 16 hours a day and complains about not being fed. When offered your rations, she answers that she ate yours already.
  • Atelier Iris 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(!). 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. In the sequel, Poe winds up marrying one after overhearing him recite a declaration of love and thinking he was talking to her.
  • Azur Lane: It's a fairly common trait, especially in Sakura Empire (ie Japanese) destroyers, with the most memetically infamous being Repair shop Akashi (who runs the in game shop).
  • Coyori from Battle Fantasia is a cat who was changed into a human by a good witch. She has the tail but not the ears.
  • Meï in Beyond Good & 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.
  • Blade Kitten is about Kit Ballard, a young Catgirl with pink ears, pink tail, and, of course, a blade.
  • BlazBlue:
    • Taokaka 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.
    • Supporting cast member Kokonoe is another catgirl, this time quite visibly modeled after nekomata, having the trademark split tail, and some rather... interesting hobbies.
  • The Bloody Roar games have Uriko, who is halfway between Catgirl and a Beast Man. Her head, face, and ears are catgirl like, however her limbs are more animal-like than standard catgirls.
  • Breath of Fire:
  • Merrina Iris of Bullet Girls Phantasia is part of an entire species of them. She also constantly makes cat puns.
  • Kitty-N from Bust a Groove. She wears a costume with this design, but considering the nature of the game, she could very well BE one.
  • Shanoa from Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia can transform into a catgirl with a particular glyph. It gives her a new set of attacks, it makes the normally hostile enemy catgirls friendly to her (to the point that they aid her in battle), and it also allows her to talk to the various cats that she rescues.
  • "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 what is clearly just a sexy costume, all the way to full-on feral mutant with powers to match. The canon catgirl is Mynx, though, who glib speedster Synapse apparently found rooting through garbage one day. She cleans up pretty good, to her credit.
  • Xiao from the first Dark Cloud game is an interesting case. She starts out as a regular stray cat found in one of the game's dungeons, and an item used to advance later on turns her into a human, and also the first ally in your party. In Dark Chronicle, a catgirl costume can be acquired for the female main character.
  • D4 has Amanda, a weird variant on this trope. She doesn't wear ears or a tail, but she meows, loves to climb on furniture, and catches animals in her mouth. In Memento segments, Amanda appears as an actual white cat.
  • Most famous video game example: Felicia from Darkstalkers would be considered the heart and soul of this trope. Having a seductive body, cat ears, a Prehensile Tail, a Stripperiffic Fur Bikini, and can go from cat to catwoman form in a heartbeat, it speaks volumes.
  • 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"note  breed of monsters are so obvious they didn't even get mentioned, with kitty ears, tail, and strategically-placed strips of fur, Felicia-style.
    • Not to mention the Thieves in Disgaea 2, who had cat eyes and wore a hood that resembled cat ears.
    • Disgaea 3 and 4 take this even further: Not only do they have the previously-mentioned Nekomata, thieves and Beastmasters, but they also have Catsabers, a type of monster that looks like a little kid wearing a cat costume.
    • Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days has Death Sabers which are more demonic looking varation. They appear in Disgaea 4 as DLC.
    • The remake of Disgaea 3 introduced Rutile, a halfling Nekomata whom has both ears and a tail. She can be brought into the remake of Disgaea 4 alongside her friend, Stella.
    • Disgaea 5 has Liezerota, daughter of Great Demon Fist, Goldion (whom himself is a Lion Man reminiscent of Leomon). She has a lion tail.
  • Some characters from the .hack franchise use catgirl avatars in The World, like Tabby from .hack//G.U., who has expressive cat ears and a ponytail that looks like a cat tail.
  • DragonFable:
    • Fae the involuntary shapeshifter, who ends up permanently taking the form of a catgirl complete with ears, paws, tail, and a fur dress.
    • Later on, Bubble, one of the Cauldron Sisters who was accidentally turned into a cat, is changed back, but retains her cat ears.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • The Mithra from Final Fantasy XI are an entire race of catgirls. While there are male mithra, they are rare and needed for breeding, so they don't get to leave the villages and go adventuring.
    • Final Fantasy XIV has their own version of the FFXI races, including their own version of Mithra named Miqo'te. They come in two clans, the Seekers of the Sun and Keepers of the Moon, with the former distinguished by their perpetually slitted pupils and the latter by their fangs and facial markings. A Realm Reborn added playable male Miqo'te, so now we have catboys in addition to catgirls.
    • There's also a Miqo'te outfit for Lightning in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, in addition to cat-ear adornments. They can even be worn together, as weird as it looks.
    • Final Fantasy XV also has a Miqo'te outfit for Noctis which can be earned by completing a FFXIV-themed quest chain.
    • Adelle from Final Fantasy Tactics A2 has many traits of a cat, she even got her nickname Adelle the Cat. Her bow looks like cat ears and she has a belt hanging from her waist that looks like a tail, but she's 100% human (er, hume)
    • In Final Fantasy III, the Shamans have cat ears. So does Krile's White Mage outfit in Final Fantasy V.
    • Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time has Sherlotta, who has a cat tail and a big orange bow that resembles cat ears. She turns into a cat, too! Though near the end, the Sherlotta the main character knew turns out to be a spirit of a human put into a cat.
  • In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, the humanoid forms of the cat, tiger and lion Laguz look like Little Bit Beastly humans with cat ears and tails. Lethe provides the page image.
  • Genshin Impact
    • Diona is a Kätzlein (although her in-game profile says she's only "inherited trace amounts of non-human blood"), evidenced with her feline ears and tail. When she stretches her body, she does so like a cat. Her bloodline makes her and her father skillful hunters. The bar patrons at Cat's Tail once thought the ears and tail were just her gimmicks for her job, but to their surprise, they found out that they're real.
    • Kirara is a nekomata youkai from Inazuma who enjoys boxes, climbing on things, scratching up furniture to sharpen her claws, and catching fish, birds, and squirrels. She keeps her twin tails and cat feet even in her more human form.
    • Lynette is another cat girl, although it is unknown if she has a connection to the Kätzlein bloodline. Her twin brother Lyney has no cat body parts, suggesting that Lynette's feline features come from recessive genes. Unlike the previously mentioned Diona and Kirara, Lynette never meows or purrs.
    • Other characters like Keqing, Dehya, and to a lesser extent Collei have a cat theme, but are otherwise normal humans.
  • Annika, the Player Character of Giraffe and Annika is a human girl with cat ears and a cat tail.
  • Granblue Fantasy has an entire race called Erune, which are humanoids with animal ears and sometimes a tail. Most erunes don't actually behave like their animal counterparts, however. One notable exception is Sen who acts like a cat, and is sometimes even treated as one, much to her chagrin.
  • In Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time Leona, one of the party members and potential romance options, has the ears and tail of a cat.
  • In Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd, one of KAITO's wardrobe options is an electronic catgirl costume called"Neko Cyber" (Cyber Neko).
  • In Hellsinker there is the human form of Lost Property 771. Then there is also Millionlives and Ninelives in the Shrine of Farewell.
  • Jeanne d'Arc:
    • La Hire and Bartolomeo 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.
  • Kagetsu Tohya:
    • Len is an advanced familiar/succubus made half from a dead cat and half from a little dead girl's 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.
    • Also Arcueid, from the same series, who isn't a catgirl but occasionally grows cat ears in the same fashion as Hikaru from Magic Knight Rayearth.
    • There's also a super-deformed version, Neco-Arc, who permanently has cat ears and a tail.
    • Even villain Nrvnqsr Chaos gets a super-deformed cat version of himself, Neco-Arc Chaos, in the later Melty Blood games.
    • An expanded lineup of Neco-Arcs (aka the NEKO spirit race) run the Ahnenerbe cafe in Carnival Phantasm.
  • Keke from the Kirby series. She is a Cat Girl witch enemy who flies around on a broom and gives Kirby the Cleaning ability. Her name is a Shout-Out to Kiki of Kiki's Delivery Service.
  • The cat acrobat class from Kritika has cat ears, have many claw-based attacks, and frequently makes meowing noises during battles.
  • In Legacy of the Wizard, some enemies named Mayu look like tiny hooded girls with cat ears and tail.
  • In the The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel series, Celine is normally a talking cat who is a familiar to the witch Emma. In Cold Steel IV, however, she reluctantly takes the form of a catgirl a few times to assist the party in battle, though she really doesn't like using this form.
  • Love Nikki - Dress Up Queen has a few examples:
    • Apple Federal's Jingle Kitty outfit.
    • Lilith Kingdom's Tabby Cat (which is the Animal-Eared Headband variety).
    • Fluffy Gentleman has a tail but no ears (though the hairstyle vaguely suggests an ear shape).
  • 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 are Beastmen.
  • Nikki from Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis, among others.
  • Mega Man:
  • A DLC costume for Palicos from Monster Hunter Generations is Toon Link from The Legend of Zelda. This gives the effect that Link has cat ears, a cat tail, and he moves like a cat.
  • Maeve from Paladins normally has a cat-themed Animal Motif, but her Alley Cat skin makes her more cat-like by giving her cat ears and a cat tail printed on her coat.
  • Arle, Ringo, Raffina, Ally, and Witch become this as part of a Puyo Puyo!! Quest event. Arle turns into a calico cat, while Ringo and Witch transform into grey cats and Ally and Raffina change into orange tabby cats.
  • King Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, the Player Character of Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, has a Grimalkin (cat person) father and a human mother, and thus appears human with cat ears and a tail.
  • Pillars of Eternity features a playable race of diminutive catlike people called Orlans. The Hearth Orlan sub-types have catlike eyes and large furry ears but are not completely furry.
  • 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.
  • Nekomata are a recurring demon/Persona/whatever in the Shin Megami Tensei series.
  • Riviera: The Promised Land: Rose R. Crawford, the winged feline familiar of the protagonist Ein, becomes a Catgirl in her true ending as a result of Ein spraying a wish-granting perfume given to him by Cierra onto her. Rose loses her wings in her humanoid form but keeps the cat ears and tail.
  • Show by Rock!! has several catgirls:
    • Cyan Has ears, a tail, and Cute Little Fangs in her human form.
    • Darudayu has a nekomata form.
    • Several others seem to have cat-themed costumes, at least.
  • Ms. Fortune from Skullgirls: The ears, the tail, the claws, the smile and Cute Little Fangs, the... wait— the messy Detachment Combat? She's actually more "Grotesque Cute".
  • Smite has Bastet, Goddess of cats. A somewhat unusual example, she has fully catlike digitgrade legs ending in paws in addition to a cat's tail and a human head with cat ears. She makes meowing sounds when she pounces. This is actually a fairly loose interpretation of the actual goddess, because Bastet usually has a literal cat's head instead of a catgirl appearance.
  • Soul Calibur: Talim donned a cat-themed look for her second player costume in SC IV.
  • 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: The Second Story 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). No one in the game comments on this. He doesn't act cat-like, though, save for an odd instance where he purred after reluctantly letting his ears be scratched (Which he was ashamed of).note 
    • In Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Meracle joins your party, and she is a by-the-book catgirl who can also turn into a normal-sized cat. She thinks she might be originally from Roak (she's not sure of her origins, due to being [accidentally] kidnapped by a Mad Scientist at a young age) Also, it's ... unclear what the scientists were doing to her in the first place, given what they made her wear (note the collar).
  • Super Street Fighter IV Cammy, originally introduced in Street Fighter II, has full body catsuit complete with ears and tail as a downloadable alternate outfit.
  • Subverse has the alien species of the "Nikith", represented by the recruitable "waifu" and party member Taron. They mostly resemble humans, with cat ears and tails, claws, patches of fur on certain parts of their body, and extremely powerful musculature, finely honed senses, and incredible agility that makes them extremely successful apex predators on their home planet, so much so that they voluntarily stick to being a Hunter-Gatherer society and all but the youngest and most curious nikith ever show an interest in advanced technology or heading off-world.
  • 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.
  • Princess Peach can become one in Super Mario 3D World by collecting the Cat Bell Power-Up. Rosalina can become one as well.
  • Alicia Priss and her sisters Flare and Stare Priss are the main antagonists from Tail Concerto. They all have cat ears, tails, and Playful Cat Smiles. Alicia, who's the leader of the dreaded Black Cat Gang, is also secretly in love with Waffle, the game's protagonist...who happens to be a dog.
  • Tekken 7's Lucky Chloe has a cat motif going for her. She wears a pair of headphones with cat ears on them, her skirt has a tail poking out of it, and she wears a jacket with cat paw sleeves similar to Taokaka from BlazBlue.
  • Touhou Project has a few; being a series focused on Japanese mythology and folklore, all of them are cat youkai of some kind.
    • Chen is a nekomata, and as such she's depicted as a girl with cat ears and two tails.
    • Rin "Orin" Kaenbyou is a kasha, a kind of youkai cat that's often associated with Hell and the afterlife. While she does have cat ears (and human ears, somehow), she's tailless in most official art aside from her cat form and her background cameo in Hopeless Masquerade, where she has two tails.
    • Shou Toramaru the tiger youkai doesn't have any tiger features aside from her tiger-patterned hair and clothes, but fanartists often depict her with a tail and ears anyway.
    • Mike Goutokuji is a Maneki Neko who's depicted as a girl with a calico cat's ears and tail, as well as wearing bells around her neck and wrists.
  • Miyu the managraphic artist from Trinity Universe.
  • Twisted Wonderland: There is a race of beastpeople, and many of them are feline.
    • Alchemiy Alchemievich "Che'nya", based off the Chesire Cat, has a pair of cat ears, slitted pupils, a perpetual Playful Cat Smile, and tends to say "nya" when speaking.
    • Leona Kingscholar is based off Scar and has lion ears, tail, fangs and slitted pupils. His nephew Cheka, based on Simba, is currently a child and fits the "cute" mold.
    • Ruggie Bucchi is hyena-based.
    • Gidel, based on Gideon, is also cat-based and is a Cute Mute little boy.
  • Undertale:
    • A Show Within a Show called Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, an anime that made its way to the Kingdom of Monsters, stars a catgirl who does a lot of kissing people. The royal scientist has opinions on the sharp departure in the storytelling between season one to season two.
    • In later rereleases of the game, Mew Mew actually becomes a physical character via a ghost possessing a Mew Mew animatronic. She effectively adopts Mew Mew as her new identity.
    • The game also describes an old cell phone trying to communicate being texted an ASCII picture of "an anime catgirl". (Stranger still, the caller was trying to order a pizza.)
  • Wintermoor Tactics Club: Badass nonbinary version; Avery, who adopts the snow leopard as their animal, is clearly the leader of the Animal Identification Club, being a strong and intelligent combatant, to the degree that they lead the club to the semifinals. This despite being the single smallest club in the school! Even the Tactics Club started out with more members!
  • KOS-MOS from Xenosaga, a Robot Girl, gained headgear that resembled cat ears after a plot-important upgrade in Episode III. In a comical side story she also got infected with a computer virus that makes her meow randomly at the end of her sentences to boot: this is carried over into her Endless Frontier appearances.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles:
    • In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the native people of the titan Gormott are cat folk, albeit of a tail-less variety. Oddly, their children appear more bestial, having furry arms and legs along with clawed toes, though they seem to lose these traits as they mature. Nia, the first party member to join Rex, is of this race though she's a little odd compared to the other Gormotti for the fact that her ears point backwards instead of forwards. It eventually turns out there's much more to her then meets the eye, and her unusual ears are perhaps a symbol of this.
    • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has Mio, the Agnian off-seer of the Ouroboros team who has pointy feline ears and Cute Little Fangs. There are also various minor Cat Girls (and Cat Boys) who can be found in the colonies of Agnus. The Queen of Agnus also has very tall catlike ears, and she turns out to be Nia from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Also, if you noticed that Mio and Nia look very similar to one another, it's heavily implied to be because Mio is related to Nia, and all-but-stated to actually be Nia's daughter with Rex.
    • Future Redeemed has the siblings Matthew and Na'el, who are M and N's great-grandchildren. Na'el inherited the cat ears, while Matthew's human ears are pointy and he has prominent fangs.
  • Ys IX: Monstrum Nox has White Cat, one of the titular Monstrums, who has cat ears and tail. She's actually a human with special powers, which manifest only in this superpowered Monstrum form, but various events show that her ears and tail are indeed real. Her special power is Wall Run, which, when active, leaves glowing cat pawprint on the wall, and many of her attacks invoke cat-like imagery.
  • In Yume Nikki, the protagonist, Madotsuki can turn into a catgirl by using one of the effects.
  • Yuppie Psycho: Domori is this as well as being a witch, which is why she's kept away from the public.
  • Zero Divide: Of the robotic fighters (or at least AI fighters that appear robotic) featured throughout these games, one of them, Io, is a robotic cat girl.

    Visual Novels 
  • Boris Airay from Alice in the Country of Hearts is the Cheshire Cat from the original story if he were an attractive catboy with an appreciation for guns.
  • Analogue: A Hate Story: Word of God says Mute's hairdo was designed so they would look like cat ears.
  • Yoriko in Da Capo, a more or less hidden character unlocked after the five main routes. She's actually a rich girl that fell in love with Junichi by watching him go to school in the form of her cat. Only shapeshifted to look mostly like her. When asked what possible function cat ears could serve, Junichi accidentally blurts out that they're cute, right? Presumably to avoid fridge logic of bestiality, the romance between them doesn't get intimate until after she turns back into a cat and her real body starts going to his school.
  • Mice Tea has Felicia, who develops cat girl features after drinking the titular transformative beverage in addition to going more fully anthro like everyone else. However, once the tea becomes better understood and characters can switch in and out of their animal forms with more relative ease, Felicia is seen more often than not in her cat girl form as a default instead of human or full anthro like the other characters. It's implied that it has to do with finally being able to understand and properly communicate with her cats.
  • Miki Tamase in Muv-Luv has cat-like features, such as a hairstyle resembling cat ears, a tail accessory, a collar with bell (ridiculously oversized in some versions of the art), and an occasional meow. The resemblance is strong enough that Takeru calls her "Tama", a name associated with cats, as a nickname, and Meiya wonders whether she's human or cat upon first meeting her.
  • NekoMiko has Kaede and Ayame, a pair of Miko catgirls who come to live with the Player Character while they try to expel all his bad luck from him.
  • Most of the main cast of Nekopara, aside from Kashou and Shigure, are all catgirls, since this visual novel is set in a world where catgirls can be adopted as pets. It even get better as by the end of Volume 1, the bakery gets renamed to Neko Paradise as nearly every employee is a catgirl.
  • Kan'u and her people in Juuzaengi are Cat People, referred to with the derogatory 'Juuza' by humans, with cat ears.
  • Ati in Sekien no Inganock, who sports the standard (if somewhat ragged) ears and tail, along with some massive claws and a golden, slitted right eye. (Her left is still a normal blue.) Her personality can be rather cat-like at times.
    • Her Expy in the PSP game New Traveler, Yuno, goes one step further by being half-kitkin, making her appear more like the traditional catgirl.
  • Smoldep in Smoldeps Magickal Adventure, the titular character whose sprite is from RPG Maker VX Ace, has very fluffy cat ears and a cat tail which is not pictured in the sprite but exists in the realm of Word of God. In fact, being a cat girl is probably the only personality trait she has besides Jerkass.
  • Umineko: When They Cry:
    • Bernkastel has a cat tail and is able to turn into a cat, though it's downplayed as she has no cat ears to match. She also has cat minions that will tear you to pieces on her command. In Episode 8 it's also revealed that her real world manifestation is Ikuko Hachijō's pet cat Bern. This alludes to her connection with Rika Furude from Higurashi: When They Cry as Bern is an amalgamation of all the dead Rikas that never made it past June of 1983, who's strongly associated with cats herself.
    • In Our Confession, Yasu redesigns the demon Flauros to look like a catgirl.
  • Stella in VA-11 HALL-A is a "cat boomer," meaning she was diagnosed with nanomachine rejection and had to undergo a genetic modification to survive, which results in a pair of feline ears as a side-effect. She expresses disapproval towards parents who choose to give their children the treatment just for the "trendy" ears and not for any actual health reasons.

    Web Animation 
  • Acedemy Sugoi Seiun has Sakura-nyan. She has cat ears, and a tail if Emma remembers to draw one.
  • Draw with Me, the characters are drawn like this. The girl is one, and the boy seems to be some sort of canine.
  • Neko Sugar Girls is an already infamous example. Koneko and Raku are both inexplicably catgirls. Raku has a very noticeable Verbal Tic where she says "nya" basically every second line. Raku even turns into a cat when she becomes sick due to a squirrel bite.
  • RWBY: The Faunus look like humans except for certain animal traits that are different for each individual, meaning that cat Faunus often end up looking like this.
    • Blake comes from a family of cat Faunus. She has black cat ears that poke out of her black hair, but has human ears, too. She inherited her ears off her mother, as her father has feline hands and feet; his feet end in paws, but his hands look human enough until he extends his claws. Blake displays stereotypical cat-like behaviour, such as favouring fish-based meals and being unable to resist following laser pointers; she also dislikes Ruby and Yang's family dog.
    • Neon Katt is a red-headed cat-girl with a ginger tail. She has the energetic, mischievous personality associated with the depiction of ginger cats in works, and tends to produce streaks of rainbow light whenever she moves fast. She's a Shout-Out to the Nyan Cat meme, and is therefore a stark contrast to Blake's aloof, moody personality and preference for purple-tinted monochrome colour palettes.
  • RWBY Chibi shows she has other cat-like traits such as fearing vacuums, though it's unlikely to be canon due to the humorous nature of the series.

    Webcomics 
  • Alone in a Crowd: Faith. In her case, it's described as a "birth defect", one which her parents refused to have "fixed" because they loved her just as she is before they died. Although Faith is bullied at school because of them, her ears do have at least one benefit — cat-like hearing.
  • Angel Moxie: Miya is normally cat-shaped, but has a humanoid form, which keeps the cat ears and tail.
  • Beyond the End: Hal is a cat boy, though he's also capable of turning into a lion and it's unclear which is his true form. Even in his humanoid form, he keeps the cat eyes, tail, and claws.
  • But I'm a Cat Person: There are three cat-based shapeshifters: Reseda (a housecat), Blake (an "every big cat that isn't a lion", typically seen as a tiger), and a not-yet-introduced Lion. They typically stick to entirely-human or entirely-feline forms, but will sometimes sprout ears and a tail for the cuteness/weirdness/otaku-appeal factor.
  • Caribbean Blue on katbox.net has several main character that are this trope or will assume from time to time, depending how the story goes, also as part of a series of plot points this trope is believed to identify the island's guardian
  • Cat Nine: Myan when she's transformed. She's supposed to be fully human when using her collar, but the spell that allows her to transform was incomplete, but they decided to leave like that anyway.
  • Charby the Vampirate: Han is a cat youkai with cat ears and a humanoid face and figure, her calico hair is styled in a loose layered bob and her remaining hand is multicolored calico, her twin brother is slightly more humanoid in appearance than she.
  • Chirault: The cat-person species is known as Kyrions, and they're considered a type of demon.
  • Dubious Company: Tiren is a catgirl ninja. Her mother is a ninja and her father is a "beastman" so she's also a Half-Human Hybrid.
  • Eerie Cuties: Kade Whiteclaw is a lusted-after catboy that sometimes has difficulty controlling his cat-like impulses.
  • 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.
  • Fillbert: Willow has cat ears and a tail.
  • Flaky Pastry: One of the lead characters, Marelle, is basically human, wears clothes and has no tail, but has cat-style ears, a flattened nose, and a somewhat catlike face. She vigourously denies being a catgirl and hates being called one. Whether this is a subversion or just a downplayed example of the trope has not been made clear.
  • Ghosts Among The Wild Flowers: Julia is more like an elegant panther or jaguar than the usual cutesy anime style.
  • El Goonish Shive features a tough cat man: Elliot himself, during the Sister arc, who turns into a were-cat to return to Moperville.
  • Gravity Break: Cataclysm: The protagonist and much of the cast are catgirls. Catgirls are humans who have transformed with the help of futuristic medical science. The transformation comes with ears and tail, as well as sharpened senses and gravity-bending superpowers.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers:
    • There is 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.
    • France also wears a pair of cat ears during the Christmas strips. He lampshades them when he's having what he thinks are his last thoughts after facing the wrong end of Switzerland's gun.
    • Japan is visiting Greece, who is always flanked by stray cats. Greece says that if there is an afterlife, he would want to be reborn as a cat. Japan places cat ears on him.
  • Homestuck:
    • Nepeta's character design invokes this image. She's a troll with her ear-like horns and permanent Playful Cat Smile, including Cute Little Fangs; her sprite in one of the playable segments also has slitted feline eyes. She wears a tail and a hat with sort of a cat face, and fights using gloves with claws attached. She also roleplays as a cat online, and makes feline-related puns at any pawsible chance. In personality, she's cheerful and playful but also a formidable fighter and very fond of hunting large, dangerous things with her bare claws.
    • Later done more literally with Jasprosesprite^2, who is part cat, part eldritch princess doll, part girl, and two parts game sprite. In personality, she's an archetypal preening, shameless, and obliviously egocentric cat.
  • Tsunami Channel: Anya from Experimental Comic Kotone. In a case of questionable biology, her sister Lisa is a fox-girl.
  • MADHVinyl: Three of the four "title" characters are nekomimi: Miyuki, Anna Marie, and Hyacinth (Diamond is an elven sorceress). The three nekomimi attend Nekomi Special Middle School, where the student body consists exclusively of nekomimi. There are lots of characters with kitty ears and tails. In the MV world nekomimi are suggested to be some kind of biological experiment and some of the featured characters actually live in laboratories being actively experimented on in between classes. Squick.
  • Ménage à 3: Zii was obliged to cosplay as "Nekomimi-chan" — somewhat against her will, perhaps, until she discovered that a minimalist catgirl costume disabled any anime geek who saw her. Thanks to further events, the cute cat ears from the costume ended up with some distinctly erotic associations.
  • Moxie: Mari, the main character, has white ears and a white tail. When she gets angry, sometimes her canine teeth will show.
  • My Impossible Soulmate: Bastet are a type of demi-human with cat-like ears and tails.
  • My Roommate Is an Elf: Jacinda and her mother qualify as this. They have cat-like ears, a tail, whiskers, and have nine lives.
  • Not a Villain has Kleya Smith's avatar Kat, a pink-and-yellow catgirl who wants everyone to be nice.
  • Not Quite Daily Comic: Myshka, a regular cat who was accidentally transformed into a "dangerously furry" catgirl, retains most of her former behavior, somewhat subverting the trope.
  • Okashina Okashi features cat people, including a pair of cat boys who are often found engaging in certain activities.
  • The Order of the Stick: One of Tarquin's allies is a catgirl.
  • Outside Interference: The jury's still out on whether or not Gina 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, but this could be that she might be a Manx cat, which has no tail whatsoever.
  • Pandora's Tale: The titular character, along with her fellow Helpers, is an artificially engineered species bred and conditioned to serve the rich.
  • Purgatory Tower: The cast 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.
  • Ronin Galaxy: Ai is a robotic version of a catgirl. She was apparently manufactured with these parts as an accessory.
  • Sandra and Woo has Hitomi, a young Japanese woman whom Richard met on a business trip to Japan, who dresses as a cat girl. This serves as a source of anxiety for Hitomi when she moves to the U.S. to be with Richard as to whether Sandra would take her seriously as a stepmom.
  • Schlock Mercenary: A pervert looking for hot aliens mentions "cat girls and kitsune." None ever show up on screen, so we don't know if they actually exist or if he was just talking about some vaguely cat-like aliens. The closest would be the uuplechans, who are pretty much just bipedal cats—including in size.
  • And Shine Heaven Now: Among the other reality warping abilities fangirls have, they've turned objects of their affection into a cat-person twice: Alucard, and Rip.
  • Skin Horse: Unity takes advantage of her Appendage Assimilation abilities and stitches some bobcat ears onto her head in order to resemble a favorite TV character.
  • Sluggy Freelance: Riff had a very disturbing dream about a satanic catgirl clown.
  • Something*Positive doesn't have any actual catgirls, but frequently has gags involving catgirl cosplayers, who are depicted as grotesque muppet-like creatures which swarm through fan conventions annoying everyone else. In fact, one group eventually went completely feral, generating a survival horror storyline and killing one significant second-string character.
    A message from Something Positive: Please, for love of all that is decent, Spay/Neuter Your Catgirl.
  • Spacetrawler: Yuri starts off wearing a pair of costume cat ears all the time. Then she gets a pair of real cat ears surgically grafted onto her head.
  • Spinnerette: Katt o' Nine Tails, a French Canadian superheroine who, from what little we've heard so far, gained her powers from a magical cat. Unusually for this character type, Katt has (as her name suggests) no less than nine fully prehensile tails. She's also apparently a fantastic masseuse.
  • 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.
  • Verboten: Aryssa Katrina is a catgirl in the classical mold. This is because she's part feralian — a species of humanoid felines with a tribal, Proud Warrior Race society. Since she's only half feralian, she's a cute Beast Man, but she lacks the agility and strength of full feralians, and she's not too popular with her tribe.
  • Wayward Sons: Nemean hybrids like H'pitand S'ket are catgirls. Pure Nemeans like B'st are much furrier.
  • Yokoka's Quest: Yokoka becomes a catgirl after leaving Betel's Forest at the end of chapter 1. Mao becomes a catboy shortly after this, though seems to have lost the cat ears and tail as of chapter 9.
  • Yosh! has two of the main characters (Kate and Blue) changed into catgirls by the Applied Phlebotinum of the comic's world.
  • You've Gotta Be Kitten Me!: The entire premise of the comic is about how a meteor turn all cats in the world into humanoid beings.
  • Zokusho Comics: Asuka, the CEO of Kodate Corporation is a catgirl. She's somewhat unusual in that so far she hasn't shown any of the traditional traits of a catgirl. She seems to be a very astute business woman who happens to have cat ears.
  • Tales to Behold, Section P, and Strange Tales of the DA Multiverse: Burst Lion has the ability to transform herself into an anthropomorphic cat girl.

    Web Original 
  • An exchange with a disgruntled customer on Campbell's official Twitter feed culminated in this when the company's representative asked, "What can we do to help?":
    Customer: draw a catgirl
    Campbell's: Keep in mind we're not artists but we tried.
  • Another DeviantArt creation is Ken D. Blackwell's Pagan, a cryptid catgirl who wanders the world getting into all kinds of adventures because of her curiosity.
  • In The Official Fanfiction University of Redwall, an Otaku signed up as a catgirl.
  • The SCP Foundation has SCP-2085, a "space wizard" and his gang of "cyborg catgirls". They're all very Wrong Genre Savvy, believing themselves to be in a lighthearted action anime, not a bleak Cosmic Horror Story. Although it's only in the SCP article itself that they're wrong; in the tales starring them they broke out of Foundation custody and were back on wild adventures after three months.
  • Whateley Universe:
    • Miyet, just to name one, or that was the intent, even though she has "faint fur", as her origin story is called Catgirl Madness. Her patron goddess is Bast — see Mythology — who is behind her transformation and talks to her in her head every so often. Miyet may become an actual example if Bast removes the fur, which she says she can:
      Bast: Perhaps in time I will pull the soft fur and slitted eyes from you. But it is a good color for your skin. Be good and I will make you more human.
    • There are other examples, but as with Miyet, most of the ones actually named only loosely fit the archetype if at all. These include Tabatha Ericka Bolton (a classic catgirl who was only mentioned in passing), Tabby (with Voluntary Shapeshifting whose alternate form is felinoid), Telekat (who is even more Beast Folk than Miyet), Mad Cat (ditto), and Cyberkitty (whose were-cougar infection is unrelated to her mutant powers). There's also Shisa, who skips the catgirl part entirely and transformed into a oversized housecat with hand-like paws.
    • Apparently there are several others, to the point that an exasperated She-Beast states that the last thing the school needs is another catgirl.

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 
  • Nicole Watterson The Amazing World of Gumball is usually portrayed as a literal catwoman in a cartoony Western style, but in the episode "The Fury," thanks to the magic of anime provided by a Japanese studio, she becomes a badass catgirl.
  • In Barbie Spy Squad, the female cat burglar wears a pink cat-ears headband.
  • Batman: The Animated Series:
    • "Tyger, Tyger" had Selena Kyle, aka Catwoman, kidnapped by a Dr. Moreau wannabe who turned her into...you get the picture. It should also be noted that the episode also had a cat-man (man-cat?) who liked how she was and wanted Selena to stay. At the end of the episode, he gives her the cure, but doesn't take it himself.
    • "The Demon Within" had Klarion the Witch Boy's cat, Teekl, transform into a catgirl to fight Batman and Etrigan. She also has this ability in the comics.
  • Cheetor and Ravage from Beast Wars might possibly count as male robot examples since they are humanoid machines who can transform into metallic cat creatures, gaining their animal abilities for powers as well.
  • Rook Blonko from Ben 10: Omniverse is confirmed to be cat-like when a villain who can mind-control cats tries to control him.
  • 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.. every female Catatonian ever to appear on the show.
  • Chaotic: Intress is an extremely humanoid cat person, moreso than the male cat-like Overworlders who fit more on the Beast Man side of the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism. She, on the other hand has a very human-looking face, more on the lines of Tigra.
  • 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.
  • The Crazy Old Cat Lady, a recurring Villain of the Week in Codename: Kids Next Door, is a Crazy Cat Lady both literally and figuratively, meaning she is not only half-human, half cat, but owns a large amount of cats that can even gather around her and Make My Monster Grow on herself.
  • Manny Rivera from Nickelodeon cartoon El Tigre has a superpowered alter-ego 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.
  • Playing As Himself in The Fairly OddParents!, Adam West is known as Catman (a nod to the 1960's Batman) who is a superhero crimefighter who is part man part cat. Same thing with his female counterpart, Catgirl.
  • Olive from High Guardian Spice is a girl with a pair of black cat ears and a tail who also has the ability to transform into a cat.
  • Alia from I ♡ Arlo is a tiger, specifically; though her Furry Reminder behavior is less tiger-like and more cat-like.
  • Jackie Chan Adventures: Jade is briefly turned into one by a cat statue, though the first victim was Valmont.
  • The titular characters of Josie and the Pussycats are examples of costume wearing catgirls.
  • The Jungle Show has Jessica Cat, who's a tall, thin, slender woman in a red dress with a cat's head.
  • Justice League: In this continuity the Supervillain Cheetah is an actual catgirl, a rogue geneticist who experimented on herself and turned to a life of crime to fund her research. It's further implied that she's the one whose research formed the basis of the "splicing" technology that's become commonplace in Batman Beyond, which is set in the future of the DC Animated Universe.
  • The title character of Kitty Is Not a Cat is a girl who wears a cat costume all the time and lives in a house full of Funny Cats who ironically speak human language better than her.
  • Miraculous Ladybug: Adrien's Secret Identity Cat Noir evokes this theme. While he magically gains cat-like eyes, the cat ears and tail are just hair clips and a belt (though they still move as though they were real).
  • Julie in Motorcity's standard getup isn't this, but her Animal Motif avatar has cat ears (and eyes like a Maneki Neko) and her car is named "Nine Lives."
  • Mummies Alive! has Bastet, Nefertina's patron goddess, who turns Nefertina herself into a catgirl.
  • Cat Man is a 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 shonen 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.
  • Cat Boy from PJ Masks. Although he may appear to be an Animal Themed Super Being, it's implied that his cat appendages on his costume are very real since he can shift and listen with his cat ears and he does wag and feel pain in his tail.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Catra, rather than being a human woman who can turn into a cat as in the original cartoon, is a humanoid girl with cat ears, a cat's tail, a thin covering of fur, claws, and feline heterochromia. She also displays numerous feline mannerisms, such as purring, hissing, and curling up when sleeping, and often jumps, climbs, pounces and moves semi-quadrupedally in a manner very reminiscent of a cat.
  • Star Trek:
  • 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.
  • An episode of TaleSpin has a in-universe famous Hollywood star Kitten Kaboodle seducing Baloo. Now, the setting is of a Funny Animal universe, so all characters are anthropomorphic animals, but Kitten Kaboodle is the most human-like animal ever seen in the show to the point that she almost crosses into Little Bit Beastly territory.
  • Teen Titans (2003): Batman villain Killer Moth is given 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. The Movie, Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, has a full-time one in Nya-Nya.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
    • The original series had an episode where April was turned into a catgirl due to one of Shredder's experiments. She tried to eat Splinter. A true case of terror for someone like him who was already afraid of cats.
    • The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) episode "Across the Universe" (which featured characters from Peter Laird and Jim Lawson's graphic novel series Planet Racers) had a white-skinned (furred?) woman with cat ears but no tail. Also, the Neko clan and Ame Tomoe from the Usagi Yojimbo-derived episode.
  • Cheethara, Pumyra and Wilykit in ThunderCats of course. They come from a Cat Folk alien race.
  • Totally Spies!:
    • Clover became a catgirl in the episode "Wild Style" after being injected with a serum.
    • Alex later becomes one after crossing with a villainous catgirl who wants to turn everyone into this.
  • Winx Club:
    • Kalshara, the main antagonist in season 7 Has slitted eyes and leopard-like tail and fur.
    • Flora in season 4 dresses like a cat when wearing her Love and Pet uniform.
  • Ashley, a.k.a. Katnappe of Xiaolin Showdown seems mostly to be cosplaying a catgirl, but her tail does twitch, her fangs are real, and her claws retract. She has some knowledge of genetics and gene splicing, which might also explain the pack of attack kittens she sometimes has with her.

You're done already, meow? I hope we can play again soon, meow!

 
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Alternative Title(s): Cat Boy, Nekomimi

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Black Hanekawa's Twister

Araragi asks Hanekawa to do her take in a certain tongue twister.

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Main / TongueTwister

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