Basic Trope: A female character with some feline body parts - specifically almost always a pair of ears and a tail to match.
- Straight: Cora the cute Catgirl has a mostly human body, but also has a pair of cat ears and a cat's tail..
- Exaggerated: Cora has a pair of cats ears and a tail. She also has a naturally growing Fur Bikini, Cute Little Fangs, Animal Eyes and can only speak a few words of what would otherwise be her native language - the rest are mewling sounds.
- Cora is capable of communicating with actual cats.
- Downplayed: Cora hasn't got a tail, she just has a rare condition which give her a small set of cat ears.
- Justified:
- Cora was a normal human, but somewhere along the line of her adventures she was cursed.
- Cora's wearing a costume.
- Cora got some gene mods for cosmetic purposes.
- Cora is actually a felinoid alien.
- Interspecies Romance isn't a taboo in the society Cora is living in, and it's not uncommon for humans to fall in love with cats...
- Inverted: Cora is a cat with human-like eyes.
- Subverted:
- Bob has his life saved by Cora. He comments on her feline nature - at which point she removes her Animal-Eared Headband.
- Cora reveals she does have animal ears... but they're those of a dog.
- Double Subverted: Cora is a catgirl, but she uses a magical illusion to hide it. At the same time she still feels uncomfortable with human ears, so she makes it seem like she's wearing a headband and deactivates the illusion whenever she can.
- Parodied: Whenever Cora sees a mouse, she's compelled to chase it.
- Cora can be pacified by threatening her with a spray bottle.
- Zig Zagged: Cora grows up really wanting to be a catgirl and wearing her cat-ears headband all the time. Then she gets cursed to be a real catgirl, but realises how impractical it would be. Eventually she finds a cure, but at the last moment decides she wants to be a catgirl after all. Then she wakes up in bed and it was All a Dream. Then she sees her tail.
- Averted: There are no catgirls in the work.
- Enforced: "We need a cute character! Give her cat ears and a tail!"
- Lampshaded: 'Why a cat? Why can't the girls be rabbits or something? Why always cats? I hate cats!'
- Invoked: Cora makes a wish on a shooting star to become a catgirl, and subsequently does.
- Exploited: Cora makes the above wish because she knows catgirls are really common, so it's likely to be granted.
- Defied: Bob knows Cora wants to become a catgirl, but prevents her from doing so by warning about about the myriad impracticalities.
- Discussed: 'Did you know Cora actually has cat ears? It's true! She keeps them hidden under that hood, but I've seen them.'
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Cora is always wearing a hood and full-body gown, so we never see if she has the appropriate body parts. But all the characters talk about her felinity.
- Deconstructed: Cora becomes the victim of Fantastic Racism due to her cat ears and tail. She hides them out of shame, but those who saw them never let her forget. She's eventually Driven to Suicide.
- Reconstructed: However, after a Happily Failed Suicide, Cora concludes that she's fine with being a catgirl and start fighting back the racists.
- Played For Laughs: Cora transforms herself irreversibly into a catgirl without thinking. Hilarity Ensues as she finds out just how impractical having a tail (especially one which responds acutely to your emotions) really is.
- Played For Drama:
- Cora is slowly transforming into a catgirl against her will - at the same time, losing her human mind. Right in front of her True Companions, who can see her changing but are utterly powerless to stop it.
- Cora is considered not to be a human deserving of certain rights by the authorities and is treated at best like a pet, which is insulting at minimum to Cora and her friends. And then they get word there's some mysterious group that wants to study Cora's biology — more thoroughly than anyone would be comfortable with.
- In a post-apocalyptic world, the human society is gradually overrun by catgirls, a race of humanlike feral beasts that feed on humans. Bob, a Hunter of Monsters, dedicates his entire life to cull the catgirls while facing against those who mistake him for a murderer.
- Gender Inverted: It's a cat boy instead.
Nya - I mean, back to Cat Girl? Heh...
