Animation and Its Influence on Furries

I was going to point that out as well, but given the overall tone in the thread I wasn't sure what label I'd receive.

Frankly, I find the Thundercats are more like elves in cat makeup. If their facial structure is 100% human, then I find hard to think of them as "furry", even if their bodies are covered in fur.

Same, I don't consider Thundercats as furries in the same vein that I don't consider kemonomimi as kemono.

And furries existed waaaay before.

edited 27th Sep '12 9:02:24 AM by Ookamikun

Oh of course they did, the idea is as old as dirt that I still find their small numbers and frequent persecution to be unusual, but I suppose what constitutes as "Normal" overrides everything at some point.

The Blog The Art

Don't look at me, I wasn't the one who brought up bestiality in the first place. I'm well aware of that.

Also, you're one of the few people I've seen to actually use "=/=" instead of "=/". You get a gold star for doing that right.

edited 26th Sep '12 8:55:47 PM by 0dd1

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.

@Gunheart: Lots of furry art seems to be "humans, but with animal features!" only difference between kemomimi is that they are full body instead of just tail and ears. So yeah, they still count, even if they replace human nose with head shape of dog.

^Wait, people do it "=/"? O_o What

edited 26th Sep '12 9:38:29 PM by SpookyMask

You know there is a ≠ character, right?

As for the topic at hand, while animation may have provided characters for the Furry Fandom to latch on to, I think the big influencing factor that allowed the communities to emerge was the Internet. The ability to discuss enjoyment of those kinds of characters anonymously is what allowed communities to form around them in the first place, since it just wasn't something you normally talk about in real life.

I'm on the outside of the fandom looking in, though so I'm lacking the crucial insight to really know what I'm talking about. I'm not even entirely sure what the Furry Fandom is even a fandom of, and I'm not sure it even knows, either. There appear to be ever-broadening circles of fandom, here, and if you want to look at influence animation has on it, you need to examine a certain depth.

I've seen people counter the common "furies are sick perverts" argument with the equally blanketing "Do you like a cartoon with anthropomorphic characters? Then you're a furry," so at least some people (though certainly not me) find the outermost circles of the fandom to be most people who are fans of animation with animal characters in general, which obviously wouldn't exist without said animation. If you try to dig deeper, though, things start getting awkward, and you have to preface nearly all of your criteria with "but not in a sexual way" (unless you go deep enough that you don't, which opens a whole other can of worms), so I think that'd best be left to someone actually in the fandom with a point of reference as to what definition of "furry" you're going to be using.

I didn't say bestiality is the same as uh, the desire to bang cartoon creatures. My point is that people have been drawing humanoid shaped animals since they got the idea to bash things into rock and that bestiality is older than civilization as we know it.

So, someone sexualizing bipedal animals is neither anything to be really surprised about nor anything that likely has a modern origin. You people are still weird.

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack

@Spooky: I've seen "=/" more times than I could count, especially on this very forum. It's depressing how widespread its use is.

Yeah, but it's not on my keyboard, it takes too long to find it in the Character Map, and I cannot do those ALT+#### codes for the life of me, and I don't feel like learning it. (How so many people manage to learn the character codes for practically every character a computer can display in a text-based interface is beyond me.)

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I've seen that, but always as an individual emoticon, not as a variant form of "=/=".

Maybe it was just in threads I haven't read, though. There are a lot of those about.

I have seen it a lot in Yack Fest and OTC. But, then, those ARE Yack Fest and OTC, so, yeah.

Insert witty and clever quip here. My page, as the database hates my handle.

I use "=/" as emoticon, never seen it used like that myself. And in Yack Fest/OTC as emoticons too :P

edited 27th Sep '12 12:44:31 AM by SpookyMask

@Spooky, the Thundercats don't even have animal features besides the eyes and implied bodyhair. Now, the Dog town and characters like Tookit? Perfectly furry.

Exactly.

In fact I like how Japan differentiates the two - full anthro character? Kemono. Pretty much human but just ears and tail? Kemonomimi.

Thundercats are Little Bit Beastly because they pretty much have kemonomimi features (although add weird coloration), albeit nearing more to the Beast Man look.

For the "perverted furry" stuff... Well doesn't that apply to any fandom? If you look deep at any fandom, you'll see crazies, not just on furries.

edited 27th Sep '12 9:06:07 AM by Ookamikun

Yes, but the Furry Fandom causes some confusion there due to not being a fandom of a specific franchise. If you take a person who identifies as a furry and a person who doesn't, they could easily be part of the exact same fandoms for franchises featuring anthropomorphic characters. What, then, is the thing that separates the furry from the non-furry? It's not surprising that sexual attraction to the characters is the first thing that comes to mind, and that initial conclusion combined with bad first impressions due to vocal minorities almost immediately paints the fandom in a negative light. As for the real answer to that question, I honestly have no idea. Again, someone in the fandom itself will have to answer that.

Really, main difference between furry and non furry is identifying at furry.

And yes, every fandom has its pervs, for example, anime fandom, they have almost as bad rep that wise among non anime fans, but thats mostly trolling about tentacle hentai.

Also, doesn't kemomo and kemomimi have different meanings as they are words?

Also, 2012 thundercats at least don't have human noses and they have claws if I remember right.

Anyway, point is, I don't see any good reason to separate "Little bit beastly" from furry fandom considering that centaurs are also part of it and those are half human looking.

edited 27th Sep '12 10:53:15 AM by SpookyMask

I was talking more about fandoms in general, since it's pretty weird to isolate the "if you look deep enough" case on furries.

kemono is what Japanese furries call themselves with the word kemono literally meaning beast... so think of furry too :P

I'd just say there is a considerable influence.

edited 28th Sep '12 1:28:12 PM by KlarkKentThe3rd