Attractive Bent Species

When a character shapeshifts into an animal, voluntarily or otherwise, or just puts on a very convincing Animal Disguise, there is a high likelihood that an actual animal will try to hit on them.

The character may regard their newfound animal admirers as anything from a Dogged Nice Creature to an Abhorrent Admirer, depending on their perceptions of the species in question; unlike Black Comedy Rape, the animal intends no real offense with their advances — the character probably just Smells Sexy, whether they realize it or not.

While it can be (and often is) Played for Laughs, it can also be played for all the Fanservice it is worth, thanks in no small part to Rule 34: If the character starts viewing the animal as attractive in return, they might end up hitting on the animal themselves. The consequences of whether or not they can adequately restrain their amorous animal impulses can provide clues to the author's position on the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: it could, for example, trap the character in animal form forever.

Contrast Shapeshifting Lover, Interspecies Romance. If an animal hits on an inanimate object, that's Animal Sweet on Object. Hot in Human Form is the inverse.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• Inverted in Animal Detectives Kiruminzoo, where a Cat Girl transformed into a real cat to reject the courting of an Abhorrent Admirer cat. Realizing his love interest was much younger than him, he immediately lost interest in her. She was not amused.
• Ayakashi Triangle: After Shadow Mei turns Matsuri into a cat (on top of his usual Attractive Bent-Gender), Shirogane's ranting about being above romance are cut off when he sees cat Matsuri and starts aggressively pursuing him. Matsuri is disgusted and so is Shirogane once he finds out, accusing Matsuri of leading him on.
• In the Darker than Black bonus episode, Mao (a human trapped in a cat's body) is chased by a female in heat. It's played for laughs à la Abhorrent Admirer, but that doesn't stop fanfic writers from shipping it.
• In Dragon Ball Z, Captain Ginyu accidentally does a body swap with a frog. One of the first things that happens to him when left to his own devices is a female frog having the hots for him. She chases Ginyu for the rest of the series — interestingly enough, following Ginyu to different planets when needed.
• Played with in Fruits Basket. Kyo is possessed by the spirit of the Cat, and thus sometimes turns into one (and can understand their speech). During the main characters' field trip to Kyoto, a female cat starts "hitting" on him while he's in his human form, and she gets jealous, scratches him, and leaves when he doesn't pay her any attention. It might very well happen to the other Members of the Zodiac, as well, considering that their respective animals are always attracted to their presence (albeit in a spiritual sense rather than a physical/romantic one).
• In one episode of Pokémon Chronicles, Cassidy and Butch wear realistic Pokemon disguises during one of their heists. Cassidy's Nidoqueen disguise backfires when they run into a Nidoking who tries to court her, and thinks she's just playing hard to get when she refuses his advances.
• In an anime-only episode of Ranma ½, Ryōga Hibiki (who turns into a small black pig when wet) saves an adorable, pink female pig who falls for him. Even after witnessing Ryōga turn back into a human, she still pursues him.
• In Tokyo Mew Mew, when Ichigo accidentally turns into a cat, she gets hit on by a very fat Abhorrent Admirer cat whose lecherous meows are even translated for the reader/viewer. She gets rescued by another more Bishonen-looking cat, with whom she shares an Accidental Kiss. The second cat is Ryou, who tested the transformation ray on himself before turning the girls into Mew Mews.

Asian Animation

• The Lamput episode "Doc Dog" has Lamput transforming himself into a cute female dog to get the Docs' attack dog off his back. This causes the dog to go after the Docs instead, and also brings the attraction of other dogs in the park as well.

Comic Books

• Timmain in ElfQuest changed into a wolf and deliberately courted a male wolf so she could have a hybrid wolf-elf cub IE, Timmorn, the first Wolfrider. It's implied that she did so in order to tie the elves in with the planet's "gaia" and ensure the elves' survival there.
• An issue of The Mighty Thor has Thor turned into a frog by Loki, and then discovered that the frogs of New York's central park are not only sentient, but have a secret kingdom of their own... and their "princess" was attracted to the transformed god!
• Superman:
  • "The Super-Steed of Steel": Comet, a centaur turned into a superpowerful horse manages to find a way to turn himself back into human temporarily. As posing as rodeo star "Bronco", he flirts with Supergirl (who is unaware of "Bronco"'s real identity).
  • In Supermans Girlfriend Lois Lane #92, Lois Lane is turned into a mare with the full roster of Kryptonian powers. Since Superman is obviously out of her league now, she decides she'll just have to become Comet's mate instead.

Fan Works

• The Dresden Fillies: When Twilight turns Harry into a unicorn in the second book, his unicorn form turns out to be an absolute stunner, to the point where he cannot go out in Ponyville without being swarmed by adoring mares. He's not sure whether this just means that his features happen to match equine standards of attractiveness when mapped onto a unicorn, or whether Twilight has a crush on him and her feelings leaked into the spell.
• The Many Dates of Danny Fenton: Downplayed, but Starfire from Teen Titans admits that Danny's ghost form reminds her of her fellow Tamaranians. She likely finds him attractive in this form.
• A Starstruck, Phantasmic Romance: Starfire's attraction to Danny started because she thinks he's a Tamaranian.
• In Rebel King, Arrata discovers that as a Viper King, he is instantly popular among XCOM's Viper members.

Films — Animation

• In The Incredible Mr. Limpet, when the main live-action character turns into a cartoon fish, he ends up falling for another cartoon fish.
• In Spies in Disguise, Suave Superspy Lance Sterling is transformed into a Pigeon by Walter Beckett, the Socially Inept Scientific Genius who designs his gadgets, in order to give him "The most perfect form a spy can take". Lance hates his new form enough already, but Walter’s pet pigeon Lovey finds it very attractive & Lance finds himself having to fend off her advances.
• In The Sword in the Stone, female squirrels show attraction to Arthur and Merlin while they are transformed.
• In the Hungarian animated film Willy the Sparrow, there's a mild version: one of the female sparrows seems to be attracted to Willy.

Films — Live-Action

• In the film Stay Tuned, Roy and Helen Knable, after being Trapped in TV Land, end up stuck in a cartoon where they're both mice. Roy says to her "You know for a mouse you look pretty sexy."
• In the movie Top Secret!, perhaps inspired by the Russian folklore below, Latrine manages to escape (?) a traitor he's sharing a cow disguise with when a horny bull mistakes them for a real cow. Said traitor spends the next scene walking very painfully...

Folklore

• Several variation of the Russian folk joke about military commander Vasily Chapaev involve him and his orderly spying on the White Guards in the skin of a cow. Chapaev is in the back, and the orderly is in the front. First the Whites offer some hay for the "cow" to eat, and Chapaev forces the orderly to eat hay. Then the Whites bring in a bull, and now it's the orderly's time to gloat...

Literature

• Animorphs:
  • Tobias, having been trapped in hawk form, is aproached by a female hawk at one point. Played for Drama rather than for laughs, as Tobias is distressed about retaining his humanity in his new permanent form, and actually considers running away with the female to live as a normal hawk.
  • An instance that is more Played for Laughs is when Ax morphs a female monkey, and is apparently attractive enough to easily get some male monkeys to approach for the other Animorphs to acquire.
  • Ax's human morph (a male composite of all five of the human Animorphs' DNA) has also been described as being attractive, though nothing much ever comes of this in the story.
• In The Bartimaeus Trilogy, the eponymous djinni is hit-on at one point by a pigeon while in that form.
• This is how Belgarath met Poledra in the Belgariad with both in wolf form — she was an actual wolf, who later learned to shapeshift into a human and other animals from him.
• Discworld: In The Fifth Elephant, Angua the werewolf has Gavin, an actual wolf, as an ex-boyfriend. Since werewolves are a species on the Disc, rather than a curse, it's strongly implied that this shouldn't be considered any odder than having a "dwarf" as a current boyfriend.
  • Gaspode also expressed an attraction to her.
  • Inverted with Greebo. His natural form is a one-eyed, battle-scarred cat with a legendary temper, but whenever Humanity Ensues he becomes so irresistably handsome that his aura is capable of sexual harassment.
• In the picture book "The Great White Man Eating Shark", a boy named Norvin who had already greatly resembled a shark, starts putting on a fake dorsal fin and pretends to be a shark so he could scare people out of the water of a crowded beach so he could swim freely back and fourth without bumping into anyone. For a while his plan works, until an actual female shark swims alongside him and says "You are the shark of my dreams, marry me at once or I'll lose my temper and bite you"; so Norvin darts back to land, reveals his scheme to everyone and chooses not to go swimming again for quite some time.
• In the third book of Robin Jarvis' Hagwood trilogy, War in Hagwood, the Big Bad Rhiannon transforms herself into an owl. When her provost, a real owl, sees her in her new form, he is besotted with her... so much so that he eats the talisman she used to transform herself so she cannot return to her own shape. Rhiannon does not return his feelings and becomes so furious that she rips open her provost's chest to retrieve the talisman, killing him.
• Patrice Kindl's Owl in Love: An owl on Owl.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire, one of the "rules of skinchanging" is not having sex with normal animals when you are "wearing" an animal's body (the other two rules are not eating human flesh while being an animal, and not trying to steal a body from another human being).
• The Childe Ballad The Two Magicians combines this trope with Shapeshifter Showdown. The male character basically makes sexual advances towards the female one in all of the forms they turn into, both animals and inanimate objects.

Live Action TV

• Dad's Army: In "Operation Kilt", the platoon attempts to use a pantomime cow to sneak up on a highland regiment during a training exercise. Things do not go according to plan when a bull takes an interest.

Myths & Religion

• Norse Mythology: While it has some elements of Black Comedy Rape, to the extent he chose to do it, Loki is famous for changing into a mare to seduce a horse.
• Classical Mythology: There's the various creatures (and objects) that Zeus transformed into when seducing mortal women.

Tabletop Games

• Exalted, Exalted, Exalted. Especially Lunars, who are often chasing, not chased, so as to create Beastmen.
• The Pathfinder Adventure Path "Reign of Winter" has a moment where the party kills a Winter Wolf and has the opportunity to make a magic cloak out of his pelt that can transform you into one. Shortly afterwards, they enter a city though a gate guarded by other Winter Wolves who can take human form while in said city. If the character rearing the pelt successfully talks the group's way past the guard(which the module gives plenty of encouragement to try), she will pull that character aside and ask them out on a date.

Video Games

• In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, bat familiars will get a crush on Alucard, complete with visible hearts, when he transforms into his bat form.
• In Day of the Tentacle when Laverne disguises herself as a tentacle a guard starts flirting with her. Not enough to neglect his duties, unfortunately.
• At one point in Leather Goddesses of Phobos, the player is trapped in a cage with a gorilla of the opposite sex. Examining the gorilla results in: "An uglier creature could not possibly exist." Soon, however, a Mad Scientist uses a mind transplant to turn the player into a gorilla. When examining the other gorilla in a cage at this point, the player is told: "Hey, that gorilla ain't bad looking!"
• In Super Mario Galaxy, when Mario grabs a Boo Mushroom and transforms into a mustachioed ghost, other Boos will follow him around with hearts appearing above their heads.

Web Comics

• In Housepets!, a character involuntarily changed from a human to a Welsh Corgi is said, by another canine character, to have the potential to "be a real ladykiller". Later, said changed character is seen hitting on several female canine characters, albeit under the influence of orange soda. He later inverts this trope when he falls in love with a Siberian husky.
  • Played straight with Thomas, who after becoming a camel thanks to a curse, finds himself being hit on by his camel companion Sofia.
• Marena from Keychain of Creation has a few instances of this in her past, being a lunar Exalted.
• In Skin Horse, after Tip is bitten by a werewolf, he turns into a small wolf that Sweetheart and the other female talking dogs find very attractive. And some of the males. Apparently his utterly ridiculous degree of sexual magnetism transfers over.
• There's an interesting "turnabout" in TwoKinds: a seer is using a stray cat as a medium for spying on the heroes (by 'borrowing' the cats eyes), and a friendly (female) dragon decides to lend the heroes a hand... by transforming herself into a cat and 'distracting' the cat long enough for them to get away by boat. The (young, male) seer is suitably flustered by the resulting sensory feedback.

Western Animation

• Ben 10: At one point, Ben meets a group of alien heroes, among which is a female Tetramand, the species of his "Fourarms" form. She is clearly attracted to "Fourarms", and while disappointed to find he's really a 10-year-old human, is eager to see him transform into Fourarms again.
• Ben 10: Omniverse:
  • Ben gets this from Princess Attea when he turns into the incursean (humanoid frog alien) named Bullfrag. To his own displeasure, the attraction is mutual when he is Bullfrag.
  • One episode in fact was centered around Ben having an Unwanted Harem consisting of Princess Attea pining for his Bullfrag form as a consort, and another Tetramand (this one also a princess) seeking to court Fourarms while at the same time a villainess who can command cats has control over him in his Rath form. The former two being warrior princesses they quickly come to blows over the right to have him.
• Gargoyles: Although there was plenty of Ship Tease between Goliath and Elisa in Season 1, it's in the Season 2 episode "The Mirror", where each is magically transformed into the other's species, that their mutual attraction really kicks in.
  Goliath: I never realized when you were human, how beautiful you are.
  Elisa: You mean, you thought I was ugly?
  Goliath: Well, uh...Careful, updraft!
• Johnny Bravo: 'Wilderness Protection Program' sees Johnny dressed up as an elephant for the duration of it, destroying his chances with human women, but making him an apparently gorgeous elephant if the ones that swarm him are any clue.
• Looney Tunes: Pepe le Pew pursues a female cat who looks like a skunk following a run-in with some white paint.
  • In "Bewitched Bunny", after Bugs throws some magic powder at Witch Hazel, she transforms into an attractive female rabbit that Bugs immediately decides to date. The only thing that's the same is her laugh.
    Bugs: (to audience) Aw sure, I know, but aren't they all witches inside?
• Rubik, the Amazing Cube: In one episode, one of the kids needs to distract his pet dog to reclaim Rubik and so he gets turned into a female dog. He then flirts with his own pet dog, and to his horror finds that his own dog gets interested in THAT way.
• School for Vampires: Happens in "Zoo Time" when the Count is mistaken for a rare bat and captured by a zoo; an actual bat tries to hit on him while he was thinking how to escape.
• A weird inversion in the Shaun the Sheep episode "Party Animals". The sheep have gatecrashed the Farmer's fancy dress party in various costumes. Well, except Shirley, since she couldn't find anything that fit, so she went as herself. The Farmer, dressed as a sheep, starts flirting with her under the impression she's a woman in a matching sheep costume.
• A reverse example happens in an episode of Sheep in the Big City when Sheep wishes to be human only to end up attracting Lady Richington.
• In Tiny Toon Adventures has Fifi Le Fume, who mistakes both Furball and Calamity for skunks at some point and pursues them.
  • In "Aroma Amore", when Furball first saw Fifi, he briefly mistook her for a cat and eagerly returned her affections- up until he smelled her "distinct" aroma and saw that skunk stripe.
• Total Drama: In "Severe Eggs and Pains", Ripper convinces Zee to dress up as a cassowary to distract a nesting mother while Ripper takes one of its eggs. The cassowary falls in love with Zee.

Real Life

• Fred Harrington, a Canadian psychologist, recounted an evening spent mimicking wolf howls in Minnesota. Whenever he howled, a lone wolf would howl back from nearby — a little closer each time. He had to call it a night before they came face-to-face, but the next day he found scent markings indicating that a lone adult female had been steadily zeroing in on him. This being February — close to breeding season for wolves — he concluded that he was being "checked out, or [possibly] even courted."
• Wolf tamers in the Middle Ages would supposedly get revenge on people who'd wronged them by secretly rubbing the victim's clothes with a rag imbibed with the urine of a she-wolf in heat, ensuring a cohort of male wolves following the victim if he ever went near a forest.

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