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Inexplicably Tailless

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/k_rool_tailless.png
See your tail later, alligator!

This trope is about animal species that are supposed to have tails, but are drawn without them for some reason.

Supposed to be Tailless: The character is supposed to be drawn without a tail, despite the fact that their species is supposed to have a tail. In some cases, the character originally had a tail, but is nowadays tailless. In other cases, the character is always tailless. Yet in other cases, some cartoons or some scenes within cartoons show the otherwise tailless character with a tail. Sometimes, they alternate between being tailless and having a tail within a cartoon. Sometimes, animal characters that don't have tails in their original work are portrayed with them in some adaptations. Some characters that are supposed to be tailless themselves in the Canon are often or usually drawn with a tail in fanart.

Supposed to Have a Tail: The character is supposed to be drawn with a tail, but in some cartoons or episodes or in some scenes within cartoons or episodes, is drawn tailless. Sometimes, an otherwise tailed character is drawn tailless out of animation error or out of budget. Sometimes, they alternate between being tailless and having a tail within a cartoon. Sometimes animal characters that have tails in their original work are portrayed without them in some adaptations.

Either/Or: The character could either be tailless or have a tail, depending on the work, film, series or artist.

Inversions and Parodies: The character belongs to a species of animal that is not supposed to have a tail, but is drawn with one anyway.

Aversions: The character belongs to a species that are supposed to have tails, but the character is tailless. The tailless character's lack of a tail is explained. For domestic animals, like dogs and cats, one explanation can be that the character belongs to a breed that is supposed to be tailless.

Justifications: The character has a docked tail or was born without a tail.

Subtrope of Artistic License and Funny Animal Anatomy. See also Off-Model.

Supposed to be Tailless:

    open/close all folders 

     Anime and Manga 
  • An interesting example in Eto Rangers; most of the Eto Rangers don't have tails (except for Drago, Nyorori, Monk and Tart). To make up for this, the tailless Rangers usually have ponytails and rattails shaped like the tails of the animals they represent; in Bakumaru and Pakaracchi's cases, they have a literal rattail and a literal ponytail respectively.

     Comic Books 

     Fan Works 
  • Arthur's usage of this is noted in Arthur Goes Fourth when D.W. stops believing in her imaginary friend Nadine because she notes that Nadine has a tail.

     Films — Animated 
  • While the Peter No-Tail books themselves avert it (see Justified Examples below in Literature), the 1981 animated film states the titular cat was born that way.

     Literature 
  • Pooh and Piglet from Winnie the Pooh (both original books and Disney adaptation) are tailless, unlike the other animal and stuffed animal characters.
  • Curious George, although a monkey, is drawn tailless, leading some readers to speculate that he is actually a juvenile chimpanzee.

     Newspaper Comics 

     Toys 
  • BIONICLE's Nektann is a Skakdi, a race with a short tail. Since he was only sold as a small figure with minimal pieces under the low-budget BIONICLE Stars line, his tail was omitted alongside some other features that most regular Skakdi toys had.

     Video Games 

     Web Animation 
  • Giggles, the chipmunk from Happy Tree Friends, doesn't have a tail. Considering the series she's in, though, there may be a very valid reason for that.

     Western Animation 
  • Goofy, Pete, Clarabelle Cow, and Horace Horsecollar from the Classic Disney Shorts originally had tails, but are nowadays always drawn tailless.
  • Stimpy of The Ren & Stimpy Show is always tailless and Ren, despite being designed with one, is rarely animated with it outside of the pilot, only reappearing for the sake of Rule of Funny. Supposedly, according to John K., the ratlike tail was a pain in the ass (no pun intended) to animate, so it was dropped after two or three episodes. George Liquor/George American personally docked it—with a rubber band, no less—in "Dog Show"
  • Most of the female cats in Tom and Jerry and Tom and Jerry Tales are tailless, unlike Tom himself.
  • Pig from Super Why! is tailless.
  • Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, and Cindy Bear are tailless.
  • All the anthropomorphic characters in Arthur (not counting the ape ones, like Francine and Muffy, as apes are supposed to be tailless) don't have tails except D.W.'s Imaginary Friend, Nadine.
  • Even most of the anthropomorphic characters (including the main cast) in The Mysteries Of Providence have no tails at all.
  • Fermin Flaxseed from the Animaniacs episode "The Big Candy Store," is completely tailless.
  • The pigs in Olivia do not have tails.
  • The pigs in The Raccoons have no tails, neither do the female aardvarks (e.g. Sophia Tutu) or some characters (notably Lady Baden-Baden).
  • Dr. Delbert Doppler and Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet, despite being an anthropomorphic dog and cat, respectively, actually do not have tails. Justified, however, by the fact that they are actually both aliens.
  • Underdog, a.k.a. Shoeshine, and Sweet Polly Purebred are completely tailless. However they both have tails in the Disney adaptation.
    • Shoeshine Boy does have a tail in the cartoon. He just doesn't show it when he's Underdog.
  • Danger Mouse. Mostly true for both series, but the 2015 reboot has a few exceptions, such as Professor Squawkencluck and her parents (chckens), Danger Mackerel, Danger Pelican, Isambard King King Brunel (monkey) and Birch Badboy (squirrel).
  • Many of the girl mice Mighty Mouse has rescued have no tails. Pearl Pureheart, the series' token damsel in distress, is seen at the start of "The Perils Of Pearl Pureheart" being hung upside down over a den of lions, and her tipped-over dress and petticoats show ankle-length pantaloons. Her back is to the camera and no tail is seen protruding through. In the Bakshi series, she is normally seen wearing slacks, and again no tail is seen.
  • The Tex Avery wolf had a tail in the Wartime Cartoon that he debuted in and played as Adolf Hitler, but he is completely tailless in subsequent appearances.
  • Ortensia is tailless in both the old Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons (Except in her first and other really early appearances) and Epic Mickey, but she is usually drawn with a tail in fanart.
  • In Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, none of the Bovine characters have tails though other species from Scorpions to Armadillos do have tails.
  • Bojack Horseman has a large variety of anthropomorphic characters, but none have tails. Reportedly, this was to humanize them a bit more as well as reducing headaches for the artists, deftly avoiding the whole 'how do you put on clothing over a tail' issue altogether.
  • With the exception of Rothgar, none of the alien dogs in the Oh Yeah! Cartoons short "Planet Kate" have tails.
  • Hoze Houndz has both canine and feline characters drawn without tails, even when their naked buttocks show. The only exceptions are some of the feline characters, like the Space Cats.
    • They did have tails occasionally shown in the first season.
  • The main character of Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart is a cat without a tail. He had one as a child, but it was crushed under a boulder on one of his early adventures.
  • In Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!'s early comic book "The Tail of Flopsy, Mopsy, and Ted," Flopsy was drawn with a tailnote . Once the book became a series, Flopsy was redesigned into what we know today as Widget, who lacks a tail.
  • The title characters of Tuca & Bertie, despite being Bird People, have no tail feathers. This also applies to any other normally-tailed animal in this universe.
  • Mighty Magiswords: Gateaux, a cat wizard, has no tail. This is even Lampshaded by his partner Morbidia in one episode.

Supposed to Have a Tail:

    open/close all folders 

     Anime and Manga 

  • Played straight with everyone in Sherlock Hound, and then again with Montana Jones. So that's two series with completely tailless dogs and cats respectively.
  • There's a flashback filler scene in Dragon Ball Z where Vegeta is drawn without a tail. The animators apparently forgot that he hadn't lost it yet at the time the scene was supposed to take place.
  • For some odd reason, WereGarurumon in his Digimon Adventure appearances lack a tail, despite having a tail in the Bandai official art of the virtual pets. Even his later non-anime appearances have a tail.

     Films — Animated 

  • Foxy Loxy from Chicken Little is supposed to have a tail. When her brainwaves got scrambled and she is wearing a dress, she is rendered without a tail.
  • The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad shows Rat, Mole, Badger, and the Weasels as being tailless.
  • The sea monsters from Luca (including the title protagonist and his friend Alberto) all have tails in their default form, but lose them whenever they turn into humans as a result of them leaving water, only to regain them again once they make contact with water again and change back to their original form.

     Video Games 
  • Kuru Kuru Kururin: None of the animal characters in this series have tails, but Kururin Squash gave the tituliar bird a single curled black feather.
  • Rivals of Aether character Clairen had her tail, which she is seen with in all official artwork, intentionally omitted from her in-game sprite due to readability issues.
  • Twinklelen, the feline maid protagonist of Whiskers And Wags Cleaning Co's in-game sprite lacks a tail despite being depicted with a rather long and fluffy one in official artwork, likely for similar reasons to Clairen. Her canine partner, Rote, is depicted with a much shorter tail both in-game and in official artwork, however.
  • Conker inexplicably loses his tail after putting on a Badass Longcoat in the final level of Conker's Bad Fur Day, which prevents him from using his hover move (presumably because it would be difficult to fit the coat onto his model otherwise). If you leave the bank area, he'll remove the coat and regain his tail between scene transitions.

     Western Animation  

  • The Warners in Animaniacs have tails, but are occasionally drawn tailless as an animation error.
  • Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse have tails, but are tailless in some of the Classic Disney Shorts cartoons and in House of Mouse. In general, the rule seems to be this: When they're in their "classic" outfits, they have visible tails, when fully dressed, the tail disappears. Kingdom Hearts is a notable exception to the fully dressed = tailess rule.
  • Otis, Bessie, Abby, Peck, Freddie, Pig, and Pip from Back at the Barnyard have tails, but when wearing disguises, they do not have tails.
  • Tom and Butch from Tom and Jerry have tails, but a few scenes in a few cartoons show them without a tail.
    • In the animation The Cat Concerto, Tom (who normally has a tail) is always portrayed as being tailless, but for some reason, he gains a tail about halfway through the short when Jerry flips Tom's piano bench over, only to lose said tail when he gets back up and continues to play the piano.
    • Whenever Tom, Jerry, or Nibbles/Tuffy are wearing pants, shorts, swim trunks, or full outfits, their tails don't show.
  • In the first season of SpongeBob SquarePants Sandy was tail-less, her tail only being visible when she wasn't wearing her space suit. From season two onwards her suit was designed with a hole for it.
  • Both Prince John and Maid Marian from Disney's Robin Hood (1973). The former, due to the fact that he is wearing a royal robe, occasionally gains and loses a tail whenever he is flipped over; while the latter actually loses her tail when she is dancing. This is because the movie used lots of Limited Animation, and the dance scene is traced over the one from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
  • Wile E. Coyote from Looney Tunes is supposed to have a tail, but whenever he puts on costumes in his All-CGI Cartoon segments of The Looney Tunes Show, he doesn't have a tail at all.
  • The Eager Young Space Cadet (Porky Pig) from Duck Dodgers doesn't have a tail in every outfit he wears, unless he gets a wedgie in a few episodes or when he's showering in one episode.
  • In Dinosaur Train, the dinosaur's tails are sometimes not rendered in at all when they are sitting on the seats in the train cars. This is jarring as dinosaurs' tails are long, thick, and in many species stiff.
  • in Teacher's Pet, Spot Helperman has a tail, but when he’s disguised as Scott Leadready II, he does not have a tail.
  • The Amazing World of Gumball:
    • Gumball and Nicole are both cats with visible tails that are occasionally omitted by animations errors.
    • Richard and Anais are rabbits with very short tails only visible from certain angles, but sometimes two shots from the same angle will show them with and without their tail. However, their tails are short enough that they could just be wearing them under their clothing sometimes.

     Webcomics 

Either/Or:

     Comic Books  

  • Not an animal, but Marvel Comics character Nocturne sometimes has a tail and sometimes doesn't. She's the daughter of Nightcrawler (who has a tail - which artists have forgotten to draw on more than one occasion, but he's definitely supposed to have it) from an alternate reality. Nocturne herself canonically revealed on-panel that unlike her father, her own tail is retractable. Kudos to the writer-artist of that particular issue, Jim Calafiore, (who was the original creator of the character for a Marvel What If? special) for that Author's Saving Throw.

     Western Animation  

Inversions and Parodies:

     Comic Books  
  • Marvel Comics' Gorgilla is a giant ape creature who does have a tail. Though, in fairness, he is a unique giant monster who doesn't necessarily correspond to any real world animal.

     Films — Animated  
  • Pewku the giant crab in BIONICLE: Mask of Light has a short tail she wiggles like a dog solely for comedy. She also has a long metal tongue for the same reason.

     Newspaper Comics  
  • Boot the sheepdog in The Perishers was originally drawn with a tail (which he named "Fred" after mishearing the phrase "bob-tailed sheepdog"). Later on the writer discovered that old English sheepdogs (at the time) always had their tails docked, so he instructed the artist to make the tail smaller over a long period until it disappeared completely. (Modern docking laws mean Old English Sheepdogs with undocked tails are now much more common than they used to be.)

     Video Games  
  • In Donkey Kong Country, Diddy Kong is a chimpanzee with a tail. It should be noted, though, that he's actually based off a spider monkey which do have tails, but his overall design is closer to a chimpanzee.

     Webcomics  

     Real Life  

  • The constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor - better known to some as the Big Dipper and Little Dipper - are drawn with very long tails despite being representations of bears, which are known for having very short tails. Some versions of the myth explain that when Zeus threw the bears into the sky to become constellations, he grabbed them by their stumpy little tails, and the tails were stretched when they were thrown.
    • Unless, as is sometimes and more sensibly the case, the furthest tip of the big dipper's handle (Alkaid) is drawn as the bear's nose: as it is here.
  • Occasionally, people. Because why not? Chandre Oram is probably the most well-known instance, but is actually a subversion because his tail is actually a case of Spina Bifida, or split spine, unlike other instances of human tails.
  • In the media, the famous pterosaur Pteranodon is a frequent victim of an inversion. While the real Pteranodon did have a tail, it was stumpy and short with no obvious purpose to it. But many media depictions give it a long tail anyway for no real reason.

Aversions and Justified Examples:

     Films — Animated  
  • Mr. Fox in the second half of Fantastic Mr. Fox. His losing his tail is actually a plot point inherited from the original novel.
  • In Turning Red, when Mei first transforms into a giant red panda she transforms back into a human by first having her ears poof away followed by her tail.

     Literature 
  • The titular character of Peter No-Tail is a cat who had his tail bitten off by a rat when he was but a kitten. This makes him an occasional target for bullies.

     Toys 
  • Vezon of BIONICLE is the split half of Vezok. While Vezok's body was mostly unchanged when he was split in two, Vezon was born as a half-being, without Vezok's spine and tail.

     Webcomics  
  • Princess Kat in The Fuzzy Princess lost her real tail in an accident. Thus she wears a prosthetic tail that can be easily detached and morph into things.

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