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Visual Novel / Nekojishi

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"Ever dream of having furry beast men hanging around with you?"
— Tagline

Nekojishi is a Taiwanese fantasy/romance visual novel geared toward furry and gay audiences. A clean version is available for free on Steam, and an NSFW 'Limited' Version can be found on the team's site.

College freshman Lin Tian-Liao discovers that he is able to see spirits when he returns to his dorm room one night and finds a large anthropomorphic tiger sitting on his bed. The big cat reveals himself to be the guardian tiger god of the Lin family, who has watched over Liao since he was little. They are promptly joined by a clouded leopard spirit, who is the one responsible for Liao's spiritual awakening, and a leopard cat spirit, possessing the body of Liao's senpai. Being gay and a furry, Liao is excited by these visitors, to say the least. However, each of them needs Liao's unique spiritual abilities to solve their own problems, and they aren't leaving until one of them wins his assistance.

On April 20, 2018, a DLC expansion pack titled A Sunny Day was released, adding ten new CGs to the main story and an entirely new epilogue chapter, taking place after the True Ending. Through arrangements made by Shu-Chi and the Yan family, Lin Hu and Likulau are given a single day to be incarnated and walk the earth as humans. Hoping to make the best of their time together, they decide to spend this day at a convention. However, Liao still has reservations over Shu-Chi’s ability to pull all of this off with his family. Perhaps there's more that's been left unsaid...

On March 3, 2020, a sequel to Nekojishi was announced: Nekojishi: Lin and Partners. It is currently slated for release in 2021 on PC, Mac, and Nintendo Switch.


This visual novel contains examples of:

  • Balanced Harem: If the player handles things well they get a very fulfilling time with each of the cats. Such that when it comes time to try for the bad endings it hurts to let any of the cats down.
  • Bara Genre: A rare all-agesnote  example.
  • Becoming the Mask: Senpai comes to enjoy playing human and living with Liao, in spite of his yaoguai background. Eventually, he is forced to continue wearing his Shu-Chi 'mask', as penance for having killed the real Shu-Chi.
  • Cassandra Truth: Lin Hu mentions a few times that Leopard Cat gives him bad vibes. Turns out he's on the mark.
  • Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: Being incorporeal, Lin Hu and Likulau can make their garments disappear and reappear at will.
  • Chromosome Casting: Save maybe background characters, there's no females in sight here, though Ragoo offhandedly mentions that he imagines himself as an old lady.
  • Clothing Damage: At one point, Lin Hu blocks an attack meant for Liao from Likulau, leaving his garments torn and half of his prodigious upper body bare.
  • Cosplay: In the Sunny Day DLC Lin Hu and Likulau cosplay as themselves for a while at the furry convention. The 'Modern Tiger' blog has made them pretty popular at this point. Of course to the onlookers they appear to be humans wearing their own iconic costumes from the blog.
  • Cruelty Is the Only Option: A Visual Novel staple. In the worst endings, you have to let down one or more of the cats.
  • Dead All Along: Yan Shu-Chi, whose soul was devoured by Leopard Cat on the day of Liao's spiritual awakening.
  • Declaration of Protection: Each cat makes a vow to protect Liao in the True Ending.
  • Deus Sex Machina: In the Limited (Adult) version, Lin Hu and Likulau have to have sex with Liao so that they will be 'attuned' enough for them to possess his body, and be strong enough to do what they need to do.
  • Divine Date: Lin Hu and Senpai are tiger gods and Likulau is a revered spirit. They all want a piece of Liao.
  • A Dog Named "Dog": Likulau is the Rukai word for clouded leopard. Also, Guardian Tiger's eventual name, "Lin Hu", means "Tiger Lin". Liao questions his choice of this name later but Lin Hu is chuffed by it since it makes him the official guardian tiger of the Lin family, in spite there being other, more experienced guardian tigers already.
  • Doujinshi: While at the furry convention Lin-Hu discovers some doujins based on his blog. Naturally some of these are dirty and ship him with the other cats, but he takes this in good humor and buys a bunch of them.
  • Dude Magnet: Liao, but this can be mostly excused with the fact that's how he imagines the gods to be, since he's a gay furry.
  • Empty Shell: The result of a yaoguai stealing a person's soul. The soul can be returned and the person revived, but if the soul is eaten the person will die. This is the ultimate fate of Yan Shu-Chi.
  • Eroge: A surprisingly tame example, given the lewd stereotype furry works carry. It's PG-13 up until the sex scenes in the Limited version.
  • Fan Convention: Liao brings the three cats to a furry convention in the DLC. Unbeknownst to those in attendance Liao is smuggling three anthropomorphic animal spirits in plain sight.
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: As Ragoo reveals, spirits and gods appear to mortals in forms that they subconsciously want to see, i.e. the reason all of the spirits in the story are impossibly sexy hunks is because Liao is a gay furry.
  • Friendly Rivalry: In contrast to Lin Hu and Likulau's antagonistic relationship, Senpai gets along surprisingly well with the latter, even giving him the friendly nickname "Kulau".
  • He Is Not My Boyfriend: Rumors eventually start spreading among the dance club members that Liao and Shu-Chi are dating. Liao vehemently denies it when asked, while Senpai doesn't refuse it.
  • Hot Springs Episode: Senpai treats Liao (and by extension Lin Hu and Likulau, who are incorporeal) to a Japanese-style hot spring, where Liao gets his first look at his spiritual suitors au naturel.
  • Intangibility: Spirits without bodies normally phase through objects, but with a large amount of effort and energy they can affect physical objects.
  • Interrupted Intimacy: In the True Endings Lin Hu emerges from his statue and interrupts Likulau and Liao's post-sex cuddling.
  • Language Barrier: Likulau's poor grasp of Mandarin leads to a lot of miscommunication with the other characters.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Liao mentions several times that he feels like he's in an anime or romance game.
  • Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Twice. Lin Hu excuses himself when Liao and Likulau need to bond. Then in the DLC Lin Hu pulls Likulau away when Liao and Shu-chi clearly need a private moment.
  • Magical Accessory: In A Sunny Day Senpai acquires two medallions that allow Lin Hu and Likulau to exist physically as humans for a day.
  • Mayfly–December Romance: Unfortunately, all of Liao's potential partners will far outlive him.
  • No Romantic Resolution: The worst endings have Liao on bad or ambiguous terms with the cats.
  • "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization: True Ending 2 of the Limited version, where Lin Hu (in Liao's body) forces himself on Senpai, who does end up enjoying it.
    • Doubles as an odd sort of Genius Bonus, given that Lin Hu is using his energy to balance Leopard Cat's negative chi, a reference to both Feng Shui and Taoist sexual practices. Prior to this point, Leopard Cat was incapable of enjoying it...
  • Our Spirits Are Different: All of the spirits, such as gods and yaoguai resemble anthropomorphic animals.
  • Panthera Awesome: Liao's big cat suitors are badass and have spiritual powers.
  • Polyamory: This is the canon outcome. To the outside world Liao is dating Yan Shu-chi, but as seen in the DLC the three cats come to more-or-less share Liao.
  • Porn Stash: Liao's brother finds his (presumably furry and/or gay) porn comics. Thankfully, he hides them from their parents in a better spot.
  • Relationship Upgrade: This happens in the more positive endings and mostly takes the form of an intimate talk and a kiss with each cat or sex in the limited version.
  • Ship Tease: Lin Hu teases Liao a bit when talking about how his fans ship him with the other cats. He does conclude by saying that he doesn't actually have feelings for them, but it leaves Liao blushing nonetheless.
  • Shout-Out: When Lin Hu reveals the Liao must have sex with him to save their lives, Liao's first thought is calling it a "Mana Transfer"
  • Soul Jar: Some spirits have one, from Lin Hu's tiger statue to Ragoo's tree. In one of Likulau's bad endings, he damages Lin Hu's statue, and it's heavily implied to have killed him.
  • There Is Only One Bed: Liao's tiny apartment has only one bed, and the first decision is picking who Liao will share it with. Regardless of your initial choice, it is possible to end up sharing the bed with each cat at least once.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: The three cats are enamored with fried chicken of all foods.
  • Unwanted Harem: Given Liao's unique... proclivities, he's excited to have three furry hunks hanging around, but they're quite the distraction from his college responsibilities, and their requests also cause him a lot of stress.
  • Version-Exclusive Content: The Limited Version available on the team's site contains sex scenes which, in the general/ Steam version, are intimate, open talks with the cats.
  • Wham Line: Clouded Leopard's actions near the end come as a surprise, even knowing his desperation to help his people, but in the golden ending his explanation delivers an even bigger shock.
    Liao: Likulau, why did you attack me? Do you actually believe that you can take away my power without hurting me?
    Clouded Leopard: Yan Shu-Chi said I could.
  • Willing Channeler: Liao is eventually able to channel Lin Hu and Likulau through his body.
  • Yaoi Genre
  • Yiff: Liao has stashes of furry porn, both physical and digital. As Lin Hu puts it:
    "I don't think you'll find a boyfriend like that in real life."
  • Your Soul Is Mine!: Yaoguai are known to steal and eat souls.

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