About

Cat Girl or Neko, also written Catgirl or in the plural Cat Girls, are fictional characters primarily portrayed in anime and manga. A cat girl is a female character with feline characteristics such as cat ears, a cat tail, whiskers and paws but an otherwise human body. Although cat girls have been prevalent in Japanese culture since the 1700s, they've surfaced in online discourse stemming from their use in anime in the 1990s and going into the early 2000s. They became a subject of memes and online humor as early as 2004.

History

Origin of Cat Girls

The earliest instance of the female-cat hybrid is Bastet, the Egyptian goddess of cats, protection, joy, dance, music, and love (shown below, left).^[1]

The concept of cat girls has also been prevalent in Japanese culture as early as the 1700s, when they were referred to as "nekomusume" within short shows/exhibitions called "misemono" which were common attractions in 1700s Japan.^[14] Cat and woman hybrids maintained relevancy in Japanese culture going into the 1900s, when Western counterparts like Catwoman from DC Comics first appeared in 1940. In 1978, the manga series The Star of Cottonland featured multiple cat girl characters, further popularizing the concept going into the 21st century.

The first modern story, however, which introduced a cat ear'd character is The 4th of Narcissus Month (水仙月の四日) by Japanese author Kenji Miyazawa on 1924 (shown below, right).^[2]

Cat Girls in the 2000s

Cat Girls saw an increase in usage within manga and anime going into the 21st century. For instance, two mangas started between the year 2000-2003 featuring multiple cat girl characters. These two manga in no particular order are Tokyo Mew Mew (shown below, left) and Cat Planet Cuties (shown below, right).

Additionally, starting in 1998 and going in the early 2000s, the anime/manga convention Nekocon started organizing in Virginia, United States, dealing specifically with cat girls and cat girl aesthetics.^[15] The convention is still held every year, with its largest attendance occurring in November 2014 (a video from that year's convention is shown below).

Online History

The term "Catgirl" was first added to Urban Dictionary ^[16] on August 14th, 2003, by the user Anonymous who defined it as, "In anime a girl with feline characteristics, usually with some fur, a tail and pointy little cat ears," earning over 290 likes in 19 years.

Fandom

Catgirls have a huge following on sites like 4chan^[8][9][13] and Tumblr.^[6][7][12] A dedicated subreddit has over 7400 subscribers.^[10] Searching the keyword "catgirl" on the artist community DeviantART leads to over 183,700 results,^[4] "neko" leads to over 1,200,000 results,^[5] and "nekomimi" leads to over 47,500 reults.^[11]

Related Memes

Genetically Engineered Catgirls

Genetically Engineered Catgirls refers to the creation of real-life anthropomorphic Nekomimi anime catgirls using modern genetic engineering techniques. On April 20th, 2008, AnimeForum^[17] member Amray submitted a thread titled "If Catgirls Existed," which posited the question "If catgirls existed in the world would you get one?" In the thread, other users commented that catgirls would have to be created by genetic mutation or genetic engineering.

On January 3rd, 2011, YouTuber DiosGX uploaded a video titled "Real Life Catgirls (Genetic Manipulation)," in which he mused about using a bacteriophage to create catgirls in real-life (shown below).

Every Dollar Spent on Church is a Dollar not Spent on Genetically Engineered Catgirls

"Every Dollar Spent on Church is a Dollar not Spent on Genetically Engineered Catgirls" is an ironic catchphrase used to display the desire of creation of real-life catgirls via genetically engineering. It is often used in conjunction with Shut up and take my money.

Nyan~ Neko Sugar Girls

Nyan~ Neko Sugar Girls is a series of fan made animation in the style of Japanese anime, featuring catgirls as the main characters.. The series is well known for its poor overall quality in art, voice acting, and audio.

I Found a Picture of Your Grandfather

I Found a Picture of Your Grandfather is an exploitable series of comparison memes, juxtaposing a representation of masculinity or femininity from the past with one from the present. While initially used to promote traditional gender roles, it has since been appropriated ironically.

The earliest known usage of the meme was posted by Wordpress^[18] user peterlengyel on February 24th, 2016 as an example of a homophobic meme. The instance compares the representation of a "grandfather" in 2016, which is shown through a photograph of a traditional male, and 2090, which is represented as a man dressed as a cat girl (shown below).

Cat Girls in Popular Culture, Anime and Video Games

Nekopara

Nekopara is a hentai visual novel by Doujin Artist Sayori. The game features the fictional protagonist Minaduki Kashou, with the other main characters being Chocola and Vanilla.

Neco-Arc

Neco-Arc is a recurring character in various franchises of Japanese video game company Type-Moon. Originating in Tsukihime, Neco-Arc was later featured as a playable character in the video games Melty Blood and Fate/tiger colosseum Upper, as well as a character in the 2011 Type-Moon anime Carnival Phantasm. Interest in Neco-Arc grew in 2021 after the announcement of a Tsukihime remake and the anime Fate/Grand Carnival.

Necomimi

Necomimi is a cat-ear gadget made by the Japanese company Neurowear. The main object of the headset is sensing the brainwaves and return a cat ear movement to express the emotion of wearer.^[3]

Belle Delphine Cat Girl

Belle Delphine is the online pseudonym of United Kingdom-based cosplayer and model Mary-Belle Kirschner, who gained much internet notoriety for posting videos and photographs of herself performing ahegao faces. After disappearing from social media in late 2019, she returned to YouTube in mid-June 2020.

Elon Musk Cat Girl Tweet

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has referenced the term "Cat Girl" on Twitter multiple times, starting on October 25th, 2018,^[21] when he posted a reply that received roughly 69,800 likes over the course of four years (shown below, left). He tweeted about cat girls again on May 31st, 2019,^[22] earning roughly 118,400 likes over three years (shown below, right).

On October 28th, 2020, Elon Musk tweeted a poll^[23] that said, "Tesla should make 🔥 catgirl robots?" inspiring many internet user to search, "Is Elon Musk actually trying to make catgirls?" and "Is Elon Musk a weeb?" The poll received roughly 113,200 likes over the course of a year and a half, with an 81.9% majority voting for "Absolutely" over "Of Course" (shown below).

CATGIRL Coin Cryptocurrency

In 2021, people started to search "Where can I buy CATGIRL?" in reference to a new cryptocurrency that was created in May 2021. On May 31st, 2021, the Twitter^[19] account of catgirlcoin tweeted that the currency was now live, earning 66 likes over nine months (shown below, left). Memes referencing CATGIRL Coin started surfacing in the months following. For instance, on June 14th, 2021, Twitter^[20] user jp918888 tweeted a meme that earned over 60 likes on eight months (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References