Character: Ferris フェリス
Anime: Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Re:ゼロから始める異世界生活 (Episode 12)
Anime: Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu Re:ゼロから始める異世界生活 (Episode 12)
In Japanese
The most common way to say "cat boy" in Japanese would be nekomimi-danshi 猫耳男子, "cat-ears boy." In general, if a character has cat ears they probably have a cat tail, too, but that's not necessarily true.You can combine either neko 猫, "cat," or nekomimi 猫耳, "cat-ears," with a noun that means "boy" to create a word that means "cat boy" or "cat-ears boy." Unfortunately, there are various words that mean "boy" in Japanese. For reference:
- nekomimi-shounen
猫耳少年
Cat-ears boy.- shounen
少年
Underage person. (legal term.)
Boy. (normal usage.)
- shounen
- nekomimi-otokonoko
猫耳男の子
Cat-ears boy.- otokonoko
男の子
Male child.
Boy.
- otokonoko
- nekomimi-otokonoko
猫耳男の娘
Cat-ears trap.- otokonoko
男の娘
Male girl. A girl that's actually a boy. A boy that looks like a girl. A trap.
- otokonoko
- nekomimi-seinen
猫耳青年
Cat-ears boy.- seinen
青年
A young adult man.
- seinen
- nekomimi-shota
猫耳ショタ
Cat-ears boy.
Similarly: neko-danshi 猫男子, neko-otokonoko 猫男の子, neko-shounen 猫少年, neko-seinen 猫青年, neko-shota 猫ショタ, and so on.
The same thing also works if you switch "boy" for "man."
- neko-otoko
猫男
Cat man. - nekomimi-otoko
猫耳男
Cat-ears man.
Types
There are various types of cat boys that can be found in anime.Natural
Some characters are born with as cat boys, with cat ears and tail attached to their bodies.
Left: Aoyagi Ritsuka 青柳立夏
Right: Soubi Agatsuma 我妻草灯
Anime: Loveless (Episode 1)
Right: Soubi Agatsuma 我妻草灯
Anime: Loveless (Episode 1)
- In Loveless, only virgin characters have cat ears. That is, everyone is born with cat ears, and you lose your cat ears as you lose your virginity.
Anthropomorphized
Some cat boy characters are supposed to be anthropormizations of actual cats. See also: gijinka 擬人化.
Left: Okamoto Tama 岡本タマ
Right: (same character)
Anime: Uchi Tama?! Uchi no Tama Shirimasen ka? うちタマ?!~うちのタマ知りませんか?~ (Episode 1, OP)
Right: (same character)
Anime: Uchi Tama?! Uchi no Tama Shirimasen ka? うちタマ?!~うちのタマ知りませんか?~ (Episode 1, OP)
- In the Uchi Tama?! anime, all animal characters are drawn like animals when interacting with humans, and drawn like people when interacting with each other.
Cosplay
Some characters wear cat ears to cosplay as cat boys.
Character: Shiina Aki 椎名亜樹
Anime: Sunohara-sou no Kanrinin-san すのはら荘の管理人さん (Episode 3)
Anime: Sunohara-sou no Kanrinin-san すのはら荘の管理人さん (Episode 3)
- josou
女装
"Female-clothes." Also a term for crossdressing.
Tropes
See: Cat Girl for common things and terms related to cat boys.It's worth noting that neko ネコ is a LGBT slang for "bottom" in a homosexual relationship.
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