Ask John: How Has the Anime Cat-Girl Evolved?

Question:
Two queries inspired by MAYOI NEKO OVERRUN’s resident “cat-girl,” Kiriya Nozomi – does John know how the cat’s “me-ow” became pronounced as “nyaa,” and how have “cat-girls” evolved generally over the history of their portrayal in anime?

Answer:
I’m not especially knowledgeable about Japanese language, so all I can say is that as far as I know the Japanese onomatopoetic word “nya” or “nyaa” has always been the Japanese word for a cat’s normal voice. The difference between “nya” and “meow” is simply a traditional difference in linguistic perception. Similarly, traditionally Japanese culture has perceived green as a shade of blue, so “green” traffic lights in Japan are sometimes called blue (“ao” or “aoi”). Some of Japan’s “animal sounds” seem close to their English relatives. For example, the Japanese dog bark is “wan” while the English is “woof.” Others, like the cat sound, diverge a bit more. For example, a frog’s croak in Japanese is “gero” while it’s “ribbit” in English.

The cat-girl, practically due to her nature, has always been some degree of a “service” character. However, the cat-girl in anime, specifically, really didn’t become the familiar cuddly and cute character she commonly is now until the late 1990s, and primarily in the current decade. That may seem difficult to believe, but examination of cat-girl history does reveal some surprising trends. I don’t believe I’m aware of a cat-girl appearing in anime prior to 1968’s Nekomusume. The cat-monster girl of Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro doesn’t have the characteristic furry ears or tail; she has the senses and the violent temperament of a cat. Cat-girls were practically absent in anime during the 1970s, reappearing in 1984’s Star of Cottonland and Bagi movies. In both of these features, the titular character was a literal cat in human form. In both cases, Bagi and Chibi-neko may have been attractive characters, but they weren’t specifically designed as gimmick characters intended to satiate a particular fetish of viewers.

The 1990s gradually began to introduce cat-girls specifically intended to appeal to fetishistic, obsessive anime viewers. Ryuquir from the 1992 Kouryu Densetsu Villgust OVA series is adorably cute, but has a very limited appearance. Fam of the 1995 Ruin Explorers OVA is arguably a cat-girl, yet she too isn’t designed specifically as a fan service character. Other cat-girls from the early and mid 1990s are typically more feral than cuddly cute: Merle from Escaflowne, Aisha Clan-Clan from Outlaw Star, Anna & Uni Puma from Dominion, Natsuki Sasahara from Hyper Police. The introduction of the adorably cute cat-girl seems to have come in 1999 with the appearance of Miruru in Tenshi ni Narumon and the anime debut of Di Gi Charat. (Actually, the true introduction of the cute cat-girl may have appeared the year before, in the 1998 Playstation breeding simulation game Kitty On Your Lap, in which the player became a parent to a cat-girl.) The independent, formidable adult cat-girl image gave way to a smaller, cuter, domesticated cat-girl.

Like descendants of 1984’s Bagi, the cat-girls of the 1990s were typically tall, adult, and mature. Consider Escaflowne’s Eriya and Nariya, Aisha Clan-Clan, and Dominion’s Puma sisters. The 2000s, however, introduced smaller, more childish, and and more adorable cat-girls. 1984’s Star of Cottonland was practically re-made as 2001’s Magical Nyan Nyan Taruto, except the small and cute cat-girls were now specifically a commodity that humans collected like living dolls. Pao from 2002’s G-On Riders and Sanada from 2002’s UFO Princess Valkyrie are both cat-girl servants. In the 2008 Kyoran Kazoku Nikki television anime, Kyoka is small and childish and a devoted wife. “God” in 2009’s Mariaholic television anime is a petite, domestic cat-girl. Other recent cat-girls including Mayoi Neko Overrun’s Nozomi Kiriya, Miriana in Fairy Tail, and Blair from Soul Eater all seem like characters specifically designed to evoke obsessive fascination from anime otaku.

The later 1990s and 2000s also commodified the image of the cat-girl like never before. Technically, the 1992 Tenchi Muyo OVA series may have started the trend by occasionally giving Ryoko a cat’s tail. However, it’s primarily series from the late 1990s and early 2000s including Card Captor Sakura, Di Gi Charat, Pitaten, Kodomo no Jikan, and Tsukuyomi ~Moon Phase~ that regularly dressed their Lolita characters in cat attire, creating cat-girls and associating the imagery of cat-girls with the petit, adorable, little-sister archetype. Even Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro’s Nekomusume, who was originally a somewhat infrequently seen and, honestly speaking, somewhat ugly, supporting character, was turned into an adorably cute moé mascot character in her 2007 iteration. The cat-girl has always been a fascinating and attractive character, but the wild, furry, dangerous cat-girl of the 70s through 90s seems to have become ensnared by the 2000’s moé phenomenon and evolved into a polar opposite small, soft, adorable, object of otaku affection.